A woman is beautiful at any age if she is healthy and takes care of herself. At 35 we are experiencing the first changes that will not go away “on their own” if we don’t pay attention to them.

Explicit sexuality

It is quite possible that by this age you have realized your seductiveness, found your dream figure and can wear a tight leopard print mini with twenty-centimeter heels.

Don't forget that sexuality is, first of all, self-confidence. And if a schoolgirl doesn’t know how to express herself except through a deep neckline, it’s time for a woman over 35 to distinguish between seductiveness and vulgarity.

Baggy outfits

But don't go to extremes. Many women begin to believe that they are no longer young, they cannot show off their figure, wear tight clothes and short skirts, wear bright colors and generally attract attention to themselves once again.

By 35, many of us are already very familiar with our shortcomings and strengths. And if you hide the former, don’t forget to proudly display the latter!

Old habits

Are you one of those lucky women who can leave your makeup on overnight, drink a bottle of wine without a hangover, and eat a huge pizza while still fitting into your prom dress?

Bad news: age-related changes in the body occur after 35 for each of us. Metabolism slows down and is accompanied by hormonal imbalances. Even if external changes are not yet noticeable, the habits of youth can contribute to the aging of the body.

It is better to leave them now, before they start irreversible and visible processes.

Careless handling of hair

Hair ages first, so it needs to be given special attention. By the age of 35, you should give up procedures with chemical straightening and curling.

If you don't have gray hair yet, it's better to stop using ammonia dyes, which destroy the hair structure.

Lack of privacy

According to statistics, it is at this age that married couples are most focused on children, depriving each other of any romance. As for divorced women, by the age of 35 they often stop going on dates, getting acquainted and no longer hope to meet the man of their life.

In fact, you don’t have to wait forty years for “life to just begin.” Give your children to their grandmothers more often and send them on hikes to have a second honeymoon with your husband. If there is no man next to you yet, keep in mind that at the age of 35 women experience the peak of sexuality. It's time to fall in love and go on dates!

Thick layer of makeup

A trap that many women fall into after 30 years of age: the desire to hide the first wrinkles behind a thick layer of foundation, or at least distract attention from them with bright makeup.

Foundation gets into wrinkles and only emphasizes them, while bright makeup itself adds several years of age.

It is better to concentrate not on decorative, but on skincare cosmetics.

Lack of experimentation with the image

Perhaps at 17 you were the first beauty of the area with that huge yellow chignon and patent leather jacket. But times change, and what fans swooned over may look ridiculous in just a few years.

Don’t be lazy to follow the latest fashion trends at least sometimes, and then you won’t look, even in new things, as if you haven’t updated your wardrobe for decades.

Reading time 6 minutes

In this article, we will talk about why it is so necessary for people over 40 to engage in self-development. What is a midlife crisis, why does it happen and how to deal with it. People who change their lives after 40 years gain a second youth and begin to live to the fullest.

Many people who reach the age of 40 or more become depressed. The reason for this is social stereotypes that a person can only be beautiful in his youth. Many companies hire employees under 30-35 years of age. The crisis at this age is intensified by the fact that a person begins to try on old age and worry about how he will look. It is at this age that many of their parents pass away. It reminds me of old age and makes me think that I'm next.

Many people believe that after 40 years it is too late to change anything. They are embarrassed to take courses, learn a new profession, and are afraid of being judged. They come up with stereotypes for themselves, how a person should behave after 40, what they should achieve, how they should look, etc. Many people are afraid of retirement and don’t understand how they will survive if they remain unemployed. Against the backdrop of these worries and worries, human health deteriorates.

The main questions of a midlife crisis are: “What have I achieved? What else can I do? Am I living right? Why did I come into this world? Why am I living? What will I leave behind? What's next for me? What needs and can be changed? © Olga Khukhlaeva

Is it possible to change your life after 40 years and how to get out of the crisis of adulthood?

To get out of the crisis, you need to analyze the past years and realize their value. The value is not personal achievements, but the significance of all life situations and circumstances through which one was destined to go. Thinking about his past, about his experiences, a person thinks about the meaning of life, about the values ​​and priorities that he set. This leads to rethinking and reassessment of values, or vice versa, confirms that everything was done correctly.

Reassessment of values ​​pushes a person to change and make changes in life. It is wonderful. The main thing is that a person does not have the fear of changing his life after 40 years. Not only a person’s internal needs, but also external circumstances can motivate change. For example, it is during this period that adult children leave the family and grandchildren are born. A person should find something positive in this. Children leaving for adulthood is not a reason to become depressed, but an opportunity to devote more time to yourself and your loved one. Go on a trip or change your field of activity. You can find yourself an interesting hobby. Some people dedicate their lives to their grandchildren and feel happy again to see a little version of your child grow up. In many countries, families have their own children after age 40. Why not. There is no need to be afraid of this, you will feel like young parents again.

At this age, you need to look at any changes positively. This is the age when you have enough strength, intelligence and experience to start any new business.

In addition to gratitude and acceptance of your past, you also need to appreciate your present. If it’s difficult for you, you’re depressed and don’t want anything, then write down on a piece of paper everything that brings you joy. Write down everything that makes you proud and happy. This will help you maintain a positive attitude.

At 40 it all just begins

People who have changed their lives radically after 40 usually communicate a lot with young people. They share their experiences, ideas and attitudes to life, and young people remind them by example how to have fun, enjoy life and not be afraid of change. Such multi-age relationships bring enormous benefits to both parties.

It is the midlife crisis that becomes a certain stage in a person’s development, enriches him and is an impetus for self-development after 40. This is a period of maturity when a person has not only accumulated enough life experience, but is also mature enough to realize it and understand the meaning of his existence.

All people are going through this crisis. But it happens differently for everyone. Some pass it quite successfully and painlessly. This happens if a person understands how to live and where to move next.

People who have changed their lives after 40 years are open to change and reveal all their hidden potential and resources. After all, in the first half of life, all energy is spent on starting a family, studying and career, and after 40 years there is time to think about yourself, about your true desires and needs.

During this period, a person must concentrate on his inner world and engage in self-development. Self-development after 40 years will give you the opportunity to become wiser, show your creativity, and not fall into despair and depression.

How to discover new opportunities for yourself?

The soul of a person in the second half of life changes profoundly and amazingly. But, unfortunately, most smart and educated people live unaware of the possibility of these changes. And therefore, they enter the second half of life unprepared. © K. Jung

Failure to understand these possibilities leads to the fact that a person begins to resist his age, focuses on shortcomings and lashes out at others. It is during this period that family conflicts most often arise, families fall apart, health deteriorates and professional productivity declines. But everything should be the other way around.

How can you help a person survive a crisis of 40 years? It is necessary to convey to the person that he has emotional problems, which are the cause of discord in the family and at work, and conflicts with friends. These problems can only be solved through self-improvement and active work on oneself.

Since the crisis manifests itself in depression, lack of joy and fear of the future, it is necessary first of all to help a person see the sources of joy in his life and convey that happiness is a state of mind. It cannot be found somewhere from the outside; happiness is a person’s attitude towards life. It is not determined by success, money, or the satisfaction of all desires.

To understand this, a person needs to keep a gratitude journal. In it you need to write down every day everything for which he is grateful today: for wonderful weather, health, housing, food, beauty, peace, etc.

Let's look at some examples of stories of real people who changed their lives after 40.

How did they do this and what exactly did they do?

Julia Child is a woman who first tried French cuisine at the age of 36. She was so impressed that she took a chef's course and studied French food until she was 51. She became world famous when she wrote the book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The amazing film “Julie and Julia: A Recipe for Happiness” was made about her.

Heidemarie Schwermer is known all over the world. She decided to experiment to see if it was possible to live a life without money for a whole year. She gave away her property and, in exchange for food, washed people's windows, did cleaning, and walked dogs. She felt so free that she continued her experiment. She lived like this for 17 years, now she conducts consultations and lectures on life without material values, since she is a psychotherapist by profession.

Richelle Jones lived with her son all her life, but when he grew up and moved to another city, she began to look for some meaning in life. As a result, she enrolled in photography and web design courses and began posting photos of her cakes on the website. Now she has opened her own pastry shop.

Saniya Sagitova from Ufa, after retiring at 55, decided that she wanted to travel. At 69 years old, she has already hitchhiked around 40 countries. She herself received a driver’s license to help drivers along the way.

Mark Manson is an American writer who runs his own blog. He turned to his subscribers with a request that they share their experiences of how they changed their lives after 40. During such an experiment, he collected advice from all people. The result was a kind of example of collective wisdom.

1. Start taking care of your health, switch to proper nutrition, and exercise. As the famous nutritionist Larisa Butkova said:
   “Unfortunately, most people live in full accordance with popular wisdom: a person remembers his health when he gets sick, and begins to value it when he loses it. Therefore, there can only be one piece of advice here: do not put off “right habits” until tomorrow and do not look for excuses for yourself. It depends only on you whether your old age will be active or decrepit, and whether it will come at all.”
2. Get rid of exhausting relationships. Don't waste your life on people who treat you badly.
3. Spend as much time as possible with your family and have children. It gives joy and prolongs youth.
4. Don’t be afraid to start over, go learn and change your field of activity. Get rid of the prejudice that studying at 40 is too late. It's never too late to learn. It’s better to do something and regret it than to regret for the rest of your life that you never decided to do something.
5. Engage in self-development. A person who is closed to everything new begins to degrade and becomes uninteresting either to himself or to those around him. You need to get to know yourself, reveal your inner potential, and determine your true goals and desires.
6. Loving yourself means taking care of yourself, doing something nice for yourself every day. Loving yourself means accepting yourself for who you are, not focusing on the opinions of others and living your full life. Listen to your inner voice and fulfill your wildest desires and dreams.

An engineer who became a Cossack, a lawyer who became a diver, a manager who became a toastmaster, a meat seller who became a drag queen dancer, an illustrator who became a fisherman, a man who became a woman, and many others - Afisha found more than two dozen people who managed to radically change profession, habitat, gender - and life in general. And I wrote down their stories.

Journalist turned sailor

Ksenia Prilepskaya about Greenpeace, Esperanto and sails weighing two tons

Age: 32 years
Who was: journalist
Who became: sailor

I change my life every spring, well, every couple of years. It is generally accepted that you need to choose one thing, at the age of seventeen - and immediately for the rest of your life. But practice shows that you can achieve some success in different areas without having a specialized education in all of them, but simply by investing fully. Why not? Many of my classmates still live in the village where I was born and raised. The most active and disruptive moved to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and one girl, having achieved incredible success, moved to Primorye with her family last year.

In the 90s, while still at school, I saw a Greenpeace advertisement on TV: brave people on inflatable boats stop whaling ships, and they are brutally sprayed with water cannons. When I arrived in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, at the university, in September 1998, there was a Greenpeace ship in the port of Korsakovo, and they had an open day. There I also met local ecologists, then worked for them in an environmental organization on their staff. Greenpeace came, we organized protests against oil production, were chained to the Sakhalin parliament, and saved gray whales. Philology didn’t really interest me, I still had a year and a half to study, plus I worked on television (and everything was pretty good), but I already had friends in Moscow, and I understood that I wanted change. Mom still can’t forgive me for not graduating from university. But I simply confronted her with the fact: “I’m moving.” I needed a job, at that moment I was trying to transfer to the Moscow journalism department, asking for the difference, and one friend, an ecology teacher, introduced me to a Moscow City Duma deputy who needed a press secretary. There was tiny money there, surprisingly shameful - I went and worked there for 8 months until I realized that it was terribly crippling me. But I did well - my deputy was in second place in terms of citations after the chairman. Then he was elected to the State Duma, and then I didn’t follow him. At that time, NATO was still bombing Yugoslavia, people were protesting all over the world, and several people came out in Moscow - that was also so shameful. March came, and everything somehow worked out - I wanted change again.

