Pressure, Timing, and Today’s Youth

In recent times, young people appear a lot more impatient than those before them — impatient with academic courses, with securing a job, and when they start a business or invest in a venture, impatient to have it grow and bear fruit. 

A myriad of factors have contributed to the unease we see today. Pressures have been building up over the years from immediate family, friends, and social media — probably the most dangerous of all. 

Today, many young people are faced with the pressure, or should I say the burden, of supporting their home. They are required to send money home as soon as they complete school — whether SHS or tertiary. Probably not their fault, or that of the family making these requests. 

Many low- to middle-income families have no financial buffers to cushion them when the need arises. As a result, in times of emergency, all hell breaks loose, and unbearable pressure is placed on the younger ones. 

A simple comparison of average rent prices in Accra against average salaries, transportation, and feeding costs reveals the financial pressure many people are living under. 

This worrying realisation begs the questions: 

1. How are people surviving? 

2. What happens when unforeseen financial pressures arrive? How many people can survive it? 

In my years of youth leadership and working with young people, I have come across so many who needed money for food, or fees, or medication, or accommodation, or transportation. Sometimes these people are working, sometimes in school, sometimes both, and mostly, unemployed. 

I know there is the temptation to say “they should manage,” but as someone who has suffered the brunt of extreme poverty — going days without a decent meal, if any at all; having been sent home from school for non-payment of fees; having had to sell meat pie in class illegally just to survive in school; lacking access to basic amenities like water and electricity for more than a decade — I can say with some semblance of authority that the issue is a bit more complex than merely “management.” 

Comparison, which I believe is a thief of joy, is sometimes the enemy fueling this pressure. Family, friends, and the media expose young people to peers living lives of luxury, which many times is not real.

Today, because of the internet, many young people are exposed to extravagant lifestyles. For instance, there is a young American who runs a multi-million-dollar company in the USA — a millionaire at 23. That is an amazing story, and an aspiration for many young people. But many times, while making such comparisons, people lose sight of critical factors such as environment, timing, personal attributes, and level of effort. 

While it’s nice to have such wealth and all, wealth, when chased outside of proper context, creates the mess we see in society: the fraud, theft, bribery, and compounding pressures, among others. 

To my young people reading this, there is a time for everything, as the good book puts it. 

Timing plays a key role in wealth, alongside the process. It is erroneous to compare results outside of a proper assessment of context and other key factors. 

Every story of greatness you have heard or read, no matter how many pages long, skips important nuances. And this is not about the people deliberately leaving those details out. No. The very fact that it is narrated makes it impossible to capture them fully. What do I mean? Every human being makes an average of 35,000 decisions in a day. Many of these we don’t remember even a second after, and some we trivialise, but which played a key role in achieving an end. 

If someone built a million-dollar company in, say, a year, that person made roughly 35,000 decisions over the course of 365 days, a journey no human being can correctly narrate, even if they wanted to. And this doesn’t include the timing, the risk factor, the leverage, and so on, that differentiates each and every person. 

This means that no matter how well they try, every single success story is diluted, and hence should not be followed blindly, but strategically. Listen to the story, use a bit of deductive and inductive reasoning to probe further and understand the context — the timing, the process, the leverage, the environment — before you decide to compare yourself to it or learn from it. 

It is also worth noting that if they had made one different decision out of those 35,000, the outcome you see today would probably not exist. 

With that in mind, you’d realise you haven’t been helping yourself one bit by comparing. You’ve been draining your personal energy, probably deviating from your core mandate and focusing on the wrong things, slowly amassing needless blood pressure and hurting your own physical and psychological wellbeing. 

So, is there a framework for success? Yes. 

But before you get ahead of yourself, it’s probably not the answer you expect. There’s no magic formula or 3-step approach to wealth or financial freedom. The simplest I have seen so far is by Steven Bartlett, in his book The Diary of a CEO, where he talks about the filling the “5 buckets” in the correct order. Even that has nuances that make it more complex and individually unique. 

So now, what is the way forward? 

Let me start with this statement: many Ghanaian families are suffering. The statement about people going day(s) without a decent meal is not a fairy tale, nor does it happen in some distant land, in some desert long ago. I dare say the statistics probably don’t even get it right! It is a very serious issue. 

People need help: efforts at economic inclusion need to be expanded, including relevant skills training, access to distribution networks, capital, and logistics support. 

And at a macro level, we need to work on our roads, network connectivity, security, and utility and energy supply. More door-to-door businesses are emerging, requiring transportation. Businesses need constant water and electricity supply to thrive. More remote jobs are emerging, so network connectivity needs to be improved. These are government, international bodies, and civil society roles. 

For the young people reading this: every beautiful thing you see has a foundation, whether it is a tree, a business, or a house. The foundation comes first, and it is mostly hidden: the hours of work and the setbacks that build and refine the vision that finally becomes visible. 

I want to encourage you to put in the work, the sleepless nights, knock on the doors of opportunity, build yourself, build your skillset. No one will see it at the start. No one will applaud you. Some will criticise you, mock you, and ignore you. If you wanted a formula for success, that’s it: the rejection, the disbelief in you, the hard work with no applause. That’s the formula. It works. It’s not glamorous. But it always leads to an end more beautiful than what was expected. 

If you previously lived under the pressure of the age-mates you see online, or the family pressure you receive each day, I hope you understand now that the circumstances are entirely different, and that you do not have to live to anyone else’s expectations. 

For those currently going through genuine hardship, my heart is with you. 

Life is unfair, but that is how it is. What you need to do is find something that works and give it your best shot: a skill, a trade, a business, a course. Find something and pursue it. Get help. Get mentorship – not from a celebrity, but from the shop owner in your neighbourhood, from the friend who is always posting online, from the religious leader who speaks with wisdom, from the many good books written about business and success. 

Dream big, regardless of your bank account or circumstances, but start from where you are, and with what you have. Never give up. 

The future is bright. 

About the Author 

Isaac Game Mawulorm is a Ghanaian digital growth strategist, writer, public speaker, and youth development advocate. He is the founder of Young Champions Global Network, an initiative dedicated to empowering young people through mentorship, leadership development, and impactful conversations. His writing explores personal growth, entrepreneurship, digital transformation, career success, and the everyday challenges facing today’s youth. 

Email: imawulorm@gmail.com