Rethinking Success: The Millennial Dream

culture, behind the scenes

Rethinking Success: The Story Behind the Millennial Dream

For generations, the promise of the American Dream shaped how people thought about success.

Work hard. Build a career. Buy a home. Raise a family. Each step leading to a more secure future than the one before.

But by the early 21st century, that promise was starting to feel less certain, particularly for the generation entering the workforce at the time.

written by:hhadmindate published: Jun 04, 2026 content type: behind the scenes

Millennials were graduating into a world shaped by globalization, technological change and the lingering effects of the global financial crisis. Many were questioning whether the traditional path to prosperity still held true.

More than a decade later, those same questions about purpose, opportunity and the future of work continue to shape how younger generations think about their careers and communities.

At the University of New Brunswick’s Pond Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, those questions were becoming part of a much larger conversation.

“We had a lot of coffee,” recalls Karina LeBlanc, who was leading the centre at the time. “We were talking, dreaming and imagining what Atlantic Canada could be.”

Those conversations included a small group of mentors connected to the centre’s student programs, including Greg Hemmings, Marcel LeBrun and David Alston. Over many cups of coffee, the group explored a challenge that had shaped the region for decades: the steady outmigration of young people seeking opportunities elsewhere.

“What is it about Atlantic Canada that makes it so that a lot of our young people are exiting and leaving?” LeBlanc remembers asking. “And how might we envision what it would look like if this were a place they wanted to come to instead of leave from?”

Listening To A New Generation

The Pond Deshpande Centre had launched a province-wide ambassador program that brought together entrepreneurial students from across New Brunswick. About 40 students were selected from universities throughout the province, chosen for their curiosity, creativity and interest in building new opportunities.

“We were looking for the innovator, the creator, the rebel,” LeBlanc says. “The rabble rousers.”

Working closely with these students quickly revealed something important. Their aspirations looked different from those of previous generations.

The traditional promise of success, often described as the American Dream, suggested that hard work and perseverance would lead to financial stability and upward mobility. But many young people were beginning to measure success in different ways.

“The promise isn’t guaranteed anymore,” LeBlanc says. “Nor does it necessarily deliver happiness, fulfillment or meaning.”

Millennials, she explains, were increasingly interested in building careers that reflected their values. They wanted work that allowed them to make an impact, contribute to their communities and create something meaningful.

That shift in thinking sparked a question that would eventually inspire a documentary.

If the American Dream was losing its hold on a new generation, what might replace it?

A Story Worth Telling

As those conversations deepened, Hemmings and the team at Hemmings House began exploring how the story could be told through film.

What began as an exploration of regional challenges quickly grew into a broader examination of generational change.

The project would follow young entrepreneurs and innovators as they explored what success might look like in a changing world. It would also examine how communities, universities and businesses could respond to that shift.

The result was The Millennial Dream, a documentary that explores how millennials are redefining success around purpose, impact and community.

After its release in 2016, The Millennial Dream was screened across North America and licensed to PBS in the United States, with additional distribution through streaming platforms including Amazon Prime and iTunes.

Screenings often became conversations about the future of work, entrepreneurship and how communities could support a new generation of innovators.

The film places those ideas in a wider historical context. For decades, economic growth and industrial expansion helped fuel the belief that prosperity was within reach for anyone willing to work hard. But by the early 21st century, that foundation was beginning to shift.

For many millennials entering the workforce, the old promise no longer seemed as certain.

Instead of asking where they could find a job, many were beginning to ask a different question: What could they create?

“When you have something presented visually in a film, people get it,” LeBlanc says.

A Global Perspective

To explore those questions more deeply, the project followed the Pond Deshpande Centre’s ambassadors beyond Atlantic Canada.

Students travelled to places such as Boston, where they met entrepreneurs and experienced one of North America’s most dynamic innovation ecosystems. Seeing how new ventures were being created and supported helped them imagine what might be possible in their own communities.

The journey also took them to Hubli, India, where they encountered a very different but equally vibrant entrepreneurial culture.

Those experiences broadened the scope of the project and added new layers to the story.

“It created a lot more questions than it did answers,” LeBlanc says.

What the students discovered was that entrepreneurship was not simply about starting companies. It was also about shaping communities, solving social challenges and building a sense of purpose.

Those ideas were increasingly central to how millennials viewed their future.

Bringing Ideas To Life

For the Pond Deshpande Centre, the documentary also served a practical purpose.

Concepts such as social innovation and values-driven entrepreneurship were gaining traction, but they were not always easy to explain.

“When you have something presented visually in a film, people get it,” LeBlanc says.

Indeed, she was still fielding requests for the film years after its debut, including an invitation to speak and show the film to 250 leaders in Toronto.

The documentary helped communicate the centre’s vision in a way that written reports and presentations could not. It allowed audiences to see and hear directly from the young people whose aspirations were shaping the conversation.

The film also helped spark broader discussions about how regions could retain and attract young talent by supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.

That broader narrative reinforced the University of New Brunswick’s reputation as a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. The Millennial Dream helped extend those conversations to audiences across North America.

Still Relevant Today

When The Millennial Dream was released, millennials were just beginning to enter the workforce in large numbers. Today many of the ideas explored in the film about purpose, entrepreneurship and meaningful work have become mainstream conversations about the future of work.

Communities across North America are still grappling with how to attract and retain young talent. Increasingly, the answer lies not only in jobs and salaries but in creating places where people feel they can contribute, belong and make a difference.

For LeBlanc, the most important takeaway from the project was the mindset shift it helped inspire.

Instead of viewing opportunity as something that must be found elsewhere, young people began to see the possibility of creating it where they already lived.

“I don’t need to find a job to stay,” she says. “I can create a job to stay.”

---

If you're a social change leader working to make the invisible visible, to build movements that need to be experienced to be understood, let's talk about how film can accelerate your mission. Contact us at hello@hemmingshouse.com.