You have said that dreaming is your strongest driving force. Looking more broadly at the creative or entrepreneurial landscape, how do you distinguish between a beautiful dream and those dreams that are truly worth reshaping your life for?

I do not see myself as someone who makes vision boards and moves step by step toward some big goal. I have mostly done things that spoke to me at the time, and only in hindsight has it become clear that some of those were the dreams that truly came to life.

If I can distinguish anything from my own experience, it is the difference between a dream that genuinely comes from within you and a dream that comes from what you think you should want. In my case, all the dreams I have realized have been deeply connected to what truly matters to me, such as creativity and self-expression. Whether it is music, design, photography, video, or work, the same core is always there underneath.

I have never dreamed of becoming the most famous rapper in the world or building a company that changes the entire world. Since that is not my inner priority, I have also not made the compromises that such goals truly require. If someone wants to become a top-level athlete or a global entrepreneur, that is completely fine, but it has to genuinely be something they are willing to give up other parts of life for. If it is not a real priority for you, then it remains just a beautiful dream.

If you dream of something that does not actually carry you, sooner or later, the energy to make it real will also disappear. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. Not what others think of you or which role or identity seems attractive, but whether this thing truly speaks to you, even when no one is watching. If the answer is yes, there is a strong chance it will not remain just a nice idea but will also take on a real-life form.

When we talk about design, music, or entrepreneurship, inspiration is only half the story, the other half is discipline. What is your habit that helps turn dreams into reality?

For me, discipline has never been something I consciously force on myself. If I am honest, the classic self-motivation talk, schedules, and productivity hacks have never really worked for me. For me, discipline tends to emerge more as a byproduct of genuinely caring about something.

When something interests me, I do not have to force myself, it just happens. I can come home from work and spend several more hours on a project without it feeling like work.

Routine is much more important to me than motivation. When something becomes a routine, the mental noise around it disappears. A good example is running. When I first started, it felt completely absurd, like why would anyone voluntarily run? Today, it is a part of my day, like brushing my teeth. If you have to decide every single time whether you are going to do something or not, you spend an enormous amount of energy before you even start.

I have also noticed that if a project requires constant self-forcing, it is often a sign that something is off. Not always, because discomfort is normal in growth, but at some point, it is worth pausing to consider whether this is really the right thing.

Are you familiar with the feeling of reaching a point where it seems impossible to move forward? How do you tell whether it is a temporary obstacle or a sign that the direction needs to change?

That feeling is familiar to me in creative work, music, and design. When you do something you truly enjoy, those walls do not really feel like walls. They are more like curves, and you realize that you cannot continue straight ahead.

A real wall appears for me when belief disappears. That is when the walls start to feel impenetrable. But even then, I have tried to find some angle that would interest me personally. For example, I might try a new camera setting or a technical solution and make an otherwise boring project interesting for myself. Then that wall usually breaks quite quickly as well.

When a young, early-stage entrepreneur starts alone and has to build their own brand, visual identity, or campaign, what should they think through for themselves, and how should they begin searching for creative inspiration to generate good ideas?

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is starting immediately with solutions. You see a cool brand or campaign somewhere and think that you want something similar too, the vibe, dark visuals, a certain aesthetic, a specific feeling. This might even work for a small project, but if you want to build something long-term, it usually does not last.

For me, everything always starts with the idea. You need a core from which everything else can grow. Only then can you start thinking about whether it is expressed through visual language, colors, a cinematic style, quotes, or whatever else. When that core is in place, finding solutions becomes much easier.

What I see very often is that people first focus on the visuals and only afterward try to add some content to it. In my experience, this does not work. It is backward logic. You create an appearance first, then justify it. In the long run, you very quickly reach a point where you no longer know why you are doing something or where to go next.

When it comes to searching for creativity, I think the problem is that we consume an enormous amount of visual noise. Brands, campaigns, and solutions are everywhere, and it's easy to take a ready-made form and start repeating it. But if you want something to last, you have to start from content, not form.

