Meet Styrmir Elí Ingólfsson

We recently connected with Styrmir Elí Ingólfsson and have shared our conversation below.

Styrmir Elí, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I have a lot of gratitude towards my mother and father in regards to my confidence and self-esteem.

I grew up with my mom, and my younger sister, Áróra, in a small town called Akureyri in the North of Iceland.
My mother was constantly pushing us to step out of the comfort zone and take risks. She was a very encouraging parent, while still allowing us to be perfectly ourselves. E.g. she would never push us to study hard, or force us to do any sport, but rather engage in conversation about whatever we might be studying to spark interest. While at the same time, she would give us a lot of responsibility at the household, e.g. keeping the kitchen clean, taking out the trash, going to the grocery shop, or even just waking up for school on our own. I think being treated as an adult from a young age, being responsible for yourself and your surrounding increases your self worth and confidence, as you feel like you have worked for something and are part of your community. She would also encourage us to dress and wear our hair anyway we wanted, which allowed us to develop our character and style.

Even though I did not live with my father, I spent a lot of time with him, specially in the summers. He is a very positive person, always thrilled with any success I would have in anything I do, whether it was a school assignment, sport, or any other accomplishments. He has always been a very proud father, and not been afraid to show it. He is that kind of person that carries his heart on his sleeve. He would for example, call my uncles, my grandmother, in excitement anytime I would score high on exams, without ever pressuring me one bit to study hard or be any kind of way. He would always celebrate my successess, without ever pushing me if not, and encourage me to not be afraid of failure.

To summarize I have always felt a lot of love from my parents, while also having responsibility and feeling encouraged to be myself and take risks. I think that really helped shape my confidence and self-esteem.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

For the past six months or so I’ve been working, along side my team in adopting a multi-media project we performed in New York earlier this year, into a feature film.

The piece was called Untitled, 1970 and was an integration of theatre and film.
The audience walked into a bitg loft apartment in Brooklyn, where they sat down in sofas, and love seats and followed the story of two roommates, while every time they would leave the apartment the story would continue on screen in film format.

It’s a story of male intimacy, friendship & grief.

We are taking the characters and themes from the performance and writing a new script that will go into production 2025.

You can read more about the project here on our webpage: https://insouciantfilms.com/untitled1970 or on my personal site styrmireli.com

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Persistence, ambition and creative problem solving.

Just keep going.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

100% I believe in using our strengths and outsourcing other work, where you might lack skill or knowledge.

If you are working on a project, or have something in development, you will always have a better outcome and work faster by having skillful people in that area join your team.That being said, it’s always good and useful to improve areas where a person is not strong, but by hiring people more skilled than you, you can learn from them as you go.

I also believe that it is crucial to have trust in the people we hire, or decide to work with, and not to micro-manage.
Micro-management is the killer of motivation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://styrmireli.com
• Instagram: styrmireli

Image Credits

Mete Gultiken
Kyrre Kristoffersen
Phoebe Smolan