We are created to work for pleasure, not for survival

Introduce yourself in a few sentences..

I am Deana Hristova, artist by soul with a long-standing connection to the stage of folk art. A visionary who has actively entered the business circles in the last two years. My work around the associations “Mission Homeland” in Bulgaria and “Societas Bulgarica” in Austria directed me towards digital design, marketing, and advertising. Fields in which I discovered my strength to create and be useful. My ambition is to meet my creative beginnings with an entrepreneurial approach to build sustainable and inspiring projects for our society. I believe that a dream is a starting point, but through consistency and drive, it becomes an urgent and achievable goal.

What did you dream of becoming in your childhood years?

When I was 3 years old, my mother gave me a choice between classical ballet and folk dances. After an important family conversation about my future career, I started with initial steps in folklore while still in kindergarten.

Not long after, I went out for the first time in front of an audience in our capital and I remember every moment of the experience. I made mistakes in the choreography and that was the reason for my tears backstage, and my mom asked me if I would continue to dance. My answer was categorical: “I want to be on stage for my whole life!”. Yes, back then my childhood dream was to be a dancer and I achieved it in the next 16 years. During high school, I started to travel outside Bulgaria, I was also a soloist in the ensemble where I developed as a person and artist.

At what age did you earn your first money? Tell us an interesting story?

I was 12 when one of our rehearsal days the choreographer entered the hall and shared that a few children would be chosen to dance at an upcoming wedding. I remember that I underestimated this information because there were many older and more capable than me, but I didn’t stop giving my best. That’s how I was raised. After a few days, together with 3 other boys, I counted the seconds before my first solo dance in life. Fateful or not, my role was that of a butterfly, with which I proudly earned my first 20 leva.

What are the main factors and examples that shape us as individuals at an early age and form our interests? What is your recipe for curiosity, sources, and wells of information and inspiration at this stage of our human development?

Experience and mistakes, which I love to call lessons. I am grateful that I was never raised through ultimatums, but with choices. In this way, a child learns to think more flexibly, to realize the weight of consequences when making decisions, and to feel the satisfaction of achieving freedom through much effort. The family environment is of utmost importance for the formation of individuality at an early stage. Sports are another inevitable factor. Through the prism of time, I realized that dancing is the last thing I learned in the hall. There I acquired skills that I still apply in my daily life and work. I learned how to stand up for myself at a young age, how to survive in a team amidst the differences of so many characters, but also to preserve my own.

Consistency and discipline turned out to be a more powerful weapon than inspiration. It is precisely on them that I rely today. I don’t always wake up with a clear plan and ambition, but I know my direction and continue to follow it regardless of the temptations along the way, and my sources of ideas and motivation are my mentors, time spent in nature, and my travels.

Has there been any significant change in your perceptions in a more mature age about what motivates you to do or not do something?

Certainly perceptions change with the years and I am convinced that more metamorphoses await me. I look forward to them with anticipation, but I don’t think the established system of principles is subject to compromise.

I believe that a promise is kept, freedom and success exist and appear when you are ready for them, because they are titles that do not exclude themselves and are carried with honor and dignity. And these ethical values are acquired not by the absence of mistakes (lessons), but rather by the way challenges and deviations from the chosen path are overcome.

Whose decision was it where to pursue higher education and what to study? Was this decision correct, looking at today?

Six years ago, I decided to move to Vienna independently, and thanks to the unconditional support of my mother and grandmother, this intention was realized. First I dedicated myself to learning the German language, as my level was not sufficient. I continued my academic development at the University of Vienna with a major “Media and Communications“. However, in the first semesters the pandemic seriously affected the educational process. Later it became necessary to temporarily return to Bulgaria for an indefinite period. Upon my return to Vienna my mental and physical state were seriously deteriorated.

Then a significant change occurred in my life that marked the end of traditional academic education at that moment for me. It began a true self-discovery. A process of two years of meeting myself. Life turned out to be the strictest, but also the most faithful professor, and I its diligent student. Today, having discovered my new passion in the world of design, I immerse myself diligently in training, which I perceive as an absolutely correct continuation.

Share more about your interests, knowledge, skills, and hobbies?

Multifunctionality has been cultivated in me by good example. My interests are still very diverse. I love to communicate with people, to listen and analyze their stories. That’s why I adore traveling and encountering different cultures and nations. Horses are my greatest love and riding is a way to restart my mind, to disconnect in silence. Adrenaline is an inseparable part of my life and practicing all kinds of extreme sports while on the road is a must. In my free time, most often in the evening, I write. Since I was little, I have kept diaries, create scripts and collect them in one folder, while poetry is a means of relaxation. Dancing at this stage is an instrument for overcoming difficult moments.

Would you change your profession today and which fields of activity capture your interest?

I wouldn’t change anything on my path so far and I continue to work for the aforementioned title – freedom in every sense. Marketing, advertising, and social entrepreneurship are my current field of development and I identify with them.

They say that personal branding is everything that people say about you when you are not in the same room with them. What would you like to hear today?

“She is your person!”

I am a fan of meaningful communication, trust, people with a mission and purpose ready to help and find a way out of every situation. I hope to be such a person for someone.

Emotional intelligence, adaptability, and flexibility, as well as our soft skills are key conditions for success in recent years. How do you cope with daily life challenges to stay in good shape and mood?

I am learning to experience every emotion, to let it pass through me and to remember it with a lesson or a smile. This helps me unlock my senses for goodness, aesthetics, good food, shared time and their value, as well as to avoid extremes.

What are the most important conclusions you have made so far for maintaining proper communication considering the different characters of the people you meet daily – colleagues, friends, close ones?

Everyone wants to be understood and deserves a chance. Sometimes it is particularly difficult to abstract from ego, complex, pride, or prejudices, but they will not open the door to our interlocutor so that we can be heard. I try to turn my communication with people into a healing process. This way, everyone benefits and learns something new, and our words are given to us to use thoughtfully. I wish we could normalize vulnerability as a sign of trust and dedication to each other, not to take advantage of someone else's weakness.

What do you think about money? What is their influence on your life? What is your advice to people who often ask themselves questions related to money and how sufficient they are?

People have different ideas of sufficiency according to the turnover of life and our needs in it. Money is a necessity nowadays and the easiest test for a person and their foundations. They can also be viewed as energy, which thanks to a built name, hard work, competence, and constant development, encourages results with abundance.

What is the most valuable career advice you would give to people?

Do not settle for circumstances, they are a test. We are created to work for pleasure, not for survival. Manifestation happens in the process of jumping beyond the limits in our heads. There lies the true calling of each one of us.