Say it out loud until you really hear it! Nobody owes you their attention! Nobody owes you a job! Nobody owes you a pay rise! Nobody owes you a car! Nobody owes you any allowance! Nobody owes you a seat at the strategic table! Nobody owes you an opportunity! Stop waiting for someone to hand you an opportunity; stop waiting for hand-outs. Nobody owes you anything, get use to it!

Steven Furtick said: “Gratitude begins where my sense of entitlement ends.” The poor man has a misguided and false sense of entitlement. They believe they don’t need to show gratitude because they feel they are entitled to what they are receiving. Rich people have a strong sense of gratitude while the poor have a strong sense of entitlement and therefore, take so many things for granted. When you lose your sense of entitlement, you will find more reasons to be grateful.

You’re not entitled to any success at all. Success has to be earned through hard work, tenacity, and focus. There’s simply no other way. Nobody owes you anything. If you want it, earn it. Entitlement mentality causes people to focus more on what they can get rather than what they can give. It is a recipe for recurring frustration and failure.

We operate at a high level of responsibility when we constantly remind ourselves that nobody owes us anything in life. The worst form of mentality to carry around is ‘Entitlement mentality’. Next to it is ‘Victim’s mentality’. Entitlement and victim mentality have eroded the mental capacity of the African youths to think responsibly and take ownership of their lives.

People with entitlement and victim’s mentality always believe that the world owes them something. Both forms of mentalities have a crippling effect on your future. All you will ever get from life are the things that you demand from it; no one will give you what you deserve. You are the only one that can create the life that you want. It is a loss of total control to hold others responsible for the situation in your own life.

A victim mind-set causes people to focus more on what they cannot control to the detriment of what they can control. It is a recipe for recurring frustration and failure. Nobody must be the reason why you fail in life. The rich see themselves as the ‘solution’ while the poor see themselves as victims.

The truth is that where you are in life is your fault; you created the reality you are experiencing. People with victim mentality always believe that their problems are not their fault and always see themselves as victims of life’s situations. They believe strongly that someone, something or a government is responsible for their predicament. They are not capable of being honest with themselves and accepting responsibility for their lives. They always arouse self-pity coupled with an insatiable appetite for entitlement. They are unable to see how their own steps, actions, inactions and negligence have brought them to where they are presently. It is victim mentality to hold others responsible for the situation in your own life.

The rich hold themselves responsible for their success or failure in life. When we are hooked on excessive need for validation and attention from others, it diminishes the self-awareness of our true ability.

The worst thing that can happen to you as a young person is to refuse to grow up. You refuse to grow up when you believe that someone else must take responsibility for your life and life circumstances.

John Wooden said: “You can make mistakes, but you aren’t a failure until you start blaming others for those mistakes”. The world has nothing to offer to people that see themselves as victims. Learn to take responsibility and ownership of your future.

Albert Einstein said: “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” The earlier we realise that no one owes us anything, the better for us, and the more prepared we would be to face life’s challenges. Entitlement and victim mentality are the main reasons why many people are poor, unsuccessful, irresponsible and ungrateful. Rich people have a strong sense of gratitude while the poor have a strong sense of entitlement. Rich people have a strong sense of responsibility while the poor have a high measure of victim’s mentality

Hear this loud and clear: No one is coming to save you; you are your own rescue! The greatest threat to your destiny is the belief that someone else will save it. Barrack Obama once said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” You must take ownership of your future. You must stop acting in manners and ways in which people around you continue to see you as a liability or a beggar. You must stop believing in the illusion and delusion of an external elixir.

Take absolute responsibility for where you are presently and design a plan for where you want to be. Be intentional about the action steps you will need to take in getting to where you want to be in life. Instead of looking for anchors that are beyond your control, start taking actions. You are your own rescue! Nobody owes you anything and believing otherwise hurts you in a big way. Nobody owes you anything, but you owe yourself everything.