Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Lea Brezar has recently published a book, Izvan okvira, an amusing and instructive book that everyone should read. The book Izvan okvira (Out of the Box) belongs to the New Age literature that motivates you to get to know yourself and to change. It also teaches you how to do it; how to create order in chaos.
Lea Brezar is the owner and director of the agency Dhar Media, which operates according to Dharmic principles. The Agency has ten full-time employees and one permanent external associate, dozens of clients and several large-scale projects behind them. They own the TouristarTV and the license for the Superbrands for Croatia and Slovenia. Dhar Media is a successful media agency, but this is not a story about it. This is a story about changes and principles that you should implement so that your business could also become successful, or if it already is, then to become even more successful.
Media Marketing: The phrase “outside the box” is very often used today. What does it actually mean?
Lea Brezar: We can look at it from several different perspectives; or rather apply it to various areas of life, but always with a single meaning: it is necessary to change our own perceptions in order to make place for change. To see things differently means to change the position on which we stand. Problems can’t be solved on the same level where they occur. We have to look at them in a whole new way. If we cast aside our own walked-in patterns that had brought us to the unwanted situations, and replace them with new ones, we will make a significant step forward into new experiences. In my book, I used the phrase exactly for these reasons, because today we have largely replaced the true values that should carry us through life with pleasing of egos. If we step away from that position, it will be the first step towards change.
Media Marketing: Your book is dominated by a Dharmic, or spiritual view of life in us and around us. Why after so many years is spirituality suddenly gaining so much importance?
Lea Brezar: Today’s managerial world is governed by ego. It’s a dangerous warrior that tramples everything in sight and is often alone. Ego is one big I. In indulging it, people have agreed to major compromises by which they often trample in the first place themselves, and then the others, by any means necessary. What came as a result is the frustration that permeates all levels of collectives and individuals. People are trying to understand themselves, because they become more and more aware that they can’t change others. At that moment, this spirituality emerged, with which the contemporary New Age literature showers us, and offers some practical solutions that guarantee health and satisfaction. Those who persist in their own changes also experience the changes at all levels of their life and are the initiators of the creation of a positive atmosphere in their business environment.
Media Marketing: Changes bring order into chaos, and still people resist them, they have difficulty accepting them. Why go into the adventure of personal transformation?
Lea Brezar: At one point in life every one of us comes to the stage of questioning oneself and one’s life. We often conclude that certain life situations continuously repeat to us. We wonder why, but at the level at which our consciousness is at the moment we can’t find the answers. The situations into which life pushes us are often frustrating; relationships crumble, we enter into conflicts and come out of them with the short end of the stick, totally helpless. Sooner or later we all become aware that changes are necessary to create satisfaction. If we constantly go in circles, it is no wonder that only dizziness and falling unconscious stop us. If we stop for a moment and listen to what our true self has to say, if we ask it what it really wants and how to achieve it, we could be surprised with the answers that we’ll get. The most important thing is not to be afraid to take that step, because whichever way we go, life always carries uncertainty. But the fear that is gripping us makes it more difficult.
Media Marketing: How can we make this personal transformation and what are the inspiring basic principles that we should lay down on the new pages of our life and business career?
Lea Brezar: First of all we have to accept the fact that no one keeps a tally of our lives. There is no diploma for a lifetime. But there is a reward that comes in the form of inner peace, which we cannot win if we continuously criticize ourselves, manipulate our emotions and as long as we are our own worst enemies. Acceptance of self and the awareness that it’s OK to make mistakes puts us in a position to understand the mistakes of others as well. Mistakes teach us to change habits that will impose themselves if we admit that it’s just part of the learning. This is another very important fact – life is full of lessons. If we learn the ones it brings, it won’t serve us with more painful ones. Perhaps more challenging, but we will have more strength and skill to brave through them more easily. There are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason, and the reason is to learn something. Let us learn to love, which entails patience, caring, compassion, freedom, justice, inspiration, development, equality and progress. Let us build our world and business on the fundamental principles of truth and be consistent in implementing them. Then we shall feel the inner peace.
Media Marketing: What, why and how to do on ourselves?
Lea Brezar: Start from the beginning, with small steps to shape life into something we want it to be, not a partial version of our ideas. Some action needs to be repeated for sixty days in order that it becomes a habit. Let’s start with ourselves. Let’s learn to love. Let’s accept our faults, but not as something finite, but something variable. Let us learn to listen to ourselves and others. Let’s respect other people’s truth and perception of things. Let’s strive for helping others, because fortune comes when we give. Let’s accept ourselves as part of a whole; we need others so we could be able to grow, both as part of a team and privately. Let’s embrace the fellowship. Let’s listen to our intuition. Let’s be practical, and practice in the same way as we exercise in a gym.
Apply the lessons learned, don’t just nod your head.
Media Marketing: Business approach of your agency, Dhar media, rests on the Dharmic principles. What does that actually mean?
Lea Brezar: It means we put the human being first, with all the experiences that have shaped them during a lifetime, and that we accept them as such, but encourage them to change through working together to achieve goals. We draw the best from people. We encourage them through conversation and motivate them. We speak what we think and criticize, but not to offend anyone, but to find the reasons for the problems and focus on solutions. A man is a part of the engine, and if we break him, the engine will break down as well. Ego has no place in a collective, but there is room for ego in the service of intuition. Togetherness is what we are very proud of.
Media Marketing: What advice would you give your colleagues from other agencies and companies?
Lea Brezar: I’d advise them to pay more time to personal development. I suggest they read the book Izvan okvira. It’s written in a simple language, full of practical advice and descriptions of actual experiences from the work of our agency and our lives. What I gave the most attention to in life and business are relations with people and I think we should all strive for this achievement. But, these relations don’t happen if the worlds and past collide in us. If we want to build good relations with oneself and the environment, we need to change. Changes bring order to chaos. When you find your peace, you will not be bothered by the outside. But you will be willing to lend a helping hand and be the one for whom there will always be someone to catch them if they fall. I opened the book “Out of the Box” with a quote: “Be the one who they follow, not the one who they fear”. Don’t be the latter. He actually stands alone. Be an inspiration.
