I wrote this about a year ago on this thread https://www.nairaland.com/6716367/how-does-young-teenager-figure#105104589 But I think more young people have to see this. Please don't joke with your youth.

At 20, you have the wealth of time. To tell you how important time is, will you prefer to be a billionaire at 90 years old, or just average at 20? Well, I'm sure you'll pick average at 20. That's how important time is. If you learn a skill and start a business with it, in even five years time, if you're good, you'll be set for life. The formula of wasting your 20's studying some useless course just to be in school, measure shoulders with friends, and indulging in hedonism is a recipe for failure. Sadly most youth follow this path. Is it not proof enough that most graduates are unemployed, underemployed, and wrongly employed? And even those with good jobs self are paid lower?

Forget about the university, that's assuming you have finished secondary school. Studying in Nigeria is to prepare for the past, for sure not the present, and definitely not the future. If you must study, look for an online university in the west, and get your degree there. Also, start a business. If you start a business today at 20, when you're 30, your business is 10 years old, and would have grown so much to set you for life. Then your 30's would means you're an eligible suitor, and you'll enjoy the attention women enjoy right from young.

And on business, the skills that most people look down on can give you billions. The differences between KFC and Aboki chicken is marketing, packaging, structure, expansion, modernization, and other know-how to grow a business. Also garment making, you can keep improving yourself, follow market trends about what's on reign, register your business, professionalize it, expand, and you can actually be as big as Nike. The mind is your limit, not the sky. Search for grass field on Instagram, the two Cameroonian sisters built a multi-million dollar company selling African clothes online. Same clothes that lots of talented tailors just restrict themselves to small shops. Same with Gymshark wears, "dollars having club" and many more.

your 30's would be a phase of a committed relationship, kids, and being responsible. You don't want to be in your 30s and broke, and then you're too big and egoistic to start low, and the financial burdens from parents begin piling up. You can be forgiving in your 20's if you can't deliver, but not in your 30's. So when you voluntarily go handle life's impending responsibilities before it comes knocking, you'll be stronger and equipped to win, but if the responsibilities come knocking on your door when you're not ready (eg you're 30 feelings ashamed, and start looking for a job and a wife), life would be hell.

20s are the age of trial and error, you have time, and please don't waste it partying. It goes so fast. Suffer now and enjoy later. The truth every wealthy person know is that life is a race against time. Your opponent is not the economy, government, or friends, but with time. So start running early, so by 30, it's easier to reach the goal post from the middle, instead of from the starting point. Time is the most important currency in the world. Talk to lots of old people, and they will tell you this. Don't wait until you're old to find out, use your youth and start building.

I see many of my age mate (I am in my early 30's) and feel sorry for them. Many of them wasted it doing rubbish, spending it studying some useless course, without understanding the age we are in. They operated in the template of the past, that their parent operated in without the consciousness to see that times has changed. All my 20's were spent hustling, meanwhile, in the '20s, many think they are young and have time. When you're 20 years old, 30 seems far. But when you're 30, 35 seems closer, and then you'll have a bigger responsibility in your hand, and you must deliver, or else? Hmmm.

When you're in your 20's, you can be stupid, and people won't be disgusted by you. You're a potential, you can be anything, and will easily be forgiving, but it's not the same in your 30's. In your 30's the question is, "what are you doing", not, "what do you want to be"?. Girls would also be disgusted by you if your life is not put together and you'll have low self-esteem, and for the right reason because there is nothing virtous about an old infant. People will disrespect you and if you're not a strong person in spirit, it's just a one way road to hell from there.

You can argue that hell is an afterlife thing, but i can tell you for free that hell is also here on earth. There are people living in hell, and you'll know because they'll be so ashame to look at your eyeball, because they don't want you to see the hell they are in. And in many case, those in hell are usually older people that wasted time they can't recover, but when they learnt that lesson, it's just too late. I repeat, time is your opponent, and don't waste it. For that's the true meaning of "make hay, while the sun shine".

But preferably, I would advise learning a skill. Even me that went to university, I haven't seen my certificate for years, I just pack am one side. My skills business that I started in my 20's feed me, I can't be sacked. So learn a skill and start a business with it. Tailoring, shoemaking, car repair, IT etc.

Nice Piece Of Advice.

I Read This 3 Months Ago Though, Reading It Again Won't Be Bad.

Furthermore, start seeing life as a race that everyone must cover. So as an analogy, all of us must run a 100km distance marathon, and those that started running earlier enough will go further even if they walk.

