Boris Berezovsky: How to Develop A Fortune?

Why do I speak so frankly? I'm an elderly man who has achieved everything one could dream of in life. My wealth is more than enough to sustain me for the rest of my days, and given my modest needs, it could sustain me for many lifetimes over. I'm no longer interested in earning money. As a Jew, except for the last few years, I lived and worked in Russia, came to know the country and its people well, and understood the strengths and weaknesses of the Russians. Starting as a ruthless exploiter and a Jew, I gradually developed a sympathy for the great and supremely patient Russian people, and now I sincerely wish them well. I changed my religion, was baptised into Orthodoxy, and largely parted ways with the Jewish community and its unanimous opinion, though I never stopped being a Jew. My money, initially extracted from Russia, now works for the benefit of Russia, and my life experience could also benefit the Russians. I hope that by publishing this brochure (initially an internal confidential document) with the right to reprint freely, I will help those who are desperate and stuck in unsolvable problems. In reality, not everyone gets their share of the sun, but there could be enough money in the world for everyone. For it to exist, first and foremost, there must be the desire and ability to accept it, and luck, luck, and once again, luck. Ask any Russian what luck is? They will tell you it's fortune, not dependent on us. Jews are raised differently. From a young age, we are taught that luck is the product of targeted action, that seemingly random events are actually prepared by people, their faith, and will. The world is not a realm of chaos, and luck is not as blind as many believe. People receive different amounts of money because they perceive reality differently, they feel the world differently. To make you richer, changes are needed not from the outside, but within you. This is, if you will, the magic of success. Our primitive ancestor, before going hunting, would draw a deer in the sand and hit the imaginary beast with a spear. Why did he do that? Simply out of ignorance - or did he know from millennia of experience that every material action is preceded by a plan, an idea, a development of a future event? This magic was not primitive; it indeed helped the hunter catch a real deer. Such is the power of faith - the power to materialize our desires and notions. Or conversely - to materialize our fears and phobias. When in the early 90s, I, a modest scientific worker, started a business, I strictly followed one condition of Western social psychology: "Fire even the most sensible employee if he spreads pessimism and disbelief in the success of the team." At that time, I simply followed the fashion of the West, not understanding why I was doing it. Now I know exactly what it's all about. If in that ancient tribe there had been a very smart hunter who doubted the sand drawing, the tribe would not have caught a real deer and would have died of hunger. Faith is not to be trifed with: placebo (i.e., the external material attributes of faith) can be anything, whether on sand, silk banners, or wood icons - but faith itself moves the matter, and moves it precisely as much as it is strong.

If you don't believe in the success of a venture - better not start it at all! - this is universally advised to budding entrepreneurs. You might think this is a metaphor? That the success of a business is only indirectly dependent on belief in it? No - it is most directly so.

Russian folk sayings and signs are milestones of people's observations I decided to confirm my thought through the familiar folk observations about happiness and misfortune, about luck and bad luck. Over centuries, people observed the dynamics of the process of enrichment, and, not always understanding the hidden reasons, quite accurately characterized the visible side. "Fools only find treasure" - the poet Yershov recorded in the text of a folk saying. This amazing observation seems at first glance completely illogical, absurd, but it is true. Why is treasure, and more broadly wealth, given to "fools"? There's their biblical definition - "the poor in spirit" - less harsh, but the essence is the same. The fool has one curious property - starting any venture, he does not think about all the forthcoming difficulties, obstacles, barriers that the "smart" one calculates in advance on their mental path. Because of this, the "fool" finds complex things simple. But, it seems, this is his personal matter: not seeing a wall doesn't mean you won't crash into it! However - what a miracle! - the "fool", not seeing the wall, passes through it without noticing, and not only in fairy tales - quite often in life. Success comes to him naturally - apparently, the wall, clearly visible to the "smart", was in reality imaginary

