INA, WHAT IS THE SECRET OF YOUR SUCCESS?
I am a woman. But, joking apart….. I think that if you are doing what you enjoy and love what you are doing, you’re already on the right track. Of course, you should never give up on yourself and the ideas in which you believe. Sometimes have to take a step backwards to take a fresh start and give it another try. Sooner or later, your perseverance will be rewarded.
WHAT DOES „SUCCESS“ MEAN TO YOU?
I take it you mean job-related success. Well, those who believe that success lies in gaining material benefits, will never be successful. Only those who are prepared to accept responsibility, who feels an obligation to other people, will achieve what I would call success. I only became successful by helping my business partners, my many nail designers, so that they could satisfy their customers.
I would go so far as to say, „make their customers happy“.
WHAT WAS A KEY FACTOR IN YOUR SUCCESS?
My parents mainly – they were always there for me, gave me love and confidence. And of course my home. But there were always people like Christian Cesar, my friends, my business partners, my customers and many other people I’ve grown fond of.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
Yes, because I am working with people who trust me and even love me. Is love and trust not the most wonderful form of success that you can have? I have achieved all the goals that can be achieved in this industry. But my main goal will always be to make my business partners happy.
HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES?
If you are happy, you can make others happy too. If you have goals, you can show goals to other people. I once said to a good friend, if you are passionate, you can release the passion in others. I think it is the honesty and the love of what you do.
WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON POVERTY?
The only true poverty is the poverty of a heart that is unable to love.
A person who loves and is loved is never really poor.
WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON GIVING AND RECEIVING?
My parents always used to say to me: taking will never make you rich, but giving will. When I help you, I help myself. When I give to you, I give to myself. Material things will eventually be taken from us. But we never lose the experience of having given.
HOW IMPORTANT IS LOVE TO YOU?
How important is water for fish and air for birds? Love is the essence of life. It does not matter if the moment of love lasts a minute, an hour, or a whole lifetime. You always experience love in the present. You can love the sunset, but it must leave before you can experience and love the sunrise.
Only someone who loves themselves can love others honestly. Love makes no demands and asks no questions. Love does not frighten you or put you under pressure. Love is unconditional. It does not blame. If you have been allowed to experience this love, even for a moment, you hold on to this experience forever.
WHAT IS YOUR VOCATION?
To me, a vocation is something that is more or less imposed on you. But everything that I do or have done – and still do – has been because I like people. That is something that I have never been told to do.
DOES MONEY MAKE YOU HAPPY?
An artist is worth his hire. He has his bills to pay. But does it make him happy? No, applause is what makes him happy. How many people with money are unhappy? You cannot buy happiness. No, love and trust are what make me happy. Money just pays the bills.
ARE YOU HAPPY?
I would prefer not overuse the word. I love and am loved, I have very many people whom I trust and who trust me. Yes, I am happy.
WHAT DOES LUXURY MEAN TO YOU?
Going for a coffee with friends now and then.
Luxury is what industry tries to persuade us it is: something we absolutely need to make us happy. But I understand what they are saying. So for me, meeting up with friends for a coffee is both a luxury and an enrichment, because I love being there for people. Consequently, luxury is an enrichment that everyone can afford.
IF YOU HAD ONE WISH, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
That everything continues as well as it has in the past.
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON AGEING; ARE YOU AFRAID OF GETTING OLD?
No, because everyone around me is getting older too. But if I had to choose between being young and age (experience), being young would have no chance.
I am not one of those women who claim they feel like 35. I am 57, and I feel like 57 – and I am doing fine. The last 10 years were the best of my life; I couldn’t be happier.
Age has nothing to do with the numbers of years you have lived and more to do with your attitude to life. I find getting older is great. As the alternative is to die young, I have no choice but to be as calm and casual about it as I can.
Today, I have fantastic friends, a trouble-free life,
and wonderful memories of some great times packed with high points, love and happiness.
I would never swap all that for fewer grey hairs or youth.
WITH WHOM HAVE YOU HAD THE LONGEST RELATIONSHIP?
With my bank, hahahah. No, but seriously? With myself. You can only be happy and well balanced if you accept yourself as you are. My parents taught me that at an early age and I’ll always be thankful to them for it.
HOW IMPORTANT IS FAMILY TO YOU?
My family is the most important thing in my life. I have a very large family, which includes my staff, my business partners, my clients and my friends … This is my family now. They have made me what I am today and I am very grateful to them.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE?
As I said, my family. Then comes my company, my competition team and the Cesars Secrets brand. Altogether, they are my life and the sunshine in my life.
With all of its shades of colour. The more colours you collect during the course of your life, the more detailed a picture you can paint of your life.
WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN?
I think that every woman has her mission in life. The mission of a mother is to be with them and to prepare her children for life. I have done that hundreds of times. I spend time with my business partners every day and help them to achieve a contented life. From that perspective, I am a mother a hundred times over.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST?
Myself. It is important and should not be confused with egotism. Only when you love yourself can you give love to others. That is this century’s most important sentence. Everything that you do with love is blessed. Nothing works without love.
WHAT DOES HAPPINESS MEAN TO YOU?
Happiness to me is nothing more than the absence of misfortune.
WHAT CAN YOU NOT STAND?
Crumbs in bed, hahahaha. No, I would say dishonesty and superficiality.
WHAT DO YOU DETEST?
