Ex-billionaire and non-businessman about money, the matrix, mistakes and emotions

• If a person has not done anything in life, then philosophizing about success is useless. But if you have already achieved success, then it is a crime not to tell or share your secrets. [ Lecture in Skolkovo , 2012]

• A person with reduced emotionality cannot create anything brilliant. [ Sergei Polonsky's blog , 2012]

• It seems to me that the more a person knows, the more afraid he is to do new things. For example, a lawyer will not become a businessman because he knows too many laws. [ Vedomosti , 2007]

• When people say “nothing personal” in business, it’s nonsense. When you work with a person, you make sure to look him in the eyes, this is much more important. [ Lecture in Skolkovo , 2012]

• If you aim only at money, there will be no money - this is an axiom. Absolutely! I have friends who really want to make money, but they never succeed. [GQ, 2007]

• When a person puts off something important and says: “I will start living in a year,” then he psychologically puts himself in prison for that year. His brain is a prison. Accordingly, if a person has placed himself in prison, then by definition he cannot be happy, his energy decreases and tends to zero. As soon as a person has no energy, the brain stops working, and the person will never achieve anything in life. And since he will never achieve anything in life, he will never have money. [ Business & FM , 2009]

• If you have questions, you need to ask them and not be afraid that “everyone knows the answers.” Ask questions to which you don't know the answers. The formulated question is already a solution to the problem. [ Slon.ru , 2009]

• If a person earned a million and spent it on buying a car or an apartment, then he is an idiot and will never become a good businessman. [ Vedomosti , 2007]

• Money is needed to live today. [ Business & FM , 2009]

• For example, you see a successful person. If at the same time you ask yourself the question: “Why exactly did everything work out so well for him?” - then you will never achieve anything in life. But if you think about how he achieved this and think: “Well done, I’ll do the same!” - then everything will work out for you. [ Business & FM , 2009]

• Unfortunately, I did not find a professional who knew more than me in the field of construction. [ "Rain" , 2011]

• If we were the only ones in this [crisis] situation, I would stand up and say: “I’m a moron, I’m a loser, I’m a bad businessman,” but the whole world is in this situation! [ Slon.ru , 2010]

• People react differently to the words of a person who has 5 million and 500 million. For example, I’m a student and I give a girl a bouquet of roses for her birthday. Wow! And Polonsky gives a bouquet. It’s just that the same act is perceived as diametrically opposed. [ Vedomosti , 2007]

• Create an idol for yourself for a certain period of time. This is your beacon, mentally focus on its opinion. [ Slon.ru , 2009]

• Of course, Inteko [Elena Baturina] could afford more than other companies. [ Blog of Sergei Polonsky , 2012]

• I cannot say that I had any kind of warm relationship with [Luzhkov], but it seems to me that this is a historical person, both good and bad traits can be attributed to her. It's too early to judge now. Moscow has still changed a lot with him, whether we want it or not. [ Sergei Polonsky's blog , 2012]

• Khodorkovsky should have been tried for murder, not for economic crimes. [ "Rain" , 2011]

• We have been living in the matrix for a long time, it’s just that no one understands or realizes it. Look, everything around is virtual: the Internet, virtual money, and so on. [ Business & FM , 2009]

• It seems to me that if a person comes and takes out a mortgage at 20%, then he should immediately be given a certificate stating that he is mentally ill. [ Business & FM , 2009]

• Everyone makes mistakes, and not only you. [ Slon.ru , 2009]

• We love the rich, who are considered to be either thieves or lucky. That is, our people love rich thieves more than people who did it themselves. Do you know why? If a person sees that another is not a thief and rich, he reads subconsciously: he is smart, but I am not. The human brain is incapable of admitting that it is stupider than another person. Only a strong person can say that he is weaker than someone. [ Vedomosti , 2008]

• Whoever comes up with the formula for selecting people will become the richest man in the world. [ Lecture in Skolkovo , 2012]

• Everything we see now, look around, it was all done by business. Not a single official, not a single policeman made an effort to do this. There are 140 million people in our country. Of these, 30 million people in total work and produce something. The rest are guarding, writing something down, and so on. That is, our efficiency is generally zero. But that's not even scary. The trend is scary. This is a decreasing trend. Just a fall into some kind of abyss. [ Minaev Live , 2011]

• My partners call me guru. The main task of a guru is not to do business, but to tell how to do it. [ "Rain" , 2011]

Principles of Sergei Polonsky