, self-created in the mind, illusory. This property - the luck, especially commercial luck, for spiritually dull natures - is not a coincidence nor "divine intervention". The world depends on our perceptions of it, and the more spiritually refined nature sees obstacles for itself in the world, the more of them (by her own order!) arise. For example, if you put a refined intellectual in front of the problem: "start trading" - he will invent thousands of reasons for failure in advance: conspiracy in the market, the power of wholesale suppliers, racketeering, unstable greedy power, and many other factors. But we often see how the neighbor of this intellectual, who studied in a school for developmentally delayed children (even that happens!), suddenly starts trading and successfully runs it, because due to his stupidity and lack of imagination, he does not think about the upcoming difficulties. We watch the "fool" with schadenfreude: look, he doesn't see the trap, he'll fall into it any moment! He passes - and the trap is not there. We follow - and fall into the "long-awaited" trap. What's the reason? We just live in different worlds. But more on that later. "Misfortune never comes alone" - our saying goes. Why so? By simple probability, misfortune and joy, luck and bad luck should, it seems, be distributed roughly evenly, at least - chaotically. But people have long noted that fate strikes in clusters. Somehow, one misfortune attracts, magnetizes another, the more misfortunes - the more they add up, as if they tend to swarm like bees. What's the parable? After all, luck and misfortune are fate, beyond our control, our mind, and our will. How can we calculate luck or misfortune in advance? How can we increase or decrease it? Is cheating in the casino of Luck possible? More on that below, but for now remember firmly: a person struck by misfortune somehow loses "immunity", and one misfortune opens the door to others, externally seemingly unrelated. "One scabby sheep spoils the whole flock". The direct essence of the saying is clear - a sick animal infects the healthy one. But the conversation is not about animals and not about an epidemic. The symbolic level of the saying is different - one member of the community, possessed by some kind of spiritual leprosy, can spoil the entire community, corrupt and disrupt it. But why, for example, not the other way around? It seems, the community has far more opportunities to remake the "scabby sheep" into one of its own. What interest does the "scabby sheep" have in fighting everyone around? Often, he does not set a goal to remake anyone - it all happens by itself. The social reality in the community changes - and from successful it becomes a gathering of failures, from exemplary - a crowd of scoundrels or whiners. Why? How clearly the factor of "faith" and "will" appears here - we are on the threshold of unraveling the great mystery of the relationship between material reality and the faith and will of a person... "Born in a shirt" - this is about a lucky person. Just as in the saying "misfortune never comes alone", here it is emphasized: as luck is obtained, the probability of its new acquisition increases. The more victories - the more chances for a new victory. The more obvious the success - the more chances for its repetition. Why? What's this strange connection? It seems like you need to convince the person that he is successful - and after that, he magically becomes successful?! "Money goes to money" - here's another confirmation of the above. Why do the rich become even richer, and the poor even poorer? Does the factor of "conspiracy" play a role here? If so, who prevents the poor from forming such a "conspiracy"? Questions, questions - and no answer yet... "Never say 'no' for people until they say it to you" - a wise and very practical saying. Often, a person imagines the anticipated refusal in his request so vividly, so clearly plays out the scene of his failure in his imagination, that there's no need to go and find out anything. He asked himself and answered himself, the request died within him - what else is there? But we often encountered situations where such a person nevertheless overcame himself and decided to go find out the real result. He is not at all surprised when the result exactly matches his shattered imagination. It seems like he just correctly calculated the world - but someone else suddenly achieves completely different results with the same starting indicator as our skeptic. Why?