Nothing at all. Life is, as I said earlier, a process of gaining experience. You should, however, also draw your own conclusions and accept the consequences of your experiences.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF?
Not having lived. What I mean to say is, at some point when I have reached a ripe old age I will have to realize that there is still a lot of unfinished business on my „list for life“ that I have not had the time to experience.
ARE YOU AFRAID OF DEATH?
No, because I know that life doesn’t end with death. Afraid of dying, perhaps. Who wouldn’t prefer to simply go peacefully in their sleep.
DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS?
Yes, thank goodness. Friends and family – my friends are also my family. They are the blood in your veins. If you have no friends, your heart stops beating.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
Being happy in order to make other people happy. When other people are happy, that makes me happy. It’s like a boomerang.
WHAT PEOPLE HAVE HELPED YOU?
I know that you would like me to name names, but the list would look like the closing credits in a blockbuster film. I would certainly be happy to mention some. Starting with Mr Wernig – Raika Villach, Christian Cesar, Mr Wolf from the Chamber of Commerce, Dagmar Rizzato from Health and Beauty, Florian Schallar, Wolfhard Lindner, Hansjoerg Zollner, Phillip Löscher, Mary Zelenka, Robert Gapp, Hansi Grün, Günter Tschabuschnig, Christian Spandl, Gerhard Dorner, all distributors and Maggie. Please allow me at this point to say a friendly thank-you to all of these lovely people. Thank you.
DO YOU HAVE ROLE MODELS?
My parents. It is they I have to thank for the way I am. I have met many people in my life who were „role models“, but I’ve always remained myself.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM YOUR IDEAL MAN?
Just one thing: he must be appealing. Anything else is unimportant.
HOW AND WHERE WOULD YOU PREFER TO LIVE MOST?
It is 12 years since I „arrived“, as they say. I am living right where I want to live in the most beautiful country in the world and I wouldn’t want to live without any of it.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN YOUR LIFE SO FAR?
My life itself. The people in my life. The whole package really.
WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF A PERFECT OLD-AGE PENSION?
Particularly in these troubled economic times, it is very important for everyone to personally make sure they have a good pension. This means not only ensuring that you have some security in your old age, but also maintaining a healthy lifestyle when you are young. It does not mean having to do without everything you enjoy. What matters more is achieving a balance between your mental and physical state. I like to compare it with a bank account, where you only earn interest on what you pay in.
WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE?
To bring joy to my life every day. I try not to worry too much. I simply love, give a lot and expect nothing in return. I try to do the things that make other people and myself happy.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING MOST?
I love sitting in front of the TV, but it has to be something trivial. Something like the Geissens, DSDS, The Voice of Germany, Germany’s Next Topmodel, Exclusiv, the Rosenheim Cops… Something that helps me relax and switch off.
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
I don’t differentiate between spare time and work. The boundaries are somewhat blurred.
WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE?
What is the point of a fish swimming in the sea and being a fish – and does that then mean that the point of the sea is to have fish swimming in it? I think that it is important for each of us to discover our own meaning of life and then to apply it to our lives.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON MARRIAGE?
I don’t think marriage is necessary when two people are meant for each other. It is a social tradition, but agreeing something in writing does not mean there is any guarantee. A marriage certificate is not a certificate of guarantee.
ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON?
I was jealous when I was younger. But not today. I think that jealousy is the beginning of self-doubt. Anyone who suffers with jealousy can find that it can quickly become a much extensive problem. Jealousy is therefore not necessarily a problem caused by your partner but rather by yourself.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING UNFAITHFUL?
TRUE LOVE DOES NOT ASK. That says it all.
I personally am faithful. But I would still like to repeat here a statement by Mr Pfleger: „If you have a dog you dearly love and that dog does not come home for a week because he has found a mate in the local area, he’s still YOUR DOG.“ You still love him even though you haven’t seen him for a week. And you are really pleased when he returns. Are you going to send him away? No. As I said, love does not ask. Love just is.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY?
I think that cosmetic surgery provides a very good service. Here, I am thinking about people who have been disfigured as a result of an accident. If a person really needs to deal with a problem that has been worrying them for years and an operation will allow them to enjoy their life again, then why not? I just don’t like the shallow thinking behind the idea that you can fix your body to make it fit the latest social norms.
LOOKING BACK, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY IN YOUR LIFE?
Nothing, because I would need to know what it would have changed in my life. Everything has a cause and effect. If I had done just one thing differently, we might not be sitting here together today.
WHAT, IN GENERAL TERMS, WOULD YOU LIKE FOR THE FUTURE?
At beauty competitions and Oscar ceremonies you keep hearing the answer „peace on earth“. In my opinion, you cannot demand peace, because each individual is personally responsible for ensuring that they are themselves at peace. I would like to see greater empathy and love amongst people. If I hurt you, I hurt myself – but if I help you, I help myself. I think that would be a nice step towards a future where all the people throughout the world coexist peacefully.
DEAR INA, THANK YOU ON BEHALF OF ALL OUR READERS FOR ALLOWING US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR LIFE AND FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION SO VERY WELL. WE WISH YOU CONTINUED SUCCESS AND MANY WONDERFUL MOMENTS IN YOUR LIFE.
You’re welcome. I really enjoyed taking part. Should anyone have any other questions, please send me an email. I am there for you any time.