We were lucky to catch up with Maria Musaelyan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
“Success” is a powerful word, it can be both inspiring and destructive. In today’s world, we are constantly chasing success—through followers, money, titles, and appearances. With success stories at our fingertips every day, it’s easy to feel as if you are not enough, or that unless you have the perfect body, or a million dollars your life is simply not enough. This is why I try to pursue success from a philosophical angle.
For me, success should begin with mental health. Ever since I was a child, I have been moving a lot, which frankly over time became addicting. This lifestyle gives you a different perspective of the world and teaches you to survive and thrive even in the chaos of consistent change. One of the biggest philosophies of success for me is the ability to embrace change, while also remaining true to yourself – the internal change should happen for the sake of growth.
Success is multidimensional; fulfilling all aspects of your life, not just your career. Therefore, I strive for balance in my career, hobbies, health, and relationships. It’s not easy, and there are days when I drastically fail. Don’t get me wrong, I am a workaholic, and reminding myself to slow down and pay attention to the whole picture, can be challenging. But I try.
If you can have a fulfilling career, a happy family, and good health while generating profits, then you are truly successful.
Maria, 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?
“Capturing the moment through the tunes of my camera” – this is what you are going to see in my Instagram bio and this is exactly what I do.
Ever since I was a child, I would lock my bedroom door, turn on the music, and come up with a concept for a film, music video, or a scene. I didn’t know what a script was or how movies are made, but I knew how to interpret an emotion on screen. That child came back to me screaming when I was in my mid-twenties, working in marketing, screaming so loud, that I couldn’t ignore it anymore – so I got a Master’s degree in TV and Producing, The child screamed again, and again until I realized that I need to share my vision, maybe the whole world won’t see it – but at least it will be out there.
I create videos, and after learning all of the traditional rules of video creation, filmmaking, and storytelling – I learned how to break them.
I am a one-woman show – I conceptualize, direct, and edit all on my own. I try to connect to my clients, and understand them personally – whether they are actors, dancers, musicians, models, or just people that want a cool video. When I direct, I try to make sure that everyone feels comfortable to express themselves – even if we go off script, I try not to stop. Capturing the moment is the most important part
My biggest goal is to make sure that the person in the video/ or the client – is enjoying themselves. The second biggest goal is viewer appreciation and most importantly I have to make sure that my inner child is content – otherwise, it doesn’t let me sleep. Ha!
All of my projects, regardless of the medium and genre have a secret main character – music. Currently, I am working on a short film, and let me tell you – before anything, I asked a composer to start working on the score. Without the music, even if visually compelling, it won’t be the same.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being creative means being free. You are free to express yourself, you live without the concept of time or norms – you just create. I think this is the biggest struggle of a creative person because this is not how the rest of the world works. So the most rewarding part, to me, is when your creative self can express itself and get even the tiniest recognition – this is exactly what my upcoming film is about (wink, wink).
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think everyone is creative, even if people don’t identify as one. Creativity lives in the smallest moments of our most mundane everyday lives: we cook, we decorate, we dress up, we tell stories every time we express ourselves to people. The difference is some people do all of these creative everyday things, but don’t pay too much attention to them (or maybe just don’t allow themselves) – it’s us, the self-proclaimed creatives, that see the significance of those moments and make something out of it.
With that said, I think the most confusing part of my journey is that I don’t follow the direct path of a crazy genius or the path of the so-called “non-creative” person. I build stability so that my crazy genius doesn’t have any boundaries and my vision is shared. I also have my own timeline, which is something that is hard for some people to understand, frankly, sometimes I don’t understand the internal clock of the genius, but I learned how to respect it – why follow the path of millions when you can do things your way?
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