 When I was a teenager, like everyone, I used to think that when I grew up to be 20 or 30 something, I'll be a different person. Somehow I believe that something drastic will change. That unfortunately will never happen. There's no drastic change in life. There are only little changes and often, those little changes can only be championed by you or else your life will be the same. This video will be about three common pitfalls you should avoid before you're 30. If you're between the ages of 15 and 40, this channel was created for you. So, don't forget to subscribe. Stop making excuses. When starting in the business world over 11 years ago, I had every reason to never start. I could have told you about the fact that my country was poor. I could have told you about the fact that I was born by poor parents and grew up on a cocoa farm. I could have told you about the fact that I didn't have any degrees and telling you about the fact that I suffered rheumatism for the first 17 years of my life would have made you pity me, but I didn't need someone to cry for me nor was I ready to cry or make excuses for myself. You see, if you have the habit of making excuses, you'll always find 100 excuses at any given time because life is just too rough. Look at the sky. It's not always white. Look at the weather. It's not always favorable. Look at the economy. Someone is always losing his job. Look at marriages. Someone is getting a divorce as you watch this video. Someone is dying. Someone is involved with an auto crash. Something bad is always happening. And if you look very well, you'll always see why you are not to be blamed. And this will give you the courage to make excuses. Take for instance. I was born as a sickly boy because my parents were not supposed to be married due to their genotype. How is that my fault that I was born a sickle cell victim? How is it my fault that I grew up in a dark village? How is it my fault that I was born into a corrupt and poor nation? How then can you blame me if I fail in life? And why would you blame me for blaming my circumstances for my poverty? Well, the problem with thinking that your life isn't your fault is that you will not do anything that will change your life. To take proactive actions that can change your life, you have to take 100% responsibility for your life. I know this doesn't make any sense, but that's what you have to do. Yes, it doesn't make sense for you to believe that you're the reason why you're poor while it's so obvious that the government in your country has been run by corrupt people. It doesn't make sense for you to take 100% responsibility for your marriage while it's obvious that your partner is just the devil. But until you learn how to take responsibility, you won't change your life. You see, I started reading books about money and entrepreneurship when I was around 17. And by the time I was 22, I had already read about 300 books. Mostly about money, business and entrepreneurship. Why do I read about money so much? Well, in my early life I had told myself that if I end my life in poverty, it's my fault 100%. Since I decided to take responsibility, I just had to stop making excuses. Today, I have friends who have never read a single book about money. They have never taken any reasonable financial risk and they have never even learned how money works simply because they think they are poor because the government is bad. I strongly advise you to stop making excuses because if you don't stop making excuses, you'll simply fold your arms and patiently wait for someone else to come and fix your life. And the problem about that is nobody cares about you. Stop wasting time. Understand the value of time. Time, that's another name for life. Look at those people who seem to be doing well with their lives. Look at those great achievers. Look at those successful men and women you admire. Most of them never had money or any advantage when they started. What most of these people have, which others don't have, is the consciousness about the most important asset in life, which is time. Think about two young men. One spends one hour every day to study his field by reading books. Most people won't read. While the other spends his time on just any fun thing that comes around, do you guess what will happen in the next decade? Earl Nightingale said on iQuote, if you'll spend one hour every day to study your field, you'll become a national expert in five years. See how crazy that is. In the next five to 10 years, those two men who started on the same stage will end in very different destinations. One will become a national expert or a respected authority while the other will be average, simply because of an hour per day discipline. That's how time separates the weak from the strong. And that's why you have to stop wasting time. As a young person, you have to know where your time is going. You have to know how you spend your time. Yes, you need to have social media accounts, but how many social media accounts do you need? How do you explain the fact that you spend five hours every day on social media? What do you do when you come to YouTube? Do you watch entertainment videos all day or you spend an hour to learn something? If you can't monitor your time, you can't monitor your life. And if you can't invest your time judiciously, you can't harvest anything worthwhile in your life. Stop the complaint. When you make an excuse, what you're saying is that it's not my fault. When you complain, what you're saying is that it's someone else's fault. Both mindsets will make you poor. One particular thing I'm always grateful to God for is the fact that I entered my adulthood with a positive mindset. At age 18, I had already stopped every act of negativism. So I hardly complained about any kind of stuff. Most people simply complain about everything. And if you enter your thirties as a complainer, you probably won't be able to achieve much with your life. And the reason is very simple. When people complain about everything, they are not usually ready to take responsibility for anything. Here's the thing. Two things are happening right now in your life. Things you have the power to change and things you cannot control. The problem with most humans is that they focus all their attention on the things they cannot change. It's a waste of time. For instance, you hardly can influence what the government of your country is doing, what the weather will look like, or what the economy would look like. So complaining about such things not only wastes your time, it does waste your energy. The very energy you need to invest on other things, you have the power to change. Instead of focusing on things you cannot influence, why don't you focus on the things you have power over? You have power over what you think. You have power over the books you read. You have the power to take actions, and you have the power to remain persistent at the face of failures. Learn how to focus on these things you have power over before you'll be 30, or you'll leave the rest of your life in bitterness about what other people don't do for you when you don't do anything for yourself. Stop making excuses. Instead, take responsibility for your life. Stop wasting time because time is life. Stop complaining. It doesn't make your life any better. If you like this video, watch other videos on our channel. We love you.