6 CONSIGLI PER L'UNIVERSITÀ - TRATTI DALLA MIA ESPERIENZA

the first failure of my university life. I mean, I'm not taken by anyone. My average was not high enough to be able to finish in an exchange. I mean, you have to make some of your own failures new starting points. Hi guys, here we are. We are very excited, me and Andrew, because we are in a super location for our Meetup event that we organized here in Milan with you subscribers. It's an opportunity to meet in person, to shake hands in person and also to chat a little. In fact, we thank 21 Houses of Stories for this super location that seems surreal you see behind us. We organized this event first of all to meet you in person and it will be an opportunity to tell our journeys, university, even more professional and also our little learning experiences that we have had in these years. And after that we will give you some advice that we would have liked to know so much during our first years of university. And they are valuable advice that we have developed on the basis of our experiences. So guys, Marco's part, you will clearly see it now on his channel. For my part, my presentations, my advice and my story, you can find it on my channel, which you can always find linked here in the description. I leave the floor to Marco, who will tell us his story. Thank you, Andre. First of all, thank you for talking to me first, so I will look like a jerk because he made a career of the Madonna, university, really. There are stages that have been, let's say, a bit of the stereotype of the top, of the student of economics, big name behind. You learned a lot, definitely. So I think the advice is really a point also on the basis of your experience. Hi everyone, I'm Marco Lecchi. I started making videos on YouTube long before Andre, in 2012. Actually, when I was very young, I had curly hair, I don't know how I got curly after a certain point. Actually, it's only seven years because it's 2012, even earlier. I won't tell you the name of the old channel because I was doing Minecraft and there's always a risk that someone goes to see it. I'll tell you later. No. And... What happened? I started telling a bit of my life from high school. I was already doing a bit of video-study in a much softer way, like how I organize my high school notebooks and the advice was, like, for math, use squares, for Italian, use lines. Stuff like that. Change the color of the covers. And... But I really liked this thing of vlogging and I liked telling a bit of my life, exposing myself and thinking that a piece of advice I give on the channel could change even just a tiny bit of someone's life. I mean, I could give them inspiration to really, maybe, change their notebooks, make them into lines, squares and maybe get a higher grade in math, I don't know. So then I went to Bocconi University against all odds because I did my test in 4th grade and the times were totally different, you had to have an average of 8. I was doing great in high school, so... I said, I'm in. I went to Bocconi, I almost went to Bicocca. And instead, I went to Bocconi. And... I immediately felt really good, the environment was very stimulating, I kept telling all this on YouTube and there was no one at the time who did it. At the time, there was no TikTok, there were no Reels, there was... it seemed like a geological era, actually, it was 5 or 6 years ago. And... I told a bit about my experience as a student and, above all, the entrance exam. Entrance exam, videos of the entrance exam that are still going on, many kids have seen them, whoever did Bocconi here, have you seen the video about the entrance exam? And... and then he always says to me, thanks Marco, I got in thanks to you, no, thanks to you, trust me, because I didn't give you anything but the information. And... I liked this thing, in the sense that then... I started to... get a little more into the dynamics of the university and understand more about the university environment. And I joined B-Lab, which is an association that still exists in Bocconi, it is a historical association of representation, the largest in the university, which deals with... between making representation, also making events, but very cool things that I wouldn't have expected, this was Ski-Lab, it was the first big event I participated in, of Bocconi University, it's a weekend on the skis, 300 students, where you ski, then you drink, then you ski, then you drink again, and then you ski. And... really fun, I said, damn, I want to organize something like that in my university life, I want to try to do something that knows how to stimulate me, knows how to give me skills, knows how to give me skills and then spend them in the world of work, but still having fun. I mean, in my head I always had this thing of I want to have fun, but learning, uniting the useful with the enjoyable. And after that, what happened? That... there was the Bocconi gala, which is no longer there, but at the time there was, I was a enrollment, also here, amalgamated