The rich also cry: insights from a global business leader

— I’m going to tell you something rather shocking. Right now, I have 32 people working with me, and I direct most of them toward employment in various ways. Some stay with me, while others I send into real employment to boost their self-worth. Employment is a word that our psyche tends to perceive as negative, but I advocate that employment is good. I’m 100% convinced that employment is a positive thing because if I didn’t believe this, who would work for me?

— Yes. When we talk about financial literacy and financial flows in general, after conducting extensive research across various regions worldwide, visiting large factories and enterprises, and interacting with owners of billion-dollar companies, I developed a formula: each of these people with successful businesses operates within six financial flow sectors simultaneously.

Such people either work as employed directors in their own companies or work in other companies. They work as entrepreneurs, earning money through their own labor, while simultaneously running businesses where others earn money for them. Some successful people also get involved in real estate, trade on the stock exchange, invest in cryptocurrencies, or invest in people, among other things. At the same time, owners of successful businesses receive support from the government, use various subsidies, tax deductions, and other state programs. Essentially, those who are financially successful earn money from all six sectors.

I remember the period when there was a strong push toward self-employment. Everyone was encouraged to leave their jobs and become entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, many who left employment ended up with lower incomes, as these people were great specialists but poor entrepreneurs.

Moreover, employment isn’t just a nine-to-six routine. Employment is simply a term that means you’re selling your time, experience, and skills for money. The terms depend on how you sell them. Being employed doesn’t necessarily mean being under strict control; it can allow maximum freedom. It all depends on what you truly want. When you’re a top professional, you can set the rules for the best ways to collaborate with your employer to create a win-win situation. Sure, some employers might just want someone to fill a specific position. If that’s not you, then it’s not for you. You can always approach the employer and say, “If you want results, then here’s the way I can work with you.” If you build relationships in this way, employment can become an excellent tool for financial growth.

— I have only one answer, and it’s the most relevant today, in our modern world and so-called new era. In 2015, I attended a lean manufacturing forum where Ichak Adizes spoke. Back then, he told us about the eras: there was the Era of Strength, when strong people ruled, and they were replaced by machines. Then came the Era of Intelligence, when people ruled through intellect and conquered entire cities with their minds. Now, artificial intelligence is replacing them, and a new era is beginning — the Era of the Heart. The era of the heart and human sensitivity. And this, perhaps, is the one thing that belongs to every person, whether strong or wise. And so, here’s the answer to your question: “How do you find balance?” The right way to seek balance is through self-love, through love for others. Through feeling yourself as you truly are, without betraying or trying to balance between who you are inside and how you appear to the world.

— It took me a very long time to absorb this, there’s such a deep meaning in it all, but today, I have found the answer for how anyone can be happy.

— Yes. Neither I, nor you, nor large corporations, nor governments, no one can make everyone financially rich. And it’s not necessary. If everyone became financially wealthy and income became equalized, then anarchy would arise, the world would collapse. Financial hierarchy is very important for the world and for order.

But it is possible to make everyone truly happy. For you to be happy, for me to be happy, even for those who live on the streets. And sometimes people give me strange looks and say, “Come on, really?” I just ask them to consider that they could stop for a moment and look within, rather than constantly focusing on the external world and trying to catch up with others.

— Let me explain. There are key points in life that you will go through, regardless. Whether you want it or not, you’ll reach them. The question is in what state you arrive there — prepared or unprepared — and that depends on you.

There’s also another system — the ancestral or generational system, which implies that you’re here in your physical body to solve a specific task. For this, you’re granted material blessings. You don’t get “slapped” to stay on your path to a key event where you’ll experience these events.

All the event points might be connected with disasters, upheavals, or revolutions, but for you, they’ll be as light as possible because you approach them with resources and self-love. That’s what it means to “live with ease,” to “earn with ease,” and so on. It doesn’t mean everything will come easily.

If a person listens to the cues on how to do things in the best way, they receive material blessings from their lineage. If they do things their own way, resisting, they receive a lesson. It’s that simple.

— Both yes and no.

— There’s a very significant difference between emotions and feelings. People are hooked on emotional highs, like a 21st-century drug, wanting to earn more money to sustain that high and prolong the thrill. They build codependent relationships, trying to draw love from others when, in fact, there is no love to be found there. All feelings are already within you.

You have a powerful tool available to you: it’s what you do, because there you’re investing not emotions, but feelings. Use it in your life.

— The purpose of life is the same for everyone: self-love. And it’s essential to understand that self-love doesn’t mean lying on the couch, doing nothing, and watching others suffer. Self-love is not easy, because in this love, you begin to feel the suffering of others.