“We organized protests against oil production, chained to the Sakhalin parliament, and saved gray whales”

That year Grishkovets shot, he was everywhere, I read a review of “Planet”, which very much coincided with my experiences, I look at the signature - “Yuri Saprykin”, click on the name, and under the link there is an email. And I write him a big, heartfelt letter. To my surprise, he answers quite quickly. We met for coffee, and Yura offered me a job as an executive secretary at Afisha. The salary was four times more than in the Moscow City Duma. I worked at Afisha for a year, but in my position in the editorial office I needed to spend too much time, and I began to think about leaving. I have always been interested in traveling, and I traveled mainly through the Esperanto language, which I know perfectly and sometimes teach. In the summer after leaving Afisha, I simply hitchhiked around Russia and Ukraine. I live very frugally - as much money as I have is enough for me. That summer, the Esperanto youth summer conference was in the Moscow region, I was one of the organizers, I met some guys from Sweden, one of them was leaving home by train through Finland. I entered the carriage and thought: “There’s nothing keeping me here now.” I didn’t have any documents with me except a copy of my Russian passport. We locked ourselves in the compartment and found ourselves in Helsinki in the morning. I traveled around Sweden with Thomas, teaching Esperanto, but then it became clear: either stay illegally, work as a dishwasher, or return to Russia. I wanted to learn how to write in English, so I called all the English-language editorial offices in Moscow, but there was only a place in Russia Today. The channel had a strict schedule: morning, evening, night, so many people’s health deteriorated sharply after a year. At some point I felt so bad that I called an ambulance, lay at home for a week, called the ambulance again and realized that I would never go to work again. She quit, went to New York, met a man there and after some time married him.

Last summer my friend invited me on a sailboat. This is the historic two-masted schooner Pioneer, built in 1885. It goes out to sea with tourists, with schoolchildren, or is rented out for private events. There are no bars, no saloons, no sofas, everything is old school: the sails are hoisted by hand; the largest weighs two tons. It turned out that they have a volunteer program: the team has four paid employees, the rest are volunteers. After six hours of training, you can already work on a schooner. Then the season ended, in the winter I was working on a film about Pussy Riot, which received a special jury prize at Sundance, and in February a position suddenly opened up on the ship. Now I work there every day and will soon receive a sailor's certificate if everything goes well. Next season I’m already thinking about another ship - everything is already clear enough, but I want me to have different aspects of this experience. Not necessarily on a sailboat, but on a ship that goes on international voyages, or even on a small tugboat - they are so cute. The Pioneer volunteer program is generally legendary; many women have gone through it. And some became captains.

Psychologist turned carpenter

Fedor Smekhov about Moscow State University, vocational school and severed fingers

Age: 29 years
Who was: psychologist
Who became: carpenter

I successfully graduated from the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University with honors and graduate school in psychology from the Higher School of Economics, honestly wrote a dissertation and developed business training for one company. But at some point I got stuck - I started thinking about what I really wanted from life. I was 24 years old at the time. All my life I got high from two things. The first is games, be they board games, computer games, or role-playing games. And secondly, beautiful furniture. And I started wandering in these directions: I found guys who made computer games, and, without any experience, I got a job as a game designer for them. -At the same time, I decided to go to a vocational school of artistic crafts. When I came to submit documents, they asked me: “Did you finish 9th grade or 11th?” I say: “Actually, I have a higher education, and I completed graduate school.” This gained me a keen interest in my person on the part of the entire admissions committee, and all summer my friends joyfully teased me and called me a petty bastard. At the same time, I found the contacts of one restorer and came to him for advice on where and how best to learn the craft. At the end of the conversation, he asked me: “When can you start?” I answered: “Tomorrow.” So I never went to vocational school.

“Friends made fun of me and called me a faggot”

When you come to work and don’t have the slightest idea of ​​what you have to do, it’s terribly exciting! The first thing I noticed at the new job was that half of the people there had no fingers (a common occupational injury), and at first it was hard to breathe in the chemicals - varnishes, removers, solvents, but this quickly passed. Of course, my colleagues in the shop laughed at me - they didn’t understand what a person with “two higher educations” was doing in the carpentry; they confidently considered graduate school to be the second highest. But seeing that I was really interested, they treated me with sympathy. And when I swore at one of the main workers, I completely earned everyone’s respect. So for a year, I worked in restoration for the first half of the day, and worked as a game designer for the second until 11 pm. This schedule, I must say, was very energizing. I noticed that when you live a relaxed life, you don’t get anything done, but when you have an endless rush, you suddenly start to get everything done. In the end, I realized that my soul lies more with furniture. You know, it happens when you start working and suddenly you don’t notice how much time has passed. This is a good criterion. I left restoration work for a carpentry shop where they made custom-made furniture. I worked there for two and a half years and realized that in order to develop further, I needed to get a professional education as a designer. Now I am entering the British Higher School of Design - straight into the second year; I quit my job, earn extra money on private orders and do a test assignment as a curator.

Probably, if I were still working in my specialty, I would be more stable and financially independent. And of course, it’s inconvenient that my parents still support me. But I reasoned this way: since you’ve found your way, put your pride far away and accept the help with gratitude. Learn and finally become a specialist. In addition, now I have a favorite excuse - as soon as they tell me that I am ignorant or behaving unreasonably, I immediately answer: “I don’t know anything, I’m a carpenter.”

Lawyer turned diver

Oksana Chevalier about “losses”, trauma and work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations

Age: 39 years
Who was: lawyer
Who became: rescue diver of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation

In Kazakhstan, I played sports professionally and competed for the acrobatics team. There she graduated from pedagogy and worked at a school. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, she moved to Moscow, studied law and became a lawyer. I worked for three years, and then my uncle, who owned a shipping company, lured me to join him, gave me three ships, and I became a logistician. For ten years she wandered around the world, providing ships with cargo, fuel, crew, and maintaining all the documentation. And then I dropped everything and went to the rescue team.

It all started with the fact that, in parallel with the shipping company, I went to the stunt school “Trick” - from my sporting childhood, the need for constant activity remained. There I did parachuting, mountaineering, shooting, horse riding, and motocross. The boys from the Ministry of Emergency Situations taught us mountaineering there. I began to communicate with them, and at their encouragement I volunteered at Spasrezerv and Lisa Alert to look for “lost people”—people lost in the forest. And soon this became my meaning in life. At any moment in the middle of the night, from guests and from the dacha, a call rings, and you break down and rush to help. "Where are you?" - relatives call and ask. "In Ryazan." - "Where are you?" - “In Kursk”... That’s how I lived. And all this time I wanted to completely devote myself to saving people, but I didn’t have the determination to take it all and cross it all out. The turning point came when, after an unsuccessful parachute jump, I was seriously injured and was banned from playing sports for a year and a half. But I had plenty of time to think about my life. Honestly, as I promised the doctors, I didn’t do anything, but after a year and a half, exactly to the day, I went and jumped with a parachute. -Anyone can be a logistician, but I want to help people.

“We decipher the Ministry of Emergency Situations among ourselves this way: courage, honor, compassion”

I was trained at a rescue school, passed the exams, received a badge and began to look for ways to get into the Ministry of Emergency Situations. At first, management was hostile to my candidacy: “A rescue girl? No!" Then they hired me, but only to work with documents. They categorically did not want to take me on as a rescuer - “this is not a woman’s business.” For three years I sat in the office and constantly reminded that I wanted to be a rescuer. They answered me: “Train yourself to become a navigator.” I've graduated. “Train to be a diver” - I learned that too. As a result, I passed strict sports standards - they are the same for men and women, because when you need to save someone, you cannot say to a dying person: “Sorry, I’m a woman, my standards are different.” Finally a year ago I was hired. Now I am the only woman in Moscow who is a water rescuer.

Of course, financially I took a step down, but how much more moral satisfaction I began to receive from my work cannot be compared. Colleagues were afraid that the girl would weaken the team. But, oddly enough, the boys, on the contrary, unite and, naturally, still try to take care of me. The profession itself presupposes the presence of compassion in a person. This is what we and the Ministry of Emergency Situations decipher among ourselves: courage, honor, compassion.

Pensioner turned student

Lyubov Praslova about Tashkent in the 90s, sewing and computer science

Age: 62 years old
Who was: designer at the factory
Who became: student

I'm from Tashkent. In the 90s, I was unemployed for six years. I thought that I would always be in demand. But the Soviet Union collapsed - and no one needed me. We weren't paid at the factory. I did different jobs, even once I went to clean someone’s house, but they didn’t pay me. During the holidays, we had an empty refrigerator—one bell pepper and a crust of bread. And the hardest thing was that I could not keep the child in this world. My daughter was already an adult - she studied, worked, got sick and died. There was no point in staying.

My mother also had a hard life. She said: “Life will teach a snotty one to love - wipe it off and kiss it.” My parents gave everything for me to be successful, but life decreed otherwise - everything I put my energy into went to the next world. And then I went to Moscow - to nowhere, with nothing, to no one. I've never seen frost before. I arrived on October 2, and on the 28th the first snow fell. I waited for it to melt, and then - bam! - a second layer on it, a third. I think - when will it melt? It melted on April 28, 2003.

At first, I moved from apartment to apartment every three months. And when I met a man, he invited me to live with him. But there was one problem that we had to live with. Eleven old cats. Eight are still living. We cannot put them to sleep. But living with them is very difficult. And most importantly, I thought that the person would be glad that I live with him, but he treats me like a servant.

“Sometimes I open Odnoklassniki, and there’s the inscription “Do you want to laugh?” And I watch some videos with kittens and animals and laugh.”

All my life I have had two hobbies - I sang from the age of 5 and sewed from the age of 13. My mother also sewed. She came to Tashkent in the 1930s; during the war, sewing saved her from starvation - she made clothes for the military. And at the same time, I always worked as a designer at a machine-building plant. And I never learned to sew. Nevertheless, “Burda” always helped me; I sewed for women with non-standard figures, even when I lived in Tashkent. When I arrived in Russia, I didn’t sew at all for four years - everything was ready. But then a hormonal imbalance occurred, and I began to have a non-standard figure. I started redoing my clothes, I suffered because I wasn’t always happy with the result. And I began to think about getting a specialty.

Last year I read in a magazine that they were recruiting people to the Polytechnic College. Moscow City Council for the profession “Constructor, fashion designer, technologist.” I called three times and asked: “Are you sure you don’t have an age limit?” In the USSR, admission to education was until the age of 47. And when they said that they would take everyone, I decided to take a risk and passed the exams - mathematics, Russian and drawing.

We have classes six days a week. On Saturday the first pair was done at 8.30. Physical training. I say: “I’ll come, but you call an ambulance right away.” We also have computer science, but it is clearly set against me. She doesn't give in to me. Although I have mastered Skype, email and Odnoklassniki. Sometimes I open Odnoklassniki, there is the inscription “Do you want to laugh?” And I watch some videos with kittens and animals and laugh. I don't need anything else.

