University Advice: Overcoming Fear and Taking Responsibility for Success

Only knowledge keeps fear at bay. I imagine you're terrified, scared to death, and that's normal because you're

about to start a university process, a college path that some people put so much pressure on. I can imagine what

family is like, what expectations are like—both theirs and your own. So if this video reached you or you decided

to open it out of curiosity or whatever , this isn't a typical YouTube video where things are flying around and

suddenly a unicorn is going to pop up dancing; rather, what I'm going to try to do is talk to you, have a

conversation with you that I would have liked to have when I was in your shoes. I don't know if you know me, my name is

Franco Pisso, I'm a lawyer, I have a master's degree in public speaking, and above all, I'm a university professor.

I’ve been in the university system for over 10 years in different ways, in various roles, and if there's one thing

I've learned, it's that the training process the university provides is incredible, but it's often very

difficult. So I hope this talk helps you understand a little bit more and, at the same time, take away some advice

, especially because I'm sure—and this is the first truth, maybe a bit uncomfortable—that I have to tell you

there are a lot of people watching this who are going to be damn good professionals, spectacular, successful,

will have money, recognition, and who knows, maybe power. I don't know if the next president of Argentina is among us

here, for example. I also don't know if there is someone here who will invent a cure for a terminal disease. It is very

likely that there are people here who will do really, really well—truly well—especially because I am usually

followed by people who are seeking intellectual growth. So, the truth is that I trust in that. What I am sure of

is that many of those who are here are not going to graduate. It is a matter of statistics. There are many of you

here who will surely start the degree and end up dropping out. There are many of you here who will surely encounter

some difficulty, some adversity, and that will end up getting the best of you. And well, it's part of it, but

that's no reason to stop trying. And the first thing I want to tell you, or the first weight I want to lift off you

—just as I started this little chat we’re having—is that only knowledge drives away fear. I want to tell you

something. This is not the most important decision you will make in your life. Yes, today I know it seems

like it, it seems that way because it is the first big decision you have to make regarding your life all on your

own, but believe me, it is not the most important one. I can assure you, not just for myself, but because of the

amount of people I know, the number of highly successful people I know, that the most important decision you will

ever make is the partner who will accompany you. That is the most important one. This is far from being

the most important. I tell you this because, as I said before, I am a lawyer and I don’t practice law. I

was able to pivot, I was able to choose something else thanks to law. I was able to explore, to be curious, to

understand how a lot of other aspects work, thanks to the degree I chose to study. But there are a lot of people

who don’t necessarily study something that connects them to their passion, which is another thing we will

demystify later. Uh, you don’t have to love what you are doing, you don’t have to love everything you do all the

time. We will see that a little bit later on. So, the first thing I want to tell you is: relax. It is an important

decision, yes, obviously, of course, but it’s not the most important one. You will be able to make mistakes, you

will be able to mess up, but we will have to start working on the responsibility of taking charge of our

own decisions. Right now, you are making this decision. I hope it is yours. I really hope it is yours. If

it’s not, it’s also good for you to reconsider it. Why aren’t you choosing what you really want? But the

most important thing of all is that you really understand and assume the consequences of your own actions.

Because from now on, you have a blank page; it’s as if you have a little notebook where you will write down all

the things, all the behaviors, all the actions of your life, and that notebook will end up forging who you will be in

the future, because it is just that. Now, all those actions, all those decisions that you will go on to make,

will build your professional future. And this doesn’t mean you can’t make mistakes, huh? It’s not a big

deal. There are people who, many times, Or authors, for example, who take a long time to finish writing in a book

what they want to say on one page, who beat around the bush, who go off on tangents. That can happen to us, too.

It can happen to you. It happened to me as well. It's normal to fall behind, it's normal for things to go wrong. We

have to lighten that load, don't we? All that pressure to have everything go well for you. Life isn't like that. And

university, more so at an educational level, is the final stage before you have to face society. That's why there

is so much freedom in university. In university, I don't know if you're from a small town, if you had to move

somewhere else, if you're attending a public university or a private one. I don't know where you're going or what

you're doing, but any university will give you a lot, a lot, many blank pages , a lot of freedom, because now you

will be the one who has to determine and decide when you have to sit down to study. You won't have your parents,

grandparents, or guardians chasing you anymore because you didn't do your homework. Now, if you don't do it, the

one who loses out in the end is going to be you. That's what I mean by taking charge of the decisions we make. This

is a process, the final one in fact, of maturity, of adulthood, taking charge of the actions we ourselves are taking

and performing. Here we have to cast aside that magical thinking. I could allow it up until age 14, uh, 13, 12 in

some cases. No, you have to think positive and it will happen and it will come to be. That doesn't happen in

adult life. If you only think about wanting to pass your exams, if you only think about wanting to graduate, if you