So my recommendation would be this: do not first ask what your brand looks like. Ask what it actually is, why it exists, and what genuinely speaks to you about it.

Brands also change over time, but can you say how much change is acceptable and when it starts to confuse people?

On this question, I tend to believe things should be done right from the beginning so they don't need to be constantly changed. I really like examples of brands that seem to change, but in reality do not change at all. Take Nike, for example. The logo is essentially the same, but everything around it lives and breathes with the times.

The same applies in music, where artists often change their names because they feel the original one no longer serves them. I have thought several times about changing the name Metsakutsu, because it no longer seems to reflect who I am today. But I have always realized that this very oddness is part of my character and brand. That distinctiveness is what people remember.

For me, it is important that a brand has a very clear core that does not change over time. Around that, you can freely play. You can change visuals, colors, campaign tones, use new faces, and react to trends without the brand itself disappearing.

The problem arises when people start changing that core. If your name, main direction, or sense of self changes every few years, people no longer know what to associate you with. So for me, change is fine as long as it keeps the brand relevant without breaking its identity.

Many people, including those who drive Porsches or run large companies, feel that they are not enough. What has your life experience taught you about this feeling?

I struggle with that feeling every day. At some point, it is no longer even healthy, yet I think it is very familiar to many people. Ideally, the biggest goal should be peace with yourself. I have not reached that point yet, and I am probably not an exception in this regard.

I imagine this feeling is especially strong in the startup world. It is like a constant sports competition. If you are in second place, then you are not enough. Even if you are second among millions, it is very easy to feel that it is not enough. From the outside, it's a bit absurd, but inside, it feels completely real.

If someone knows how to completely get rid of this feeling, they should tell me too. I have come to understand that it is about balance. If there is too little of this feeling, you become an egomaniac that no one wants to work with. If there is too much of it, you start to disappoint yourself and get stuck.
In a way, this feeling of not being enough is also a driving force. You see someone who does something better, and it pushes you to make an effort, learn, and develop. The question is: how to make this feeling work for you, rather than letting it consume you.

From a mental health perspective, the most important keyword for me is balance. I have seen people who put one hundred percent of themselves into their company and leave everything else aside. At some point, you reach a human limit beyond which this no longer benefits you or your company. You simply collapse, and everything else collapses with you.

In today’s world, where all this noise is so intense, it is especially difficult to hear that inner feeling that tells you when it is too much. But my experience says that when you feel you are not enough, sometimes the most helpful thing is to step away for a moment from the one thing that creates that feeling and do something else. Not to escape, but to restore balance.

Do you think you will ever get there?

Of course, I would like to believe that I will. I think it comes with age. When I look at older people around me and listen to how they talk, it seems that a certain calm simply comes with time.

When you are young, there is a very strong feeling that if everything does not happen right now, something will remain undone. There is a fear that if everything were to stop now, half of things would still be unfinished. But as you get older, that tension seems to slowly ease, and an understanding emerges that life does not have to be a constant effort.

I do believe that moment will come.

What is the most important thing that changed your understanding of what a good life means?

My understanding of a good life has been most influenced by one very practical change in my everyday life. That was when I turned running into a routine.

I very clearly remember a time when I did not see myself as a runner at all. I was collaborating with a running event, and someone suggested I try a five-kilometer run. I remember thinking at the time, why I should anyone do that at all, it seemed completely illogical. And now, ten years later, running is a completely natural part of my life, and its absence is immediately noticeable.

That experience made me believe that it is actually possible for a person to truly change their life, even when it feels like you are stuck in a pattern and that things cannot be any different. The person who once thought they would never run in their life and the person I am today are essentially two completely different people.

From that moment on, I understood that a good life does not only mean big goals or external achievements. It also means small, everyday habits that keep you balanced and give you a sense of control over your life. This realization, that change is possible, is what most changed my understanding of a good life.

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