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What is today's successful man today? The system of values and criteria of toughness. Over the past 15 years, the Russian businessman has evolved from a crimson jacket to a framed MBA, from a metrosexual to a retrosexual. And what is a modern successful man today?
The criteria for toughness in Russian business have changed as often as the performers of the role of James Bond in the famous film epic. In the absence of any "code of the builder of capitalism" society itself formulated who is the hero of the present time and who is not. At first, the measurements were as simple as a Columbian egg: the one who earned the first thousand was the first to buy a foreign car and a house whose girlfriend has longer legs and a list of Miss Beauty titles. As the laws of business became more complex, the rating system also changed. "Results" tried to understand what a successful man is today, what constitutes his system of values and without which he cannot exist.
Metro or retro?
Photo: hapal
To begin with, let's define a starting point. We consider successful people who have already satisfied the primary level of needs - they earned money for an apartment, house, car and, of course, for everyday human pleasures like restaurants and fashionable clothes. At the same time, the amount of capital does not matter. "If one earns 500 thousand a year, and the other - 5 million, this does not mean that the second is 10 times more successful," says Ruben Arutyunov, partner of the Russian Investment Club. The first sign of success, I would formulate as follows: this is when material needs are actually equal to opportunities. After that, making money becomes a sport.”According to the pyramid of the famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow, only after having satiated on the first level, a person begins to“want more.”The second level is the need for safety, the third is the need for good attitude and love of others, and the highest a step is a need for respect and approval.
If the Russian businessmen of the first wave were faced with the task of making money, protecting and having time to enjoy the capital they received, until the bandits ruined or had a heart attack, then the maximum tasks have already appeared. I wanted to live happily ever after. In addition, it became somehow indecent to look muzzled by work. Circles under the eyes, an unsportsmanlike tummy, a stale complexion - this is not comme il faut, such a man cannot be called successful. Here, the standards have long been set by European and American business: a white-toothed smile, a fit figure demonstrating prosperity and well-being. When Russian men realized this, the healthy lifestyle craze began. Personal fitness trainer, nutritionist, mentor in oriental practices … Gradually, a new type of modern man was formed - metrosexual … The main distinguishing characteristic is that he carefully looks after himself. Because of a new wrinkle, he can get upset almost more than a woman, and in terms of the number of body and face care products, he can compete with the weaker sex. Modern entrepreneurs have long ceased to be shy about manicure-pedicure, but their beauty arsenal also includes such procedures as masks, peels, photorejuvenation and even circular face lifts.
However, getting hung up on appearance is not masculine after all. "Discussing topics at the pedicure level is no longer relevant now, it has become a matter of course. Just like a comme il faut person, it is not necessary to have a personal trainer: if a man over 30 does not know what to do in the gym, then he has fallen behind life. It is understood that he is more or less in shape, and he only needs to maintain this state, "says the owner of the event-company Emagency Sergey Shivrin. Curiously, in contrast to metrosexuals, the so-called retrosexuals- real men. With an inevitable share of brutality, with traditional views on sex differences and with ordinary male hobbies - fishing, hunting, etc. They even formulated the code of the retrosexual. Here are some points:
a retrosexual always pays for a woman in a restaurant;
a retrosexual dealing with a problem, be it a punctured wheel, a thief breaking into a house, or a natural disaster;
a retrosexual not only eats red meat, but often gets it himself;
a retrosexual doesn't worry about how to live to ninety. The main thing is not how long you live, but how good it is. If you're 90 and still smoke cigars and drink good whiskey, let me salute you. If you are still having sex, then you are a god;
the retrosexual does not use more cosmetics than the woman. The women in the supermarket have a few passes of this bullshit. For a retrosexual, one counter is enough.
It seems that the collective unconscious of modern men has rebelled against the prospect of human transformation into an androgyne without gender and gender. Having made a clarification: "I am a man!" - representatives of the stronger sex went further. Apparently, a new type is coming to replace the retrosexual, which has already been dubbed as clever man(from English clever - "smart"). He is rich, but calm about it; smart, but not proud of it; looks after himself, but without fanaticism. What else is on this list? Let's try to formulate this with the help of our experts - those very successful men.
Work and wolves
Photo: Koonisutra
Let's start with one of the most important parts of a man's life - work. It no longer takes 20 hours a day, as it did at the stage of primary capital accumulation. In any case, this should not be the case for a successful person. “An important sign of success is when a person can afford to engage in business to satisfy not only material needs, but also moral ones. Moreover, an interesting business for you should bring a lot of money,” argues Ruben Arutyunov. He himself is working on this very task: in addition to his main activity - investments - he acquired a publishing house, is very keen on it and intends to bring it to a good profit.
In business, everything should work for the result. An indicative moment in this sense was the change of secretaries - when quivering gazelles of unearthly beauty with meaningless eyes disappeared from the reception areas of big bosses and business-like office managers appeared. Modern entrepreneurs have become more educated, system-minded, learned to set goals and achieve them. If you need to get a business education, let's go to an MBA. I decided to go into politics - I need to work on my image.
Photo: laszlo-photo
“Clients have certainly become more informed,” says Igor Mintusov, a well-known image maker, chairman of the board of directors of Niccolo M. “I cannot answer the question of what image of a successful businessman is most in demand now.: the former decide the issue of their self-esteem - they have already achieved something and want the general public to know about it. The latter set pragmatic tasks - they want to make their business more efficient. Based on the desired final goal, we build an algorithm of actions - for example, we change an image for a person to demonstrate their intelligence, or strength, or something else. " One of my friends, a teacher of the Russian language, has a student - an accomplished businessman who came to Moscow from the Trans-Urals. Now he is getting a third higher education, studying English, and now he decided to study Russian as well - to make his speech more literate, get rid of colloquial and garbage expressions, from mistakes. Along the way, an acquaintance teaches him manners.