dream about it with all your might, but you do nothing to achieve it, I'm sorry , but no, it won't happen. And that is

also good to understand. When we look at our degree and once we graduate, there is something beautiful that

happens, which is that you realize you were able to do it. Every time you see the degree, it can be useful for a lot

of things, uh, to get a better job, for you to be qualified to do something, for a lot of things. again. I don't

know what you're studying, I don't know what you chose, but what it will serve you for most is so that every time you

see it, you remember you did something that people don't do nowadays. People don't commit. People don't commit

long-term, and a degree, a university degree is exclusively a long-term commitment. I'm going to have to study

a curriculum where I don't know why they're teaching it that way, nor how or why it's happening, let alone

anything else, but I will have to commit to something long-term. And do you know what happens at the university

when we commit to something long-term? Everyone starts from the same place. And that is fantastic. I have had

students in their first year who were on scholarships and had no money. I taught at a private university and I've

had children of very important people as students, and they are all in the same place, sitting in the same place.

The same thing happens at public universities. Here it doesn't matter if your childhood was fantastic, fabulous,

or phenomenal, if you had everything you wanted, or if you had a bad, negative childhood with complicated

things. Here everyone is sitting in the same place. And I have seen many times how those who had everything can't even

, for example, handle failing a subject . So, everyone starts from the same place, of course, each with a different

background, each with a different story , and that story will carry over. I'm not talking about that. What I am

talking about is that everyone will have the same opportunity, or they should have it, but the college or

university is yours, it belongs to you, and it's good that you understand that. The college for the most part has great

professors, has great syllabi, has great—you're going to learn a ton. There are professors who are

spectacular, who will change your life, and there are professors who will make your life more complicated. And that's

how it is. And here an adult decision appears. What do we do with this? There's a professor who—well, look,

he makes it hard for me because I don't understand him when he speaks. Okay. What do we do? Do we complain? Or do we

do something else, or do we push ourselves harder? You have to redouble your studies, you have to redouble your

efforts when things get complicated, because that's also what university is about. Often, the best help you can

have is having no help at all. What costs you the most is often what teaches you the most. Whatever comes

easily to you, well, who knows, it's not as relevant, it doesn't end up being as transformative for you. This

is distinct. This is different. Another thing I want to tell you is that it would be good for you not to get into

any addiction. Well, don't get addicted to anything, to nothing, not to any narcotics, no drugs, not alcohol, not

gambling, not betting houses, not pornography, nor partying. I won't speak about fields I don't know, but I

will tell you that in the fields of science and knowledge, addicts are not the ones at the forefront. There are no

great masterminds in the realm of knowledge who are addicted to anything. Addiction is a loss of freedom, and

right now you are being free because you are studying, or should be studying , something you truly enjoy. So, don't

get hooked on things. Don't get hooked on external things that make you feel an immediate pleasure, because

precisely in this process you are aiming for a much more distant, sustained pleasure. You will see that

along the way micro-victories will appear that will make you feel good when you do well on an assignment. When

a professor says to you, "Hey, your work is very good, hey, I want to know a little more." Let's see, tell me

about it. You will meet incredible people and you will also meet people within the university who are of no use

at all. This whole process is yours and you will have to draw your own notebook with your own story. But what I want to

be clear now is that you should leave all addictions aside. Addictions lead you to a bad place, right? But you know

, prof, I know a person who is an addict and they did great. Well, that is also maturing, it is understanding

that exceptions are not generalities. I am telling you that, in general, people who study, people who commit, people

who put in the effort have better results. Understanding that we are not good at drawing statistics is, who

knows, also a sign of maturity. Look at this. If I, for example, tell you now that I am cutting this talk we are

having short and I have to go to Buenos Aires, I have to take the car and go to Buenos Aires. Obviously, if I drink 3

liters of wine and go 250 km per hour, do I have a chance of arriving in Buenos Aires, really? Yes, I have a

chance, but it is statistically less likely that I will arrive in Buenos Aires than if I don't drink wine and if

I go at the permitted speed. If I don't drink wine and go at the permitted speed, I have a much better chance of

arriving in Buenos Aires. That means that if I don't drink wine and go at the permitted speed, I will arrive in

Buenos Aires on time and in one piece. And maybe not, maybe something happens, maybe I get a flat tire, or worse, a

truck swerves from the other lane and ends up killing me. These are things that can happen, but they are less

likely. And a university degree has to be about probability. I mean, the more you ignore the statistics of, "Hey, if

I have an exam on Monday, it's a good idea to go out partying until 6 in the morning on Saturday." On Sunday, I

won't even be able to think. Is it a good idea to do it and get drunk and drink a ton? And statistically, it is

less likely that you will do well on an exam if you just drank a lot of alcohol or if you went to bed late over the

weekend. You have to learn to take care of yourself. And that will also be taught to you, whether you do it

consciously or whether you end up learning it the hard way. There is a phrase that I like a lot, which is that

university is like taking a shower. I mean, you have to be taking a shower every day so you don't smell bad. Well,

the same thing happens with university. You have to put in the effort every day for things to go well for you. That is

what I mean by statistics. And something happens that also happens with showering. You can push yourself

for the first three years consecutively , with a lot of grit, with a lot of strength, studying a ton, staying

focused, taking notes, paying attention , and everything, but if you stop doing it for a week, things get complicated.

