We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kamila Kowalke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kamila, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Being a child and a product of Communist Poland was unbelievably difficult to say the least… more so for my parents than for me… as they tried to navigate a government of corruption and greed and false promises to the millions of people who lived in this post war torn country of poverty and neglect. During the years of Communism in the 70’s and then in the early 80’s when I was young… I vividly remember how all my parents had was hope… and the love of and for each other… certainly not money or material things.

The struggles were immense back then… and I swore to myself that when I got older… or old enough to travel… I was going to somehow… find my way out of Communist Poland in search of a better life for myself on my own… for I knew my parents could never ever leave their beloved homeland… no matter how difficult our situation… financially and emotionally.

Fortunately as a teenager… Communism collapsed and thus began a decade of amazing opportunity… if you could seize upon that opportunity… which was also not an easy task. Nevertheless… I was accepted to the renowned Gdansk Institute of Technology where I studied with the brightest people in Poland and had an opportunity to work with US and Western European companies to learn about business and capitalism… wow what a great word… capitalism.

During my early college years… I was fascinated with America and decided to… all on my own… leave Poland for the U.S. where I knew no one… and had no support system whatsoever… and certainly at 20 years old… the U.S. might have been in outer space… a million miles away. Yet I was convinced I was going to reach the stars and conquer the world. So I got admitted to an MBA program in the U.S. and obtained a visa which required all of my family’s life savings… just so I could begin a new journey… a new chapter in my young life.

Yes I was scared… yes I was frightened of the unknown… yes this was all new to me. And yet I just had to take this chance… and the rest is history. I got my MBA… had an amazing career in the technology and financial industries… and now I have taken on another Herculean risk. I left this second world I knew recently… to become an artist… and I have been euphoric over my new adventure.

Kamila, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ever since the first grade living in a world of Communism… a world seemingly devoid of warmth and beauty… I felt I was yanked from a world of peace, calm, joy and love and dropped into a pressure cooker of having to comply and adhere to rules. A world where I had to compete and fight for myself in the hopes of finding any sense of innocent happiness.

So in order to achieve success… I knew I had to become a top student… where I found myself in the education pressure cooker from elementary school until University when I was a student at Gdansk Polytechnic. I studied 24/7 to get the best grades possible and my education became an obsession of stress and pressure… knowing that one day… this was going to be the ticket out of Communist Poland.

And then…upon finally immigrating to the US… my new obsession was molding myself into the most efficient and proficient business woman possible… where I had to fight and claw for everything in order to succeed in a world… when a young blond woman with ambition and an accent seemed foreign to most of my peers.

Seems I was constantly fighting just to be relevant and with the continued obsession of achieving personal and financial success. And certainly… I was well rewarded for my efforts… however years later… I eventually ended up on the brink of exhaustion and illness… alone in a glamorous hotel room on a business trip… wondering if this was all life had to offer. So I took a pause and started painting to find myself and to find my connection to that lost place of eternal serenity and pure joy… that is now… always within me… which is why I want to share my artwork with you today.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

After immigrating to the US, I became obsessed with career and success and working tirelessly… all hours of the day… to achieve my goals. While all this is very admirable and great and actually resulted in financial success, it also got me to the place where I was totally exhausted, on the brink of serious illness and feeling empty, wondering if that was all there was in life.

As a young immigrant I learned that working hard allowed me to get ahead in life but as a result I became more of a “human doing” instead of being a “human being” respecting the need for balance in life. This is definitely a lesson I had to unlearn as I realized that life is more than just becoming successful and what matters is being in touch with life and flowing with the current of life. This change led me to have a much happier and healthier life full of peace, calm, joy and love.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Art is the ultimate transformation of energy… from the intangible energy of the artist to the tangible object, the painting, back to the invisible energy of the viewer experiencing emotions when they see the artwork.

The ability to share positive emotions and seeing people reacting positively to the artwork which brings them happiness and triggers good memories, is priceless and for me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist. Creating art, I share my happiness with others which is a way for me to make the world a slightly better place… one smile at a time… one painting at a time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kamilakowalke.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kamilakowalkeart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kamilakowalkeart/