Mistakes most Nigerians make between age of 20 and 30

Truly, experience is the best teacher, but learning through experience is not a good one. In this article, you will learn 7 mistakes most Nigerian make between the age of 20 and 30 years.

One can learn so well via life’s experience, but it’s better to learn through evaluation by studying those who are ahead of you and learn from their success stories and where they got it wrong.

From observation, one is likely to find out that most people are tending towards, or are already making the mistakes listed in this post, and are likely to live with the outcome when they attain the age of 30 and above.

Seven (7) mistakes most Nigerians make between age of 20 and 30

Below is the list of mistakes that most young Nigerians make between the age of 20 and 30 years:

1. Thinking age is still on your side

Most young Nigerians who are in their twenties are still in tertiary institutions, some might not graduate until they are in their late twenties.

So, while still in school in your twenties, you tend think you are too young to pursue your dreams and aspirations.

Sometimes you think you are inexperienced and people will not take you serious. This kind of thought will make you postpone the things that would have speed up your success in life to a time you assume to be competent to achieve your dreams. It is a setback to think you are too young to live your dream in your 20s.

Once you clock 18, you are not too young to achieve anything in life except where a given specific age is needed. People who achieved so much in their 30s started in their 20s.

You will regret ever wasting those precious productive years of your 20s when you reach 30 years. Invest in yourself in your 20s and develop yourself to become something you will be proud of later in life.

2. Focusing so much on academics

The fact is that in Nigeria, formal education is highly overrated. We could not differentiate between academics and education. The important of education is to help you understand your environment and learn how to be useful without posing as a nuisance to others.

Education will also enable you for success in every area of your life, while Academics focuses on certificate. A person may have certificate but he or she is not educated. Hence, academic is an enhancer or proof for education.

An average Nigerian believes so much in paper certificate and all his or her hope is on securing a good white-collar job after graduation through certificate.

In other to achieve this end, he or she puts in all his efforts just to get good grades.

However, it is important to note that this mindset of getting good grades to ensure a good job is no more necessary in today’s soceity and world economy, as we have first class graduates who are not employed and who are not employable.

In a situation whereby all efforts were put in getting good grades without having a plan ‘B’ for a situation whereby your certificate cannot guarantee you your dream job will only make you to regret, depressed, and frustrated, which is the problem of so many Nigerian graduates of today.

To avoid this mistakes, find time to gain some skills as you are pursuing your certificate or degree. There are many skills that can fetch you good money the moment you become an expert.

It is still not too late to gain a skill if you don’t have a vocational skill after graduation from the higher institution.

Just know that skills can prepare you to survive without your earned certificate.

3. When not working to earn an income

There is a possibility that you still relying on your parents for every money you spend. All you are exposed to is how to spend money.

This will put you in a situation whereby you will only know how to spend and will make it hard for you to make money. All you will have in mind is to get a job as soon as you graduate.

You would think you will get your dream job and be able to spend like your parents and sponsors. It is not always right to think so. When your dream job isn’t forth coming after graduation, you would wish you had understood how difficult it is to make money.

Then this moment will be the first time in your life when you will show a true appreciation for all the spent on you by your parents and sponsors.

If you are currently hoping on your parents for your upkeep and still in your twenties, then you have not started living. Life should start the moment one has assumed the total responsibility of his or her actions(18years) and for every dime you spend.

You can’t afford to just sit idle at home eating, watching television, and hanging out with friends.

It is better to do something to earn money. It may be a paid employment or a personal business.

This will expose you to how difficult it is to make money. The moment you know this by experience, you will appreciate money and be wise in spending.

4. Thinking you still have time

The wrong assumption that you still have all the time in the whole world is one the mistakes people make in their 20s. You live your life carelessly and spend your time on things that don’t add values.

However, by the time you clock 29, and tending towards 30, you will realize that you are no more a child.

You will realize you have been wasting your  time all these years because your achievements do not measure up with your age.

It would then be clear to you for the first time that you no longer have time on your side.

At this moment, you will wish you have done so many things in your 20s which you were thinking you had so much time because you thought you were too young to achieve. That shouldn’t be the case with you.

5. Not equipping yourself with skills necessary for your survival

If ain’t disciplined, you will probably spend your twenties engaging in wasteful activities, which will prevent you from having a grasp of basic skills needed to survive in the real world.

Some of them are; ability to save money for a project, empathy, understanding, ability to delay gratification, etc.

Young Nigerians who are only academics oriented mostly spend their 20s pursuing only degree with no practical vocational skill that can guarantee them job after leaving school.

When the dream job doesn’t show up, they join the unemployed, underemployed or doing jobs they don’t like because of no other option.

To avoid such a mistake, as you pursue your academic degrees, also find time to learn other skills. There are many of them out there that can fetch you good money the moment you become an expert.

If you graduated without acquiring a skill(s), it is not yet too late to learn one, look around and notice that most people making real money are not those working with certificates, but those who are problem solvers and get paid in return.

Aside your certificate, what problem can you solve for people and get paid? If you can’t answer this, it is time you identify major problems people have around you and acquire vocational skills that can empower you to provide a solution to such problems.

The more problems you can solve, the more your capacity to make money.

6. Not learning from the mistakes of others

A lot of Nigerian youths are just stuck in the mindset of taking corrections when they have experienced something bad.

If you wait to do things right after something went wrong, then you will grow so old and still not be able to do things right.

The thing to do is to take corrections from the mistakes of others. Also listen to people when they tell you that some things are not right. Don’t wait to have the experience before you learn!

7. Not devoting your time in reading good life changing books

Some say that if you want to hide something from an African, then write it on a book. Africans have poor reading culture.

Books make great people. Not reading enough books is one of the mistakes an average Nigerian youth at his 20s makes. We are all born into this world without a manual, we gain knowledge by learning and reading.

The 20s is a period of preparation for the future ahead and reading good books will expose you to the lifetime perception of those who have gone ahead of you.

Learning from their experience and mistakes. Reading good books will enable you to begin from where the previous generation left off. Just know that every life situation has its own governing principles.

Books will help expose you to the principle that govern any success you desire. Every youth in his 20s is expected to have a full grasp of principles that operate money, relationship and success.

This can only be achieved in reading. There are many helpful books out there that contain timeless facts of how things work in life. Reading and acting on the content will help you correct the mistakes that you could have made in life if you have not read them.

So, these are just a few mistakes Nigeria youths make in their 20s, which would have always come back to hunt them later in life.

If you are still in your 20s, try to see how you can avoid making these mistakes. Endeavor to do something meaningful for yourself while you still can.