The short story of my life

YOUNG AGES

My mother was an entrepreneur. It was illegal in Soviet Russia so she was an entrepreneur undercover. And I’ve been so lucky to see what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. Incredibly lucky.

Sometimes in the morning my mom was looking in the mirror saying “if anyone would know how I don’t want to work today”.
It was happening very rare – that’s how I learn quite early – how important it is to enjoy the job.

I believe it’s kind of similar to the Steve Jobs routine:
“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’, for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” – Steve Jobs

When I was 5 years old (I’m 47 now) I wanted to become a clown: I guess I loved an attention and loved to make people laugh.
Later I wanted to become a firefighter – have no idea why.
In my teenage I was really into acting. At 15 I even tried (and failed) to enter a theater school. After the failure I came back to the high school.

After graduation from the high school I had 3 choices in mind: to become a teacher, a builder or an economist.

I don’t exactly remember why I entered economic faculity in the agricultural university. I guess maybe because economics was a hot topic in perestroika.

Why agricultural? Well, from the age of 7 until my 40th I lived in the agricultural scientific center – VASKhNIL – one of the biggest in the Soviet Union. So agriculture and science were the atmosphere I was live in. And sometimes I’ve even considered to become a scientist: I always loved to be alone and think.

MUSIC

I started to learn to play guitar when my entering exams to the University were over – I had a plenty of free time. I was into acting before but never tried to play guitar. It was my closest friend Oleg who convinced me to start a band.

And from this moment music become the passion of my life for more than 10 years: from 1990 to 2003 I was a singer, a song writer, a solo guitarist, a manager. Organizing and running a band – that was my hustle in those days.

To run a band takes a lot of skills besides song writing. You need to convince your partners that your songs worth a shot. Organization of rehearsals, concerts, attracting musicians to the project – it’s all takes entrepreneurial skills.

That’s how I learned a lot of entrepreneurial basics I guess.

Despite my genuine interest in marketing – the one of the biggest mistakes I made – I was just way too much focused on writing of songs than on promoting: I did really suck as a salesman.

Nonetheless I think I have had a ton of fun in those days and at least one important thing I’ve kept doing right – having a fun.

In University I loved to study macroeconomics and marketing but most of subjects I was not a big fan of… And after graduation I loved to explore marketing sometimes… but never was really focused on it.

I loved music: despite I almost didn’t make any money as a musician and a manager of a band – I still was doing it until I reached my 30th. It was fun and I was learning a lot – and that was enough.

I was making a living as a construction worker. It was enough to work for 2 month a year to make enough money to support myself for a year. But when I reached my 30th I’ve got some serious problems with my right hand – so I couldn’t work at construction – and it was clear that I need to find some non physical job. If there would be no problems with the hand maybe I still would be working at construction and continue to follow my passion for music.

JOURNALISM

Decision what to do next (what to focus) was not an easy one.
For 1 year I was a librarian worm, reading books all days long including weekends …
Then for 3 years I was in politics and journalism. It was a small newspaper and a tiny politics but I learn much more than I expected…
During that period and after – I tried different hustles…
Learned a lot but didn’t made into the list of the richest people of Russia.

HITCHHIKING

In 2016 I started to travel by hitchhiking… Maybe you don’t know but the classic Russian hitchhiking include not only free transportation… it’s a free accommodation and a meals too… Basically it’s a kind of a business. No money involved… It’s all about barter…
By the way Couchsurfing is based on the same business model: it’s an exchange of entertainment for some basic stuff a traveler needs…
So all the way long I considered hitchhiking as a business.

MARKETING

At some point I started to understand that entertainment model sucks. How long can you entertain people? Normally a day or two maximum. What if you want to stay at some place longer? So I started to explore alternatives. I started to do it using a knowledge I had – marketing. And the longer I used marketing to resolve the problem the better I was understanding that marketing could be a thing I should use to exchange.

If someone interested in marketing – that kind of interest could last forever – forget about 2 days entertainment model.

So I dived into marketing as deep as I can until I’ve discovered Warren Buffett.

BUFFETT

Back in 1990th I didn’t know who the Buffett is. No kidding. The name of Buffett associated usually with investing, with a stock market.
But a stock market didn’t exist in Soviet Union, as well as private business: both were illegal.
So if you are not into stock market how could you possibly know about Buffett especially if you was born in USSR? In the university none of a professors or my friends ever mentioned Buffett.

I’m just trying to find an excuse for being stupid so long for not knowing about Buffett.

Eventually I stumbled upon some article about Buffett and was attracted to his philosophy because it was so familiar with what my mother taught me.

“I may have more money than you, but money doesn’t make the difference. If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get up and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you learn anything from me, this is the BEST advice I can give you.”

And that was exactly what I experienced during my musical career – money didn’t make the difference.

And that was exactly what my mom taught me. She was totally okay with any career choice I would make: an actor, a teacher, a musician, a scientist, a marketer. It was totally up to me to decide. There was the only one important thing – if I really love it or not.

It was the BEST lesson (from the point of view of Buffett) a teacher can give. And I was lucky to get that lesson from my mom.

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