2024-04-14 10:25:49
Modest organizes a barbecue festival, is the leader of a scout group, organizes and conducts events, is a volunteer of the Lithuanian army, and his most famous achievements are the Lithuanian records as the person who has stayed covered in ice for the longest time. The freshest activity is furniture production. Two more projects are on the way, about which Modest does not want to talk more. “They are related to tourism. It’s very broad, but for now, I don’t want to talk about it until it’s fully confirmed. Tourism is a great area that, in my opinion, is not fully exploited in Zarasai. I see a lot of opportunities here,” says the interviewer.
The man does not hide that he is currently so immersed in various activities that he has minimal time for his family: “It doesn’t sound like much, but I think that a person needs to go through all the changes. Each of us has a stage when we no longer have time for close people. Now is the time for me.
We live in a changing space, so deviations in work, life style or even values are very normal. We can use it and change it if we want to – probably never before has mankind had such an opportunity. I’m not afraid to change anymore, so I take it boldly. What’s the worst that could happen? Will you lose money? But you will earn them.”
A man from a single yard, 18 years old. lived in Vilnius
The two moved to Zarasus, the birthplace of his wife Agnes, from Vilnius four years ago. “Maybe not everyone likes it, but probably from the first day I moved here, I consider myself a Zarasian. And I’m not from Vilnius – I’m a person from a small village who lived in Vilnius for 18 years. I imagined that I really needed the city. I imagined that the only city suitable for me was Vilnius. But after 18 years I realized that I don’t want him anymore, that I want nature”, says M.Stumbrys.
For him, lakes are much better than the sea, the most wonderful tree is the pine tree, which grows in abundance around Zarasi. In Zarasai there are parks, a lot of untouched nature.
As Modest says, very often plans remain plans, but the coronavirus pandemic was one of the reasons for him and his wife Agne to make a faster decision to move from the capital to a quieter place. The bison lived near one of the main arteries of Vilnius – Geležinios vilkos street. Modest says that at the time he was looking for real estate, the apartment he looked at was among the top three closest to Vingis Park. “But when I started spending two, three or four hours here, something had to change. That’s how Zarasai appeared in our life,” says the man.
Coincidence brought me with my best friend
Another transformation in Modesto’s life is inseparable from the move – from a person in the field of education, communication, and advertising he became a furniture designer: he has been designing, manufacturing and installing furniture himself for four years.
“I don’t call it a furniture business. I think that you become an entrepreneur when you no longer interfere in processes and others do all the work for you. For me, furniture making is a craft. In general, the craft is undeservedly written off. The impression is that a craftsman must be tired of life, a man oppressed by suffering, because only through suffering can he turn his craft into money. Not even money, but coins. And for me, craftsman is an honorable name for a person”, says M.Stumbrys.
For most of his life, before he started making furniture, he was creating a product that you couldn’t hold in your hands. It was work in the field of training, advertising, communication. Furniture appeared in a man’s life completely unexpectedly.
“I remember: I didn’t do anything for two months – I had a plan to turn my brain to cold and figure out what I was going to do next. I really wanted to start producing something so that people could evaluate my product on the table, and not judge from reports how this or that advertising message worked. I was burnt out – I had my own advertising agency, most recently I was working as a freelancer.
We arrived to pick up a package, and a man with a T-shirt that said “BET furniture” jumped in line in front of me. It turns out that this is the husband of his wife’s childhood friend,” says the interviewer.
Modest, as he says himself, offered the man an unrealistic plan – to teach him how to make furniture in half a year and still pay him a salary for it. Modest promised to open his workshop in half a year.
“At first they laughed – after all, they were preparing a competitor for themselves. But a week later he called: “You came to me with open cards, so if the offer is still interesting, I want to see what will come of it.” Edgar has been my best friend for five years now, we call every day – more often than with my mother. And we weren’t even competitors – our beams don’t intertwine at all,” says M. Stumbys.
This year is the first year when Modest is making furniture together with a colleague. Worked alone until now.
“I strongly believe that you have to wait for yours: the right time must come, the circumstances must be right. I got my man – he is my second best friend. We met during the competition – we represent the Zarasai company in the military competition. He is from the construction sector. It is close to furniture production, only millimeters and microns are important in furniture production, which is not always important in construction. We communicated a lot, we have a lot of common vision of the world. I’m so glad I waited for this person because I don’t want to work with idiots that you can’t talk to or have to pick topics for. It is very important to me”, Modest explains his point of view.
He came to the record looking for a solution to the problem
According to him, life is a sequence of coincidences. The records in the ice, says the interviewer, were also the result of coincidences.
Mr. Stumbrys set a record as the person who stayed covered in ice for the longest time. One time he spent about 30 minutes in it, the other – 45 minutes and 4 seconds. And while still lying in the ice bath, he gave the longest, about 11 minutes. long, interview.
The man discovered ice when he was looking for ways to treat skin problems. “I tried a lot of creams, medicines, spit on everything and “googled” – I found that maybe cold water, the so-called cold therapy, would help. Of course, there is self-suggestion, self-motivation, the placebo effect – a good cocktail was made, so I felt that it was good almost from the first days”, says M. Stumbrys.
After taking one step, there was another: Modest became interested in tempering, breathing. So slowly it came to the record, then to the second, third… Will there be a fourth?
“After the first record, I told my mother that I wouldn’t do it again, but I did it anyway,” the man says, adding that he really likes the US record culture, when people set out to achieve all kinds of records. Modest says – after all, you can do that anywhere you go. Jump the most times with a tomato in your hands – and that’s a record, after all, no one has done it yet.
“When you understand how it all works, it becomes very interesting.” The latest record, which we achieved last year in Zarasai with Petrus Šiaučiūnas, is the longest barbecue (6.01 meters).
But training for a record is not fun: it takes a lot of energy, time, and sweat. You’re not happy about that: suffer suffer suffer… And after that one – and it’s over: you can train for a year and reach the record in 10 seconds.
Perhaps the construction of a monument to oneself is also important for some. But, in my opinion, the process of preparing for the record is also important, climbing the steps, realizing that you have improved”, Modest thinks.
Not the last stop yet
The man says: when you look at other unhappy people, it seems that he himself is very happy. Nothing more would be needed. But, according to Modesto, a person is always missing something. So he already says: furniture production is hardly his last stop.
“The worst thing that can happen to a homestead is swans made of tires. But when you ask if making furniture is the final stop, you can’t know anything – maybe one day I’ll make swans out of tires,” he laughs, adding that he dreams of starting to work with wood.
But there is also the thought of restoring furniture: so much is produced in the world that one should start thinking about repair, remaking, and not always making new ones. But, says M.Stumbrys, you still need to mature before that.
And for now, he makes furniture for people located in and around Zarasai. “Compared to other furniture manufacturers, I am very mandras. I used to go to Vilnius and Kaunas, now I don’t go anywhere anymore – I only do it here. In addition, I am not focusing on the cheapest segment, because this is the segment where you need to work with the cheapest raw materials, and I really don’t like it skinny“, says Modest.
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2024-04-14 10:25:49