The same thing happens if you shower every day for 3 years and then don't shower for a week, things get

complicated. And this is the first great step, the step of realizing that the effort must be continuous. And this

is an effort that will be difficult for you, especially if you are caught up in this social media whirlwind, right?

Because nowadays we are so obsessed with social media, everything is happening all the time, TikTok is

instant, everything is instant, and we get used to, we get wrongly accustomed to, never being bored. Do you want to

study a lot? Put your phone away. Make the pages in front of you, the knowledge you have to acquire, the most

fun thing you can do, that is within your reach. Get organized. What days will you study? When will you study?

What time will you study? Get organized . You don't know the difference that order makes for your mind. There are a

lot of things you can do regarding organization. Look into them, check them out, find them out. There is a

phrase I like a lot, which is that hard times create strong men. Men, not in the sense of gender. Eh, let's say

people. The phrase says, "Men, let's say people." Hard times create strong people. Strong people create easy times

, and easy times create weak people. Where are we today? I want to tell you something. Nothing has ever been as

easy as it is now. Times have never been as easy as they are now. And that carries a terrible risk: that the very

context we are in creates weak people. And by weak, I mean something I see a lot in college, people who get

frustrated at the first sign of trouble , at the first mistake, at the first frustration, they quit. Why? Because

now there is a crisis, a sort of motto that says you shouldn't have to suffer, right? If you suffer, then it's not the

right path. That's not how it works. If you don't suffer, if you don't have these ups and downs, these twists and

turns, if you don't have this complexity in achieving a result, you won't value it. I told you before, you

won't value it, and you have to learn to live that way. You have to learn to live with that pain and also with the

anguish that often comes from, for example, not choosing other things. It is very likely that you are feeling

that, "Hey, should I have chosen this career I chose, or should I have chosen another?" I don't know. But you know

what? You're not going to know either. Stop asking yourself that question. It is very likely that there is another

career that you would like more. It is very likely. You can't live like that. It is very likely because there are

many more careers than we can even imagine. Careers are being created all the time all over the world, and you're

going to have to investigate all of them, because then you won't do anything. It's the same as if every

time you left your house you were thinking, "No, but all the things that could happen to you," and you do

nothing. There is a moment, a specific moment when you have a measure of decision, you have to listen to it and

you have to keep supporting it because it is the only way we will also grow when we reach the barrier of knowledge

and push it further than where it is. Only knowledge drives away fear. You are going to encounter complicated

things. Yes. You will have horrible moments. In fact, your heart will be broken, maybe, maybe you fall in love,

maybe not, maybe you study a lot and there's a professor who was in a bad mood one day and failed you and that's

how it is and it will happen, eh, it will happen to you. It happened to all of us. When you doubt whether you can

or cannot, do an exercise that I did in college and that sometimes I still do to this day. Think and say, "Hey, if

that person could do it, why couldn't I ?""If that person who doesn't understand anything about life could do

it, why couldn't I?" That is the feeling you have to look for when you are studying at the university. There

is a philosopher I also love, but I really love, who calls it "brillo." Drive. It’s like that feeling of

saying, "Hey, if everyone is smoking weed, if everyone is getting drunk non-stop, if everyone is messing around

with betting sites." I am not everyone, I am different. I have something different. Because let's be honest, eh,

many times people make decisions based on what the majority does and the vast majority doesn't do interesting things,

nor good things, nor positive things. That's why the vast majority has no results. If everyone is engaging in a

behavior that you think is negative, do what you want. It is better that you have a future of progress, success,

fulfillment, and happiness rather than being part of a bunch of idiots. Yes, listen to me. There is a very

well-known Steve Jobs quote that says you have to be very, you have to be very good friends with the nerds

because it is very likely that you will end up working for one of them, says Steve Jobs. Be very careful with the

show-offs, right? Because here what you have to do is this and no, I don't study, I cheat. Be careful because

those people don't get anywhere. And you know what, if there is some exception that does make it, don't take

it as a rule. Don't make that mistake. Another thing I want you to think about and keep in mind is that you will get

sad at times, you will feel completely lost. It’s normal, but be careful with that concept of being lost, with

that concept of sadness. Don’t magnify it. Often, when we need a little attention, we unconsciously

start to magnify our feelings. And there is a huge difference, and I tell you this because I see it at the

university, between being sad or being depressed. Depression is serious; it’s not something to mess around

with. It is an illness. Yes, it must be treated. And if you are only sad, don’t say you are depressed. In fact,

