The Quick Win Trap: Why Youth Chase Fast Money

By Brandy Lesline

I watched my coursemate, once a promising undergraduate degree student, trade his future for a quick financial fix. He started small , selling things he should not have ,and justified it as temporary. Within eighteen months, he had a criminal record, lost job opportunities, and spent years dealing with legal consequences. His story is not unique. I have observed countless young people making similar calculations: immediate financial gain weighed against abstract future consequences. Almost always, the immediate wins. Understanding why requires looking beyond simple judgments of recklessness and examining the actual circumstances young people face today.

The appeal of fast money is deceptively logical when you understand the desperation behind it. Many youths face genuine financial pressure. Student loans loom before college even begins. Minimum wage jobs offer barely enough to cover basic expenses. Housing costs consume impossible percentages of income. Meanwhile, they watch influencers and celebrities flaunt wealth acquired through unclear means, making millions seem achievable. In this context, earning money through legitimate channels feels not just slow but practically impossible. A teenager working minimum wage earns perhaps 500 in a day. A quick scheme promising three hundred thousand shillings feels like salvation in comparison.

Social media amplifies this trap significantly. Young people are exposed constantly to images of wealth and material success. The algorithm rewards flashy displays of money and status. But there is a crucial gap: most young people do not see the actual process of legitimate wealth building. They do not see someone's five-year climb through positions, education investments, or careful saving. They see the end result, the luxury car, the designer clothes, the vacation , without the timeline. This distorted perception makes shortcuts feel not just appealing but normal.

There is also the matter of brain development and risk assessment. Neuroscience tells us that young brains, particularly before age twenty-five, do not fully process long-term consequences. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for evaluating risk and delay gratification, is still developing. This is not an excuse; it is simply how human neurology works. A young person's brain genuinely struggles to weigh future consequences against present gain. They can intellectually understand that crime has legal consequences, but emotionally and cognitively, the abstract future feels less real than the concrete present.

Economic inequality plays a massive role too. Young people from affluent backgrounds have safety nets , family money, parental support, educational opportunities. They can afford to take risks on legitimate ventures or to take time finding the right job. Young people without these resources face urgent, immediate needs. Choosing between legitimate options that do not cover expenses and illegitimate options that do becomes a choice between impossible alternatives. Moral judgment becomes easier to issue from a position of financial security.

The consequences arrive later, often when it is too late to change course. Criminal records destroy job prospects. Incarceration derails education and career development. Addiction, which often accompanies fast money schemes, creates long-term health and financial consequences. Violent involvement leaves psychological scars and physical risks. The young person who seemed to profit from shortcuts discovers that the real payment comes years later, compounded and exponential. By then, they are caught in cycles difficult to escape.

What frustrates me most is how preventable this tragedy feels. Young people often are not choosing shortcuts because they are inherently immoral or unintelligent. They are choosing them because the system has failed to provide realistic alternatives. A teenager facing genuine poverty sees legitimate work as insufficient and risky legal options as unavailable. Of course they are tempted by shortcuts. The wonder is not that some choose them; it is that any refuse.

Understanding why youth chase fast money does not mean excusing the behavior. Consequences are real and necessary. But addressing this pattern requires more than judgment. It requires acknowledging the economic desperation driving these decisions, creating genuine alternatives that actually meet financial needs, and rebuilding paths to success that do not demand either impossible virtue or illegal risk.

The quick win trap catches young people not because they lack intelligence but because they face circumstances where quick wins feel like survival.