15 Mistakes People Make When They’re Young

Here are 15 Mistakes Young People Make Which You Can Avoid!

We always read your comments and despite our main audience being more mature, a good portion of you are still young, so we made this article about mistakes people make when they’re young, which will hopefully help you avoid at least some of them.

In it we’re bringing forward the most common mistakes young people make with the purpose of shining light on a couple of issues you might be avoiding.

If you’re smart you’ll definitely have a thing or two to learn and who knows, you might just be the one to give yourself a competitive advantage.

Just being aware of these could be the leverage you need to have an edge over your peers, but the true goal is going through the list and seeing if there’s any way you correct your path while it’s still early in the journey.

As with all our work here’s a video version for you to watch if you don’t really feel like reading this long post.

With that said, let’s cut the intro short! Here are the most common 15 mistakes people make when they’re young!

Number 1: They focus on passing exams instead of learning
School should prepare you for life! Unfortunately we know that’s not the case and you’re probably familiar with our stance on the current educational system. With that said, there’s still value there, actually a lot of value that young people don’t know how to capture.. Because.. Well they’re young.

The most important skill you can take away from school is Learning HOW TO LEARN!

Many teenagers discredit completely the idea of school and are leaving a lot of value on the table due to their ignorance.

Focus your efforts on learning how to assimilate deep knowledge quickly and you can use that superpower to teach yourself anything you’ll need.

Number 2: They think IQ or Talent is enough to be successful
Another thing the youth overvalue is the importance of IQ or Talent. Don’t get us wrong, both can be a massive competitive advantage if used properly, but just having one of them doesn’t mean the world will reward you.

Ever heard that saying:
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough?

There are a lot of highly intelligent people out there who are miserable and poor, because they were under the understanding that it’s enough to have a high IQ and that the world somehow needs to compensate them for that.

As you know success is a cocktail of skills and one ingredient alone won’t lead to a happy life.

Number 3: They don’t know when to listen and when not to listen to their parents
Some young people have a tendency to get this exactly backwards. They rebel against their parents and end up regretting it because of their lack of knowledge or they follow their parents advice and end up in regretting it as well for the lack of vision.

Here’s the shortest form of advice we can give regarding this:
If the target at hand is below the level of achievement of your parents, follow what they have to say, they probably have been through it and can serve as mentors, helping you skip a lot of headaches.

The problem occurs when you’re looking for something different or beyond what your parents know or have been through, that’s when you have to walk a different trail and seek advice in different places, from different individuals.

The last thing you want to do, is to live in your parents expectation of what you should become without it being what YOU want to be. You’ll end up hating your life and holding your parents accountable for it, so it’s a lose – lose situation.

Number 4: They get in debt
One of the worst financial decisions you can make in your early years is to get yourself into a large amount of debt.

What most people don’t realize, is that the moment you borrow money, your time is no longer yours. Someone owns your time, your efforts until the entire amount plus the interest is repaid.

In the US, student debt is an very interesting phenomenon, despite us having free access to all the information in the world via the internet, people still go take these debts in, because it is easy to do so. They do it, not in order to acquire knowledge, but to get the degree. In the US alone there are more than 44 million people wrapped up in student loans, that’s more than the population of most countries.

In the rest of the world we see the same thing happening with the housing crisis. People take out loans over 20 or 30 years just so they can afford to buy their first apartment.

Imagine being in your 20s and starting life with 100,000 dollars in debt! Good luck with that!

Number 5: They equate happiness with money
This is a very common mistake rookies make. They think that money will solve all their problems.

The truth is, money will solve some of them, but there’s more to a human being than the stress caused by material issues.

That’s why we have this substance abuse crisis on our hands especially in the world of celebrities.

This week, Demi Lovato almost ended her life due to an overdose, so one might wonder, what would drive someone who has fame, fans, more money than they’ll ever need to do something like that.. It’s a means to escape an unhappy life.