I’m going to make a request. A teacher’s request. Look around you. If there is someone who is truly

depressed, a person who doesn't show up to class, a person who can't leave their room, a person who doesn't want

to do anything, that person might really be going through a hard time. And depression isn’t just, "well,

yeah, I don't know," no, no, depression is no joke, but sadness is an emotion, frustration is an emotion. You have to

learn to cope with it, not run away every time you encounter it. Because if not, if when faced with frustration or

sadness, the only thing you do is walk away, like the vast majority of people who never see results, the truth is

that you won't have results, because what truly matters appears after that emotion. It’s, what do you do with

that emotion? Are you frustrated? Do you have a creative block, for example, well, what do you do with that? Are you

going to push until you find it? Am I going to figure it out or not? If at some point you feel that, you push

through, you keep trying, you keep testing, you keep putting your head into it, you keep putting your heart

into the matter, you know you will gain confidence. Confidence that you can solve it. I believe there is nothing

better in university than learning that you can solve things. It doesn’t matter what, if you are going to be a

surgeon, an architect, an engineer, a lawyer, or an accountant, it doesn't matter, but have the confidence to say,

"Hey, I’ve overcome a ton of problems ." Honestly, every time something new appeared, I’d think, "I'll resolve it

somehow," because you trust yourself, and this is something you have to acquire for yourself. Nobody is going

to hand it to you, nobody is going to say, "Hey, look, here it is, you earned it." Nobody. The university is yours,

it belongs to you, and I’ll add a caveat, a caveat that is not minor. I reiterate, I don’t know if you’re

going to attend a public university or a private university, I don't know. The only thing I know is that if you attend

a private university and you slack off, if you do nothing, if you don't put in the effort, you are screwing over your

family or the person paying for your university, if it isn't you. If it is you, fantastic, you’re just screwing

yourself over, so go for it. The point is that you have to be conscious that someone in your family is working their

back off to pay for your education. Yes . And if you go to a public university, you have to be even more responsible.

Why? Because there is a woman you don't know, living in a worse neighborhood than yours, who has a small street

stall that opens at 6 in the morning, and that woman is contributing so you can study. So, every time you want to

slack off, think of that woman who wakes up, opens her shop, and contributes part of what she earns so

you can have access to education. Think of it every time you say, "Oh, well, whatever, I'm done with this.""Oh, well

, whatever, I'd rather go out and party .""Oh, well, whatever, I'll go smoke something." Seriously, think about it,

because that is responsibility. "Oh, no , but professor, I feel overwhelmed." Welcome to adult life. That’s how it

feels. What do you want to do? Live like that? Well, no. "Yes, I'm all about peace and love.""Just carpe diem,

living for today, not thinking about tomorrow." It's your life. Do whatever you want. This is a formative process

for those people who are going to change the world, because again you can change the world. You, you can change

the world. By changing one person's life, helping someone solve some mess using everything you'll learn to

resolve in your degree, you can change a life, and ultimately, you end up altering the world. This is not an easy

path, this is not all sunshine and rainbows, this is not for everyone. Oh, sure, it's spectacular. That doesn't

work that way in any career, in any university, anywhere in the world. But it is a big step and it's the first

major step of your adult life. Take it seriously. Pay close attention to who you surround yourself with, who your

peers are, who you choose for your study group. "Oh, but Professor, I really don't know how to communicate

with them." Take responsibility if you don't know, if you struggle with oral exams, take responsibility. Take

responsibility. Take a course; I invite you to come to OPI when we open. Come to OPI, study with me. See how it's

done. That’s what I can help you with , which is the communication part. But if you don't know how to do something

else, if you struggle with Excel, look it up, take responsibility for finding a solution. It's your problem. Don't

expect help to fall divinely from above , because many times that help won't come. This is a huge part of your life.

A huge part of your life, but you have to learn to take responsibility. If you take responsibility, I promise you'll

have much better odds and statistics for achieving great results. Thank the person who sent you this video if it

wasn't you, because they truly care about you, and everything I've said here, I'm saying with all, but with all

, all, all my heart. I invite you to subscribe to this channel if you haven't yet, because we’ll be having

other talks that are a bit different from this one, which is very university-oriented. I hope this has

helped you. Leave me any questions down below, and I’ll leave right here next to this video, and also in the first

pinned comment, a soft skills course in case you want to delve a little deeper into these first university

relationships, on how to get people to take you seriously. Who knows, things can be a bit complicated, and since

it’s a free course, I’m leaving it here for you to check out and inviting you to take it. It's 10 classes, it's a

short course, and it even has a certificate at the end. So in case you want to do it, I'll see you there.

Sending you a hug and see you again very soon.