But when you start living for yourself, it benefits both you and others. Through this, everyone gains much more. This way, you prevent codependency. You’re no longer trying to live for another person, nor relying on someone else. You don’t allow others to sacrifice themselves for you.

I didn’t believe it at first. I struggled with it.

For example, when I realized that I needed to recharge to benefit my family, and I chose myself over things I used to do, I felt terrible. But I understood that by doing something for myself, I was also doing it for others. My well-being affects my peace, happiness, and consequently, financial success. I could have given my last bit of energy, only to try climbing out of an emotional pit later, but why? Many people do just that: they take everything upon themselves, push to the brink, just to avoid the dissatisfaction of others.

Your life will change once you understand it’s okay to be inconvenient. It’s okay to be yourself without trying to please everyone. And then, miraculously, the person next to you grows up and can clearly express what they truly want.

And, miraculously, money starts to come in sufficient amounts to cover all your needs and more. But reaching this state requires a transition, and it isn’t easy. Not everyone can manage it.

— The transition happens by developing three essential skills. The first is the skill of effective rest — learning to rest efficiently so that you can recover your energy and health in the shortest time.

The second skill is effective speaking. Honest speaking. When you openly, respectfully communicate with others, you show honesty toward yourself and them. You don’t deceive yourself or others; you say things as they are, in a way that your listener can understand. You don’t try to imagine, guess, or decide for others — you simply ask or say what you genuinely want, so you can come to an agreement. Whether you agree to agree or agree to disagree, especially in business, many deals and processes fail due to a lack of clear agreement. There’s no clear “yes” or “no” as there should be between adults. When I teach business, I say it’s crucial to get one of three responses: yes, no, or a specific date for a decision, leaving no debts behind.

People ask me, “What’s your practice of clearing debts in one week?” I say, you can clear debts in a day. It’s important to clear them regularly — at least every six months, ideally every three months. On a cognitive, emotional, and subconscious level. When there’s no debt holding you back, you move forward with ease.

The third crucial skill is boundless creation. It’s when you’re not just earning money or working hard, but instead creating financial and material wealth.

Through these three skills, balance is maintained — a balance of the spiritual and material, of life and business. I’ve packaged all of this into my methodology: ROD — Resource, Relationships, and Money.

— Yes, it just so happens — ROD, which also refers to ancestry, because I work with family heritage as well.

— Remember when I talked about the three human eras? In reality, there are four: the Era of Strength, the Era of Mind, the Era of Heart, and the Era of Super-ability. During the Era of Strength, people simply took action, and things worked out. At some point, things stopped working that way, so people started to think before acting — they learned to assess what to do and then act. This is what you’re referring to when you say, “I know, and I do.” Logic and thinking come into play. Now, we’re in the era of “I feel.” From feeling, you begin to “understand how” and then take action. So first, you listen to your inner voice, feel that it’s important to act in a certain way, then logic kicks in and says, “Yes, I can,” and finally, you take physical action. This is the system that works in the new world, the Era of Feeling.

— All love is already inside you. But you can measure it, for instance, with a simple coaching method. You assess how much love you currently feel inside from 0 to 10, where 0 means no love and 10 means boundless love within you. And you answer honestly — “I’m at a 6 right now.” That’s the measurement. So, what would need to happen to reach 10? How can you raise it to 10? For example, you could change your state to reach a level 10 in allowing yourself to love yourself fully. Resistance or certain beliefs might come up, and then you use tools to shift those beliefs.

This involves working on three levels — the brain, the mind, the subconscious, and the collective unconscious. When you create meaning at all three levels, using different words, tools, and methods.

— You just need to live. Just live, that’s all. All the love within you is yours. It’s there by the very right of your birth. It’s about giving yourself permission to access it fully at a level 10.

— Every business owner creates a business for one of two, or both, reasons. The first reason is money, and the second is status. That’s when it becomes a working business. A failing business is created to prove something to someone: to yourself, to your parents, or, in other words, a business is created out of resentment. Such a business is doomed to fail. Or rather, it might become successful for a time, but as soon as it achieves that initial goal, it will collapse.

— No matter what you do, you can’t fully learn to choose people. Simply because a person, whether in business, personal life, love, etc., aligns with your current state. If we’re talking about romantic relationships, people meet who can heal each other. And as strange as it may sound, even the worst abuser can be someone’s perfect match. And the sweetest person can be someone else’s worst experience. It all depends on the connection between two people at that particular time. Whether you like it or not, you encounter the ones you need to in order to live through certain situations.

And when you act, let’s say, in alignment with yourself, you’ll meet people who complement you, and together you can move forward even better and more easily. But when you aren’t listening to yourself, people come into your life like a slap in the face, steering you back onto the right path.

