The second semester of my junior year of college, I was taking Reporting 2, one of the required classes for a journalism degree. By the end of the semester I had almost failed the class and unwittingly created an opportunity that is affecting my life on a daily basis.

I wasn’t giving the class my all. In fact, it’s fair to say that I was screwing up royally. The few assignments I did turn in were half-assed caricatures of good work, and I was barely even going to class. I’m still amazed that I didn’t fail the class altogether.

The professor suggested to the class that we submit columns to The Denver Post’s Colorado Voices feature. The program is an opportunity for writers who typically wouldn’t get published in the Post to run a few columns in the paper. My professor said it was a good way to write a few pieces and build a portfolio.

But I didn’t want to take her advice. I was practically failing her class, and despite knowing that my situation was of my own creation, I wasn’t shy about telling people that I wasn’t fond of this professor because we “didn’t see eye-to-eye.”  I resisted the suggestion until my father called me and suggested the exact same thing that evening.

Then I knew I had to do it. Information from one good source can be a fluke. But two… on the same day? Yeah, that’s a sign.

So, I wrote a couple columns and e-mailed them to the Post. A month or so passed, and I got a call from the Post, informing me that I had been selected for the Voices panel.  My editor and I met and she guided me through the process of selecting topics and writing them.

One of my columns was about Generation Y. It raised a few eyebrows, which didn’t surprise me, given that its lede was:

“All right, baby boomers, let’s get one thing straight: If I’m going to be paying for your Social Security, I’d like a lot less lip from you on the way in which I’m going to do it.”

I got a score of angry e-mails from people who thought I was an impertinent brat. I even got one from a writer who said that I had insulted half of living Americans, and all of the dead ones.

But one of the e-mails I got didn’t contain insults or disagreements. It had a job offer. That job offer turned into a job. That job parlayed into a role in the new company the boss man was building. And that role is growing and changing today.

I never thought I’d be working for a start-up, pinching pennies, holding my breath on go-to-market day, equally excited and terrified. I had assumed that guarantees were given when you completed your degree. If you’d told me that I’d be a part of a new national movement to foster work ethic in teens and young adults, I’d have laughed in your face.

But here I am.

All because of that class. All because I made that one choice, and it turned a small opportunity into another which turned into another and another and became something I couldn’t have imagined when I was skipping class and avoiding work. I don’t believe that screwing up that class has improved my situation today, but I know that class was a turning point in my life.

The lesson I learned about opportunities that day was two-fold:

First, they multiply. Accepting one opportunity always creates at  least two more.

Second, they multiply in unexpected ways. You may know what you’re missing when you pass up a given opportunity, but you’ll never know what other opportunities it may have created that you’ll miss.

In the spirit of opportunities, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you to check out The A Game. We regularly hear employers complain that teens and young adults lack work ethic. Our goal is to change that.

Sometimes it’s just more fun to be bad.

Too bad that doesn’t apply when you’re running the show, expecting your young employees to follow your lead to the promised land of profit. Next time you’re looking for a quick summary of the things top Gen Y performers avoid in their employers, look no further than the seven deadly sins.

1. Wrath

The days of yelling and screaming in the profitable workplace are long gone. Sure, you can yell and scream, and, sure, you can find some people who will tolerate it. But the people who will put up with that will never be the top performers your less bombastic competitors are hiring and retaining.

2. Avarice

AKA: Greed. If the only thing you’ve ever wanted out of your business, your life, and your employees is more money at the expense of anything resembling morality or a work-life balance, you’re not going to get far. This generation doesn’t describe “corporate responsibility” as an oxymoron; it calls it a requirement.

3. Lust

Lust is a sin because you’re valuing someone’s appearance over who they actually are. The overriding principle that one’s substance is more important than his surface is a staple of the Gen Y mindset. And don’t make the mistake of limiting this principle to its sexual connotation; it applies to clothing, piercings, hair-cuts, or any of the entire range of ways a people can modify their appearances.

4. Vanity

Pride goeth before a fall. And fall your business will if you don’t allow your Gen Y employees to keep themselves motivated by applying new methods to old processes or getting hands-on in the decision-making processes. So swallow the pride that tells you that the old was is the best way and test it, regardless of how unwilling your employees are to make that same concession about their new ways.

5. Envy

You sometimes hear people call this one “nostalgia.” Pretty much any story you hear that begins “Back in my day…” is a perfect example. Times have changed. Things are different. You think we have it easier than you did. We know. Instead of dwelling on the differences, adapt to them and enjoy it a bit. You just might find that the “good old days” left a little something to be desired, even if things still aren’t perfect.

6. Sloth

Remember that one employee you hired who had a passion for Shakespeare? No…? What about the one who played guitar in a rock band? Still not ringing any bells…? I know you’re busy and I know that running a business is an involved process, but if you don’t take the time and energy to get to know your employees and build relationships with them, there are plenty of Gen Y employees who will argue that your managerial style would be greatly improved by staying at home in bed.

7. Gluttony

Gluttons over-indulge themselves to the point that something that was once good for them now works to their detriment. All too often, managers and the people running companies institute policy after policy and checklist after checklist, knowing that a strategic approach to business can be a good thing. But as the checklists and checklists-for-checklists pile up like cholesterol in an artery, they clog the flow of business and eventually choke its livelihood. All the while, your Gen Y employees watch the disaster unfold, frustrated that no one listens to their pleas for the business to be run according to its necessities, rather than its checklists.