Our advice is to treat them as separate goals, because they actually are. The last thing you want is to believe that financial wealth is everything only to work yourself to death, make it and realize you missed the mark.

There are strategies where you can use money to buy pleasure which might evolve into happiness, but you need to be fairly sophisticated to pull that through. If you’re curious about this, we’ve made a video about the things one can purchase with money that most people don’t realize, which you can watch below:

Number 6: They give up when things get though
The youth want it easy! They like McDonalds.. They want to place an order and have almost instant results. That’s why they’re so addicted to the world of social media.. You post a picture and the likes start rolling in.

The downside is that this type of recurring behavior gives you an inability to plan and work hard for the long term. By the time they realize this, they’re already too old and all the advantages they could’ve had if they were more strategic with their efforts is gone.

They want it easy and they’ll rather quit and move to the next shiny object thinking that’s not gonna demand so much effort, only to be once again shocked by how non linear life is.

They don’t put in the work, they don’t know how to evolve themselves in order to keep moving forward.

Just look at the type of relationships everyone has these days, nobody is willing to work through stuff, to grow as people, instead we live the world of Tinder, where there’s another person willing to replace you the second things get though.

Number 7: Have a kid early or with the wrong person.
Speaking of mistakes young people make which last a lifetime..

When you’re young, you’re not sophisticated enough to see the layers of someone else, instead it’s just a matter of sparks flying.

Yes, I know you believe you’re going to be together forever and ever because that’s what you’ve seen in all them chick flick shows you keep binge watching, but life’s a bit more complicated than that.

The boys would stick their weewee in anything that moves and the girls are willing to put out for Coachella tickets or even less.

The result.. A large number of teen-pregnancies. As a teenager, you’re unable to take care of yourself these days.. So there’s almost no chance you’ll be able to be a valuable parent for your offspring.

A child too early doesn’t allow you to grow into a version of yourself which has a shot at winning the game of life and most of your plans go out the window.

The other thing is having a child with the wrong person.

We know the world is changing and your intentions might be good, but bringing another human into this world requires a bit more judgement and planning.

Just winging it, results in a broken individuals which leads to a broken society which normalizes failure for everyone. You should only have a child if you and your partner are ready for the lifelong journey of growing someone who is better than both of you.

Number 8: They think friendships will last forever
Sorry to break this to you, but most early friendships fall apart. That is because they were based on vicinity instead of cornerstone values.

People drift away in different careers, different lives, they evolve into different humans. At some point you’ll realize you’ve become so different that you no longer share anything apart for very few memories which are fading away.

Any early relationship is like that, be it romantic or friendship oriented. We recommend keeping in touch for as long as possible, because:

You don’t get too many shots at making new-”old friends”

But don’t get your hopes up, life has other plans for you!

Number 9: They’re self absorbed
When you’re young, the world revolves around you. It’s normal to be like that. Since you’ve been alive, you’ve experienced the world from a first person perspective. Everyone you know is related to your experience here on Earth, so you must be important right?! At least momma said so!

This makes you ignorant to other people’s lives, because – as you’ve seen in all the movies, the hero always gets what he wants in the end doesn’t he?

Sooner or later you’ll realize that we can’t all be the hero, some of you are extras in someone else’s movie and it’s gonna be soul crushing.

You guys like these articles because we keep it honest with you! Some of you are not going to make it and if you don’t shake yourselves up and realize that you need to start positioning yourselves right in the context of others, you’re gonna end up miserable once the likes start fading away.

There’s very little value in being self absorbed if you’re not valuable enough!

Number 10: They don’t invest in themselves
Everyone thinks they have time on their side and that it will work itself out in the end.

Wake up call kids, no it won’t! You will end up suffering, forgotten and alone if you don’t show life the proper amount of respect.

When we say “Invest in yourself” we mean more than what you’re doing with the little money you have, we talk mostly about time, because that’s the resource you are rich in during your early years.

Spend it towards growing yourself to a point where you can protect yourself against the tyranny of life itself. Because ohh boy, if you’re not ready, when times get though you’ll be wrecked.. And times always get though!