What else can a successful businessman do without? “Without the most modern methods of obtaining information,” says Igor Vdovin, chairman of the board of the National Agency for Direct Investment, “either he himself controls information flows, or special people do it, but he must be aware of key events. to be confidants - a lawyer, a financier, who manage documents and financial flows. Next: having a professional team that has a sense of ownership of what you are doing. Also intuition. It is with its help that important decisions are made. I would also call political competence - there is no business without politics. " On this, perhaps, we will finish the topic of work, because, although it is important, it is far from the only component of a successful man. Such can be only if, as Igor Vdovin put it, there is peace in the soul.
And about the soul …
Sooner or later, everyone comes to the banal thought that life is short. And they try to free up time for enduring values - such as family, knowledge of the beauty of the world around them. As for the family, this can be seen even from the way public people behave - more and more often they go out not with escort girls, but with their wives. And the gossip column largely consists of news from the heading "baby boom". " The time of loners has passed, and the modern man has overcome the macho complex … Therefore, the family has become very important - more precisely, the beloved woman and children, - says Igor Vdovin. - Harmony is possible only if everything is balanced: business, personal interests, and people around you. Moreover, the most unattainable in the modern world is peace. And this feeling is given by close people."
We can say that Western values are coming to Russia. They, as it were, arrived here by themselves, following the Western laws of doing business. “Our system of values began to change when Russians began to travel abroad. Americans say: getting into a new country, you get new eyes. Although not everyone was able to immediately appreciate the depth of what was revealed to them: after all, you can, say, in Madrid, walk only along Calle de Serrano, where there are boutiques, or you can walk to the Prado Museum and look at Goya, - says the lawyer Pavel Astakhov. - Gradually assimilated Western values. People have learned to count money, invest in the future - education, art objects and etc. It is very indicative how divorces now occur: if before a man had a desire to give up everything and run away, now he, even if through court, is trying to decide the question of the future of his children and relations with them. He thinks about his reputation, and this is the key point. " True, according to the observations of Pavel Astakhov, Russian men have not yet learned how to enjoy fatherhood - it is an American who will fiddle with a baby and sincerely drag out of the educational process. Of ours, few people get it. Changing diapers - what's the thrill?..
However, the beloved work and family for a man is not enough for complete happiness. What he lacks, he gets through hobbies. " To make life longer, you need to make it more eventful, - Ruben Arutyunov is convinced. “That is why many successful people try to shift the tedious part of the work onto the trustees and free up time for other activities. They take singing lessons, arrange home concerts, exhibitions, tournaments "What is the most popular hobby now? The list will be very long. Of course, there are fashion trends - for example, photography is very popular now." something beautiful without any special visual skills. Secondly, this is how you record the moments of your life, but, as you know, what is valuable is not what is lived, but what is remembered, "says Ruben Arutyunov.
Photo: neurmadic aesthetic
Adrenaline entertainment and extreme sports are traditionally in demand: successful men, as a rule, have increased testosterone levels, which require aggressive release. By the way, the number of fans of fighting sports is not decreasing. “There are a lot of top managers among the clients of our club. For example, yesterday there was a training session in this composition: a Gazprom employee, a lawyer, a manager of a trading company, the head of a flying club and the son of a rich man. I would say that they do not come so much for playing sports, as much as in order to communicate in his circle, - says the owner of the Kimclub fight club Roman Kim. - Although the majority leads us to an elementary fear and a desire to defeat it. " For example, one client had such a case: he was driving his Porsche, and they began to cut him on the road. When they stopped, the client tried to start a conversation, but no one even listened - they punched it in the nose, and that was all. He was stunned: for all his coolness, the man was simply powerless "In the process of training, a person's goals change, he becomes a warrior in his soul, and a similar situation will never happen to him," comments Roman Kim. By the way, he made an interesting observation: by the way a person fights, one can judge his moral qualities. So, successful men, as a rule, are not prone to sneaky tricks and are honest in battle.
Perhaps it will seem to someone that we have drawn too ideal an image of a modern successful man. But no one says that this type is so often found in our life. “Many are stuck at the primary level - for them the words“rich”and“expensive”are defining, they can publicly brag about money,” says Pavel Astakhov. “However, there are many people who have approached the highest levels. Maslow pyramids … They show a desire to be useful to society. For example, the act of Vekselberg, who bought the Faberge eggs, I would rank as the highest if he donated them to the museum, and did not leave them with him."
In a word, it is clear that not everyone will pass natural selection: out of hundreds of thousands, only a few become the best. But the question "Who is the best?" in this case, it determines where the evolution of the strong half of humanity is going. And I would like to believe that clever mansets the bar for others to strive for.
Opinion
"It is impossible to say which image of a successful businessman is most in demand now. It all depends on the goal: one category of clients has already achieved something and is striving for fame. The second wants to make their business more efficient."
"The time of loners has passed, and a successful modern man has overcome the macho complex. Therefore, the family - more precisely, the beloved woman and children, have become very important. Harmony is possible only if everything is balanced: business, personal interests, and people who surround you."
"Many are stuck at the primary level - for them the words" rich "and" expensive "are defining, they can publicly brag about money, although this is unthinkable, for example, in the highest European society. However, there are many people who have approached the highest levels of Maslow's pyramid."