by the event, what happened? That later I became responsible for marketing communication of the Christmas gala. I took care of all the pre-communication, the branding, etc. And... at the time I thought it was a nice thing, I mean, a very cool thing, and above all, I was already heading towards what I would have done. Because like many people who start at Bocconi, I already imagined myself playing the tie to work in an office in Finland, and instead then I took a whole other direction. In the end, spoiler, I did it, organize Ski Lab, this was my year in which these were the other three organizers, and it was an event of 300 people, we rented an entire hotel, well, we paid some damage, but it went well. And after that, from this experience of B Lab, which I really liked, to be a representative, to help people, the project was born on which I bet the most, that is, Top Squad. Here there are also some advisors, I see Nico, there's Giulio, there's then Fermato, there's Fath... Ah, Giacomo, who arrived. Giacomo, among other things, advisor of Top Squad Polimi, which was the spin-off after 4-5 years of Top Squad Bocconi, to be born also at the Politecnico di Milano, with the idea of ​​expanding even more our network. And... what happens? I keep doing Top Squad and B Lab, and in the meantime at university, also for the YouTube channel, let's say, they knew me a little bit of people. A little. And I liked to do a lot of representations, so I applied to my first lessons in the academic institutions, which are there every two years. And so, I was elected to the Academic Council. Here we see... I show you a photo with President Sergio Mattarella, Mario Monti and Gianmario Verona. It was crazy, really, shaking hands with President Mattarella it was really a great emotion and... and it was nice to do it in the presence of all the students of my university. What happens? Third year, third year, it's time for the exchange. Failure, the first failure of my university life. I mean, I'm not accepted anywhere. My average was not high enough to be able to finish in an exchange. But from here, you have to be, as Andrea said, flexible. I mean, you have to do a little bit of your failures, the new starting points. I didn't give up, I said, I'll do an exchange from Framework, I mean, I'll get in touch with the university and I'll leave. It wasn't a prestigious university, it was in Vietnam. Many of you have seen it, there are some funny backstories to tell about the guy who was almost arrested, not because of me, but because of the police. But... I'm here, so... so it's okay like this. It was a life experience. When I came back from the exchange, I started my first internship. So it was time to start to take the first steps in the world of work. And I started an internship in a communication agency. This is the story of my employer who calls me back and I tell him about the internships in finance, Andrea, I mean... Yeah, I had a lot of tears. Was your internship like this in M&A? I had a lot of tears, I had the octopus and gourmet. I was basically in charge of all the communication part of the clients, and so even on-campus, I mean, on-field, I went, we did the stories and all that kind of stuff, and then the dishes, I mean, obviously we're all environmentalists, we don't want to throw them away, right? I have to tell you what happens. I graduated from CLEAM, so Business Management, in a somewhat sad graduation, in a somewhat sad ceremony because there was COVID-19, so I was at home in front of a screen, but I said, well, there will be the master's to celebrate, and it was still a pleasant moment because I spent it with my parents and everything, and in the meantime I had already started the Master in Marketing Management always at the University of Bocconi. I was appointed as a representative, I applied again, always in the Academic Council, I won, and always as a senator in Bocconi, because it's called the Academic Senate in other universities, I was elected as a representative of the Lombardy region. This was the first table I really sat at politically, I mean, the representation at the University of Bocconi is done a lot as a service to the student, and there is not such a political soul. In other universities, it is a little more, you will confirm to me who does it, in other universities, maybe public, there is still a lot, a lot of parties that place young students and then they take them to go to Rome, etc. When I sit at the table in the Lombardy region, I realize that there is a very political matrix and this taught me a lot to be at the table of the great, let's say, there was a delegation of the regions, all the rectors of the Lombardy universities, so it was a nice responsibility. After that, TopTest was born, the next step of TopSquad, that is, to provide a complete service of preparation for the entrance test in Bocconi in a professional way on a platform designed by us. The thing is going very well, I was in 2021, the first launch is going very well, TopSquad