Now imagine that you and I have three weeks to run to Abuja from Lagos. I started running from day one while you started two weeks late. Even if I walk the whole three weeks, I'll reach Abuja before you simply because I have started earlier, and even if I miss the road, I can still correct myself. Time, not just health, is also wealth.

Your years on this earth is the time you have to reach the finish line, the earlier you start to run, the better for you. So you must understand wealth not as a tangible thing only (e.g. money), but also as an intangible thing such as time (being young), health, freedom (not in jail), autonomy (not a slave to anyone or a debtor), hope (time to achieve what you set for yourself).

I asked my dad a few years ago how it feels to be old, and his answer shocked me. He said, "you'll know that you're old when you have more regrets than hope". At seventy, no matter how motivated, disciplined and consistent you are, it doesn't matter because you have no time on earth. If you have a child then, you'll have less time to watch them grow and be a granddad.

When you're seventy, you can't do most things you'll want to do, no matter how wealthy you are. You can't be an athlete, go back to school, or train hard for something that takes time (e.g. competitive sports). It's hard to build your business then, and you just watch as people you know in your age range die one after the other.

It saddens me to see that the university which should be a place where youth sharpens their resolve to be formidable and competent as they navigate the world, has been a breeding ground for prostitution, cultism, play, and fun at the expense of their future and the society at large. School now is a place that produces the opposite of what it stands for.

I'm writing this to point out to you how important your youth is, and not to waste it, or not count your blessings because you think you're not materially rich. Don't ignore the blessings you have for one you don't have. It's how you lose. So my guy, I'm writing from a place of love. I wish you well.

Nice one

Well written sir, it's quite inspiring.
This reminds me of this theory about what happens when people fail to utilize their great ideas and potentials when they were still young and vibrant until they become older on their deathbed and became reminded about those unused potentials, I'm sure they'll die of regrets

Maxxim:
Well written sir, it's quite inspiring.
This reminds me of this theory about what happens when people fail to utilize their great ideas and potentials when they were still young and vibrant until they become older on their deathbed and became reminded about those unused potentials, I'm sure they'll die of regrets

it's worse when one doesn't know the value he has (youth) because he has always had it since birth. You usually don't appreciate what you have until you loose it. And where the tragedy lies is that unlike cash, its irrecoverable. Its gone.

Furthermore, all the steps one didn't take earlier on will suddenly come home to roost, slowing him down from transitioning into the next phase of his life. For example If he doesnt have money due to lack of education, it would delay his plans for marriage.

And it compounds. Parents are getting older, and he is no self-sufficient, talk more of subsisting someone else. One of the noble gift everyone owe their parent is the gift of freedom. You must make them free from taking care of you, and even better, to take care of them if need be.

Its a tragedy to watch parents grow old with the fear that they won't live their old age with dignity, to rest, and be released from the hustle and tussle of raising a child because they wasted time and resource raising unproductive child.

These advice are all good but the Nigerian factor is still a huge stumbling block.

It's like a genetic defect.

pansophist:


it's worse when one doesn't know the value he has (youth) because he has always had it since birth. You usually don't appreciate what you have until you loose it. And where the tragedy lies is that unlike cash, its irrecoverable. Its gone.

Furthermore, all the steps one didn't take earlier on will suddenly come home to roost, slowing him down from transitioning into the next phase of his life. For example If he doesnt have money due to lack of education, it would delay his plans for marriage.

And it compounds. Parents are getting older, and he is no self-sufficient, talk more of subsisting someone else. One of the noble gift everyone owe their parent is the gift of freedom. You must make them free from taking care of you, and even better, to take care of them if need be.

Its a tragedy to watch parents grow old with the fear that they won't live their old age with dignity, to rest, and be released from the hustle and tussle of raising a child because they wasted time and resource raising unproductive child.

Absolute facts sir.
My hope is for we on this self development path to finally make it somedays even as there's been a lotta of constraints due to unfavourable environment we've met ourselves.
Thanks for your contents, I find them really helpful.

I feel you need to make a different thread for Nigerians by virtue of being born in Nigeria or Africa, life is already leading you 4 - 0. Its like being placed to start in a race where others are already at the finish line.

tensazangetsu20:
I feel you need to make a different thread for Nigerians by virtue of being born in Nigeria or Africa, life is already leading you 4 - 0. Its like being placed to start in a race where others are already at the finish line.