The Metaphysics of the Universe

When an Orthodox Russian reads in the Gospel a clear "instruction for using the Universe": "Ask, and it will be given to you", "Have faith as small as a mustard seed - and you will be able to move mountains, command a tree

to throw itself into the ocean", he, due to the peculiarities of upbringing, understands this as an allegory detached from life. A Jew knows better than a Russian that this text should be taken literally, that before us is an effective system for arranging life. Jesus Christ knew well the answer to your question, reader - how to earn more money? Among Hindus, we find the concept of "maya" - the universal illusion surrounding a person, a realm of mirages hiding the truth of Brahman. Is the material nature an illusion? Is the stable, familiar world around us just a mirage? And the laws of things we are accustomed to using - are they invented by us ourselves? For myself, I have long resolved this question positively. A scientist with a degree and an entrepreneur with millions, I know well: if tomorrow humanity believes that the earth is, pardon the expression, a parallelepiped, then angular images of our planet will come from space. From the school desk, we know that there is no matter, that the object to the eye consists of particles spaced apart in cosmic proportions. And inside the particles - also emptiness (the electron of the "indivisible" atom is as far from the nucleus as a pinhead on the last bench of the "Luzhniki" stadium - from a tennis ball in the middle of this stadium). But the atom's nucleus is just as empty - there are its elements. So far, science has reached "quarks". Time will come, and their emptiness will be proven. Thus, matter does not exist. But, perhaps, energy exists?

Calculations by modern physicists show that the sum of all positively and negatively directed energies in the Universe must be equal to zero. We ourselves know that action is equal to reaction - isn't this a reason to ponder the reality of energy? If there is neither matter nor energy, then perhaps there is empty space? Modern science reduces space to a mathematical point without volume. In conditions of infinity, in any point of the universe, you can lay out mathematically equal segments in all directions. But this is the formula of a sphere! And, it turns out, we are always in the center of the same sphere, no matter how much we move... Infinity is not something very huge, as it seems to ordinary consciousness. Huge still has material parameters, while infinity is devoid of them. Mathematically, it is much closer and topologically to zero than to the giants that confuse the imagination. The gigantism of the Universe and the lostness in it of a speck of dust - man - is a schizophrenic illusion of the 20th century. It reflects not the true state of affairs but only the morbid despondency of spirit of its creators. But if we take the point of view of the Hindus with their maya, the illusoriness of the material, then what really exists? It seems to me (and this is confirmed by my commercial experience) that in reality, there exists a dynamic system of interaction between the personality and the Universe, very flexible and calculated under the mental maturity of the personality. I imagine the Universe as a device for illustrating our representations of it. We briefly enter "maya" and exist here in the world that we deem necessary to create for ourselves. It seems like - a fairy tale, a kingdom of dreams! But the danger lies in the fact that our consciousness is capable of modeling both evil and hell on earth. It's pointless to blame the Universe for this - it just fulfilled our application. We should blame ourselves - therefore, the great teachers of humanity insisted on the personal transformation of a person, understanding that with the old views on the Universe, it is useless to build a new world. We live in a world of faith and will - and only. Everything else is "placebo". What is a placebo? Doctors call it a dummy given to a patient under the guise of medicine. Believing that it is a medicine, many suggestible patients recover. So, - stocks, money signs, diplomas, and all the rest - our placebo, our hooks for our own faith. Look at them more gratefully - what would these colored papers become without collective faith in them, without the collective deification of them? Only our fervent faith in their value makes them really valuable. Plus, it makes them difficult to achieve for us. If the internal settings are such that it is difficult to get money - then it will be difficult for you to get it. The Universe will gladly provide you with facts confirming your "rightness" - it works according to your applications. The more facts there are, the more convincing your poverty is for you, the more you will be mired in it. There will come a moment when the amount of your faith in your own failure equals a "mustard seed" - then woe to you, you are already incurable, you have created a stable world around yourself, which is almost impossible to shake. Faith is a dangerous, two