One of the best way to invest in yourself is to pick up reading as a habit. People dealt with some shit and wrote it down as a map for others to make better choices and have a better shot at success, no matter what success means for you. We’ve made multiple videos about books that we believe could have a positive impact on your life. Here are the recommendations:

If you’re not much of a reader, we would recommend you start with audiobooks. We find them incredible for filling in the time which otherwise would be wasted, like being stuck in traffic or going to the gym. If you go to alux.com/freebook and sign up you can choose 1 audiobook for free to get yourself moving in the right direction. We would recommend you start with Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, when we were super young, this book was a life-changer!

Number 11: They waste time
Because of the abundance of time they have, young people are careless about it.

So what do they do with it? They waste it or low level entertainment or doing nothing at all.

How many tv shows are you going to binge watch? How many fortnite games are you going to lose before you realize that you’re never getting that time back.
Companies build these products in order to be as addictive as possible while providing the smallest amount of value so that it takes you so much longer to get a sense of worth out of them.

Time will fly either way, but maybe you might want to switch your focus to some other things which will contribute to your existence.

Our best recommendation would be to go outside and interact with people, because these early communication skills will be a major advantage once you’re just a bit older. Not only you will be able to talk to girls or boys which is a big up, but you’ll be more comfortable in social situations.

In a world where people can no longer look you in the eye when talking, being sociable is a super-power!

Number 12: They fail to learn who they are or develop their own identity
We’ve met people who have no idea who they are despite being in their late 30s.

The world is set up right now in a way that it is easy to keep yourself busy without being useful for years on end.

At some point, you realize you have no idea who the hell you are, what you stand for, what you’re true belief are and next thing you know we see you on the internet boycotting for the sake of boycott or in one of those Change my Mind videos talking shit about genders.

If you’re feeling confused about these things, congrats, you’re in the best time of your life to explore, to learn and put together the person you want to be. Leave the biased at the door and explore both sides of the coin and then pick what you like from each side.

The world ain’t so black and white; and you don’t have to be either.

Number 13: They confuse being able to pay for something with being able to afford something
We really wanted to put this in, because we see more and more people buy things they can’t afford for the most stupid of reasons.

What most young people never accept is that money should be prioritized in order of the largest positive impact it can have on your life over the long-haul.

Being able to pay for something and affording it are very different things.

The most basic example we can give is buying the new iPhone or flagship device every year just so you can flex with the new model. The cost of the device is higher than the return you get from it, so you’re basically taking a loss here. When you’re income is low, making these kind of choices is a very bad call.

We even see them at the other end of the spectrum with celebrities who get a big check for a movie, buy the most expensive house on the market and 2 years later they can no longer afford to pay the mortgage for the place. Just because you have the money now, doesn’t mean you can afford something over its lifetime.

Number 14: They stay in unhealthy relationships or unhealthy in general
If the YOLO slogan was true and you only live once, why in the world would you put yourself in situations that eat yourself from within?

People get so caught up in the little things that they don’t realize the harm they are causing themselves and to those around them.

This includes being in toxic relationships with other or even with yourself. While you’re young you need to explore, learn, grow. The best way to do that is by making small mistakes and learning from them.

The problem is when people get themselves into bad situations and never leave. Early relationships can have long term effects so be careful of how much are you willing to put up with just for the romantic idea of it all.

Number 15: They spend money carelessly
Young people are dumb with money, that’s pretty much a given considering most money is given to them and not earned. The most important thing is that they are unable to save money, no matter the amount.

Here’s what we want you to do: No matter how little money you have, try saving 10% of it however you can. Piggybank, bank account, under the mattress. Just do it.

If your parents give you $50 for the week, put $5 aside.

This skill and this skill alone will make you RICH beyond your peers if you learn how to master it. Train yourself to do this will any amount of money and you’ll find that life is getting better and easier as you keep doing it.

If you want to learn more about which skills make the difference between the rich and poor, here’s your best option: