Lisa Macuja's 'Tutu' Cents

I had the pleasure of listening to Philippines' Prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde when she shared her success story to college students last month.

As expected, her journey to the center of the stage was not smooth-sailing. At 14, she knew she wanted to pursue ballet (contrary to her parents desires.) She convinced them to give her two years to complete ballet training in communist Russia. If that didn't work out, she promised to return here and attend formal school.

"Like starting in arithmetic and getting thrown to calculus," was how she recalled her beginnings in ballet. Being the only neophyte among advanced European students, she said that her teacher cried in frustration, "they gave me a monkey from the Philippines."

When she returned home at 16, Lisa said she wasn't casted in her first production but she knew better than to cry. Looking back, she said that situation made her "work even harder." 

Fast forward to 2017 when Lisa has officially retired from ballet but still actively runs Ballet Manila.

Through all those years, here is how Lisa sums up her journey:

• Follow your heart, it will never leave you astray
• Ask yourself, "What am I willing to sacrifice?" Be willing to pay the price of your dreams
• When you wake up in the morning and you don't look forward to what you're doing that day, it's time to quit
• Sustain and maintain even after you have achieved so much
• Writers leave behind books; singers, songs; composers, score; artists, paintings; photographers, photographs. Dancers leave behind a memory--that moment when they are on stage. They perfect a moment without even saying a word
• There was a time when I wanted to give up the performance but there was never a time that I felt I wanted to give up ballet
• Follow Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule. You need to dedicate at least 10,000 hours of your life to achieve mastery in a field.

Aside from being a world renowned performer, Lisa is also a generous life coach. With her toes on point and numb from pain, she is willing to share life lessons that she picked up along the way. This 'storyteller on toes' knows that pain will cease and will give way to a perfect performance.