Bro, calm down with the pessimism na

The5DME:
Bro, calm down with the pessimism na

He's not lying. We are Nigerian living in Nigeria, we know where the shoe pinches.

You can't make more than $50 transaction per day till tomorrow.
A dollar is N700 now.
And lots more.

Being a Nigerian is like being stuck in traffic in front of your house but you can't get home because you're on the other side of the road.

Your dream will remain a dream even if you work your ass off.

CaveAdullam:
1. How far you will go in life is dependent on a melange of factors y'all don't seem to consider, take note of or blatantly choose to be oblivious.

2. Everyone just wants to think and grow rich, become a richer dad, and think big with some power of positive thinking. Alongside, determination, endurance, persistency, consistency, zealouness, and medium to long-term insomnia in the pursuit of your big dreams.
Wait. All these are vital in the race to success, they must be included in your toolbox. But some factors are the true determinant of success, and if these factors don't play in your favor, you may not win in the race of life - many don't win, and it is not their fault.

3. We have been blinded and romance by the survivorship bias: we see the few successful people and don't care about the majority that tried and failed. We always see the exceptions and do think we are the exceptions - those majority had the same thought too.

4. The most important factors:

A. Your country of birth.

B. Your genetics.

C. Your biology.

D. Your family background.

E. Your place of residence.

F. State of politics in your place of residence.

G. State of economics in your place of residence.

H. The information you are allowed to access.

I. The information you are not allowed to access.

J. The zeitgeist of your place of residence.

K. The legislature of your place of residence.

L. Your place of residence and foreign politics.

M. The existing religions circulating your place of residence.

O. Time and chance.

P. actions and behaviors of people.

Q. State of affair in your place of residence. Are there infrastructures? What about basic human necessities?

R. Luck (the most underrated of all).

5. As a teenager, where do you find yourself in reference to 4 above? Are you at an advantage or disadvantage? You must ask yourself these questions because suffering is imminent regardless of the path you choose to follow. And if any or all don't fall in your favor, you will struggle hard. I mean "extremely" hard.

Take for example: by birth, princes and princesses born into a Saudi monarchy family already have a sweet position in the affairs of life. Same with those born with golden and silver spoons.

6. Possibly there is hope. And that hope is that we don't want to be classified among the majority at the bottom. We must thrive. Refer to the 3 above.

7. The teenager must:

A. Learn how to think in order, read, write and speak.

B. Be able to express himself calmly and confidently.

C. Must see his name as a brand and must build it to have a reputation.

D. Must show respect for people. But first, must learn how to understand human behaviors and actions.

E. Must be humble but deadly. He must not allow himself to consistently fall prey to predators and manipulators.

F. Must be conservative even in hedonism. Pleasure is good for the body but will destroy the soul. (Not in the religious sense though).

G. He must learn how to calibrate his time based on his productive activities.

H. He must subject himself to learning. And must be willing to learn from all corners: light, dark, big, small, joyful, and sorrowful.

I. Learn sales and marketing.

J. If chance, and has the IQ and or patience to study in a higher academic institution, he must only consider the STEM field. Other courses of interest can be studied in the library. No need to waste time and money.

K. Surround himself with people better than him. Or in the spirit - the library.

L. Must sought for truth and information in all corners.

M. Must be willing to embrace suffering and gain from all his experiences and interactions.

N. Must endeavor to work and earn for himself no matter how little or demeaning. It is a process.

O. Must not be overwhelmed by ego. He mu, st protect is not let it ruin him.

P. Must be flexible and versatile, especially in the right direction.

8. If he can get a mentor, that's fine. If not, he must hold himself accountable and put all that he has learned into practice.

With his toolbox complete and with the hope that time and chance will favor him, that he will be lucky before he breaths his last, he will come out successful at the finish line.

Thanks.

1. The best any man can truly do for himself is to work out the best for himself. He must be able to build himself in all ramifications.

2. Nobody has control of tomorrow, we fail to understand this, hence, we fall into depression when we encounter chaos.

3. Life will never go as planned. Know this and know peace.

4. Circumstances can be favorable to you or unfavorable to you. Time and chance happen to them all. It is not your fault in as much as you know you are on the right track.

5. Be strategic. Lay good plans. But don't think you will always win.

6. Deal with people that are as competent as you or even better. It reduces the risk of mingling with the wrong people who may not guide you to your success.

7. Treat people right. The layman is as important as your best friend. The universe is mad, help can come from anywhere. Be compassionate enough to discipline the arrogant and stupid.

