Luis Munana: Guts, Camera, Action

Luis Munana’s journey has taken him from his hometown of Rundu to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list of groundbreaking entrepreneurs around the world.

An all-round creative, his star has continuously risen from his time in the Big Brother Africa house, to his days as a catwalk king in London, where he walked the runway at London Fashion Week. These experiences, as well as his work as a television presenter and producer, came because Luis hasn’t been afraid to go against the grain and trust his own instincts.

My mom taught me not to talk about myself like that, not to brag, but for the interview’s sake I guess I have to say something. I don’t want to box myself into a specific industry or just one thing that I do, but to the world I am an international model, a TV producer and an events organiser – those are some of the titles. And a financial analyst, if you’d have me go into the corporate world.

Believe it or not, I was an introvert. I was that kid who was always helping the teacher, writing down the names of the naughty kids. I was class captain. I come from a very Christian family. Automatically, we had to adapt and fall in line because as a preacher’s child, you had to lead a life that set an example for others. It came quite naturally. People from church surrounded us and at home we had a good upbringing. I mean, my parents did the best they could.

I’ve always known that there is something bigger out there and I’ve always known that you have to take the next step. The plan was to do well in school, get good grades and go to Windhoek eventually. After Windhoek, the next step was to go to South Africa. After South Africa, it was to go to the States or Europe. That was always the plan.

Yes, that’s one thing I can tell you for sure. I always wanted a career change and to see the world.

Since we are on a public platform, we have to watch what we post because no matter what you say, there are people watching, people following, people listening. You drive certain perceptions by the things you post and the things you say, so if you are using that platform to tear someone down, you are automatically giving an instruction to thousands of people that are following you to do the same thing.

I’d say there is one thing that we have all been given – that’s the gift of free will. Free will is your instinct, your gut. Usually, as human beings, there is a little voice inside of us, talking to us and telling us that this is wrong, this is right. But, as we grow up, there’s noise. The noise starts to come from your parents, from your teachers, from your elders, and then there is too much noise and you start to forget who you are inside.

My advice would be that you have to connect to that voice, you have to go with your gut. Your gut is never wrong, trust me. So my advice would be to listen to your gut, listen to your instincts, because that’s your GPS, that’s your compass – it leads you in the right direction.

– Master Your Destiny

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