Sometimes my friends ask me why I need this. I say: “Do you have a house? Eat. There is a work? Eat. Do you have a pension? Eat. Do you have children? Eat. Are there any grandchildren? Eat. Now imagine that I have none of this except a pension and a job.”

An engineer who became a Cossack

Andrey Sviridov about a homemade truck, bandits and happiness

Age: 52 years old
Who was: engineer
Who became: Cossack

I was probably not a very good engineer. Otherwise, I would have made a career and lived somehow differently. The dashing 90s came, and I left the Institute of High Energy Physics. I wandered for a long time. I had such a childhood dream - to make a truck. And I found a clumsy pile of iron by the fence, sat with him, suffered, he went and began to bring money. They transported furniture, potatoes, everything. There was no food, people grew it in their gardens and transported it. Then I bought a house in the village, I wanted to create an ideal settlement. If I’m not an engineer, then I must have some inclinations, I was born into this world for some reason, I must be somehow useful.

There I encountered a horse for the first time. It was necessary to plow the garden, but it was difficult with tractors - there was no fuel or diesel. And the shepherds gave a horse for a bottle of moonshine. And I felt so sorry for her!.. I don’t know how to plow, and apparently I ran the plow too deep. But she was weak, she couldn’t see oats in her eyes, and she was sweating like foam. I practically carried this plow myself to help her. If I loosen it a little, she immediately moans. So, with a lot of grief, we plowed the garden. I planted potatoes and they grew. How did I know how to do this? Out of nowhere. My favorite book as a child was Robinson Crusoe. A man found himself on a desert island and despaired - that’s it, his life was over. And then he began to get to his feet. I found a grain, and the grain made 12 grains. The spikelet has grown and has 12 grains. He planted them, out of 12 it turned out to be 24, and off and on. No one taught him either. So I am - such a Robinson Crusoe.

“I sat down for the first time, and I was completely turned over. And this flight, and the warmth of this animal, and these eyes"

My company in Moscow transporting goods and repairing cars, which grew out of a truck, worked properly. If necessary, I got behind the wheel myself, drivers are like that - today sober, tomorrow drunk. I did the accounting myself, and I failed it successfully. The inspection came, and they liked it so much that they caught me like a mangy kitten. And they closed it. I was still trying to find money somehow, I came to my mother, she received her pension, and said: “Now, mom, the final touch, I’ll buy the last hydraulic booster for KamAZ, and everything will go.” And then everything went wrong. Then more bandits came at me. When I was buying cars, I contacted one entrepreneur, I needed to buy the car urgently, there was no money, and he told me: “I’ll give you money, and you come to me and you’ll work it out.” So I went. And when he’s finished working, he suddenly says to me: “I won’t give you the car. I won’t give it up - that’s all.” He offended me. Well, I did, perhaps stupidly, but it’s like in battle. If you start thinking, drooling, hiring diplomats, nothing will work out. Here it was necessary to act harshly, in the style of the times, and that’s what I did. I took this car and took it away from his enterprise. And in response, he hired bandits. Only by that time I had already transferred money to his account. The bandits come and say: “Where is the money?” I told them: “Guys, here are the payments, on such and such a date through such and such a bank, such and such an amount.” Such bulls stand: “You give us this, don’t worry about your brain, where are the money?”

And so at some point I felt disgusted and ashamed because I had started this mess in the first place... I got out of these things, gave the bus to this entrepreneur, and something else. And everyone gradually got rid of me - the state, the bandits, and the entrepreneur. And all the horses were sitting in my subconscious. And when I couldn’t stand it any longer, I took a friend of mine and we went for a ride. I sat down for the first time, and I was completely turned over. And this flight, and the warmth of this animal, and these eyes. You know, sometimes it’s good, but you don’t know why. And I went to practice twice a week: at first I sat wrong, and I rode, and the horse unseated me more than once. Well, nothing - alive. Then one day I saw a guy doing horseback riding, I liked it - and little by little I began to learn this skill. Then I met the Cossacks, and they invited me to join them.

What is the most important thing for a Cossack? Family, home, he grows bread, raises children, raises animals. I'm a city dweller, I've never had anything like this. To solve an equation, mathematicians simplify it and bring it to its canonical form. That's how it is here. Simple philistine happiness. This may be petty to listen to when you want to conquer the whole world, but I just want to be a man and mind my own business, plow the land, fish. I just want someone to be waiting for me at home, because I spent the whole day trying to make the house feel comfortable. I don’t want to make a career in the Cossacks, I just live like this, work with the children. The Cossacks put a child on a horse from the age of three. And the child was not afraid of a moving animal. So they bring very tiny children to me, they sit, look at the horse, and there is fear in their eyes. And I don’t just teach them how to ride and ride a horse, but I help them get rid of this fear. You can't be afraid.

I have one dream. Complex. I traveled from Siberia for four days, crossing all the great rivers. And then I had an idea - to assemble a team, prepare horses and try to repeat Ermak’s route when he conquered Siberia. Only he didn’t reach the Pacific Ocean, but we will. We will go into cities, show the beauty of horse riding, and glorify the Cossacks. And there, maybe young people will follow us. If you believe, you can get there. Can.

Journalist turned volunteer

Natalya Kiseleva about red nails, dead goats and adrenaline

Age: 30 years
Who was: journalist
Who became: volunteer

My topics in journalism were culture and show business. Red carpets, Cannes, Renata Litvinova's new dress. And I didn’t go to Krymsk to report. They just showed on TV the roofs of houses sticking out in an endless puddle, and a stream that rushed through the city. I didn’t have a second of doubt whether to go or not to go. I was subscribed to fashion blogs of various celebrities, including Natalia Vodianova, on whose Facebook page I saw a message that a bus carrying humanitarian aid to Krymsk could be hijacked by a dozen volunteers. I remember thinking that, of course, there are a million volunteers - Vodianova! - and that I probably won’t fit on the bus. In the end, only eight people gathered. Natasha told us that we were going to Krymsk for a couple of days and that there was an hour left before departure, so we could have time to go home to get our things. I left my running shoes, pants, and T-shirt in my bag; I was wearing jeans, a Karl Lagerfeld T-shirt with the words “Life is a joke” on it, and my nails were bright red. I didn’t even understand where and why I was going.

There was no fear at all. There was shame. It turned out that the other seven volunteers who responded to Vodianova’s call were professional psychologists. As soon as the bus started moving, they started talking about gestalt. And I thought: “God, where have I gone!” And if someone had told me then that in a day I would become the coordinator of the entire humanitarian mission and would yell at the men, supervise the unloading of KamAZ trucks, I would have answered: “Who? I? No". We entered Krymsk at night. We all tensed up internally and began to prepare for the apocalypse. And so we got off the bus, ready for super hell, and we saw: a field, tents, bonfires, people playing guitars, someone doing yoga - the camp was outside the flood zone. And I thought: “Damn, they’ve blown it up again!” In the morning they ask me: “Can you deliver humanitarian aid?” And so the driver and I stuff everything into the Sable. We stop at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, where they give us some masks, respirators, rubber boots, and gloves. Why is it unclear? We are approaching the village of Nizhnebakanskaya, and I remember all the films about the end of the world that I have seen.

“I immediately understood how to use a respirator - as soon as I entered the yard in which forty chickens died”

Everything is destroyed, everything is dirty, screams, people, dogs barking. I remember that it was as if some kind of shutter clicked inside me, an animal instinct turned on. I jumped out of the car and entered house No. 44 on Mira Street, because some kind of howling was coming from there. Inside there is dirt and an incredible stench that hurts the eyes, and a grandmother who has been lying under the boards for two days. In such situations, you somehow immediately understand what needs to be done. You pull your grandmother out, give her a drink, wrap her in a dry robe and run to the next house. You see, no one ever taught me how to use a respirator, but I immediately understood everything - as soon as I entered the yard in which forty chickens died. The stench is overwhelming, but the adrenaline rush is so strong that this thick, sweet stench penetrating everywhere does not make you sick. In general, I only felt sick in Krymsk once. When we approached a tree on which the goats were hanging, washed away by the wave, and were moving because they were being eaten by worms. But even at that moment the brain did not work the same way as in ordinary life. I didn’t think, “Oh my God, poor goats,” but only: “It’s a source of infection, I’m calling the Ministry of Emergency Situations.” In short, by the evening of the first day I became the camp coordinator. And three days later a bus came to take us back to Moscow. I didn't go. By that time it seemed to me that I had been in Krymsk for a month already. Psychologists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations later explained that in war one day goes by five.

Naturally, there were people who could not stand all this. For example, one girl on our bus, a graduate of the psychology department of Moscow State University, became hysterical after two conversations with her grandmothers, and she was sent back home on the first bus. At some point it dawned on me that being active on Facebook is no less important than working in the field. You publish a post about your grandfather, a former military pilot, whose wheelchair was flattened by a wave, and five minutes later people call back and say: “We want to buy a wheelchair for the pilot. Where to transfer money? Or you post news that there are no flip phones, and then some oil company calls back: “How can I transfer five million?” When I returned to Moscow in September, I had 100% Afghan syndrome. This is when a person does not recognize reality and, sitting in a cafe, thinks: “My guys are there, and I’m here.” It seemed to me that everything around was artificial. The thought of me standing on the red carpet again in a Valentino dress and broadcasting for Kommersant FM what Renata Litvinova was wearing today was simply unbearable. But there was a job from which there was no escape. A friend was making a film about the “Buranovsky grandmothers” and wanted me to interview them, and he waited for me all summer while I was in Krymsk. I must say that the film helped me come to my senses. It was like a symbiosis of my past and my present life. And the interviews with the grandmothers turned out great - more subtle, more intense than if I had interviewed them without ever having been to Krymsk. Krymsk became the main filter for me: everything unnecessary fell away. I remember how on the first day in Krymsk a man in shorts and with an ax in his hand came out to me from a flooded house. “Give me pants, boots and a shovel,” he told me, “I’ll rake the house.” After this you understand: are your family alive and well? Do you have a roof over your head? The rest is all nonsense.

Manager turned toastmaster

Mikhail Trokhin about fighting fears, meeting people on the subway and getting married by the pool

Age: 31 year
Who was: manager
Who became: toastmaster

I was studying at MISiS when my sister was hit by a car. A very complex operation was needed, and we began to look for different treatment methods - even alternative medicine. And then, through friends, we found a person who, at the very first meeting, told us that people often live automatically, act according to parental and social guidelines, not seeing their potential. Hearing this, I went to him and began to learn to observe myself from the outside. I went to shaman concerts, learned various practices, and even went to Mount Kailash in Tibet. I used to think that what my mind dictates to me is who I am. Now I can turn off my fears. By the way, this doctor cured my sister and did not require surgery.

My family was the most ordinary: my father was a policeman, my mother worked at the post office. I was afraid to bring a bad grade from school, I cried if I received a bad mark. In general, he was a very shy child. And there were difficulties with the girls. And then I started doing things that were scary on purpose. For example, I met my wife on the subway. I threw her a note in which it was written: “I am speechless from your beauty.” She read, hi-bye, back and forth. Then it turned out that she lives across the entrance from me.