8. Love and treat yourself right.

9. On the right track, after doing the necessary things that need to be done, you will become successful. But should in case you don't, know this my friend: You tried!

Thanks.

Karleb:


He's not lying. We are Nigerian living in Nigeria, we know where the shoe pinches.

You can't make more than $50 transaction per day till tomorrow.
A dollar is N700 now.
And lots more.

Being a Nigerian is like being stuck in traffic in front of your house but you can't get home because you're on the other side of the road.

Your dream will remain a dream even if you work your ass off.

Even if you manage to get a remote job, to receive payment is mental gymnastics. I remember how we struggled to get paid at my company after all previous options we used were blocked. Had to settle for crypto eventually. I would absolutely never open a dorm account in Nigeria because I Know the Nigerian government is going for those soon. People think their dorm account monies are safe whereas the government has less than 500k USD in cash lol.

The5DME:
Bro, calm down with the pessimism na

It's not pessimism, it's the truth. We are all not born equal. A child born in Sweden will have a good life life by the virtue of his citizenship to someone born in Nigeria. I have two nationalities, and the difference between the two is like day and night.

For example me and a Ghanian friend wanted to visit Dublin for work one time, but the Irish embassy denied him a visa even if he has a permanent resident here and earns well. Meanwhile, I don't need a visa and only need to just buy plane ticket.

He missed that opportunity even if he did nothing wrong but to be born Ghanian, and same applies to Nigeria. If you're in your twenties, your national anthem should be japa by Naira Marley. Let the nationalistic ones save Nigeria. As for you a patriot, JAPA.

Pansophist. You are wise. I enjoy it when you write. I go through your posts. They are therapeutic. Well done.

RenerdLiam:


That is why you have an advantage.

The west are a nation to be proud of because they have harsher condition. While Africa has it more easily. I refer to pre-civilization.

That is why we are relaxed.

That is why we are not wise and those that have gone through much turbulence, overcame it and learn from it use that wisdom against us. The west colonize us cause they had it rough, sail through the rough, learn from it and use it to their advantage.

The harsh condition they are naturally inclined to makes them tough and resilient.

You should make the most of the opportunity you have as a Nigerian.

I am an example.

I am very tough and resilient because right from kid. I have faced opposition. And I have wade through them - Alone.

Lol story

ashewoboy:
Pansophist. You are wise. I enjoy it when you write. I go through your posts. They are therapeutic. Well done.

Thanks my guy. But why your username na? E no make you look like person wey serious lol. Sha give your life to Jesus

RenerdLiam:


That is why you have an advantage.

The west are a nation to be proud of because they have harsher condition. While Africa has it more easily. I refer to pre-civilization.

That is why we are relaxed.

That is why we are not wise and those that have gone through much turbulence, overcame it and learn from it use that wisdom against us. The west colonize us cause they had it rough, sail through the rough, learn from it and use it to their advantage.

The harsh condition they are naturally inclined to makes them tough and resilient.

You should make the most of the opportunity you have as a Nigerian.

I am an example.

I am very tough and resilient because right from kid. I have faced opposition. And I have wade through them - Alone.

This is true, and there are lots of examples to support it. I'll list a few.

For example, the Nigerian communities in the west especially the US are known as the most educated and amongst the wealthiest groups, but this data glossed over one important part, and it is that the Nigerians in question are first generation immigrants.

Those ones that are called "fresh off the boat", or "booty scratchers" lol. These sets were hungry for success, calling up all the strength in them since they are faced with impending challenges such as permanent legal residency, finances, integration, establishment and so forth.

But after they've overcome these hurdles and started having kids who didn't face such challenges, their kids who are privileged just became regular Americans without the drive, hunger for success and ambitions their precedents had.

Furthermore, your point is supported by the widely recognised book that explains the states of most regions in the world titled "Gun, Germ and Steel" by Jared Diamond. The author posits that geographical realities are the basis for the evolution of human societies. The more deprived the societies are, the more likely they will be successful since they won't rely on nature, but on their ingenuity to thrive.

And if you observe our world today, this is self-evident. The global north is the most developed (Europe, North America aka the west), while the global south is not ( aka Africa, South America) . You can literally eat an orange and throw the seed on the floor, come back in a year and you have an orange tree in many places in the global south.

The warm weather, abundance of resources necessary to thrive, and relatively low population (pre 1900s) made it unnecessary for exploration in the global south, which made us content and coexist with nature. Also you'll observe that Europeans enslaved Africans in plantations such as Brazil, then ship all the produce to Europe. The South is naturally rich, simple.

