Two concepts that I feel should be better understood are causation and correlation.
Causation is where an action causes the outcome or the secondary state.
Correlation is where there is a relationship between the first state and the second state.
The problem comes in when there is a correlation and it is taken as causation.
There is a correlation between the type of car a person drives and their wealth. The nicer the vehicle the more likely they are to be wealthy. This is a correlation. When you make the correlation into causation you start to say that if I buy an expensive vehicle then I will become wealthy. There is no causation between the vehicle and becoming wealthy so this is an incorrect way of thinking.
Always check your thinking to make sure you are not assuming causation due to correlation.