-sided factor. It can help us grow - and it can also nail us to insignificance. It enriches us - and it also immerses us in the mire of hopeless poverty. We receive our world, first of all, from our parents - this is what the Hindus call "karma". Since the spirit, entering the dense layers of maya, does not yet have its own representations of life, the world is created for him by his mentors. What the world was for the parents - a holiday or hard labor - that it will become for the child. Then, of course, it is very difficult for us to break our "karma". We were convinced - and proved by facts, examples - that earning a thousand is very difficult. And we do not understand - how can it be easy for someone to earn a million? After all, it's all so obvious... In times of change, it becomes especially clear how much our representations of life matter. In pre-reform Russia of the 90s of the 20th century, one part of the population considered capitalism paradise - and now lives in paradise, at least in a material paradise. Another part believed that capitalism is hell, they were raised that way, and they found themselves in hell as soon as the key word - "capitalism" was pronounced. In reality, any "isms" are empty, their content is filled by our representations of the Universe. Marx's People and Smith's People are equally right - they just live in different worlds, in different Universes. The Universe is made up of different layers and strata of representations:

1. Our personal representations.

2. Collective and group representations.

3. Historically formed representations of a series of generations.

4. Absolute laws of nature, which have never changed in human memory.

Accordingly, there are also moduses, "verdicts" about the reality around us. We ourselves do not know exactly - from where - but we are firmly convinced that THIS - "impossible", another - "unlikely", the third - "quite likely", and the fourth - "inevitable". However, for a person, if trained, like athletes train muscles, capable of resisting even the fourth group of representations - "absolute laws" with the modus - the verdict "impossible". During my business trips to Southeast Asia and Hindustan, I myself met and communicated with yogis, magicians, monks, who overcame gravity, levitated, teleported objects. This is the height of will, its monstrous power, comparable to that reflected in the words of Christ about the "mustard seed of faith". Few are given to overcome maya at its very foundation, to lift its bulk at the very base. We know that Christ's disciples were such. And the case is very vividly described - when a disciple, contrary to the law of nature, walked to Christ on the water, but then doubted the possibility of such a miracle - and immediately began to sink, drown. There are quite historical testimonies about the Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov, who "floated above the ground", that is, levitated contrary to gravity. I admit honestly, I have not reached such heights of "volpinism" (I derive this type of sport from two words - "will" and "mountaineering") and I am unlikely to reach them. But I know that if there is a world record in volpinism, then there are also its regional championships and yard tournaments. If you set a goal to become rich, you do not need to strain over overcoming the laws of nature. It's much easier for you, because money belongs not to the category of "mandatory", but to the category of "probable". Few of you, reader, have seen, like me, levitating magicians. But almost all of you have seen rich people not far from you - perhaps even in the apartment next to yours. The fact is that, as we have already shown using Russian proverbs, luck is not blind. It is given to each according to "your faith", in accordance with the will and direction of the will of each asker. So Archpriest Avvakum prayed for "the times of Nero and Diocletian" under the kindest Alexei Mikhailovich, many times unsuccessfully trying to pardon his "victim". The will to possess money is cultivated in us, in Jewish families, from an early age. It is precisely in the method of "volpinism" that the secret of Jewish fabulous wealth lies. Then, of course, there is also a "conspiracy", and "Jewish super-solidarity", but the basis was the Jewish faith in the chosenness. "God will give us all the wealth of the world!" - Jews have been saying from century to century. Wealth was given to them, of course, not by God (the creative, thinking, righteous - super-personality of the Universe), but by the Universe (maya, the illusion of the

material). God, I think, mourned, looking at the deeds of my fellow tribesmen. But the Universe gives to each according to faith, not according to righteousness. Where could it be clearer than in the Gospel: "It will be done to you according to your faith."

