Frank Abagnale is a man of many faces. From ages 15 to 21, Abagnale  was involved with check forgery while posing as an airplane pilot, doctor and attorney.

Abagnale shared his life’s story to ISU students Monday night inside the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Abagnale took this opportunity to reach out to the nation’s youth.

“I was just a child,” Abagnale said. “Had I been brilliant, had I been a genius, I don’t know I would have found it necessary to break the law in order to just simply survive. Though there are people who are fascinated by what I did over 50 years ago as a teenage boy, I’ve always looked upon what I did as something that was immoral, illegal, unethical and a burden I live with every single day of my life and will until my death.”

And the youth received Abagnale’s message positively.

“He gave a delightful synopsis and summary of his life,” said Nick Davis, graduate student with a master’s in business. “But then he also took it a step further with a higher level of thinking with what we could learn from his lifestyle.”

Abagnale ended his lecture with a hard-hitting final lesson.

“I would like to remind you what it means to truly be an actual man,” Abagnale said. “It has nothing to do with money, achievements, skills, accomplishments, degrees, professions, positions. A real man loves his wife, a real man is faithful to his wife and a real man puts his god, his country, his wife and his children as the most important things in his life.”