A NEW LIFE
and all that jazz...
Life is a Cabaret Old Chum, Come to the Cabaret
If a musical represented your life, which one would you choose? What is your story about? Do you like it? Are you captivated or bored by the drama? Do you love or loathe the lead character? Do you admire the set? Are the songs uplifting and passionate or depressing and dull?
Do you believe in your script or are you just plodding through the lines in the hope that you will get there in the end? Yes, life is a cabaret my friend - and if you hate what you have put on stage you can change it or shut down the production and start again. Is this easy? Most unlikely. Is this possible? Absolutely.
I knew what I wanted from an early age. I wanted Magic, Excitement, Glamour and Passion. I knew for certain that it wasn’t in Tamworth, New South Wales - the place of my birth, early influences and even earlier corruptions. No wonder I fell head over heels in love with the musical. At the age of 8, I was taken to see Evita which was the result of pleading with and pestering my patient mother and so I learnt early on that tears, trauma and charm was a characteristic of those who got their own way.
I will never forget that first moment when the curtain went up. I was enchanted and totally transported. It was the beginning of a love affair that has endured all of my life. I believe life should be like that too. In my case, my life hasn’t always been a runaway success. I have changed the shows several times. I have had to close down productions that I really liked because they did not work and walk away from successful ones because they worked too well yet did not make me happy.
What qualifies me to be producer, director, script writer, set manager, stage director and then take the starring role in my own musical? Chutzpah, outrageous talent, bare-faced cheek or monumental ego? It all helps. What helps more though is dedication, hard work and self belief. Ego has its place and it
helps a great deal when your performance is less than perfect and the critics have given you withering reviews.
Along the way I have had to get over myself and a hell of a lot of people too. I have created three highly successful businesses in three completely different industry sectors and now I have also created a life and lifestyle that I love with people that I love. I run a thriving guest house, restaurant and bar on the tropical Thai island of Kho Samui called AKWA. This business draws together all of my experiences and skills gained from hospitality & banqueting, real estate and the signage business. I have a life partner and a son. I have lost a staggering amount of body weight in less than a year.
I have been to hell and back to get some shows up and running. I always had to learn on the job. Sometimes the jobs were impossible. Sometimes I was impossible. Yet most of all I have learnt that every experience teaches you something that you can put back into life and bad experiences are only mistakes when they happen more than once.
And it is this experience of life, loss and rebirth which has given me the ability and knowledge to create a successful business. I know how to start from scratch, I know how to let go, move on and I know how to start again.
Interestingly, all the best things in my life including the business opportunities came to me at the right time and in the right place. I have had to learn to trust my feelings, my intuition and ability to analyze the facts and separate them from the fantasy. I have had to pull myself away from wishful thinking and turn my wishes into creative thoughts and actions. Perhaps this law of attraction thing is about recognizing what is good for us and letting go of what isn’t.
What I know most of all about is how to create a new life. Sometimes we just have to tear down the set, throw out the script and start again because it just wasn’t working. That can be painful, scary, confusing and exciting. While you are doing that you have to sit tight and hold onto your nerves because when you make a big change it takes time for all the sediment to settle again after a mighty big shake up.
| A NEW LIFE "and all that jazz..." | ||
| By Timothy Andrew Schwan | ||
| With Catherine Dixon | ||
