One day, my roommate and I went to charge our phones. It was in the evening, and we took this little girl with us.

As we walked on, we came across a boutique where clothes were displayed, and there was an adult sweater on a mannequin, very large.

The little girl was staring at the cloth. We asked her if she wanted it, and she said no way, that she could never wear it unless the clothes shrank to her size. She said it in Yoruba. I just laughed, but my roommate went on to correct her, ‘You are the one who is going to grow big enough to fit the clothes, silly girl, not that the cloth will become small.’

And that got me thinking. I realized a lot of people think like that; in fact, I used to think like that.

Especially young people, many misidentify laziness for faith. Everyone expects to be rich in the future, but very few of those people are thinking about HOW they are going to work towards it. They are waiting for the future to just happen because it's automatic, and they surely can't be poor.

But it doesn't work like that.

And sadly, this really applies more to young girls. They are already depending on the future husband they haven't even met yet. 'My husband will be rich, and we will not live in Nigeria; nannies will take care of my children. If a guy is not rich, I can't marry him.'

And many have turned their boyfriends into their personal money-making banks.

And what's worse is the entitlement mentality.

A lot of girls in Nigeria believe their boyfriends must provide for them. And not just normal help out when they don't have, but they believe their extravagant lifestyle must be sponsored.

And the young guys?

They're all looking for quick ways to make it.

And because of this irrational way of thinking, development is stunted in this country.

The world will not lower its standards for you. You are the one who is going to have to grow big enough to meet the requirements.

You won't suddenly succeed!

You are going to think and think and think again about what to learn apart from schoolwork. You must think about a career path, and most importantly, you need to think about how you are going to make a difference, an impact.

Someone always tells me, ‘Those who chase money might never have enough, but those who chase impact will never chase money; it will follow automatically.’

An average Nigerian is thinking about how to leave Nigeria, not how to make it better. No one is willing to work for the difference they want to see; rather, we are experts at complaining and blaming others.

We need to start thinking differently.

There is an average of 151 million youths in Nigeria. If we all started thinking towards growth and development happening through us, Nigeria will have 151 million forward-thinking, growth-inspired institutions in every single person."

We need to break the mold. Challenge the typical mindset of success among Nigerian youths.

Strive for Positive change and let them start from you.

©️ Deewriter