Without the messianism of Judaism, our conspiracy would be a mere sham. It is indeed a sham, a "placebo", clinging to which Jews believe they have caught hold of the Lord's beard. It's impossible to explain Jewish success by material factors alone. Could not other nations have countered the conspiracies of the pathetic and persecuted stateless vagabonds with their own, more powerful conspiracy? Did not powerful states have authority over their Jewish subjects? But I was raised in an environment that believes in the world's money as if it were their own, subsequently applying numerous plausible placebos to this belief. A Jew is a born volpinist (just as a Black person is a born boxer, athlete), but this doesn't mean other nations are incapable of mastering volpinism. It's just harder for them because their mentality (another placebo for the parental Universe) includes many notions harmful to enrichment. Yet, there are wealthy individuals among Russians, albeit fewer than among Jews. Volpinism, like any sport, depends on the initial data, the intensity of training, and the abilities of the coaches. The intensity of training can mitigate the defects of the initial data. Russians, as a people, have great potential for volpinism, but have developed, so to speak, a different group of "credo muscles". Russians are distinguished by a very strong messianic spirit, allowing them, figuratively speaking, to launch satellites in bast shoes, drain seas, and reverse rivers. This would be a miracle if one considers volpinism a miracle, a miracle that the rationalistic West refused to believe in.

Income Growth Techniques

So, prepare for practical training in the style of volpinism. First, you need to measure your abilities in a "natural" state - how much you would earn, how much your individual Universe is "designed" for. First of all, analyze your social circle, cut off skeptics and whiners, pessimists - they are like weights on the legs of a volpinist. On the contrary, try to find like-minded people - optimists, who believe in success just as you do. It's always easier to break through to the top as a group - the "mutual pulling up" factor comes into play. It's enchantingly recognized as a "criminal group", "a band of conspirators" - all this sometimes applies, but only as a placebo. There are many groups, but not all of them are successful, most of them languish. Hence, the main question is not in the group, which in itself certainly does not guarantee success, but in some special properties within the group. We know - it's group volpinism. A very important and difficult stage is abandoning the "old world", the reality spontaneously created by the work of parents and your friends, in the chaos of your childhood impressions. What now seems to you "objective reality" is actually a quite random set of fantasies about the world from the most diverse sources. Think about what the "new world" should be like? Maybe you are satisfied with the "old" one, then you can only be congratulated. Maybe you lack something other than money? We are talking only about money now. If you are firmly convinced that you lack a certain amount, then prepare to storm the new reality. If a poor teacher - and you wish for a million dollars, I'd bet my head you'll fail. It's like setting the world champion's bar for an untrained athlete. Understand that although nothing is impossible for the Universe (it happens that the poor win a million in the lottery, and, as you understand, not without reason!) but there is much that is still impossible for You. Be a realist. Plan income growth for the next year, to have room for maneuver, and don't start with more than 20%. Once I set the bar to "double income" - and failed miserably - not because the technique failed, but because I myself could not believe in such a turnover. The risk here is one: set a high bar, fail, and exacerbate doubts. After each failure, returning to the trajectory of success becomes more difficult, although, of course, there are no hopeless situations. The main danger. It seems, what could be simpler? Wished for a desire, seriously wanted something - and there it is, ready from the oven of the Universe... In reality, the Universe does not satisfy all wishes. Psycho-techniques of different peoples of the world teach about one thing: overcoming the emotional side of desire, i.e., "covetousness". Compare your feelings in two cases. When you want to eat, you go to the kitchen and open the refrigerator. In our inner world, there is desire, but no covetousness, you are calm, emotions are absent. You do not question how kefir and sausage got into your fridge. You know that they went through quite a complex path, but you always have them in abundance and you are not worried about

