Making mistakes is a part of life, and no one is immune to it. From the young to the old, everyone takes missteps and gets things wrong sometimes or the other.

However, certain mistakes are typical of the youth and can cost them dearly on their journey of success. These mistakes can become huge regrets, and you have to live through the pain for the rest of your life.

The great thing about mistakes is that if you’re careful, you can avoid many of them and make your life a smooth ride.

“Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.” —Phyllis Theroux

Here are six common mistakes young people make, and you can learn from them.

Mistake #1 Young people waste time in ‘get rich quick’ schemes

Everyone loves money, and all that comes with it. But it’s not easy to get there, not how it is projected by the get rich fast schemes.

Young people commonly fall for the quick ways and waste a ton of time and money chasing the elusive dream of finding a shortcut to become a billionaire.

Getting rich in itself is not a worthwhile dream in the first place; creating value and becoming a person of substance is.

However, if you’re hell-bent on earning the bucks, achieving that goalis possible, but there’s a method to it.

Broadly, you can follow either of the two paths: One: complete your education, excel in some field or area of expertise, and two: acquire a skill, and solve people’s problems.

“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” —Tony Hsieh

Mistake #2 Young people rush in to do things

One specific characteristic of youth is they are full of dreams. They want to do things, reach goals and enjoy everything right away.

However, when you do things impulsively, you’re liable to make mistakes and get them wrong.

Anything meaningful takes time to get done; you can’t hurry stuff. So whether you have a task to complete or a goal to accomplish, give yourself space to think through things, plan meticulously and see it from the broader perspective.

Many errors and slip-offs can be prevented if you practice patience and are mindful of what you do.

“Slow and steady wins the race, not the person who wants to climb the whole stairs in one stride.” —Michael Bassey

Mistake #3 Making life all about flaunting

Many young people want to draw attention and feel good by showing off what they have and bragging about the good life they are enjoying.

But in the desire of making others envious, they lose track of their life goals and get distracted. Their life becomes all about flaunting material things and impressing others.

Life is purposeful when you spend it chasing a worthwhile goal and making something meaningful of your life.

You will get tremendous satisfaction when you accomplish your goals, create value and build a legacy. So shift your focus from others to yourself, invest in personal development, and people are sure to notice your success.

“The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.” —Robert Hand

Mistake #4 Not valuing time

Time is valuable, and it’s impossible to recover the time lost. Most young people know it but still, waste their precious time doing meaningless things.

In today’s digital world, where too many distractions surround you from notifications, mail alerts, newsfeed, it’s already a struggle to keep up with your priorities and do productive work. On top of it, if you deliberately engage in endlessly surfing the internet without any intent or purpose or spend hours scrolling through social media, it’s a big mistake and can set you up for failure.

Understand and respect the value of time. Use it meaningfully to learn new things, acquire skills and increase your expertise so that you can empower, grow and build yourself up for success.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” —Harvey MacKay

Mistake #5 Giving up too soon

Success doesn’t come overnight or with the snapping of fingers. Achieving any goal takes time and effort. It requires you to practice self-discipline, work consistently and persevere.

You meet many difficulties and challenges en route your journey to success. If you lose patience and call it quits before giving your best, you’ll forego the chances of achieving what you set your eyes on and end up living a mediocre life.

To be successful, you have to train yourself to stay put in the face of problems and hardships. With commitment and dedication, it’s possible to find your way through the obstacles.

When it comes to achieving success, it’s not the person who runs the fastest but the one who keeps pushing and goes all the way who emerges victorious.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” —Thomas Edison

Mistake #6 Believing failure means it’s all over

There’s no surefire way to succeed; every path you take, goes through some kind of failure.

If you let failure take the best of you, you’ll never be able to bounce back and get on your feet again.

When you experience setbacks, instead of letting them shake your self-belief, focus on what went wrong and how you could have prevented it. Getting to the root cause helps you figure out what went wrong and enables you to take steps so that you don’t repeat the mistake.

Each time you encounter failure, learn from it, start with better preparation, and get into action again. Never let temporary roadblocks shake your confidence or doubt your ability to succeed.

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” —Vince Lombardi

In Conclusion

Mistakes teach you valuable lessons and make you wiser. However, if you allow yourself to make all the mistakes yourself, you’ll have a great deal of experience but will be at a stage of life where the lessons are not of any use.

Hence it’s essential to be aware of the common mistakes young people make and learn from them instead of burning your own fingers and learning the hard way.

Leveraging other people’s experience, bettering yourself, and changing your ways will give you a definite edge over others and go a long way in fast-tracking your success.

“We need to realize that our path to transformation is through our mistakes. We’re meant to make mistakes, recognize them, and move on to become unlimited.”—Yehuda Berg