My uncle arrived at Brasilia in 1972 with this suitcase here.
This is all he had.
Inside this suitcase, he had more books than clothes.
It’s funny, but it makes sense, as this was his project,
because he came to Brasilia with a clear goal in mind:
“I’m going to Brasilia to study and to succeed in life through my studies.”
That’s why he had so many books in his suitcase.
After he arrived here, all my family came too,
and my mom came to do the exact same thing as my uncle:
“I’m going to Brasilia to study and start a career there.”
All of this happened before I was born.
When I was born, that suitcase was already here.
The project in that suitcase was a success both for my uncle and my mom:
they both studied and succeeded in life.
So, natural logic would establish
that a project that was a success for both my uncle and my mom
would be a success for me too.
But when I started school, I didn’t feel well there,
I wasn’t at ease.
And since then, I started suffering from “Late Night Sunday Syndrome”,
an exasperating ghost that would appear on Sundays and say:
“Oh, tomorrow is Monday
and you’ll have to do something you don’t like doing.
You’ll have to carry that suitcase that you don’t want to carry.”
I had this syndrome for almost my whole student life,
and for a good deal of my professional life too.
To give you an idea, of every ten people,
seven suffer from Late Night Sunday Syndrome.
And it’s very likely that you have that syndrome too.
If you suffer from this syndrome,
it’s because, on Mondays, you are doing something you don’t like doing,
you are carrying a suitcase you don’t want to carry.
The first time I got rid of this syndrome was out of pure luck.
There was this teacher at my school
who made us all do whatever we liked to do the most,
and it was amazing as I ended up enjoying Mondays.
But I grew up, and I entered the labor force.
I became a publicist, and after a while, the syndrome came back to haunt me,
and this time it was much worse,
as I had a set-up career, a child to raise,
and a lot of bills to pay.
I had the career I wanted, the job I wanted,
and the salary I wanted, but I wasn’t feeling well.
And the truth is that it’s not all about the career,
the job or the salary you have.
The truth is that, if you have this syndrome,
it’s because you are carrying a suitcase you don’t want to carry,
and you are still doing it because there are bills to pay.
I want you all to stop for a moment and think:
If you didn’t have bills to pay,
what would you do with your life?
Maybe some would say: “God, I cannot stop and think of this.
I have so many bills to pay…” (Laughter)
Others would say: “I wouldn’t do anything.
I would travel and watch Netflix all day, or whatever.”
But just think about this seriously:
What would you really spend your time and energy on?
If the answer came straight to you, that’s the way out.
You will put an end to the Late Night Sunday Syndrome
as soon as you start putting this into practice.
But if the answer didn’t come to you,
if you haven’t come up with it at that moment,
you need to find it, as this is very serious.
Really, it’s a serious matter.
It’s very likely that, whenever you find out what you want to do in life,
you will not know where to start,
or maybe you will want to unpack your suitcase straight away
and pack it all over again.
But this is not the way to make such an important change in your life.
You have to change what’s in your suitcase little by little.
For example, if you like photography, and you want to become a photographer,
you need a camera in your suitcase.
Of course, you don’t need an entire photography studio.
You need to make room for photography in your life.
If you like to cook,
start off with some recipes, prepare them with your friends,
start doing this for free, in the beginning,
start to experiment, in the beginning,
make room for cooking in your life.
When you least expect it,
your suitcase will be complete and full of things you decided to pack,
things that you chose,
things that make sense to you,
and that will be useful for other people too.
My suitcase is very light and easy to carry.
What I packed in this suitcase today is a project that I chose.
It’s not my uncle’s project, nor my mom’s,
not even an advertisement project.
It’s a project I chose,
that involves helping people find out the things they like to do
and figure out how to make a living with it.
Late night, on Sunday, you will remember this talk.
Maybe because you feel good about Monday coming up,
and relaxed because you’re doing something you like doing,
or maybe because the Late Night Sunday Syndrome haunted you.
If it’s the syndrome, go repack that suitcase.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheering)
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