“Sometimes friends invite me to another city, and I think that if I go, I’ll lose two weddings, and that’s 100 thousand rubles.”

I've always liked alpine skiing. And after college, I opened the magazine “Skiing” and saw heart rate monitors. I think it’s cool, why not do them? I called the company and got a job as a sales manager for heart rate monitors. I did this for 5 years. At the same time, I tried to fight my fears: I took acting classes, oratory courses, and pickup truck courses, where there were fun tasks - to walk along a subway car and sing a song or wish everyone a good mood. At first my arms and legs were shaking, but in the end I did it five times. One day one of my friends called me to help officiate a wedding. I succeeded, and I registered on the wedding forum, made myself a profile and portfolio. Clients immediately called. I had such a conversation with them that they didn’t even ask how many weddings I had officiated. I had about four meetings with clients in two weeks, and everyone took me on. I figured that I would earn more than in the office. And he immediately quit.

When you host weddings, sometimes you want to do something unusual, not just a banquet with riddles. Requests, of course, are very different. Once we had a party, without parents, going to a country club and started having fun by the pool, throwing capitoshkas at each other. I try to make sure that there are things that no one else has. I have officiated about 200 weddings and haven’t been on vacation for 2 years. And now I am increasingly thinking about some other matter in life. Sometimes friends invite me to a wedding in another city as a guest, and I think that if I go, I’ll lose two of my weddings, and that’s 100 thousand rubles. It's hard. I have now fallen a little out of reality, my spiritual growth has also slowed down. Now everything is in the family, my family is my spiritual growth. I want to develop my business. I don’t really want to be spiritually developed and financially poor. Those who do this are disingenuous.

Housewife turned civic activist

Maria Baronova about the “Bolotnaya Affair”, loneliness and the dream of the sea

Age: 29 years
Who was: housewife
Who became: civil activist

My family is from the natural science intelligentsia, my grandparents are engineers, my mother is a theoretical physicist. After studying at an English special school, I entered the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University. In parallel with her studies, she worked as a sales manager for chemical equipment, then got married and gave birth to a child. And in fact she was an ordinary housewife with a child. I was always interested in politics at the news level, but I had absolutely no plans to become a criminal.

Everything changed when I found myself in a situation where all my friends had left: this is the fate of the majority of Russian chemists who continue to engage in science. And I realized that I could no longer engage in any sales, and in general I didn’t want to live in Russia. But my ex-husband did not let me and my son leave the country. It was 2010. I found myself in complete isolation, my only social circle were housewives - acquaintances from kindergarten and clubs. I literally had nothing to talk about and no one to talk to. Then I decided that if I was imprisoned in this country, I should at least try to change the life around me.

As a volunteer, I posted leaflets, helped organize pickets, and at December rallies I offered my help in organizing a press center. There she met Ilya Ponomarev and became his press secretary. But I soon realized that a press secretary is someone who expresses someone else’s opinion, and I didn’t come to earn money, but to express my opinion. He and I parted ways as partners, and I was still responsible for working with the press at rallies. I met a lot of wonderful people and no longer felt like the smartest person in the area - there were a lot of people around me smarter than me. That wonderful feeling that I had at the chemistry department returned, when everyone around me was an Olympiad student, and I was just a girl from a humanities school.

“Because of my participation in the Bolotnaya Case, I can only talk about the loneliness that I feel”

But, honestly, if this conversation took place in 2012, I would say: “Oh yes, this is so cool, I changed my life and I see real prospects for our country!” Then I even thought about going into politics. But now, because of my participation in the “Bolotnaya Case,” I can only talk about the loneliness that I feel. After all, people generally don’t understand what it means to sit all day long in the Investigative Committee for fifteen months. You don’t have time to be with your child, no one hires you. And Bolotnaya Square actually turned its back on us and pretended that there was no “Bolotnaya case.” And the further I go, the more clearly I understand that there are no “two Russias - chanson and iPhone,” but there is one Russia, and its ideas about freedom are the same, and this will never change.

So I’m not thinking far ahead, I’m studying at the HSE master’s program in political science, writing columns and reports - I like it. In addition, no one else needs an employee who spends five days a week in the UK. The only thing I can imagine in the future is how another two years will pass, the trial and probation will pass, and then I will go to Turkey and just lie on the seashore for two weeks - this is the only thing I sincerely dream about now.

Meat seller turned drag queen dancer

Azamat Khaidukov about a family scandal, meat rows and men dressed in women's clothes

Age: 30 years
Who was: meat seller
Who became: drag queen dancer

At the age of 14, I drank homemade wine for the first time with a friend, came home not very sober, and told my mother that I was gay. The next day the whole family gathered to discuss what to do with me. And my family is Kabardino-Balkarian, Muslim, so the option “to leave alone” was not on the list of possible solutions. I packed all my things and left for Krasnodar. When I returned home, my relatives were so happy that they stopped telling me anything.

They got me a very brutal job - selling meat right at home, in Maykop. At the age of 15-17, I could earn myself 3-4 thousand rubles a day in pocket money. Every day I got up at 5 am, came to the market, weighed my meat, the choppers chopped it for me, and I laid it out beautifully on the counter. Cool job. I once weighed a woman, and she burned me while doing this and actually went to my work every single day for two months and shouted: “Don’t buy meat from him! He's a swindler." I didn’t deny myself anything - I could get ready in the evening, take two girlfriends and go 400 kilometers to Rostov, go to a club, leave around 30 thousand there and go back.

“As I remember now, Miss Zsuzsa came out, and it was just terrible.”

Once I went to Sochi and at some point found myself in a gay club. It was called "Gourmet". During the day there was a children's ice cream parlor, and in the evening it turned into a gay club with a drag show. As I remember now, Miss Zhuzha came out, and it was just terrible! I was outraged by everything: that he was dressed as a woman, that he was wearing heels, that he was wearing makeup like a prostitute. “Ugh, how disgusting!” - it seemed to me.

But I liked Sochi so much that I decided to move there. In the summer he braided his hair, in the winter he got a job as a waiter, of course, through an acquaintance, so - in a gay club. It's called "Lighthouse". There was also a travesty show there. A year later, I reached the rank of hostess; men who dressed as women stopped annoying me. And then, a few years later, I suddenly decided to try performing. My boyfriend, who still sews all my costumes, and I came up with the idea of ​​getting a women’s dress in the national Ossetian style. We carefully planned our makeup, I spent probably two hours doing my makeup. And they put on a dance number to a famous Chechen song. And at Mayak, 60-70 percent of our visitors are Caucasians. They just howled with pleasure! This was 8 years ago. Since then I have staged a lot of numbers. And my most popular one is Lezginka, in which I dance the female part. When I came out for the first time to do this number, I felt like Alla Borisovna Pugacheva. There are only 300 people in the room clapping, but when they start dancing with you, screaming, screaming and tipping you hysterically, you can earn 40 thousand in 3 minutes. You think, damn, how cool this is! That time my mother was at the club. She liked my act so much that she seems to have become my biggest fan.

But you know what? It's been eight years now, and men dressing in women's clothing don't disgust me. But I only wear this costume at the club and never walk down the street like this. And when I’m in character, they love me because I’m a boy, that I can fight, that I talk about myself in the masculine gender, and even on stage I don’t call myself Azik, Azamatik.

Financier turned documentarian

Vera Loginova on how to earn millions and spend them on films about Russia

Age: 33 years
Who was: financier
Who became: documentary director

In the late 90s, legal and economic education seemed to me to have no alternative, especially from the steppes of Central Kazakhstan. At the age of 21, I became the executive director of a large insurance company, I really understood the topic, we had a great team, our portfolio included insurance contracts for shipyards, oil pipelines and even the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But I was not interested in money as such - I gave my best for 100 dollars and 10 thousand euros.

Then my friend Anton Nosik invited me to work with him: I reviewed Internet startups, built models, calculated profits, and conducted audits. You see, I'm a master of finance. I can turn any business into any money and vice versa, using any jurisdiction and any technology. I really know and love laws. In short, everything was fine with me. I became popular as a financier, lived in a beautiful apartment with a luxurious guy, everything was great with us. But it's pretty boring. I stopped eating meat and drinking and started doing yoga. But it was still boring. And I realized that it’s not about the guys, and not about the work, and not about the place where you are. The fact is that I personally have no idea what I really want to do in life.

And then I was called to the Perm Economic Forum, and I suddenly found myself, so to speak, in Russia. Then I decided to visit cities around the world where the road was built after 2000. I ended up in the Himalayas, where I was setting up a holy village - painting roofs, cleaning up trash, all that kind of stuff. At some point I go down to buy a fresh newspaper and call my parents and friends. And suddenly, on the phone, in the market, among mangoes and cows, I conclude a large contract. The agent's remuneration there was decent. And I, with my golden card, travel through the real jungle to Nepal, trudge to the base camp on Everest in June, when everything there is generally closed, the glaciers melt and everything melts. But I still reached almost 6 thousand. One.

“Raid array, Thunderbolt, chromakey - there was no way to guess what the guys were discussing.”

What I didn’t do later was practice on a boat as a sailor in Greece, pick figs in Croatia, and work in vineyards in Tuscany. I even planned to go on an expedition to the North Pole, but I couldn’t fit in. Last spring I flew to Russia, was walking from Aeroexpress with a giant backpack, and there were traffic cops standing at the intersection. And suddenly their brick faces, covered with snow, somehow lit up - and I heard: “Well, welcome back, or what?” I say, “Well, yes.” And they told me: “Well, welcome.” And I began to encounter this topic everywhere on the streets. It’s like everyone has been replaced! It’s clear that I’ve changed, but I didn’t realize it at the time. Then I really, really liked the Russia of spring 2012. I even went as an observer at the elections. And she came up with a movie - a documentary series about a country where cool people live. I had some savings then - I bought a minibus, assembled a team and traveled around the country.

I decided that the easiest way to find out something about people in Russia is to find out what issues interest them. That’s how the concept was born: we asked each character what their three main questions were for the Universe. And the next hero answered us. That’s why my project is called “Land of Answers”.

I didn’t know anything about documentary films a year and a half ago. At first I couldn’t even talk to my team - I didn’t understand a single word. Raid array, Thunderbolt, chromakey - there was no way to guess what the guys were discussing. The most difficult thing for me was to prove to people who have been in the profession for a long time that any business can be done differently. Many problems are solved using some standard ineffective flowcharts. And since I don’t know anything at all, I do everything in my own intuitive way. And everything always works out.

My ambitions are not Sundance, Locarno or Channel One. Although this too. My ambition is to give every person through this film simple knowledge of how to be happy right now. Say what you feel and do what you say. I haven’t lost my business acumen with this movie - I just feel happiness every day, even when I’m very tired, even when others behave dumb or idiotic. I feel inner strength, I feel a wonderful powerful wave, rightness and truth. And I am in love with all the people I work with, they are the most beautiful and brave people on earth. Do what you want with the ones you love, that's what.

Boxer turned actor

Alexander Savin about the fable “The Hare in Hop,” adrenaline and a lost biography

Age: 34 years
Who was: boxer
Who became: actor

I was born in Stavropol on January 1 - a gift to my dad. I studied and played sports. He trained as a physical education teacher and immediately went to Germany to box in the heavyweight division. Then I returned to Moscow to renew my visa, and I unexpectedly received a refusal from the German embassy. I was very upset, but I didn’t want to leave my boxing career: I thought that I would train in Moscow and go there for fights. As a result, he got a job as a trainer at a 24-hour fitness club. The selection was serious - about 50 people per place.

