If I could really inspire a movement, it would be a “zero waste” movement. We are surrounded by sunlight all day every day, and that is an enormous amount of clean energy that leads to no waste. Living on a touristic island where there are so many hotels and restaurants, I see the amount of food that we throw in the bin every day. It’s not hard to think environmentally. Little changes that we personally all personally do every day can lead to great things for the whole of the planet.
As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Olivier Mamet.
Olivier Mamet was born in Mauritius Island, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and was. Olivier was raised raised in an idyllic setting amongst between coconuts and palm trees. At the age of 18, he left his home to study in Australia, subsequently earning a degree in and holds an accounting and business law, as well as a Master’s degree in film. He started opened his TV production company, out of the box productions,” in 2008, and in 2017, he moved back to Mauritius to foundisland and founded a company called Sandbox Consulting.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?
So, I was born in a small island with a total population of just over 1 million people, I was raised by loving parents and spent most of my time running on the beach and fishing or playing in the sea. If I wasn’t outside, I would be in the TV room, watching movies rented from the local video store. I realized early on that I had a deep passion for films and filmmaking in general. When I left home to study abroad, I enrolled into a program for an accounting and business law degree, thinking it was the safest thing to do from a career perspective. Upon completion of the degree, I felt that it was time to go and try something that felt closer to what I wanted to do, and so therefore I enrolled in a Master’s of film and& Television program. I felt invigorated by those studies, not sure if it would lead to anything, but I sure had a lot of fun. Once I completed my Master’s, I found a job as a video editor, and after a while, I was named head of production of a small video production company. Once I completed mythe Master’s, I looked for a job as a video editor, and after a while, I was named head of production of a small video production company. That was an very interesting time because video was transitioning from tape and film to digital formats, and it required a restructuring of the whole process. Some jobs were not has time- heavy as before, and some jobs were almost becoming redundant. When the DSLRs came onto the market, I felt they would fill in a great gap in the corporate sector, and I left the company to open my own little production house with what I had saved up until that point. After almost 10 years of trading and creating visual products, I sold half of the company and moved back to Mauritius with my wife to be closer to the family, and I opened Sandbox Consulting.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think they at will help people?
At the moment, we are working on an amazing project. We are about to shoot a feature film in Mauritius called Out of the Tower. It is a great indie film that will start production in May 2020.
In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?
I think nowadays, the most important factor for a company is the speed and the quality of service. We all dream of having a “purple cow” product. ,A a product that everyone needs and wants and where that you are the only company being able to produce it. But realistically, most companies will rely on their quality of service to make the difference.
I think that knowledge holds a lot of power. Knowledge can also take many forms.
- Knowledge of who to contact to solve your problem
- Knowledge of how to make something
- Knowledge of how not to mess up something.
Nowadays, the internet makes knowledge accessible to anyone. Therefore, you cannot take a stance where your product or service can only be provided by only you.
For example, a couple of years ago, you had to drive to a restaurant to be able to order some fancy French food., Nowadays, you can simply follow search for the recipes online, find the one with the most 5- star reviews and you are now empowered to marked that recipe yourself. That piece of knowledge probably took a lot of sweat and trial and errors from someone at some point in time, but now this knowledge is for anyone with an internet connection.
So, if you are in an industry where knowledge and innovation is are not the key criteria into for selling your product or service, then you can only rely on quality, speed and price.
This is what my company is about, : quality, reliability and response time.
Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share thate story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?
Going into film studies was a big turning point for me as I am from a very small island and film is not something that you can do in any way, shape or form as a job there. From the start of my studies and for a big chunk of my first starting years, I was only met with laughter and naysayers. My dream was to shoot a feature in Mauritius, a feature with a recognizable name at the helm but also in front of the camera. Most people thought it was a very funny silly dream and didn’t fail to share their amusement at the idea.
It didn’t really affect me as I could understand where they were coming from. I mean, chances were extremely thin, and there was no path visible from most points of views. I just felt that the path had to be created through hard work and persistence. Going in a direction that no one takes is extremely hard. For one, you’re get mostly met with rejections and laughter,s and you need to find the mental fortitude to keep going and keep your head down.
