NIGERIAN YOUTHS AND THE GET-MONEY-QUICK SYNDROME.
We live in the digital age, where social media makes it very easy to show off wealth, either real or fake, either wealth made legal or illegally. Every day on social media, going through different feeds, we see posts from different users, most of them showing off, especially youths.
Money begets freedom, the more money one makes, the more freedom one gets, in most cases. We all want to be free, we all want & need money. But, are we ready to give all it takes to make that huge sum of money we fantasize about so much? How long are we willing to wait to make this so fantasized money? Well, some of us are willing to give all it takes to make this money. But, most (80% or more) are not willing to wait 10, 20, 40, 50 years to make the so fantasized money.
Here’s a list of the richest men in the world, and how old they are:
- Jeff Bezos — 57
- Elon Musk — 49
- Bernard Arnault — 72
- Bill Gates — 65
- Mark Zuckerberg — 36
- Warren Buffett — 90
- Larry Ellison — 76
- Larry Page — 48
- Sergey Brin — 47
- Mukesh Ambani — 63
Source: Investopedia
From the list above we can see that none of them acquired their wealth in less than 10 years. So, why then are youths are always in a hurry to make money? Why do we want to make all the money in the world in just one year? Is it greed? Well, I have some reasons as to why youths are in a hurry to get wealthy;
“Most people want so desperately to be an individual yet are so early shaped by the media” — Criss Jami, Killosophy.
Peer pressure and youths are a common combination, especially among teenagers. We see our mates “balling” and “blowing money” in clubs or parties, we also want to do it. Our friends or people around are doing a certain thing because they’re highly loaded, we also want to have that experience, peer pressure.
Most times, they don’t care where the so-called friend gets the money in question, they just want to have that experience. Peer pressure is one of the reasons the rate of cyber-fraud (yahoo yahoo) in Nigeria, keeps increasing day by day. A lot of youths don’t care how they get the papers, illegal or not, they just want to have the money as fast as possible because of peer pressure. They just want to feel among, they are in a hurry to live life. Peer pressure is by far the top reason a lot of Nigerian youths are in a hurry to make quick cash.
“Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in the materialistic age, a great many of us are possessed by our possession” — Peace Pilgrim
No statistics to prove this, but most youths are materialistic, very materialistic in fact. To some extent, peer pressure has an impact on youths being materialistic. Females are mostly being called out for being materialistic, but the truth is both genders are materialistic. The more material thing you want, the more money you’d need, therefore more desperation. The sole purpose a lot of youths want to be rich or wealthy is to buy material things, so they can show off or brag.
A wise man once said, “Material things will come and go, but knowledge will stay forever.”, I don’t know who said this, but he’s wise. No matter how many material things you buy now, in few years they’ll become outdated, but knowledge stays forever. Rather than buy more trending or in-vogue clothes, ice chains, cars, etc, to show off, why not invest in yourself? Why not invest in getting more knowledge? Don’t spend on only material things now and suffer later, when you can “suffer” now and get material things later. The race for success or wealth isn’t fixed, not everyone will be rich or wealthy by 20 or before 20. The best things in life aren’t things, always remember this.
“Majority of the people in the world are stupid, so why follow what majority of the world says or think is right?” — Sodiq Adisa
Get this, the world is growing, the more intelligent people that would grace the world, the more dumb people that would try shredding the world. So, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, live your life by dumb standards set by dumb individuals. This is because the more you try meeting the dumb standards, the more dumb standards these dumb individuals will set. A lot of youths are victims of these dumb standards. They are trying so bad to live up to these standards which are mostly monetary.
Youths these days seek validation so bad, especially on social media. Ohhh, God! It irks me a lot. Everyday stupid standards are set by very dumb individuals, individuals that can’t meet up with their standards. “10,000 Naira is small for a date”, “A man earning 200,000 Naira monthly isn’t ready for marriage”, “if you don’t make 6 figures monthly, don’t date.”, these are one of the thousands of stupid takes & standards these dump people set, most of which are on Twitter. In the long run, a lot of youths will feel pressured and the need to live up to these standards, therefore desperation sets in. They try to make money by any means possible, legally or illegally, even through voodoo.
I say this a lot, no one can create your success path for you, no one but yourself. Another person’s success or wealth shouldn’t be the yardstick for judging yours. A certain person gets rich or wealthy at the age of 20 doesn’t mean you will or must also be wealthy by 20. We all want money, we want to be rich, money begets freedom, but go about it the right and best way.
Making money illegally or at the expense of someone’s suffering or someone's life (money ritual) is crossing the line. The rate at which yahoo boys (fraudsters) and money ritualists increases daily is both alarming and scary. Nothing justifies making money these ways, most of the world’s richest men today were not rich at 20 or 25, so why can’t you work harder and legally for yours?
The video below is a student of Ekiti State University caught trying to use his roommate for money ritual, very sickening. Trying to make money at all cost, even at the expense of a person’s life.
Then, there are youths that try to make money legally but are in a hurry to do so. Most of them always end up getting scammed or end up wasting their time. We have seen a lot of Ponzi schemes scam a lot of people over the years, the latest is Racksterli, still, people will jump on more Ponzi in the future. Forex trade investors have also made away with millions because we are in a rush to make more money. These and a lot more.
For the youths trying to make money legally, but are in a rush to do so, you’ll only end up in more problems. Even worse, you get rich now only to go broke few years later, because you have zero financial knowledge. Getting wealthy is a marathon race spiced up with hurdles, it is not a 100m race. Invest in yourself first, search for knowledge, make your money legally and enjoy with peace of mind. Remember, SAY NO TO CYBER FRAUD!
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