Back in Stavropol, in my 2nd year, I met a director, then still a beginner, Edward Parry. And when I ended up in Moscow, I started filming with him. The first role was this: I go out, take money from the authority, give him a slap on the head and leave. “Yellow Dragon” was a movie, a 4-part film. This is such a youth movie, Epifantsev also played there. I asked my friend to involve me wherever possible. He played in the TV series “Moscow. Central District". Gradually, roles with words began to appear, and then I realized that if I wanted to act further, I had to master the acting profession. I say: “Edik, I understand that you are casting me, as a comrade, in such roles so that I don’t ruin the film for you. What if I completed some acting courses?” He says: “No question, choose - GITIS, VGIK or “Pike.” But just acting classes are nonsense. And I began to apply, choosing “Pike” - the second higher education, evening. For the first year, I was selected from 200 people, but did not enter. It didn’t work out the second year either. I applied for the third time, if it didn’t work out, I would have given up trying. Although there was one girl who applied four times, she never did.

“My favorite fable is “The Drunk Hare,” I read it everywhere with great pleasure.”

By the third year I was already liberated. I went to give them what they demanded, and what they demanded was to light it up. In three years of preparation, I learned a lot. My favorite fable is “The Drunk Hare,” I read it everywhere with great pleasure. While I’m studying, I’m not filming—I’m not wasting my time on trifles. I'm still doing business. In the spring they invited me to Gelendzhik for filming, but I refused. As soon as the business can develop without me, I can concentrate on cinema. I don’t think that I have become an actor, but the education that I receive is very good and worthy. And I don’t see it as a hobby, although I understand that I’m taking a risk. My wife supports and helps. Of course, I would like to try myself in the theater. Theater is everything.

Even on a training task, I have a huge adrenaline rush before a performance. And this is actually one on one - like entering the ring. The acting profession requires enormous psychological preparation.

If someone at 22 years old had told me that everything would turn out this way, I wouldn’t have believed it. Although back in 1996 I mentioned to my mother that I wanted to go to theater. She then reacted with irony, but this is how it all turned out. At some point I started writing my biography, wrote on my phone for about a year, and then lost it. But I wasn’t very upset - it’s not that I have some kind of phenomenal memory, but some events cannot be forgotten. And I had a lot of them.

Peteushnik turned designer

Sergei Pakhotin about Belozersk punks, traps and stolen books

Age: 28 years
Who was: vocational school student
Who became: clothes designer

I was born in 1985 in Mogilev, then Chernobyl happened - and we moved to a farm in western Belarus. This is in Belozersk - in general it is considered a city, but you can walk through it entirely in three minutes. There in Belozersk I graduated from a vocational school to become an electrician welder.

At first I listened to rap, The Prodigy. And then there was graduation after the 9th grade, and my friends and I went to the lake. Already in the night, in the alcoholic chaos, we met hairy people, rockers. And they beat them. One of the hairy guys dropped out a cassette tape, I picked it up. It had no cover, only two letters were scratched with a nail: GO. I listened to it that same night and it felt cool. I thought - this is a crazy man, howling in a goat’s voice, but his soul is so light and at the same time scary. Then I asked my friends what kind of music this was, and they explained to me.

Once I found an advertisement in our Belarusian “Musical Newspaper”: a man wrote that he was associated with the “Radioactive Waste” group and was making a zine. I thought: “What is a zine? Interesting, I should write to him!” The zine was called by a foreign name, which I couldn’t even pronounce, so I simply redrew it and attached the money, asking them to send it to me when it was ready. A month and a half later, he actually sent me a zine and a bunch of small pieces of paper with pictures and addresses (as I later found out, they were called flyers). And then I began to correspond with other punks - I went to the post office almost every day, and a little later to the computer club. Everything was unclear then. For example, it is written about some group that it is “melodic hardcore”, but I don’t even know what hardcore is. And there is no one in Belozersk to ask.

“All this toilet punk leads to nothing, you just drink and that’s it.”

Then I started going to punk concerts in other cities. I corresponded with Petya Kosovo (a well-known Moscow anti-fascist, currently a political emigrant. - Ed.), with members of the “Test Line” group, which greatly influenced me. We once organized a concert for them in a potato field near Brest, it took place after heavy rain, when everything miraculously did not short out - and this concert also changed me a lot. I realized that all this toilet punk leads to nothing, it’s all destructive, you just drink and that’s it. And “PL” was a new step: people with a sense of humor, aggressive, interesting and poor got down to business. And soon I decided to move to Moscow. I thought about going to Warsaw or Kiev, but there was nothing interesting in this regard: everyone there copied Euroactivism, there was little of our own. And in Moscow, I felt, changes should begin.

At first I lived very poorly in Moscow. There have always been difficulties with work. When I went for interviews, I had to wear shirts and jeans in the summer so that the tattoo would not be visible, even if I went to get a job as a loader or courier. Once I got a job as a courier and delivered traps for animals, ten kilograms each. This was very depressing for me - after all, I don’t eat meat and am against killing. I decided that after you gave such a trap to someone, you definitely need to do something good, for example, repaint or repair something in the city. But I still ran away from this job later. For some time I was a face control officer at Rodna. And I was surprised at how bored the girls and boys were that went there. 90% simply die of boredom.

For some time I was alone in the apartment; my only duty was to open the door for the realtor who came to show this apartment to potential buyers. I spent my days reading, listening to Radio Orpheus, and leaving the house to shoplift books. And then I came up with this idea with T-shirts: print interesting pictures on them, something unusual. Everyone told me that it was impossible to do this at home, but I decided to try. Out of a passion for literature, the idea of ​​the first series of prints was born: with Selin, Bukowski, Erofeev and others. Now I no longer have the feeling that my work is useless. I can live and not depend on anyone.

What I still like about punk is the solidarity, the feeling that if you get into trouble, they won’t let you fall into ruin. I like self-organization, the fact that people don’t expect someone from above to help them. It seems to me that in Russia the majority have already realized that there will be no help, but they are still waiting for something. And the punks stopped waiting.

Male officer turned businesswoman

Alina B. about gender reassignment and military affairs

Age: 38 years
Who was: Officer
Who became: Business lady

I do business, hold meetings, visit factories, drive a car, but at the same time I am not there. In the bureaucratic-legal sense, of course. After me, only secondary, fragmentary traces remain - almost like the Higgs boson or neutrino. I created myself today from emptiness, Photoshop and knowledge from a past life. Most people who interact with me are not aware that I am transsexual. I don’t want to have a baring session or talk about legal difficulties and juicy details. It's not for me to get something hot. I just feel more comfortable living the way I do now. I should clarify: I am a specialist in high-risk logistics operations. I can bring anything, anywhere and bypass any barrier. And since officials have not been able to approve the form of a medical certificate for gender reassignment for 18 years, I chose to put the state machine into a personal stalemate: I live with one name on my documents and a completely different name on my business card.

In my youth, I was faced with a complete lack of information about people like me, and therefore I decided that I was a freak and a monster. She pulled herself together and did everything possible so as not to let her family down, talentedly playing the role of an exemplary boy. She studied well, mastered languages, and read a lot. I did a little tinkering, I even made a working model of a silo with a ballistic missile with a friend - my grandfather built these silos in his time, and he told me how they worked. And in the 10th grade we built a working example of a recoilless rifle from water pipes. Very effective, by the way, at medium distances. Why was I interested in the army and military affairs? I studied what was interesting and where dynamics and life were felt. In the USSR, the only such industry was military affairs and related defense production. Scraps of ideas and technologies from there were already shared with the rest of the economy. In general, gunpowder fumes are a very effective means of clearing the mind of propaganda nonsense. And any war (and I was in a war) is a huge separator of people from non-humans. Moreover, both the first and the second are always on both sides of the front. It happens when your enemy deserves more respect than your neighbor.

“I did a little tinkering and made a working mock-up of a silo with a ballistic missile”

In the 90s, I did everything I could do to make money. I calculated coursework and tests on a calculator, then I bought a computer and started this business. She sold everything that could be sold (even “Uncle Scrooge’s lucky 10 cents” coins from Sheremetyevo duty-free), transported marble from the quarry, drove taxis, and drove cars. At the age of 20, I already had my own car - a Moskvich, but it was new.

I work from dawn to dusk. Wake up at 5.30, lights out at 0.00. I've been at work since 8 a.m. and can't get home before 9 p.m. And there - have dinner, swim and sleep. I answer work emails right up until bedtime; I strive to be as customer-oriented as possible. If I hadn’t changed myself, I would have lived exactly the same. I simply changed the shell to something more comfortable for me personally, but didn’t do anything with the content. I couldn't have children anyway.

The easiest way would be to assume that I do not respect our state because it does not protect LGBT rights. But that's not true. Our state takes an anti-humanistic position in principle. Show us which social, professional or national group's rights are fully protected? Maybe entrepreneurs? Or the now so hated creative class? Or scientists? You can keep silent about pensioners altogether. In the current situation, it is natural that any decent person does not accept the methods and goals of such public education. There is a very narrow circle of beneficiaries of Rossiya CJSC who make profit from the country and indulge their personal ambitions. We have an absolute priority of loyalty over competence, and responsibility comes last. Therefore, I prefer to evaluate the effectiveness of our officials exclusively in TNT equivalent.

How does someone like me live? As paradoxical as it sounds, the most loyal and tolerant (to me personally) are law enforcement officers. True, I show them a genuine, although discordant with its appearance, package of documents. And - not a single case of aggression. Perhaps because on a subconscious level they understand that if someone lives and looks like this, it means they have the right. I call this the “Moska effect”.

I know many stories of people who changed themselves in this way. Stories with both happy endings and very tragic ones. All the positive ones can be united by one thing: the winners were accomplished individuals and masters in their field (completely different professions). Then we managed to get support from outside and provide ourselves with funds for at least a couple of years of uncertainty. It's necessary. Otherwise, you simply won’t reach the finish line. And, I repeat, this is not a road for the weak. Don’t think that when you put on a skirt or heels, earthly blessings will rain down on you from the sky and they will see you off with exclusively admiring glances. My experience was akin to trying to ride a balloon covered in ice. If you don’t feel like you have talent as a tightrope walker or, at worst, a clown, it’s better not to start.

Unemployed man turned businessman

Andrey Knyazev about cigarettes, beer and geodesic domes

Age: 34 years
Who was: unemployed
Who became: businessman

I was not struck by lightning, I was not a millionaire who rushed off to Goa. I just quit smoking. For the first three days I nervously gnawed on the seeds, and two weeks later I went to a birthday party, drank and either grabbed cigarettes or threw them away. The next morning I made a promise to myself that until I feel like I’ve quit smoking forever, I won’t drink. I remember going out on Kashirka, sun, hot September. I approach the tent and immediately catch myself thinking that I’m looking at the beer. It was a blow to my pride! I took water and went to Brateevo, not yet knowing that this decision would change a lot.