This is not the same for Europe. In winter for example, the weather will kill you if you do not have shelter. Lots of homeless people are frozen to death during the peak of winter and it's not news. You may be broke in Europe for example, but you can hardly be homeless. Homeless shelter are everywhere for you to crash.

When I just arrived in Europe during my first semester, the warning our uni gave to international students back then was to not get too drunk and can't find our way back home after clubbing, because we can literally die, no capping. When you're drunk, it's like Anastasia, you don't feel the cold until you die.

In the dead of winter, nothing grows. Supermarkets in Europe are filled with foods from all parts of the global south. Bananas, pineapples, and coconuts are all imported. It's why the eu has almost no taxes on foods coming from Africa, and the few areas they invest heavily on, so we can export to them.

Another example would be the docility of a tiger in captivity to the one in the wild. The wild tiger usually is smarter, agile, cunning and brutal, just because his life is on the line. He has to be that way to survive, he has no choice. It also explains why nomadic groups are far more brutal (Eg the Fulanis) than others.

So yes, I actually agree with you. If Africa wants to get it right, we simply can not ignore the realities of geographical limitation, and build from there.

Maxxim:

Absolute facts sir.
My hope is for we on this self development path to finally make it somedays even as there's been a lotta of constraints due to unfavourable environment we've met ourselves.
Thanks for your contents, I find them really helpful.

This is sad for me to say, and the political elites knows this well, but I'll say it anyways.

The realities of most African countries right now is not an happenstance, but something that have been carefully engineered centuries ago by the west. We exist in the world they created for us, and we are exactly where they want us to be.

In this imposed world they created, our best time would be in the past, not the future. The best time of your country will be in the memories of your parents, and if you think that you're having a bad time, then the upcoming generation will have it worse.

Africa as a whole never got independence in the truest sense of the word, what we called "independence" is nothing but the transition of a dying method of exploitation (colonialism), to a more sophisticated, effective, self-sustaining method of subjugation (imperialism). Nothing more.

You can't call yourself independent when your official language, political system, monetary policy, culture, educational system has been heavily designed and photocopied from people that destroyed you in the first place. You're not independent when your strength comes from others/outside, not inside, from you.

The day any African country can survive just like Russia and China who has been sanctioned to death by the west who seems themselves as earthly god, on that very day, we have achieved independence. The day we can lock our borders and not get anything from west through importation (autarky) and still stands, just like Russia, is when we have achieved true independence.

Most country except maybe six globally grew outside the western hegemonic order, hence no matter what the west does to them, they simply cannot go down, and they are hated for that.

Your politicians knows this very dark fact, I also assume they are hopeless in it, and just choose to embezzle instead. Foreign powers way stronger than regional and national powers pull the strings from a global level. Africa has never had a leader in the league of Stalin or Mao, all we have are rulers. Foolish rulers that don't know what leadership and true independence is.

Sorry for being the carrier of bad news, but unless a slave knows that he is a slave, he will never plot his freedom. Africa must undergo another series of true independence and flush off cesspit democracy once and for all, because no third world country will ever grow under such system. It was not designed to.

Right now, the youth that should fight the system and rescue themselves from this imposed slavery their parents couldn't destroy are all on social media trying to gain followers lol, addicted to porn and gambling, chronic womanisers, alcoholic and ashawos lol. But still, I recognised the system stacked against them, making them survive in such a humiliating way. Na person wey chop belleful de fight for freedom.

If you want to truly swallow the redpill, then this is it. In a nutshell, you're surviving (not thriving) in a system created for you by the west. Like a zoo lion, you're merely a sentient for exploitation, and you do not control the realities of your existence.

RenerdLiam:


Honestly.

Everything you listed here is an advantage.

I am a victim too. I lost some job source cause of payment method.

But the pain I experienced from that. It cannot be easily forgotten. And if I had the opportunity. It will be a fuel to drive me to make a change.

Others benefit from my innovation.

I gain profit also.

You see, these are all advantage.

But you need to be selfless to see through them..

An apprentice cannot afford to buy equipment after freedom because the price is x3 of what it used to be.

How is that an advantage?

tensazangetsu20:
I feel you need to make a different thread for Nigerians by virtue of being born in Nigeria or Africa, life is already leading you 4 - 0. Its like being placed to start in a race where others are already at the finish line.

