'This is a nuclear explosion on stage!'

 

My course director couldn’t get his head around what he had just seen. 

 

‘Is it?' I smiled exhausted.

 

'And how you've got that actress to throw sand, tear a bloody animal carcass apart, dance on high heels and paint that vertically erected bed. And

then she stripped... I mean...' 

 

 1.

 

🎭 It was the final story I chose to tell on stage at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

 

It was Land Without Words - a play by a German playwright, Dea Loher...

 

But theatre directing didn't work for me.

 

I was becoming averse to life in a black box (meaning, a rehearsal room).

 

However, I was still craving stories... ✍️

 

Life stories.

 

My stories.

 

Stories that were pulsating with life, flights, men, exotic countries, creative and entrepreneurial endeavours.

 

And I knew that neither England, where I had been living since I was 18, nor theatre were the platforms to do so.

 

 

'I will move to Bali,' I told a friend over a pint at the Charlotte's Street Pub. 📍

 

'But you're a theatre director - you’re making no money. You can't just relocate to Asia,' she argued.

 

'I can tell stories though. I’ll think of something.’

 

I've always found a way to get paid for my stories, ever since I was 13.

 

And back then, in 2013, I was determined to find a way to do so again.

 

 

2.

Now.

 

8 years later. ⌛

 

Nearly 30 countries later.

 

3 boyfriends later.

 

300 entrepreneur interviews later.

 

2 businesses later.

 

20 rented flats and houses later.

 

Hundreds of flying hours later.

 

Thousands of hotel rooms later.

 

I am ready to write these stories down. 🙌

 

It's the theme of my 2021.

 

 

 

3.

 

Stories are intricate mechanisms.

 

Stories make up our psyche.

 

Stories are in our DNA. 🧬

 

I'm writing them down to fully comprehend and consolidate my lessons.

 

📚 And I'll probably be walking a tightrope between a good story and a self-indulgent story, an authentic life/entrepreneurial lesson and yet another internet cliché.

 

(Oh well... worth the occasional slip up).

 

2021 is the year of STORY.

 

The format, words and type of stories I tell are likely to evolve.

 

But one thing I know is that I am committing to telling them WEEKLY.

 

(I'll chain myself to my desk if I have to).

 

📩 And if you want to listen to these stories (and hopefully use them to start becoming aware of your own story DNA) - sign up to read them first: https://www.dariuslukas.academy/weekly-story

 

 

4.

 

Oh, by the way, Land Without Words was a play about an artist, who goes to Kabul, witnesses the atrocities of war and, upon her return to Germany, is unable to paint. What she had seen was too intense. Too much.

 

And when I come to think of it, Bali was... my Kabul. 🌴

 

Well, yes, it's an exaggeration.

 

What I mean is - it was so invigorating and full of life that I didn't have time (or energy) to tell stories anymore.

 

It was too intense. Too much. No words could grasp what I was living. 💥

 

And, at the time, living out those stories was much more interesting than writing them down.

 

✍️ Now, back in Europe, with never-ending lockdowns, it’s time for stories to return…

 

___________

 

Sign up to my Sunday Story email, I’ll share more about how to use stories as your greatest asset. You'll also be the first to receive these stories: https://www.dariuslukas.academy/weekly-story