6 Mistakes You Will Likely Make Between Age 20-30 As A Young Nigerian (Part One)

It is a general belief that experience is the best teacher. As true as this may sound, learning via experience has a lot of disadvantages. It is expensive to learn from experience. I learn as much as possible from experience when life forced it on me, but I rather prefer to learn via evaluated experience by studying those who have gone ahead of me and learn from their successes and failures.

After taking a deep observation of the life of an average Nigerian, I discovered that majority of people are likely going to make the mistakes highlighted in this article and most of them have no choice but to live with the consequences when they reach age 30.

These mistakes include:

1. Thinking you are too young to achieve great things:

Most Nigerian who are in their 20s are still pursuing their tertiary education, some will not even graduate until they reach their late 20s. In your 20s there is this tendency to think you are too young to pursue your dream. You will often feel you don’t have experience and that people won’t take your seriously. This mindset will make you defer some of the things that would have speed up your success in life to a time you feel you will be competent to live your dream. The truth is that thinking you are too young to live your dream in your 20s is nothing but a limiting belief. Once you reach age 18, you are not too young to pursue any dream except where a higher age is required. People who made it big in their 30s started in their 20s. And if you are just waking up at 30, then you will be disappointed in yourself. You will regret wasting those precious years of your 20s by the time you reach age 30.

2. Focusing your life only on academics:

In Nigeria formal education is overrated. The reason for this is because we have not been able to differentiate between education and academics. The object of education is to help you understand your environment, and learn how to adapt to it without constituting nuisance to others. Education also empowers you for success in every area of your life. Academics on the other hand focuses on certificates or degrees. A person may have a degree but yet not educated. However academics can help to enhance one’s education. The average Nigerian believe so much in the power of certificate and all his hope is bent on securing a good job after graduation through this certificate. In order to achieve this end, he tend to put in all the possible efforts needed to get good grades. It is important to note that this formular of getting good grades to ensure a good job is no more valid in today’s world as we have graduates with first class who are not employed. In a situation where all your efforts was put into getting good grades without having a plan B for a situation where your certificate does not give you your dream job will only land you in regret, depression and frustration, which is the lot of so many Nigerian graduates today.

TRUE EDUCATION PREPARES YOU TO SURVIVE WITHOUT YOUR CERTIFICATE.

To avoid this mistake, as you pursue your academic degrees, also find time to acquire some or at least one vocational skill. There are many of them out there that can fetch you real money the moment you become an expert. If you have graduated from the tertiary institution and you don’t have any vocational skill yet, it is not too late to acquire one.

3. Not working to earn an income:

There is this tendency for you to rely solely on your parents for every dime you spend. All you are exposed to is how to spend money. This will put you in a position where you don’t know how difficult it is to make money. All you will have in mind is, as soon as you graduate, you will hit your dream job and you will be able to do what your parents or guardians are doing. This kind of thinking is not always true. By the time you graduate and your dream job doesn’t show up and have no option but to take care of yourself, then you will wish you understood earlier how difficult it is to make money. This period will be the first time in your life when you will have a genuine appreciation for all the money your parents spent on you. If you are currently relying on your parents for your up-keep and still in your 20s, then I say to you that you have not started living.

LIFE BEGINS THE MOMENT YOU ASSUME TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND FOR EVERY DIME YOU SPEND.

You can’t afford to just be sitting at home eating, watching television, and hanging out with friends. Start doing something that can fetch you money. It may be a paid employment or personal business. This will expose you to how difficult it is to accumulate money. The moment you know this by experience, you will begin to appreciate money and become wiser in the way you use it.