Hmmmmmmmm

Karleb:


He's not lying. We are Nigerian living in Nigeria, we know where the shoe pinches.

You can't make more than $50 transaction per day till tomorrow.
A dollar is N700 now.
And lots more.

Being a Nigerian is like being stuck in traffic in front of your house but you can't get home because you're on the other side of the road.

Your dream will remain a dream even if you work your ass off.

Jesuuuuuuuuu

pansophist:


It's not pessimism, it's the truth. We are all not born equal. A child born in Sweden will have a good life life by the virtue of his citizenship to someone born in Nigeria. I have two nationalities, and the difference between the two is like day and night.

For example me and a Ghanian friend wanted to visit Dublin for work one time, but the Irish embassy denied him a visa even if he has a permanent resident here and earns well. Meanwhile, I don't need a visa and only need to just buy plane ticket.

He missed that opportunity even if he did nothing wrong but to be born Ghanian, and same applies to Nigeria. If you're in your twenties, your national anthem should be japa by Naira Marley. Let the patriotic ones save Nigeria. Run

Na unpatriotic bastards like you and I full Nigeria

RenerdLiam:



Trust me.


There is always a way if you think outta the box.


I am talking purely from what I have gone through.

Although, I also understand that everyone can't be me.

So, I am not pressing too hard on my point.

But if you can think outside the box once every road is blocked due to where you find yourself.

There is every possible chance of innovation and success beyond the norm.

Baba, in spite of the harshness of Nigeria, some have it easier. Those are the privileged but its unfair and insensitive not to acknowledge the pain and struggle of others.

Take for instance, a certain CEO of Patricia is a 26 year old millionaire in dollars, he can come up to say that others are lazy or are not making enough use of opportunities if he so wishes but for every one of success like his, there are at least 500, 000 failures. People who tried and still failed anyways.

How many under 30 millionaires do we have in Nigeria, compared to close to 2 million in US.


I remember talking to a lady here who claimed she could have saved a lot during her NYSC if she wished but when I asked her some certain questions, I got to know she was being taken care of by other people.

For a lot of Nigerian, there is no way! Na to just suffer till death comes and the number of such Nigerians are increasing daily.

Azurevermillion:
Na unpatriotic bastards like you and I full Nigeria

Quite the opposite. I'm very patriotic, what I meant to write was "let the nationalistic ones save Nigeria". I've redacted it to reflect this point.

Leaving a country you are patriotic towards doesn't mean you don't like or want the best for it, but a well known strategy of "surviving first, then fight later". You can't be hungry and hopeless in Nigeria while refusing to leave because you're patriotic. That's stupidity.

This reminds me of the 18th century invasion of Russia by France. The French military led by Napoleon were undefeatable then, and the French envied the vast landmass of Russia, longing for the defeat of the Russian empire and to occupy their land with all the resources buried underneath.

The Russians being very patriotic devised an ingenious method, which is, they allowed the French army to advance deep into the interior of Russia which took them months, even into their capital Moscow. The Russians even burnt their capital and looted it, and when the French arrived, they were shocked. Like what is happening?

Then the Russians attacked. If you know anything about Russia, you'll see that they are known for two things. Landmass and winter, which the Russians used to their advantage.

For example if Ghanian army wanted to attack Nigeria through the Lagos seme border, it's easier to defeat them when you allow them march deep into the interior of Nigeria, then fight them maybe in North, in state like Maiduguri, the opposite end of Lagos.

This strategy is deadly because supplies and food become difficult and longer for the invading army to access, their morale weakened, and of course it's difficult to go back home for the invading army, and in the case of Russia, the dead freezing cold of the arctic was an advantage.

In a nutshell, the Russians defeated the French army, and with for roughly every five soldiers that made it to Russia, only one returned alive. Over a century later, Hitler attempted the same thing snd met the same fate of defeat.

So if the Russians can destroy a global capital city such as Moscow, so they can strategize and return with a more deadly ambush, then on an individual level, patriotism would be to leave and support the nation either through cash (eg when you send money to your loved ones, build your house, open a business etc), you're good to go.

The opposite will be nationalism, which in my book is toxic and stupid. Like those northerners than blow up their countrymen for some stupid ideology, or that no matter how bad the country degenerates into, they see leaving as betrayal and unpatriotic. That's stupidity, not patriotism.

So my dear comrade, japa first, save yourself, remove the speck in your eyes, see clearly and thrive, then determine how you want to support or help the country. That's true patriotism.