has certainly helped a lot to create a community and above all to get to know the exact problem to solve, that is, it was not only necessary to make a platform, it was necessary to build something innovative that really met the needs and to have a community behind, of people who give you a feedback every day, tell you what they find more difficult, what they find less difficult, it was the key not to do an AlphaTest again, that is, to do another manual, but to do something different. And well, I imagined myself in tights, in the end I ended up with a blade in my hand, the second exchange I did in Chile, in South America, it was a crazy experience, Ale, who was here in Argentina, so I traveled a lot, he also hosted me in Argentina, it was very cool, and I was in another university, which is still very important for South America, it's called Adolf Bagnetz, in the world rankings, obviously it is not so important, but it was not that, that is, it was the life experience, it was getting out, sorry, I use a guru term, getting out of the comfort zone and having a totally new experience. But then we come back to this point, because from these experiences I really learned a lot. I come back, I also do a thousand interviews, no, I do three interviews, no one calls me, that is, zero, total, equal to Andrea, all the proposals arrive towards Christmas, and I enter from my MW, I refuse, with the bet to enter Montclair. I win the bet, in the sense that I did not enter, that is, I refused the place just to get to Montclair, in fact, they take me from Montclair. In the meantime, I was carrying on another recruitment from Kering Iwer, a very cool graduate program that would have brought me six months in Milan, six months in Dubai, six months in Holland and six months in Paris. A very nice thing, it was the first year they did it, but unfortunately I arrived at the last step with the CEO, they discard me, and so I find myself in Montclair with this ambition to do a graduate program, to put, in quotes, to pause my life a little more entrepreneurial for two years, and in the end this thing does not work. So I say, what do I do? I also leave the only company that took me, that is, I leave Montclair, and in the meantime I graduate in Marketing Management. This all happened within a week, it was one of the most intense weeks of my life. I left, yes, I graduated in Marketing Management and I resign from Montclair and I found a company. I founded Top Squad SRL, which is a bit of a hat, let's say, a more bureaucratic tax issue, but it was necessary to open it, in which there is Top Test below, but there are many other projects that we are developing together with many people who believe in what I want to do, that is, in continuing to serve services, to offer services that can really help people, can have an impact on the lives of students like us, who may not know what to do, who may have a little clearer ideas, but they want one more piece of advice to understand how to move, that is, from people who have already experienced it. And so I undertake my bet and my real entrepreneurial career. This is a bit of the story so far, there is still a lot to do. With Andre, as I said, we are still working on many things, so be sure to stay up to date because there will be super interesting things. And now I move on to my advice phase. The first is to develop a career capital. It's an expression that I didn't invent, it's from Cal Newport, from So Good They Can't Ignore You. And I'll give you a little bit, sorry for the academic part, but a definition. The career capital is a set of skills, knowledge, credentials and personality traits or financial resources and connections that help to produce economic value and produce a greater influence in the future. You have to build assets that will be useful as an exchange currency to gain more autonomy in the world of work. Whether it's an entrepreneurial career, whether it's a career as an employee in a large company, whether it's in a small company, in a start-up, you have to have something to offer the company. And these things are, as you can see, multidimensional. It can be the people you know, it can be the credibility you have with certificates, it can be traits of your personality that distinguish you, that make you stronger than others. So keep this in mind and carry it on during university. Try to get to know as many people as possible, to gain experience, as Andrea says, to open up, how is it? To maximize the surface of the opportunity. Exactly, maximize it. So explore a lot and, as Steve Jobs said, you'll connect the dots later on. Think about it, I mean, I've had so many experiences that, at the beginning, it didn't even seem like I could connect. I mean, I have a YouTube channel, but I also have a representation. I did B-Lab. Well, they seemed distant things to each other. In reality, all this, together, with knowledge of people I knew, of skills I had acquired, of the, in quotes, small notoriety I had in university, was born Top