Storytelling.    I have more than 20 years of teaching in a university institution, as a professor of  business administration.  Before becoming a teacher, I was a very diligent  student.  During my studies, my grades were excellent.  One of my ideas was to be  able to finish my 6-year career at the Institute and apply for a scholarship abroad to  obtain a specialization in international business.  I wanted to become a very  competent professional with extensive knowledge and to be able to teach students  everything I know.      But in the last year of my time in high school something happened that I could not  even imagine that I could do happened.  That last course was taught by a new  teacher.  He was a very particular teacher in relation to the way he taught, he was  very demanding.  What happened then?  It happened that I decided to suspend the  course in the second evaluation.  On one occasion, at the end of class, I steeled  myself and asked the teacher if he had a space to talk to me.  He agreed and he told  me that he did and asked me what was the issue he wanted to address.  I mentioned  to him that he was somewhat unmotivated because it is not possible for him to  achieve the level necessary to pass the course.  He did not approve of the course  implied that he could not access the entrance test that is done to enter the  university.  And he listened to me attentively nodding his head at all times and staring  into my eyes.  When he finished saying what he had to say to him, he was the one  who took the floor and told me something that I was not going to forget in my life.        Something that I will always remember.  This is what he told me: “Do you know why  you have not passed any of the evaluations for my subject?  Well, you haven't  passed them for a simple reason: because you don't trust yourself enough, because  your head refuses to accept that you're smart and hard-working enough to pass my  subject and all the subjects that come your way.  So listen to me well because I want  you to do something not for me, but for you.  What I want you to do is this: take a  blank sheet of paper and write the following message on it: Today I have decided  that I will pass the last evaluation of the course and go to university ”.  So I did it.      That same day I took a piece of paper and wrote what my teacher had told me.  I  wrote it down and put it in front of my desk.  I can never thank my teacher for those  words.  Finally, I passed the last evaluation of the course and was able to take the  tests that give access to the university.  But this story does not end here.  Do you  know what the grade I got on the university entrance exam was?  The grade I got  was a 9/10.  But do you know what was the most surprising?  That this grade was  the highest grade I got out of all the subjects I took in the university entrance exam.    Sometimes I think that if I am here with you now giving this class and telling this  story, it is thanks to that teacher and that paper that I wrote and who taught me how  little we know each other, how little we value ourselves, how little we we trust

ourselves.  So when I fail the second assessment of my course, don't talk to  me.  Just take a blank sheet of paper and write ...

