Andrey M. (LIE) - Money as a Resource, Entrepreneurship

People like me have a natural inclination toward entrepreneurship. I come from a not-very-well-off family. Obviously, we never had enough money, and I lacked things other kids had. Even as a child, I understood the importance of money. Yes, I thought about money. The question would come up: “Is it possible to earn something myself?” These questions did arise. And it wasn’t out of resentment like, “Damn, they have money, people give it to them, and so on…” I understood that money doesn’t fall from the sky. You have to earn it. And not by stealing — rather by finding a legitimate way to make money.

Money had been present in my life since childhood. I wondered how to earn it. In primary school I would spend summers working in the village, helping my uncle, and he paid me something. I spent that summer with the specific goal of earning money. I must have been in about fourth grade. Later came technical school, construction brigades, and so on.

When the 1980s arrived, a new question arose: it’s one thing to work and receive a salary, but how do you earn more? Back then, earning more meant engaging in speculation, and that was absolutely unacceptable to me because it was illegal. But when perestroika began, I started thinking: “They’ve actually allowed people to earn money now!” I thought: “How can I earn more while studying at the institute and working at a factory with a limited salary?” I read economic literature, popular magazines, management books — I gravitated in that direction. And then in 1991, I took a risk from scratch, with nothing, and went into business: do or die — and it worked out for me.

Money mattered; since childhood I understood their importance, understood that it was something significant, thought about money, and wanted it. But it wasn’t like money was the only thing I thought about as a kid. I had a happy childhood, and the lack of money never overshadowed it. But the awareness of money’s importance and thoughts about it — that’s something a child like me had from early on.

Maybe I wouldn’t have gone into business if I hadn’t strongly wanted to reach a different income level. That was the final push. I understand that you have to bring value to people, and only then there will be honest and fair exchange. These things are important to me.

I think money is like having a car or not having one. Someone who drives understands that quality of life is different — it’s a different level, a different kind of freedom. Money gives you freedom in that sense. You can use money to do something pleasant for yourself and to help others. It’s a way of being useful. I’ve never had a goal to earn a specific amount, a bag of money. For me, everything got mixed together: when you start something, find an interesting idea, you get carried away by the process itself, and you pursue it like in sports — striving for a result. At that stage you forget about money altogether, especially when it’s already coming in as a byproduct.