them. They are nearby, just reach out and take... Our feelings cannot be shared by the peoples of Asia and Africa, where masses die of hunger. In their case, to the desire for food is mixed a frightened covetousness, fear that there might be no food. The stronger this fear, this doubt (not for nothing do they say terrible words - "the worm of doubt"), the less likely to receive the desired. As Pushkin wrote: "The less we love a woman, the more she likes us". The same can be said about money, because the principle is the same. I do not know a single businessman who LOVES money. Businessmen use money, cynically and calculatingly, and love for money would have destroyed them. You know that to make a profit, you first need to invest a lot, that is, to part with money, and the more ruthless this parting, the better the result. Ironically, it is the poor who love money. They pine over it, fiddle with it in their hand, cherish it - and therefore do not get reciprocity: money always comes to them in small amounts. Hence the business motto you've heard many times: "To accumulate a really large sum is impossible, it can only be earned". What's the essence here? The Universe, along with your request through covetousness, receives an additional request for the "inaccessibility of the requested". If you covet (and not just plainly and unpretentiously want), then your request is stamped with the terrible mark: "wishes to receive with great difficulty". Here again, there's nothing to blame. You ordered a pie with problems, and you get it. Of course, it is covered with a mass of placebos, like economic conditions, growth rates of the industry, etc., but all this is superimposed. Once at an economic forum in Turkey, Turkish economists complained to me that everything is like in Europe for them, only the income of the population is 10 times lower. "We don't understand! The same laws, the same climate, production is dynamically developing - and people live 10 times poorer than in Europe as they did..." Russia with its copy of the Western standard is another example. A certain part of Russia has approached the standard and consumes in a European way (another question, whether this is good or bad!). The remaining population does not believe in success, and, therefore, even in the most favorable conditions, leads the lifestyle of losers. In Russia now, a situation has arisen where whiners drown each other, exacerbate their miseries with their extreme pessimism, exchanging it, like videotapes, with each other. That's why a volpinist in Russia will be in more difficult conditions than in the West, where everything is permeated with the idea of success, and he should set himself easier tasks at the initial stage than a European. So, you have a desire. It can be written down for self-control - or firmly memorized. It should be (i.e., seem to you) realistic, not too sharply change your life, be very coldly rational without any mix of covetousness. Suppose, a modest employee earns 8 thousand rubles a month. One day he took a volpinist paper (a kind of placebo) in his hands and wrote on it: "Next year I will be earning 10 thousand rubles a month, or 120 thousand rubles a year". Now think, what kind of placebo can be used to achieve the goal? What actions will convince you that you can earn more? What bets should be made in hope of luck? What is needed not by the Universe, for which Your request is a trifle, it is needed by You for self-persuasion. You need to realize that the Universe will give you the requested even without any actions on Your part, if only covetousness does not submit a traitorous request for the "difficulty of obtaining". The more difficult it seems for us to achieve a certain result - the more difficult it is in reality for us. Some easily, playfully, get a university diploma, others with great difficulty. Some lying on the couch earn millions, others in eternal rush and fuss can't even earn for bread. Do not covet! Do not tell yourself "it would be nice" - know that there is waiting for you, and try to bring this knowledge to the maximum of tranquility. You are not worried about a hairpin in the closet, because you know exactly where it is and how much is in it. Such knowledge of the future, as of the past - without worries and passions, with the clarity of a chronicler - is the pinnacle of volpinism. You predict the future as if you were recalling the past. According to the scheme: "Yes, by the way, next week I will find an unaccounted thousand! What should I spend it on? Maybe put it in the bank or buy a gift

