My mom was (and still is) a Jehovah’s Witness, so I was steeped in the soup of their beliefs as a kid. At the time, JWs were still sure that Armageddon was just around the corner (1975 was the date being bandied about when I was growing up), and that “millions now living will never die”. All of us believers would go through a period of terrible persecution (I was scared to death about this), but then God was going to make earth back into a paradise, minus the bad guys. Those who made it through all of this would live forever, smiling and playing with lions and such (lots of pictures to that effect).
People really built their lives around these expectations. I once screwed up my courage and asked my mom what if 1975 comes and goes, and nothing changes?. She refused to even entertain the possibility. A whole lot of JW kids of my generation were strongly discouraged from going to college, or even pursuing any kind of career, because what was the point?