What eight years abroad taught me

I arrived in France at 18 with basic French and zero contacts. Two years later, I was selected for the best school of economics in the country. Here is how I did it:

1. Perspective: seeing opportunity where others see normalcy

When I first arrived in Europe at 18 years old, I was very surprised by the opportunities available to every university student like me. In France, public university tuition was almost free (€250 per year). Each student had access to free tutors through the university library for additional help with courses and exams. Catch-up courses were available to everyone, taught by current PhD or master's students. Foreign students could learn the language at their own pace through online courses and meet-ups.

For someone from Venezuela, where most of these things did not exist (partially true for private institutions and completely true for most public ones), it felt almost unfair.

At that time, I realized how important it is to have perspective. Experiencing instability and difficulty at home has a bright side: when things change for the better, you are usually more grateful. As a result, you see opportunities in your environment. You can see things more clearly and choose which behavior best fits your current situation, instead of just following the herd.

For two years, I took every class available, every catch-up course and every language meet-up. I was maximizing my university experience and increasing the probability of catching up with peers who were very used to this system.

In the end, everything paid off. I was selected among the first 60 students out of more than 700 to attend the third year of the bachelor's degree in economics at the Toulouse School of Economics, the best of its kind in France. Seeing many French peers who wanted to get in but did not make it was surprising to me.

I do not have any special skills or talent. I simply believe that a strong work ethic, consistent improvement and patience in any domain always bring real results sooner or later.

The people most likely to use an opportunity are not always the ones who had it first.

2. Openness: using every environment as a laboratory

In Spain, during my Erasmus exchange program (first in Madrid in 2022, then in Barcelona in 2023), a new culture opened up to me. The environment felt more relaxed than what I had experienced in France. Pressure in professional and personal settings was less common. At first, it felt like a step back. Then I understood it as a different kind of resource.

Internally, I needed contrast. My inner drive to push myself had always come from within, but it needed a different kind of fuel to evolve. Spain gave me that.

My response was the same as it had been in France: use every opportunity my environment offered me. This time, the curriculum extended far beyond the classroom. I started balancing my studies with openness to new experiences: debate associations, entrepreneurship and business events, football tournaments, theatre and dance classes, meet-ups with international and local students, private tutoring and collaborative projects outside campus.

Openness to experience and curiosity joined perspective as the ingredients I used to organize my lifestyle.

Those decisions led me directly to two of my first professional experiences in a completely new setting: the world of startups and entrepreneurship.

The most valuable thing I learned in Spain was to find balance in order to ensure sustainable development, both personally and professionally.

3. Persistence: repeating the same beliefs regardless of the context

The same pattern emerged when I worked at two fast-paced startups. Two different sectors within fintech: payment platforms and mergers and acquisitions. Two completely different teams, cultures and stages in each company's life. Two completely different problems to solve every day.

The same thought remained: everything is a matter of perspective, including how you perceive reality. Depending on how you reflect on your experiences and environment, your intentions, thoughts, emotions, ideas and actions follow the kind of person you choose to be, consciously or unconsciously.

At my last company, as the first Account Manager, I closed the second-largest deal in its history, with an enterprise value of €6 million. That milestone was preceded by a long process of trial and error: failed negotiations on other deals, frustrations from impatient clients and many moments when stopping felt easier than continuing.

Again, the only thing that persisted in my mind was this: a strong work ethic, consistent improvement and patience in any domain always bring real results sooner or later.

The context will always change. What remains are the beliefs that accompany us. We can always choose the ones that empower us over those that limit us.

In the end, each step was different (France, Spain, the startup world), but my beliefs persisted over time. The three principles did not change. They compounded.

Nietzsche once said: "He who has a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how'."

The context changed every time, but the why behind my actions never did.

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