We recently connected with Lenni Uitto and have shared our conversation below.
Lenni, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
In the Finnish culture there is a word that is what I feel best encompasses resilience. “Sisu” which is loosely translated as having grit, or tenacity to never give up and push forward even when everything pushes back against you. My father taught me the importance of sisu. As he was born and raised in Finland. Watching him day to day working to do a lot of great things in his lifetime showed me the importance to have resilience always. Now it’s just something I don’t even think about. I just constantly move forward with that purpose to accomplish what I set my mind to.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m a lot of things but what I enjoy doing and that fulfills me the most is the creative arts specifically telling stories. As an Actor and a Director I get to tell stories that can have an impact on the audience and make them ponder some of the more important matters of humanity. I finished making my feature film “Permafrost” which is about a bounty hunter in a frozen world where he hunts people that have warrants placed on them. But never do we show what those people did. But he knows deep down that what he is doing is wrong. But it isn’t till he saves a little girl and takes on the role as her protector that he begins to realize where his life took a wrong turn.
The movie is about finding the redemptive path even when you hit rock bottom in life. And I think anyone can relate to that to some degree. It will be hitting streaming platforms before the end of 2023.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Humility – being humble allows you to find how to improve your self. With every project I’ve done there has always been some kind of learning process through it or after it. And being humble allows you to take a close look at your own faults and improve. Which is vital to any journey.
Tenacity – the ability to get done whatever comes your way. Even the tasks that are the most mundane, boring or hard to do. Require a mental and physical tenacity that if you don’t develop it early on can make everything harder.
Flexibility – be flexible. Not everything will go as you plan it. Sometimes you have to bend a little to accomplish the task. If you keep that in mind the rest will work out.
Lastly I’d say try to find the love in everything. Working with people requires understanding people and finding the love will help to overcome a lot of obstacles you encounter.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’m always looking for my tribe. One of the ways to find those people is through collaboration on projects. . I think the secret to doing this is finding someone that is passionate about what they do. It’s a large indication as to their true intentions. And someone that truly loves what they do is a force to be reckoned with. Best way to collaborate is to reach out. My current composer I’ve worked with on 7 projects so far simply emailed me and reached out. I gave the opportunity a chance and it turned out to be one of the best opportunities I’ve had in this journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: Xelotfilm.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lenniuitto
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/lenniu
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/xelotfilm
