 About 16 years ago, I read a book written by Brian Tracy and there was a quote in that book which goes like, if it's going to be it's up to you. While there are so many factors in human life which are beyond our ability to control, there are some which could determine where we end our lives. While poverty and failures in life are not the fault of those who are poor, a reasonable percentage of those who fail in life would have had a different destiny if they had taken different decisions. After observing numerous young people all around me, I'll like to share with you 5 ways I see most people destroying their lives. If you're new here, consider subscribing so you won't miss other exciting videos like this. 1. Not muster in courage to follow their hearts I started questioning school when I was a 13 year old boy. Somehow, I had the feeling something wasn't right about school. I felt that there was a lie somewhere even though I couldn't figure out how that was possible. 7 years later, I decided I was going to get out of school and at the age of 21, I left school without a degree. Here's where I'm going with my story. When I suspected that something was wrong with school, I was only 13. But even when I was 21 and talked about it, everyone thought I was stupid, even those who were older than me by more than a decade or two. Regardless of what people said, however, I followed my heart, left school to start a business and today I'm richer than everyone who thought I was out of my mind then. I didn't tell you this story to make you drop out of school. I'm telling you this story to show you how even a teenager can have better insight about life than a 40 year old man. The challenge that most young people have is that they listen to everyone older than them, believing that wisdom comes with age. No, wisdom doesn't always come with age. Your heart is the wisest sage you will ever have. Your instinct is the best mentor you'll ever have. If you allowed the noise around you to kill the voice inside of you, it's your fault. Steve Jobs said, don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your own inner voice. Yes, you can take advice from people, but if you are deeply convicted about an idea, even if the whole world thinks you're stupid, go for it, because things usually seem impossible until someone does it. 2. Thinking every opportunity has been taken Last year I was having a conversation with one of my friends. In his opinion, it's more difficult to become rich these days simply because there are not so much opportunities to make money. It's unfortunate to see young people thinking there is no opportunity to become rich. Let me tell you what I found out after spending over 11 years looking for opportunity. Opportunities are like beautiful birds. Most of them are in the bush and it takes a lot of pain to get there. Henry Ford said, the most dangerous notion a young man can acquire is that every opportunity has been taken. No, no single human being can monopolize an opportunity. If IBM could do it, they would have never allowed Apple to become successful, but nobody can. If Walmart could do it, they could have stopped Amazon. It's called the law of mortality. The young always die or the young would make them irrelevant. Look at every successful company you know today. 90% of them will not maintain their dominance in the next two decades. Who are those to take their positions? The young who are eagerly looking for opportunities. 3. Thinking You'll Be Young Forever Robert Kiyosaki said, When we are young, we don't know what it looks like to be old. This is another way many young people destroy themselves. They think being young is going to last forever. Being young is for a few days. When I say a few days, I mean you can calculate the number of days in your 20s. The most productive person will wait half of those hours sleeping and resting. So you're left with only half. Urgency is a spirit I don't often see in young people. You have to be urgent. You have to run fast. You have to set a goal not to waste a single minute when you're young. The reason that is important is that there are things you can do far easier when you're youthful than when you get older. 4. Hanging Around Just Anyone I got admission into a polytechnic when I was around 18 or 19 years old. Like everyone, my first friends were those I met in the first few days of resumption. It's natural. You get to a new place and the people you meet that day become your friends. A year later, however, I read a book that taught me that the quantity of the people I spend time with would determine the quality of my future. I stopped making friends the way I used to. I instead started making friends by looking for their ambitions and curiosity. If I meet people who dream big and want to achieve great things, I know they should be my friend. If I meet people who make excuses and blame the government for all their failures, I know I can't spend time around them. Most young people hang around anyone who is fun to be with. The problem with that is, if you're not intentional about the people you hang around, their negativity will become yours, just as their habits, mindsets and goals become yours. Ambitious people make you hate mediocrity, and that pushes you to fight for something big. Negative people teach you how to make excuses, and that leads you nowhere. I once hired a lady and fired her after about three days of working in my company. How is that possible? Well, blame it on social media. This lady couldn't get rid of her phone for an hour without checking some notification. I've also fired another person under similar circumstances. That is a good example of doing well what you don't have to do at all. Social media is not a bad thing, but it's a little thing. The only thing that can make social media a big thing for you is if you make a thousand dollars every month promoting your products or brand using social media. If all you do with social media is to post your photos, it's a small thing and shouldn't take priority in your life. This is not applicable only to social media. The world is filled with so many trivial things, and if you make those little things your priority, then you will not achieve anything worthwhile in life. Little things should be given little space in your head. You should spend your time and resources on things that matter to your future. In summary, it's good to listen to other people, but you also must know how to follow your heart. Don't ever spend a second of your life thinking that all opportunities in the world have been taken because if you do, you'll not be curious to look for opportunities and you won't find what you don't look for. Be in a hurry. Be fast and urgent in pursuing your dreams because you won't be young for long. Select the people you'll spend time with. Choose ambitious and positive people as friends and they'll challenge you to go far in life. Don't be attached to trivial things because everything that doesn't move you closer to your dream is little. If you like this video, don't forget to subscribe to our channel. We love you.