Squad. So the project I'm working on full-time now was born from the experience of so many things that, apparently, were distant to each other. And here I give you a piece of advice as a marketer, as a person who studied marketing management at university, and personal brand. Each of you is a brand, as if it were a company that must have its own image, must have its own values and must have its own mentality. It all depends on how you sell the experiences you have. It doesn't depend only on what you do. Obviously, it has to be of quality. But then it depends on how you're selling it to the people you want to work with. Think of my exchange in Vietnam. I mean, I could say, well, guys, I wasn't accepted in exchange, I did a free-mover, and the university didn't like me either. Or I could say that it was a moment to totally get out of my comfort zone, to have totally different experiences, to see an economy that was growing at double the rate, and to be on the other side of the world, in a country where it's also impossible to learn the language. I mean, statistically, Vietnamese is the most difficult language in the world to learn. So it all depends on how you sell it, on how you associate it with the experience you've had. After that, you create a system of opportunities to turn them into opportunities. System is the key word. I mean, you don't need to create opportunities. You need to create a system to create opportunities. I mean, in your life, try to change your daily life and your habits so that every single day or every single week, you have the opportunity to take part in opportunities. Those opportunities will then be you to turn them into opportunities for your future. So, aperitifs, but also, go to discos and meet people. Go to conferences. I've talked too much. Go to conferences and meet the people who are there. I mean, don't just meet the speakers. I mean, here, don't just think about meeting us. Meet each other. I mean, think about a person you meet here. Potentially, in ten years, you'll open a company together. You need to maximize, in fact, you need to systematize your possibility of finding opportunities for the future. I have to say that this, even if you always tell me that I'm good at it, I modestly say that I'm good at it, is to find your balance. I'm kidding, but in reality, it wasn't immediately obvious to have a balance between private life and work life. In the end, doing YouTube is like being a priest. I mean, you're 24 hours a day. I said, I'm doing this comparison. Being 24 hours a day, I'm not a YouTuber. Because it's true, especially if you think about sports a little bit more, not only on the YouTube channel, but also on Instagram, etc. In the end, you're always a YouTuber. And your brain never stops. So maybe this also trained me for my professional entrepreneurship. And you need to have a plan, you need to have a daily schedule. What do I do? I'll give you a tip. Strategic overplanning, it's called. I didn't invent it. I write down every single thing I have to do on a calendar. I schedule every single thing. I have Trello. Do you know Trello? It's like an app where you can mark tasks and to-do lists. I put them in what I have to do. Then, if I have to do them that day, I put them in a priority list. When I've done them, I put them in a fact. I schedule everything in a priority list, so I know exactly what I have to do. It's a bit stressful. Many say it creates more anxiety. It depends a bit on you. So here too, it's important that you find your own balance. It means that what I do has to be right for you. But this helps you even if, for example, you see something on a calendar or maybe you didn't do it at that exact moment, but at least it starts a lightbulb in your brain that you'll have to do it sooner or later. And this thing here is perhaps the one I've lived on the most and I've felt it a lot during my first years of university. Manage your comparison with others consciously. Andrea said before, try to surround yourself with people who don't make you feel like you've made it. It's true. This doesn't work, though. It's true, but you don't have to feel bad about it. Because, as he said, everyone's path is unique. Each of us has a different path. And the degrees in economics put us in front of the perspective that we all have to have the 110 Lode, that we all have to get into M&A or investment banking or consulting, that we all have to do our mini-business, that we all have to be in an association. No, each of us is different and that's why we're unique when we introduce ourselves to companies. So maybe at the beginning it will be complex, it will seem difficult and you'll feel left behind compared to others. But if you work hard and, as Andrea said, you continue to have a direction, surely the time will come when you'll recognize the points of everything you've done. That's all. Thank you, Marco. I'll give you a round of applause. Well, we hope we've been useful. Like, comment. Exactly. Leave us some live comments.