You become what you do. I am where my attention is. Later on, this truth confirmed itself in many other things I did. Working in public catering, I gained some weight that I just couldn’t lose.
After establishing a shopping mall for building and construction supplies, a building boom started in my life. That was the time when I got the desire to build a house for my family. The time of major renovations of apartments, offices, and businesses started.
Vice versa it works as well: if your lifestyle and sphere of interests has changed – you’d better look for a new type of activity, which can help you achieve the next level of self-development. Otherwise, your old business will pull you back towards your past to the habits and values you’ve already decided to get rid of.
However, I understood that much later. Those days there was only one question which occupied my mind: “Why? Why did that all happen? Why did that happen to us? What should we do next? Do I actually want to do anything at all now?” I lived in that state of mind for almost a year. I didn’t work – and did nothing. I tried to recover and understand how I should live and what I should do.
One day I met a famous Siberian businessman Igor, who was a major banker and an investor. I had an idea of setting up “Grill-Master” – the first fast-food restaurant in Siberia. And he had a suitable place. We bought a franchise and started a brand-new project. And again, people started staying in line to visit us just a few days after opening.
That was an extremely successful project, the first of its kind, outcompeting all other Novosibirsk restaurants at that time, in terms of popularity.
It looks as if everybody in the city visited us: wealthy and not, intellectuals and workers, young and old. Just imagine: people brought their families to our café for a common lunch!
Working on that project was a pleasure. We had a great staff, the place was in a great location. So, our expenses were soon paid off. I understood that I found a good and interesting business. We opened new places of different types, and they immediately became popular and profitable.
Those were the days I felt I was a creator: I always wanted to imagine something new, design business solutions, experiment with different formats. Business became not only a source of income for me, but also a source of art, interesting ideas, communication, and a means to create new, bright, and widescale projects…