There’s no need to learn to make the “right” or “wrong” choices in life or business, or to conduct tests, deep interviews, and so on. All of these are tools created to relieve ourselves of responsibility for a wrong choice. Taking responsibility for yourself, for your life, for your choices, and for the relationships you create to benefit both yourself and others is key. And you also need to take responsibility to end those relationships at the right moment and time, if necessary — without enduring or forcing yourself, but instead by listening to your inner voice saying, “This isn’t the right path for you.”

— Just live. Every minute, every hour brings different events, and even today I found myself in a deep emotional low. But the first thing I’ve learned to do is to acknowledge that it’s happening to me, without resisting it or fighting it, and certainly without forcing myself to push through. The most correct decision is to pay attention to myself. And using the skill of effective rest, I aim to raise my state to a new level as quickly as possible, expanding my capacity.

In my method, I teach people to live in cycles — Resource, Relationships, Money — to recognize which cycle you’re currently in and act accordingly. When you clearly understand something is happening to you, you turn your attention inward and use the knowledge, skills, and abilities you have available. Or you ask for help, because asking for help is also normal.

— You know, looking back on my life, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any ideas that came to me as insane. I had a period, quite a long one, from 2019 to 2023, when I put myself and my time into a strict framework, transforming from a “yes to everything” person into a “no to everything” person.

But even during that time, I remained in situations where I had to make decisions or take actions that weren’t focused inward. They involved family, friends, clients, work, and so on. I always found a solution. And even if the ideas seemed crazy, they still felt practical to me.

So, to say I’ve had a “crazy” idea — maybe socially, yes. But to me, it wasn’t crazy. I can’t really pinpoint any single one. From a social perspective, the idea that every person can be happy might seem out there, but I truly believe it.

For instance, right now I’m writing a book, and the purpose of this book is to help people change their state. If someone needs more confidence, they can read a specific passage, and they’ll gain that confidence. But I’m also trying to write it in a way that teaches people to generate their own states, rather than just reading it like a magic pill.

I want to change the global education system, which is why I’m currently writing a dissertation. I’ve already had a few projects in schools. To say these were challenging projects would be an understatement. I faced a lot of skepticism, even sabotage, and immense gratitude once the system began working. And yet, the disbelief persisted: “Could this really be possible?” Yes, it could.

— In short, you should always start with a key action. There are five keys to any business: product, finance, marketing, sales, and team. These five areas must be present in every business.

The important part is identifying which area requires a key action at the moment. If you’re starting from scratch, naturally, this key area is sales, because, first and foremost, business is sales. No sales, no business. So, for a startup, the key action is selling. Some might say, “But what do I sell if I haven’t created anything yet?” No, you sell first, then create.

This is crucial because if you can sell something that doesn’t yet exist, you’ll definitely sell what does exist. But if you create something first, there’s no guarantee you’ll sell it. That’s why any startup is essentially selling an idea.

As you progress at each step, you need to check in with your situation, decide where it’s essential to focus, and adjust your key action to keep all five business keys in view while focusing primarily on one without neglecting the other four.

— Because they won’t.

— Let’s imagine a simple line and call it a timeline. On this line, you can place any amount you want to achieve. Next to that amount, you put any wish that would come true if you had that money in hand. Then, further along the line, imagine another goal that will stem from that first desire, and then another goal that will come from the second.

— You could put it that way. The thing is, our brain doesn’t understand what “money” is. It doesn’t classify it or define it in any meaningful way. For someone to earn money, they have to focus on other things. The primary goal — “I want to earn this much” — sets a direction, but it doesn’t serve any further purpose. It’s essential to let go of it and not fixate on the goal or any specific amount. In this concept — “I want three hundred” — it’s you going after the money, not the other way around.

It’s only the vector of your desires that defines the key actions. If you have three points along this vector, then your key actions lead to faster results because you’re focusing on the outcome of the outcome, and the money follows you while you’re already there.

This is how the human brain works; it recognizes only one KPI: happiness. And happiness in life is increased not by the result but by the process. When you create a process aimed at reaching a financial goal, the brain doesn’t understand the purpose. It thinks, “Okay, money — cool, but kind of uninteresting.” But when money is an outcome, the actions involved may be much harder than expected, but you do them with pleasure because your brain understands why you’re doing them. Very often, it’s the opposite: instead of living a happy life, moving and living in the process, people end up chasing after nonsense. All personal goal-setting should be about changing your personal attitude toward yourself, first focusing on yourself: “What do I really want? Where are my true desires? What do I truly want to feel?” Instead of chasing after money and fleeting emotions.