I began to communicate with people of a completely different level. Before this, I had never seen a single living vegetarian, but then I stopped eating those with eyes. I once received a spam email: “What do you know about geodesic domes?” I didn’t know anything about them, but I became interested, and for five years now I have been building them in Russia. And I think that if at that moment I was sitting in front of the computer with a can of beer, I would simply throw away this letter. My wife Natalya smokes and eats meat. Of course, I make fun of her, but I understand that I will spoil her appetite if I say that the cutlet is the corpse of a killed animal. I haven’t chosen a religion for myself yet; I rarely do yoga (I would like to do it more often). And in general, my whole vegetarianism is all about ecology and energy saving, nothing more. As for the beard, I need it, because I really like the way the hair on my chin moves in the wind.

Dancers who became rural teachers

Alexey and Irina Basmanov about a house in a field, a goat and a calling in life

Age: 30 years old, 32 years old
Who were: professional dancers
What they became: rural teachers

Irina: I had a dream to become a world champion or Russian champion in sports ballroom dancing. When we first started dancing together, Alexey had his own dance club, I had my own, and I had an amateur dance career behind me. In Russia, we quickly became silver medalists in the “10 dances among professionals” program, went to the world championships - constantly and performed well there. Then we went to Italy to work, they offered us to stay there, they invited us to America. In general, we could go on and on, but Alexey already had a clear guideline.

Alexei: At the age of 16, I began to be interested in various philosophical trends, and somehow I came across a book by Vladimir Megre. I was very inspired by what was written there about the family, about the Motherland, and I was imbued with a sense of patriotism. I organically cannot stand the city, and then I very clearly understood that I wanted to leave. But I understood that if we take any serious steps, they must be prepared. Preparation took almost 10 years. The most difficult thing was to find a person who, from greenhouse conditions, would be ready to go to God knows where.

Irina: At first I took a wait-and-see attitude and thought to myself: “Well, the land won’t be found right away.” And she was found almost immediately. Then I thought: “Well, don’t move right away.” We moved, but not right away. First, we spent the winter with the Leshin parents at their dacha to understand what village life was like. Of course, at first we had thoughts of going completely into the wilderness, but then we abandoned them and now we don’t regret it - you listen to how people who live in the taiga tell how they fight for the harvest in order to survive, how wild animals come to them When they arrive at the station, it becomes really scary.

Alexei: At first we just came here and lived in a tent in a field. Then I built a small house. Before this, I didn’t really know how to hammer a nail, but in the end it was okay—I managed to do it with just one person. The first year we actually lived together in the field. It was cool: the lights of the village in the distance, romance. And we decided to do everything for real: we got horses and prepared hay for them by hand. But it’s not easy - just mow it and put it down, it needs to be dried, turned over, and collected. We went to the locals and asked what and how. It didn't work out once, it didn't work out again. Then again.

Irina: We planned to have children and wanted to switch to a different diet. We asked around - no one had anything. So we decided to get our own goat and chickens. And not just any goat, but a purebred one. It seems like they found a suitable option, called, the man says: “Yes, okay, I’ll bring you a milk goat from Lipetsk.” He brings it, takes it out of the trunk, and she’s just nothing - she was shaking there for five hours, she lost her milk, of course, but we only realized this later. I ask: “How to milk her?” And he: “How do I know! This is what my grandmother does.” I had to go to the locals again. But you also need to understand that the goat doesn’t just stand and wait for it to be milked, it kicks and dodges. When we realized that there was no milk, we had to cover this goat and give birth, and then only milk appeared. In general, problems were everywhere - just getting water from the well.

Alexei: In the first year, I went to work for two days, and Irina was left alone. Actually alone. Pregnant woman in the field. There was some electricity in the house from solar panels, but outside the window it was dark, clouds were flying across the sky, the moon was flickering, there was a field all around, you couldn’t see anything. She was scared. In the first year there was no road yet - a field and a broken dirt road, it rained - and that’s all. But we somehow managed to cope with everything. They wanted to completely switch to agriculture. But after some time we realized that by growing potatoes and raising chickens here, we still bring less benefit than if we raised students.

We didn’t want to go to Moscow, so we looked at what clubs there were in the area, what kind of teachers they were. Of course, when I first came to get settled, they looked at me askance: I had long hair and a beard. Still, when you work as a dance teacher for children, you should look like a dance teacher. But here, if it rains, leaving the house, walking to the car and staying clean is already a problem. Shaving is also a whole story. Now the conditions have improved and it has become easier. But we like working here; rich parents came to Moscow, gave us money, and then forgot about it. And here we see the result of the work, the children are very motivated. For them, this is not two stomps, three slams, but a real sport.

At first we thought that our daughter would not go to kindergarten or school. But now we have abandoned these views. You can go into the forest, isolate yourself from everyone, and in the end it will happen that children will grow up cut off from the world. If we ourselves grew up in the forest, then maybe. Otherwise, it can turn out to be a mess. Why did we even leave here? Not because of the fresh air, of course. I clearly understood that I wanted to live with my loved one in the village. There is more unity and more feeling here. But in the city this feeling is much more difficult to maintain. Attention goes - back and forth, back and forth. When I think, what are the advantages? Expensive nice apartment? Expensive nice car? Good job? No, thank you, I don’t need anything, I’d rather carry water from the well, light the stove, go to the forest for firewood, and I won’t drag myself to the city for any reason.

Businessman turned yogi

Sergei Korolev about fasting, walking on coals and the dangers of positive thinking

Age: 35 years
Who was: businessman
Who became: yogi

Since childhood, I have essentially been an entrepreneur - my friends ordered me some drawings and then bought them. Since then I have always worked for myself. In the late 90s, when I was about 20 years old, I had about 30 retail outlets - no one believed that it was all mine, they thought that I was just an administrator. Then he started making furniture. There was a lot. I worked all the time, I didn’t have days off, I didn’t go anywhere much, I dreamed of having a day off - this lasted for years from the age of 16.

Fate changed dramatically and immediately. When my mother died in front of my eyes from cancer, it was at that second that everything in my life changed. I decided to change my life, I began to think about what I was doing, about my health. Using the example of my mother, I realized that I shouldn’t rely on doctors, although I had health problems and I felt worse and worse. I began to look for various information on the Internet and check it on myself. I started with vegetarianism, then a raw food diet, then I began to fast and was guided only by my feelings. I went on a long-term fast fifteen times - on water for 20 days, and without water and food for up to 11 days, although the textbooks say that a person can survive without water for only 72 hours. The body adapts to any challenge. For the first time, on the fifth day, my voice disappeared, I walked very slowly, I was constantly tired. But after I came out of hunger, I felt great: younger, stronger. Sports results from ten years ago automatically returned. At first I was a little fanatical and tried to tell everyone how great it was, but then I decided to share my experience with those who were interested and created my own VKontakte group. He briefly described the method of how you can quickly lose weight and improve your health, and the emphasis was placed specifically on losing weight, because people, as a rule, do not actually strive to be healthy. Such an entrepreneurial pitch.

“Lying on nails promotes relaxation—I can do this twenty-four hours a day.”

I partially sold my share in the business to my partner, and simply gave most of it to him, because I was not interested in doing it. I started organizing events, renting halls, and I had my own club. Gradually the range of interests expanded. When you begin to open up to something new, you gradually learn that walking on coals and glass is not the prerogative of some yogis and enlightened people. So I put different techniques together and 3 years ago I created the “Free People” project, which promotes a healthy lifestyle.

We completely lack esotericism. I am against this talk about universal love and about the fact that the main thing is to think positively. There was such a case in Altai, we lost two people, and some girl said: “The main thing for us all is to think positively!” I answer: “It’s time for us to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and not think positively.” Many esotericists do not work because they believe that money is evil, but I believe that it is a resource. I can use this money to get drunk, or I can organize an event where people can meet, talk, walk on glass, and learn something new and important for themselves. Our courses are available to absolutely anyone, from a five-year-old child to a pensioner. Everyone can lie on nails, walk on glass, on coals, and so on. And we never had any incidents - no one was injured or burned. No shamanism: we give techniques and explain that they work. It’s just that if a person walks on glass and coals, it means that he believes in his strength, it means that he can change something in his life, he removes some of his internal barriers. Lying on nails promotes relaxation - a person understands that pain is illusory. And you don’t have to go to Tibet for this. 10 minutes of instruction and off you go. I can do this twenty-four hours a day, and I like it. And I'm glad my girlfriend is doing this with me. By the way, she eats meat, and I have nothing against it.

Editor-in-chief turned social worker

Marina Gatzemeyer-Khakimova about Malakhov, shame and German veterans

Age: 41 years old
Who was: chief editor
Who became: Social worker

I worked in television for many years as a chief editor. She worked in Malakhov’s “Big Wash”, simultaneously did “Let Them Talk” and “Malakhov+”, Lolita’s show, night projects, special projects. In general, at some point I quit “Let Them Talk.” For me this was a decisive step. People often don’t understand why they suddenly felt uncomfortable at their old job; in fact, they just hit the ceiling. There is also such a term - burnout syndrome. In Germany, where I now live, professionals who work with people, such as doctors, sometimes see a psychotherapist and go on vacation relatively often. And why? Because when you work with people for a long time, communicate a lot, you simply begin to hate them. This can happen in any profession related to communication - nurses, taxi drivers, conductors. This also happens to journalists, and this means that you need to look for a new direction or take a break. I was well aware of this then, and that’s why I left. Then I met a man from Germany, fell madly in love and went to visit him every week. A year later, I moved with my two children to him and we got married.

If in Moscow I was a lonely, independent woman, then here I decided to really try to change everything: I became a housewife, cooked soups, and cleaned. We had a huge house and two large gardens to cultivate. I seriously went to flower markets, discussed with friends how to make an alpine slide and which trees would be best to plant around. She was constantly cleaning, washing the windows every week, wiping something every day, cleaning it until it was shiny. And, having lived like this for about a month, I decided to go to work. At first I worked for free - there is a large charity organization where wealthy Germans come simply for the opportunity to do good in their free time. You need to communicate with the sick and old people, sing songs to them, talk, drink coffee with them.

“I did the Let Them Talk program and I wasn’t sure that what I was doing was right”

After some time, I realized that I needed to get a driver’s license, and this is very expensive in Germany, I need to learn the language, and there were still a lot of expenses. I told the head of this organization about this, and she agreed to pay me money for more difficult work. So I became a nurse and cleaner. Then my relationship with my husband didn’t work out, and I left him, but I didn’t think about moving to Moscow. Because I lived in Moscow and did the “Let Them Talk” program and I was not sure that what I was doing was right. I was very tormented by the question - why am I doing this? Who benefits from this? Working with patients or working as a cleaner is a completely different matter. You immediately see the result of your work - the person’s joyful face. And most importantly, I am absolutely sure that I am not using this person. I can sleep peacefully at night without thinking: did I spoil someone? I often talk to old people, and these are people who went through the war. Some fought on the side of the SS, others were still children, but in any case, their stories are a most interesting experience. They tell me a lot, I think in the future these conversations could even become material for a book.