For my part, I must say that the key difference is my wife and parents, who have been supportive from the start. Every time, I wanted to give up, they would throw that little bit of extra positive energy that I needed to get back to the drawing board and keep pushing.
In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂
Well, the movie is fully funded, the director is secured, and the shooting schedule has been set for May 2020, so I would say so. that the naysayers are well and truly being proven wrong.
So, hopefully it will be in theaters before mid- 2021.
None of us are is able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards to who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would like to thank my wife and family for their support. Any entrepreneurial exercise is not easy. You often feel alone, even if you are surrounded by people. Rejection and disappointments are not easy to cope with when you are subjected to them at over a long period of time. I was able to get through that with the help of these people.
I would like as well to point out that anyone you meet on that path you’rethat you creating for yourself is really important. So, everyone I met up to this point has also helped in some capacity.
It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliencey? Can you share the story with us?
I think character has a lot to do within how you navigate those turns. I have a tendency to laser focus on something and feel uninterested with everything else. So, I am naturally resilient. This is a double- edged sword because it takes a lot of efforts to do something that I have no interest in.
It also can be a very dangerous character trait. Resilience is something that helps me achieve things that most people give up on, …but it also contributes to a lot of mental problems. I tend to see the same patterns with other entrepreneurs I speak to. Resilience means not letting go,… and sometimes it becomes a health hazard. Resilient people will cling on to their dreams by the skin of their teeth ifs that is all they have left to cling onto. This can lead to anxiety and depression as you put your body through such extreme stress. Your surroundings cannot help you that much either as well because you are so focused on not letting go of whatever you set your sights on to that you take yourself subject yourself out of normal life and end up focusing solely on that. You end up opening fictitious imaginary doors that leads to dark places, and once you find those doors, it is very difficult to ignore the fact that they are there. Also, not everyone who walks through darkness makes it out, …so you need to listen to what your body is telling you.
You need to learn to let things go, …but as it turns out, resilient people tend to do the opposite is the contrary of that resilient people will do. So, whatever you learn in resilience, you also need to learn to listen to what your body is telling you. Dreams are not achieved in a day and, therefore, it is ok to set things aside for some time and come back to it at later stages.
Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to be more tenacious harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each.)
Here are 5 of my most important strategies.
- When you want to climb the Mount Everest, you don’t look at the top of the mountain,. you look at the your next step you need to make. So, focus on small achievable goals that leads towards your bigger one.
- Stay hopefully and always look at the bright side. Getting rejected and disappointed is like death and taxes, it is inevitable. So, remember, it only takes one yes to jump to another step.
- Approbation is not something to look for. Remember, you are creating your own path. It is not paved within fast food outlets and gas stations. You will get hungry, you will get cold, and hoping that strangers or friends will “root for you” is a luxury that will probably not happen. (or help you, asfor a matter of fact).
- Always ask questions, hear what people have to say. Even if it ends up not being what you wanted to hear or you feel it is a worthless, anything can spark an idea. So, remain open and receptive to things.
- Learn to know yourself, learn to ground yourself and be mindful.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
At the start of my career, my favourite quote was:
“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
― Angela Duckworth
You can see so many people give up and follow the beaten track, so this quote especially resonated that it reflected with me. Nowadays, my favourite quote is:
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
― Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven
Resilience is about bending in and out to achieve what you are resilient about in the first place. Don’t be like the oak, as you are bound to break one day.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good tofor the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I could really inspire a movement, it would be a “zero waste” movement. We are surrounded by sunlight all day every day, and that is an enormous amount of clean energy that leads to no waste. Living on a touristic island where there are so many hotels and restaurants, I see the amount of food that we throw in the bin every day. It’s not hard to think environmentally. Little changes that we personally all personally do every day can lead to great things for the whole of the planet.
Can our readers follow you on social media?
Of course: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivier-mamet-6a333213/
Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!
Olivier Mamet: “If I could inspire a movement, it would be a “zero waste” movement” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.