Money is not key to every success – Ruben Vardanyan
Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan has shared his vision of success in business, and the future of humanity with Forbes.
In an interview dedicated to the business magazine’s 100th anniversary, the CEO of Troika Dialogue and the co-founder of UWC Dilijan College also stressed the increasing importance of education in the modern world.
“The criteria of success vary between individuals. For someone, it is recognition by a specific person or a mob - instead of an opportunity to be a backstage decision-maker. Someone else might prefer to measure success proportionately to the amount of money in his or her personal [banking] account; whereas another person sees the key to success in just going out to park for a walk with family – even if an important meeting had to be missed for that. Summing up, I have to note that love and fear are the most powerful drivers in our life. They are actually stronger than money. I believe they are the underlying motive behind every single phenomenon that guides us in life. There are, virtually, lots of things we cannot possibly measure with money. At times, money seems really decisive to us, but that’s just an illusion,” the billionaire noted.
Vardanyan admitted that personal interest and motivation to make the impossible happen are his key drivers in every attempt towards seeking progress. The important thing, according to him, is to change everything that surrounds people to impact the course of developments.
“It is important to live a full life, trying to at least a little bit change this world for the better. What we leave to our children, by and large, is not money and assets. We bequeath to them this world where they are going to live,” he added.
As an important characteristics of a businessman, Vardanyan stressed the importance of the ability of not being afraid.
“A businessman is someone who is ready to exit from the zone of comfort to go into a completely unknown world. As a matter of fact, he is like an immigrant who used to leave Europe for Australia, the United States or Russia, or a scientist who is ready for new experiments. Also, a businessman is never afraid of falling down as he is able to later stand up to his feet. And last but not least, a businessman must not be afraid of being curious. He must clearly see the developments surrounding him, everything that is invisible to others. He must be a preacher to encourage and lead people and to create something new as a result,” he noted.
Vardanyan said he thinks that the humanity is now in a phase of development which is of utmost importance for its future history.
“A new technological world is coming into existence just in front of our eyes. We are in a process of making a transition from capitalism to a kind of system which I would conventionally describe as giftedness. In the industrial society, the centralization of capital and resources enjoyed an extremely important role. And hence state and capital had a pivotal role in paving one's way to success. But all this is now going into the past. People can now found a company in just a garage for as much as 500 [US] Dollars; that may either change the world for the better or destroy it completely,” Vardanyan said, adding that he expects the business of future to shift focus from money to smart, talented and creative people.
The businessman said he has a strong belief that innovative technologies will eventually enable people to make great changes in the future, with new disciplines coming to replace the existing ones, obliging specialists to focus more on learning.
“My firm belief is that a central value for the 21st century humanity will be education, not oil industries or any other profitable sector. Education will be the key driving force behind all the changes globally,” he added.
Noting that the human society is increasingly losing faith in private, government-run, international or religious institutions, Vardanyan said he has real concerns that the existing gap may be eventually bridged by false prophets or new sects, ideas and religions.
“Afraid of the future, human beings may run into the past in an attempt to limit their space or search for new idols. We will be living in a society where people will be in solitude in the face of their problems. And it will be very bad indeed if the human being prefers to rely only upon technologies in this fight instead of fundamental human values. A human being must be able to not only act but also sympathize and empathize with others,” the businessman added.
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