The origin story

I was born in an average Soviet Union family, poor and deeply brainwashed with fear and soviet rules.

My sister and I were rebels, my mom was also very different. Unfortunately, she was afraid to reveal her true self, her authenticity, so she played as if she were like all of those people until one day, she could not.

My family did not have money for clothes and food. We were not hungry only because my father worked in the Ministry of Agriculture. We wore beautiful clothes only because my mom was a perfect dressmaker.

While in an already sovereign Ukraine, my classmates went on a vacation to Bulgaria, bought fancy clothes, and went to different sports groups, I could not. My parents did not have money, I even did not go to the swimming pool. I was silently weeping at home and dreaming that one day I would also go to Bulgaria. I never asked my parents for anything.

I did not have the privilege to go abroad, I did not understand what abroad meant, and how people lived in that different world. Only when my older sister received a grant together with others (there were very few children from all over Ukraine), and went to the USA in 1991, I could imagine from her stories what this other world looked like. The USA became my unattainable dream since that time, but I did not know that after 34 years, the USA would betray its democracy and freedom.

I did not have the privilege of receiving a degree in one of the most prestigious universities in the world to have a recognized diploma and build lifelong relations with the smartest people from all over the world.

I do not wish anybody to live in a Soviet Union feeling scarcity in everything, being brainwashed, and covered with fear 24/7. But.... Reflecting now I can confess that my childhood scarcity gave me a lot. It taught me to survive in any conditions and to be creative. We begin to create not in the zone of comfort and abundance, but in the zone of discomfort where scarcity drives, it pushes us to change, move further, and innovate.

Looking at all the madness in the world now I am sure that there are 4 pivotal pillars for building a healthy and thriving civilization:

• Education. This is a tool, a magic, a key to open all doors, it helps to uplevel our IQ, EQ, and SQ. This makes us not only smart but most importantly conscious.

• Medicine and Science. This helps to save and prolong people's lives and make them more healthy.

• Innovations and Technology. This is the way how we can develop our everyday lives, and make it easier.

• Art and Culture. This is the voice of a modern time and the echo of every epoch, the bridge between cultures, nations, countries, and generations.

  
  

If I were a billionaire, I would invest in those 4 pillars....

If we do not have these basic 4 pillars, society will quickly turn to slaves who are very easy to manipulate and control.

Proud to be Ukrainian, with a DNA of courage and freedom. I never associated me with a person from the Post-Soviet Union.