come from a very patriarchate society where women are encouraged to study and to meet future husband in the their early 20s, then to get married and to take care of the home. The entrepreneurship “a la russe” usually includes your husband or father “buying” a beauty salon/ retail brand/ fashion magazine and the woman “running it”, usually without a solid understanding how business operates and mostly without ever becoming profitable. It just wasn’t for me. My biggest fear in life was not that of failure, but that of leading the most predictable life in Moscow and being like everyone else. | saw modeling not as long-term career path, but a way to explore the world, gain financial independence, and eventually move to the US (I got denied for a tourist visa but approved for a work permit in the fashion industry). My parents and friends thought | was completely out of my mind when | quit a well-paid job in finance to move to Milan, but in less than two years | had enough savings to invest in real estate in Russia (one of the best investment decisions | have ever made).
Modeling is one of the most competitive industries in the world where thousands of women compete for one job. The supply outweighs the demand dramatically, and consequently most models (even the most accomplished ones) have to face rejection on a daily basis. Embracing rejection and maintaining confidence at the same time is one of the most important lessons | have learned from modeling.
What's a challenge or failure you've faced in your journey thus far? From growing up in an intellectual family in Moscow until now. How did you get through that challenge? What did you learn from it that has led to your entrepreneurial resilience today?
| grew up in the 90-s in Moscow, one of the most dramatic and controversial times in Russian history. When Soviet Union collapsed, my family was on the one hand excited about the future opportunities, but in the other hand, completely unprepared for capitalism. In order to provide, both of my parents had to quit high rank government jobs and to start their careers from scratch trying to embrace entrepreneurship — something that used to be condemned during the communist regime. In 1998, Russia experienced one of the worst financial crises in its history, resulting in our government defaulting on its debt. The situation was so unstable and unpredictable that my parents thought it would be safer for me to get enrolled in college two years earlier than | was supposed to. We just couldn’t predict what
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