Illustrator turned fisherman

Maxim Kurbatov about parasitism, used cars and Tuvan fishing

Age: 50 years
Who was: book illustrator
Who became: fisherman

I am a half-educated printer. And I still have one sin, which, fortunately, is in the past; I am a chronic alcoholic. I had a tumultuous youth, and regular studies did not fit into it. In general, I was a fool at the institute. And then my parents decided to hand me over to the army out of sin. After the army, it was necessary to somehow accommodate me: Andropov then came to power, and they fought with all their might for labor discipline. I was assigned to various printing houses, but I walked around in the dark. I was regularly brought to labor commissions for parasitism, my work book was all blue - I didn’t stay in one place for more than a month and a half. In 1984, if my memory serves me correctly, I was hired as a stage worker at the Central Children's Theater, bearing in mind that I once wanted to go to theater. But there the KGB caught up with me: an Argentinean ensemble of some kind of song and dance arrived, and there were KGB officers everywhere, they were running up the stairs, watching everyone, and as a result they caught me with a bottle and fired me. Then my mother told me that I would stop doing nonsense and suggested that I work at home as a graphic artist. My mother is a printer, my father was the chief artist at the Decorative Arts magazine, and all my friends are artists. Through an acquaintance, I was assigned to the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house. I made a small book there. They praised me, and somehow things went well. Then I went down the chain to Moscow publishing houses, and continued to drink. But it became a little easier, because if I, say, took a job and failed it, at least one of my relatives could finish it for me. By the way, he made very good money.

“I bought a computer, mastered the programs, and began publishing books on car repairs.”

This all lasted until the 1991 revolution, when very difficult times began. Everyone survived as best they could. And since everything was accompanied by my alcoholic illness, it was difficult and difficult. Basically, the road was one way for me - I probably would have ended up under the fence. But my wife said - either the family is breaking up, or something needs to be done. I went to the Lavra to visit the monks and eventually quit in 1995; I haven’t drunk since then. Just then foreign cars poured into Russia. There were more and more of them every year, and they were mostly old, used. At the same time, there were no specialized services as such, no one knew anything about them. On this wave - a holy place is never empty - people began to organize automobile publishing houses, which were engaged in the translation and publication of technical literature on the repair of foreign cars. It was just boom! Books were bought up at such a speed that people did not know what to do with the money. And at first I worked as a photographer in one such publishing house, retaking illustrations from Western publications. And then he bought himself his first computer, a scanner, mastered specialized programs and went further into this jungle - he began to publish books on car repairs himself. This continued until 2008, when the so-called banking crisis occurred. Since almost all of these publishing houses lived on loans, they were greatly affected by the crisis. In addition, a ban was introduced on the import of old foreign cars, and accordingly, the entire market began to collapse.

I must say that somewhere in the mid-90s, when money appeared, I began to travel and take photographs a lot. Through my photography hobbies I met a very interesting person, Alexander Basov. He was a foreman at the Tupolev plant, and I ordered him objective boards for my camera. He is a passionate fisherman, just crazy, you might say. He goes fishing to Tuva and got me hooked. You fly to Kyzyl, from there you drive another 240 kilometers to a remote village, there you board a boat and ride along the river for another 240 km. These are wild places, there is no one there at all! And when our book story collapsed, I took up fishing.

Here is how it was. We actually lived on our mother-in-law’s pension - from “Auchan” to “Auchan” - we bought food and sat as if in a submarine. And then the older brother of Bori Akimov, the founder of the farm store “LavkaLavka” (I’ve been friends with them since childhood, their mother is my godmother and my mother’s godmother) calls me and asks how I’m doing. I say: “How are you? No way, we’re sitting here, we’ll start eating quinoa soon.” He says: “How’s your fishing? Borka made “LavkaLavka”, they just have a problem with fish, they need real, fresh ones. You should have called him." This was in September of the year before last. Now I do this all the time - I go to Rybinka, take fish from the guys, and take it to Moscow. I actually only sleep at home at night, and the rest of the time I go somewhere, resolve some issues. Previously, I was kind of a parasite and dropped out of all jobs, but as a result I turned out to be a workaholic - I’m ready to work all day long until I drop.

Programmer turned photographer

Yuri Morozov about children's drawings, Slava Zaitsev and photography

Age: 32 years
Who was: programmer
Who became: photographer

Growing up, I was a classic nerd. My parents are engineers, a kind of technical intelligentsia. At the age of ten, I had already assembled my first radio, but somehow my creativity didn’t work out. All my works turned out to be ugly, but technologically advanced. They asked me to draw a hut in the snow - the hut turned out so-so, but the snow sparkled quite realistically due to the added table salt. The cars assembled during the labor lessons looked like the devil's chariots, but they were able to drive independently and perform all sorts of useful actions. In general, since childhood, my soul was drawn to technology, and after the ninth grade I entered the physics and mathematics lyceum, and two years later - the physics department of Moscow State University. He studied radio and biophysics.

In the initial courses there was not enough scholarship, and I had to look for a job quite quickly. Since I have been well acquainted with computers since childhood, I got a job as an Enikey specialist (a generalist computer specialist) in a glossy magazine. In the morning at the university, at night in the editorial office. The stress accumulated instantly.

One day I saw an advertisement: they were recruiting for a ballroom dancing school. It’s beautiful, but the physical load is quite decent. And they were forbidden to me as a child. But I thought and decided: screw it all - and went. For the next few years I studied, worked and danced. I began to live by the principle “we need more hell.” So that I didn’t have enough time for anything, I also went to breakdancing. Unfortunately, after some time the damaged tendon began to show itself, and I had to give up dancing.

“What I liked most was portraying Neo from The Matrix: I easily stood on the bridge and could dodge bullets.”

When I danced, there was an aesthetic component to my life. It became completely sad without her, and I tried to bring her back into my life. I tried to sing, but it didn’t work. I tried to play the piano, but it didn’t work either. Depression began. I don’t know how it would have ended if one day my friends hadn’t invited me to act as a dancer for an advertising photo shoot. I liked it: you stand, depicting what you have always done, only without dynamic load. Yes, and mom has something to show. Then other orders came: dancers are generally in demand in the photography business. My favorite part was portraying Neo from The Matrix: I easily stood on the bridge and could dodge bullets, just like in the movie.

One day I was invited to the program “Fashionable Sentence,” which was then hosted by Vyacheslav Zaitsev. During the break, I approached him for an autograph, and he suddenly took it and called me to work as a model. It was like I was on top of the world. Then, of course, I realized that this was far from true. Once after one of the photo shoots, when I saw the final result, I thought: “Guys, where do your hands grow from?” If you want to do it right, do it yourself. I bought a camera. I realized that my hands weren’t working very well either, and I went to photography school. But for me personally, this is more of a creative activity, so that I have something to remember in my old age: “Here, grandson, we once drank with Barack Obama at the dacha in Uryupinsk, and he tells me...” Every time - new interesting people, every time - new memories. This is, in principle, worth a lot. Well, otherwise, what else is the point in all this?

Analyst who went to the sea

Denis Romanov about fasting people, diving and life without money

age: 42 years
who was: analyst
who became: travel agency owner

Recently, I worked as the head of the analytical department at a large news agency. Our department collected data on retail sales of electronic household appliances. An Austrian company is collecting this data worldwide. And Russia is the only country where data was taken not from them, but from us, because Western technologies did not work here. In general, there was a lot of free time - and the salary was decent.

Windsurfing changed everything - I was already drawn to sails since childhood, and then time and opportunities appeared, but the impetus for a change of situation was, perhaps, a divorce from my wife: when I got divorced, I began to go to the sea even more actively. And then, quite by accident, I read about Dahab on the Internet - they say, it’s a good place, guys, come. We were the first Russians to explore Dahab. He came to Moscow once every two months, signed invoices and went back. When I came to the office again and saw these dull, dead faces of people who were most concerned about selling televisions, it became unbearable. Mentally, I was ready to give up everything, but I continued to wander like this for another year.

And then one day in Dahab I climbed out of the sea in a wetsuit, sat down on the shore and smoked a hookah with my Arab friend. Before our eyes we see some kind of dive center. And purely by chance this Vahid tells me: “Listen, this dive center is now for rent. Take it and stay, do you want?” And I immediately thought: of course I want to. Although at that time I did not speak English and had little idea what diving was. Nevertheless, I immediately gave the thousand dollars that I had with me as a deposit, and I flew to Moscow to look for money to buy several sets of equipment, a laptop, and a camera. I found a friend who invested in the business as a partner, quit his job and moved with me. I didn’t want to make money from my hobby - this risks making you hate it later. Windsurfing is like a drug: it doesn’t let you go, it requires a lot of time, effort and money. It’s easier to stay at sea and do something. I didn’t have any business plans, this is Egypt - an adventure in its purest form. But I made my money back in the first year. There, in Dahab, I met my current wife.

“I would never have thought before that it was possible to live without money on a distant island”

When we got tired of Dahab, I started looking on the Internet for good places with waves. Discovered Socotra. The Internet promised a surfing paradise, giant waves, wind. I went there, liked it very much, and decided to move with my wife. Now we are actively engaged in tourism, this year we will open the first normal restaurant in Socotra. At some point, no tourists came at all - and we lived practically without money. And nothing, somehow we managed. We caught fish and ate rice. They didn’t pay for the house, the owner said: “Okay, then you’ll pay.” The wife, of course, was shocked at first. Yes, and I would never have thought before that it was possible to live like this, without money, on a distant island.

Now we want to eventually move to Madagascar, there are more opportunities there: you can go yachting, diving, windsurfing, kiting, rock climbing, and spearfishing. Now I am looking for like-minded people, those who are also ready to untie themselves from the matrix, settle on the ocean shore and see the world in its natural beauty, and not as they show us on TV.

We visit Moscow on short visits, once every two years, to get our teeth fixed and to see our relatives. Dad, by the way, is trying to dissuade me from moving, but he understands that he cannot stop me. Yes, I had a car here for 25 thousand dollars, but every year I was sick and sat at the computer all day. And since I left for the sea, I have not been sick even once. Pension? I forgot about retirement a long time ago. Nobody knows when we will die. And while I’m alive, I’d rather go to the sea and catch a fish.

Manager and editor turned farmers

Nika Petrova and Gleb Butorlin about routine, love of horses and escaping the city

Age: 35 years old, 34 years old
Who were: editor, manager
What they became: farmers

Nika: Someone rightly said: “Most people have a dream that can be achieved before the end of the week, and they make it a lifelong dream.” There is no need to wait: time is a non-renewable resource. My life flowed, and I flowed with it: I lived in the city, worked in an office - like everyone else. In the morning I woke up with difficulty, went to work, came back and buried myself in the TV or computer. And so on day after day. I also lived in the city center all my life, it was very difficult: you leave the entrance and immediately run into a crowd or traffic jam. Each time is an emotional blow. All these city values ​​are not for me. I have loved nature and animals since childhood. Especially horses. My whole life is connected with them, even my last job - I was deputy editor-in-chief of a hippological magazine.

“The first winter was difficult. In the morning it happened that it was zero degrees inside, the water froze.”

The first thing I changed in my usual rhythm of life was buying a horse. It is clear that it is impossible to support her in a city apartment. There are private stables that provide stable services, but the conditions for keeping horses in most of these stables are poor, to put it mildly. And you could get away from work once twice a week maximum. For several years I suffered like this, moving from stable to stable. And then we met Gleb and decided that we needed to move out of town. There was no money at all, but despite this, we went to look at plots for sale. We needed a large plot of land, at least half a hectare for a horse, plus more space for our own buildings. And we found such a site, we were lucky, we agreed on an installment plan. It took six months to pay the cost, and a year to process it. Of course, we wanted to move right away, but during this year we had already managed to somehow mentally prepare and agree on a loan - back then, in 2007, it was difficult. There was only enough for a garden house: no foundation, the walls were 13 cm thick, but we were initially prepared for difficulties. We moved in one day. I quit my job, we were leaving our camping kit in the car - sleeping bags, dishes, clothes, flashlights - there was no electricity here. The first winter was difficult. In the morning it happened that it was zero degrees inside, the water froze. At the same time, for the first year we didn’t have our own well - we went to the village to the well. There was no electricity for five years - we used the generator for five to six hours in the evenings. But there is still no road, so periodically we have to overcome off-road conditions. But we didn’t regret it even once—everything was perceived as an adventure. It was as if we were going on a long hike.

