What the market gets wrong about Gen Z—and why curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and purpose are their real edge.
Investors spend much of their careers looking for mispriced assets—investments whose intrinsic value is greater than the market recognizes. Usually that means a company, a fund, or a founder. But one overlooked asset can’t be found in any portfolio. It is sitting in our classrooms—and walking into their first jobs as analysts and associates.
Spend five minutes online and you’ll read the conventional wisdom about Gen Z. They’re often described as entitled, fragile, not ambitious enough, and too focused on purpose. Other times they’re described as ultra-competitive, narrowly focused on themselves, and obsessed with grades. Lots of generalizations, and in my opinion almost all of them are wrong.
After years of guest lecturing at Princeton, Harvard Business School, and Babson, and more recently teaching an undergraduate class at Boston University, I’m convinced the market has this generation deeply mispriced. And that view isn’t just from the classroom—it’s from the hundreds of students I interviewed and the dozens I hired and mentored over 15 years at Princeton’s endowment. What I’ve seen up close isn’t apathy or entitlement, but curiosity, collaboration, creativity, and purpose. They ask sharper questions than we give them credit for. They help each other more than we expect. And they’re wrestling with harder, deeper issues than most of us realize.
Whether in classrooms or their first roles, I keep seeing qualities the market undervalues—and each one is essential to building the future.
Discovering Curiosity
In my introductory finance class at Boston University, I like to break students into small groups to solve problems together. It’s a simple exercise—but it reveals a lot. Instead of jockeying for credit or hoarding answers, they lean in. They explain concepts to each other. They discuss and then ask questions together.
One student stopped me during a discussion of perpetuities and annuities to ask why we were using a certain interest rate—and whether that rate truly reflected the risk in the example. That’s not a superficial question. It’s the kind of question board members debate in investment committee meetings. It told me these students weren’t just memorizing formulas or how to use their financial calculators; they were probing the assumptions underneath them.
Discovering Collaboration
I’ll admit: Before lecturing at Harvard Business School, I wondered if the environment would be quite competitive—focused on outperforming peers. That’s the stereotype. But what I’ve seen is an impressive level of collaboration.
In class, student teams preparing to raise real venture capital funds pitched their classmates—not just me and my fellow speakers—and I watched something exciting happen. Their peers weren’t trying to poke holes for class participation points. They were leaning in, offering thoughtful critiques, challenging assumptions, and pushing each other to sharpen their ideas. It was the kind of rigorous but constructive feedback you hope to see in a partner meeting.
It’s a different kind of ambition—one rooted in supporting each other and winning together.
Discovering Purpose
At Princeton, during a discussion about investing, a student raised her hand and asked: “You said we should invest well to do good, but can’t we do both—at the same time?”
It was a good question. It showed a level of moral and intellectual engagement that goes far beyond the stereotype of a disengaged generation. This wasn’t about checking an ESG box. It was about grappling with how capital can be deployed to create both financial and societal value—a question that sophisticated investors and policymakers regularly debate. (As I’ve written previously, I personally still favor separating investing from impact goals.)
Discovering Creativity
At Babson College, where entrepreneurship runs deep, students’ final projects involved pitching new investment products. The creativity was inspiring. One team presented a novel approach to funding musician development—connecting capital to creativity in a unique way. Others explored new vehicles for supporting early-stage innovation or tackling systemic social challenges.
These weren’t abstract case studies. They were attempts to solve real problems with fresh thinking.
A Mispriced Generation
Each of these moments is small: a question, a conversation, a pitch. But together they paint a picture that’s hard to ignore. They’re deeply curious, willing to challenge assumptions, eager to help their peers, and motivated by purpose—quite a distance from the caricature of apathy and self-absorption we so often hear.
And still, much of society underestimates them. We dismiss them as too idealistic or too impatient. We assume they’re glued to screens and uninterested in the real world. We mistake their collaborative instincts for lack of competitiveness.
I’ve seen this movie before. When my generation—Gen X—entered the workforce, we were dismissed as “slackers.” The reality was far different: we worked hard, built families, and shaped industries (including the internet!) in ways few predicted. I suspect we’re making the same mistake with Gen Z.
In short, we’ve mispriced them—just as markets sometimes misprice assets with enormous untapped potential.
It’s worth remembering that during the pandemic many of them (as mandated by older generations) spent some of their most formative years learning behind a screen, navigating disruption and isolation that most of us never faced at that age. That perspective—shaped by uncertainty—may be one reason they approach problems with such resilience and empathy.
Spend some real time on today’s campuses or with young people just starting their careers, and you’ll see potential everywhere. But many of us just aren’t looking for it.
Why It Matters
As an investor, I’ve learned that mispricings are opportunities—but only if you have the patience and perspective to see them. The same is true here. If we keep underestimating this generation, we risk missing the chance to learn from them, partner with them, and build with them.
I’ve spent decades thinking about the long term—about how decisions compound and institutions endure. And nothing has made me more optimistic about America’s future than what I’ve seen in these classrooms. Because this is how we renew ourselves. This is how we build.
Higher education has always been one of this country’s greatest competitive advantages. It’s how we adapt and lead. It’s how we turn curiosity into innovation, collaboration into progress, and purpose into impact.
Watching this generation learn and grow has reminded me that our country’s strength has never been fixed. It’s been built—again and again—by a new generation willing to question, challenge, and build something better. And, if what I’ve seen these last few years is any indication, that strength is alive and well.
That’s why I’m optimistic—not just about the next crop of students, analysts, and entrepreneurs, but about the future of the country they’ll help shape. In the classroom, as in the markets, mispriced assets don’t stay mispriced forever. Eventually, the world catches up to their value. And when it does, it’s a very good time to be invested.
Disclaimer
The views expressed are solely my own and do not represent those of any organization with which I am or have been affiliated. Details have been simplified for clarity. This essay is for educational and informational purposes only and isn’t intended as investment, tax, or legal advice. Photo by Cydney Scott.
Original article here.