Gleb’s parents were born and raised in the village, but then they lived and continue to live in the city all their lives, dreaming of returning back. Gleb still goes to work in the city, but I prefer physical work, outside, in the sun. Today I painted the fence. There's enough to do. Mostly all work with animals. There is a lot of care for a horse, and we also have a lot of other animals. A donkey, three dogs, four cats, a rabbit and a rook. And everyone needs to pay attention. Another small vegetable garden. In addition, I blog about our life and photograph animals. All of our animals are my favorite models.

Bartender turned copywriter

Pavel Greshnov about bad jokes and hell behind the bar

Age: 26 years
Who was: bartender
Who became: copywriter

Actually, I'm from Saratov. Never graduated from university. Honestly, I took two courses to become a psychologist-educator, and then I got tired of it. This is my problem: if it gets boring, I can’t. He became a bartender in Saratov, then moved to Moscow. I got a job in a bar on Taganka - a former casino, but essentially a coffee shop, where the only alcohol available is bottled beer. At the same time, I signed up for the TNT casting, they were recruiting participants for the first “Comedy battle”. I came there wearing a T-shirt with the inscription “Secret Resident of the Comedy Club” and started reading frankly bad jokes. The thought that nothing would work out was severely frightening. I had been standing behind the counter for five years now and knew what kind of hell this was. One day I just didn't go to work. It was scary, but I didn’t stay in the forest! Even at the battle I became friends with Oleg Yesenin. And he kept repeating: “You need to write.” In short, Oleg called and told me to go with him to a meeting with Nikolai Borisovich (Kartozia. - Note ed.). And a week later they told me that I was now working as a copywriter. There is no confidence in the future yet. But I won't go back to the counter. And if he really wants it, I’ll collect three hundred rubles from each friend on Facebook and VKontakte and go to Goa.

Cafe owner turned novice

Sergei Yakovlev about drugs, obedience and prayer

Age: 39 years
Who was: cafe owner
Who became: novice in the monastery

My friends were leaving for Africa and decided to sell their business, a cafe in Novaya Ladoga, at a cheap price. They told me and my common-law wife everything, taught us everything, and we started to spin around. So everything went well, money appeared, we opened a second cafe in the city of Volkhov, then a third. Then there was extra money. And then drugs appeared - and the whole business went down the drain. In almost six months I destroyed myself. As a result, the entire cafe had to be sold. Then I decided to quit drugs myself. I came out without any medications, but I was shaking very badly for three days. My wife saw that I was depressed and started taking me to my grandmothers. One of them said that I should live in a monastery.

It was hard at first. The Anthony-Siysky Monastery near Arkhangelsk is strict, where people are subjected to tests. He came to work, and they threw him into various small matters, they didn’t trust him with anything serious. But I endured it and eventually began to work at a construction site. True, I always had more work than obedience. After all, it’s like this: you have to choose, work or pray. If you get up, like the monks, at five in the morning, go to prayer yourself, and read the rules, then you have no strength left for physical labor. Although prayer is also important, of course.

At some point, I left the monastery for St. Petersburg, worked there on the railway until I was called back to the monastery. It was not easy in St. Petersburg: drug addiction was all over the place and there was always the opportunity to return to it. But I remembered the words of Father Barsanuphius: “You try once and consider that you have lived these years in vain.” In the monastery you calm down and come to the conclusion that you don’t need it. You understand that all this is worldly, fussy, nonsense. And it’s calm and good there. Every time I come, it takes my breath away.

Hello, dear readers of Valery Kharlamov’s blog! To inspire you to achieve and show that it is never too late to start doing something different and unfamiliar, I want to tell the stories of people who changed their lives radically and irrevocably.

Ruth Flowers

Quiet life in retirement

Who can think that at the age of 70 it is possible not only to change your life dramatically, but also to achieve success and recognition? Usually, after retirement, people lead a quiet lifestyle, babysit their grandchildren and grow a vegetable garden. But Ruth Flowers wanted to prove that she was still capable of much at her age.

At the age of 58, having lost her beloved husband, Ruth tried to cope with depression, and in order not to experience loneliness and melancholy, she decided to take up photography. She worked part-time as a music teacher and gave lectures on the works of Charles Dickens. She lived a calm and measured life until one day her grandson invited her to his birthday party, the celebration of which took place in a nightclub. Surprisingly, Ruth agreed, although at that time she was already 68 years old.

New goal in life

The trip to the disco turned out to have difficulties that played a significant role in the future - the security guard skeptically noted that the grandmother had no place in such establishments. And instead of turning back, Flowers took the remark as a challenge, answering that if she wanted, she could also become a DJ there. And so that the words would not be thrown to the wind, a couple of days later the granny met Orel Simon, a young producer.

Explaining that she is not satisfied with the attitude of others towards older people, believing that they should only sit at home and worry about their health, without visiting places where they can relax, and that she wants to prove to everyone that old people know how to have fun no worse than the younger generation . Orel supported Flowers, and while she was learning how to mix tracks and make sets, he pushed for an opportunity for her to perform.

For almost two years, all attempts were unsuccessful, because club managers categorically refused to cooperate with Mami Rock (this was the pseudonym Ruth took for herself) as soon as they heard about her age and previous lifestyle. Electronic music of a 70-year-old grandmother, singing in a church choir and passion for the work of Charles Dickens, in their opinion, were completely incompatible and strange. Unsuccessful attempts to get on stage deprived them of hope and strength, so much so that Mami Rock was ready to give up her idea.

World star

But one incident changed everything - Orel managed to enroll his ward in the program of one party in Cannes. The audience was so delighted that within a few weeks Mami began to receive a lot of offers from different parts of the planet, and within a year she became a world star, playing with DJ Tiesto and DJ Guetta, and even releasing her single Still Rocking.

Another example that a dream can come true. Saniya Sagitova, having retired, finally decided to do what her soul had always been drawn to - hitchhiking around the world. The desire was so great that the brave woman, having no experience or health for such a lifestyle, visited more than 40 countries, covering more than 120 thousand kilometers, and this at the age of 55. Not every man dares to get into a stranger's car alone. But Sania is absolutely happy at the moment because she allows herself to do what she wants.

She even passed her license so that if the driver was feeling unwell or had some kind of breakdown, she would be able to help. Doctors are sounding the alarm, having discovered a lot of diseases in her, and regarding diabetes mellitus they even offer to issue the traveler a disability. But Sania refuses, joking that what kind of person with disabilities will she make if she hitchhikes around different countries without stopping or restrictions?

And indeed, without restrictions, visas are opened for her with ease, because she always submits documents on her own. At the same time, she includes examples of her reviews and stories about the places she has visited. After reading them, ambassadors sometimes even offer to issue a visa without payment, in exchange for an interesting article about visiting their country.

Sheri was 40 years old, she did not work anywhere, raised three children with her husband and had an outstanding loan. In general, nothing foreshadowed that she would turn into a millionaire, and even so quickly - literally in a year. And all thanks to routine.

Sheri wanted to add a little variety and creativity to Crocks products out of boredom by covering the holes with rhinestones and all sorts of gags. Fortunately, the family had a lot of such slippers, and there was something to experiment with. Friends appreciated the creative approach, and orders poured in.

One day, at a family council, the husband proposed organizing a website selling accessories for Crocs, to which the enterprising woman agreed. And in 2005, a company called Jibbitz appeared. At first, Cheryl worked around the clock, managing to find time for the children. She and her husband sold the product not only on the Internet, but also offered it directly in specialized stores.

Deciding that wasting time on writing a business plan was pointless, we decided to act directly and aggressively. They called their friends to offer shoe design services. But no matter how difficult it was at first, after a year and a half, Crocks bought the rights to this company, bringing income to the Schmelzers in the amount of $10 million. And the most interesting thing is that it began with the fact that they simply wanted to close their loan, without even imagining what success they could achieve.

Dani Johnson

Just an amazing story that shows that even in the most difficult situations there is a way out. Dani Johnson was born in Hawaii into a family of drug addicts. Childhood, as you guessed, was difficult, so there were no prospects for a happy future.

At 21, she was a girl of easy virtue, working part-time as a waitress. She had only 2 dollars in her pocket and 37 thousand in debt and lived in her car. She gave birth to a daughter, who was raised by other people and, of course, used drugs in addition to alcohol.

One day, before Christmas, realizing that this was a dead end and there was no point in going further, Dani decided to drown herself. But at the moment when she was already under water, she heard a voice that told her that there are things better than drugs, and she could live her life differently if she did not use.

Returning back to the car, she noticed a booklet advertising a weight loss drug. Deciding that this was a chance, the girl called this company, finding out that in order to sell products she must have money and a license.

Neither was available, so Dani dialed the telecommunications company from a phone booth and set up voicemail for $15. She wrote a flyer by hand, where she indicated the mail number, and after 3 hours she had 25 applications. When there were about 40 of them, Johnson recruited this company back, telling her how great she was at finding clients, and that she wanted to get her percentage for it.

The management agreed to pay her, but there was a problem with the delivery address for the goods, because she was still living in the car. But even here the girl got out of it, agreeing with a local alcohol store that delivery would be to his address. And so in the first month she earned $4,000, and a year later - $250 thousand. Today, Johnson is considered a multimillionaire and the owner of 18 centers that help cope with excess weight.

And there are other examples when successful people give up material values ​​and go to live where there is no civilization. Almost the same story happened to Heidemarie. Being a famous psychotherapist, at about 50 years old she realized that almost everything in the world comes down to money. Concepts such as “kindness,” “selflessness,” and “help” are fading away.

To fix this and help low-income people survive a little, Heidemarie came up with a whole network called “Give and Take.”

Its essence was that you do not pay for something with money, but provide in exchange a service in which you are competent. For example, they gave you a manicure, and in return you helped prepare a competent report to the tax office. When the network began to gain popularity, Heidemarie risked an experiment in which she would refuse to use money for a whole year.

She terminated her rental agreement, gave away all her belongings and started a completely new life. Interestingly, the experiment was planned for a year, but from 1996 to this day, Schwermer lives freely and without financial restrictions. At first, she provided psychotherapeutic services in exchange for food, after which she began to guard houses in which she could stay overnight.

Despite this unusual way of life, which many consider abnormal, the woman does not look unkempt. She always has her hair done and in beautiful clothes, having only a suitcase with a dowry behind her.

Conclusion

It's never too late to start from scratch, following your heart. After all, you have one life, so why not live it in joy, doing what brings you pleasure? And the people whose real life situations I cited as an example today prove to us that even at 70 years old you can master a new type of activity and become successful and famous. So go ahead, listen to yourself and be happy, and remember - better late than never!

The material was prepared by Alina Zhuravina.

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