for my wife?" To get rid of covetousness, from the painful fear of non-fulfillment of desire I recommend my personal method - "shifting priorities". This is when a person, in order not to think about money, obsessively delves into, say, gardening (very relevant for Russia). All day his head aches - where to get seeds, what to fertilize the beds with, how to grow a super harvest - and somewhere on the edge of consciousness, on the periphery, flutters the thought about "by the way, those 300 thousand next month, they will fall so unreasonably... where to place them! Ah, not up to them now, the seedlings are wilting..." If you are passionate about gardening, a sports team, or some scientific department, then things will go badly for them - because the principle of "worrying about..." presupposes "complication in that...". Let your seedlings wilt - but the 300 thousand will come in due time. Maybe, of course, the opposite will happen - the seedlings will grow gloriously, and the money won't come. It means you failed to switch your fears to consuming another object, the fear of poverty was stronger. If you analyze the wealthy people you know, you will definitely see in them some "attracting" passion, which often seems silly to you. What business does he have with football if his company turns over billions? But it's precisely football that loads his "worm of doubt" and doesn't let it gnaw at his business. Our worlds, if you discard the illusion of the material, represent tangled crossroads of many wills and beliefs - in business, your will must be stronger than the will of the buyer and the will of the competitor. It is precisely the duel on the inner side of reality, that volitional confrontation, best illustrated by the Russian game of "staring" - when eye to eye, and who blinks first - decides the essence of the matter. The name of the product and its quality - all these are secondary placebos, lottery tickets, which, depending on your will, can win or lose. Anyone who has been in business will readily confirm to you: trade depends not on the product, but on the seller. One person manages to sell complete junk, while another sits on gold and can't sell it even at half price. One skillfully sells the necessary, and another can't sell the needed even at a discount. What's the matter here? Outside - in psychology, in that one is afraid, another - stingy, uncertain, depressed. But look closer - why so? Isn't the answer obvious: the first - a person of "long will", the second - a "self-assembled loser". I have often witnessed the transformation of people born and nailed down when they got their hands on some necessary "placebo" for them - when it seemed to them that they had acquired a great sword-kladenets, and now they are all-powerful. A downtrodden graduate student, suddenly having defended, became a lion - it seemed to him that now he is a strongman. Why? From a worthless piece of paper, which doesn't help another? Or from the faith that this very person invested in this very object? Remember, it's not the object that is powerful, but your faith. Not the amulet, not the talisman protects, brings happiness, but the mental image of power associated with them. The object is always a "placebo", a dummy, in other hands it will be the most trifling trifle. In the first stage, it's useful to mystify yourself. "I signed a contract with Petrenko, now I can do everything, I have everything in my hands..." If you really believe in it, then the contract with Petrenko will become your lucky card. Doubt it - you'll find the paper's emptiness. Growth thresholds. Engaging in volpinism, you must set yourself growth thresholds. In your enrichment, you will move from threshold to threshold, jumping higher and higher. If there's a decline somewhere - it means, you need to return to the original indicator, you set the bar too high... The threshold should always be in your consciousness, and at the same time not come to the forefront. The best thing is to drive it into the subconscious, so as not to think about it, but vaguely feel it. I'll share my method: I wrote some number (my threshold) on different pieces of paper, in organizers, on the phone handset, at production meetings, in ministers' receptions, etc. Always just the number, without comments, without unnecessary explanations. I trained myself to think that this number is obviously in the future, that it belongs to me by right, that I must come to it and not be surprised when it appears in my chequebook. It almost always worked. At the same time, assigning the number, in the last stages

of my business career, I generally did not think where it would come from, that is, I did not cling to the placebo of the bustling-feverish magical actions of a businessman. I just knew that circumstances would arrange themselves so that they are obliged to me by their inevitable course exactly this number, and I will just have to accept it. You can follow in my footsteps, you can come up with your mnemonic method - but remember! It's not the papers and not the numbers that work - it's the mind, thought, everything else - placebo. If you try to mockingly test my method, and with laughter find that it doesn't work - you program your own failure. I have already said that facts are a pliable thing. The Universe will provide you with any number of facts to confirm your theory of the world. The technique can only start working when you use it with faith in success, when you already make plans for purchases on money that hasn't yet arrived, when you bake bread for not yet born livestock. It is precisely the state of the spirit of the nation's representatives, not some economic or social system, that ensures the prosperity of nations. Wealth was not given by communism, nor will it be given by the market - all these are nothing more than placebos for the consumer spirit. The presence of money is an entirely precarious concept, because the market is aimed at maximizing the saving of money. If you have soap, and I have an awl, then we could buy them from each other. But, in addition to mutual desire, it is necessary that each besides the awl and soap also had a coin lying around. Or barter - without money - but in macroeconomics, this is very difficult to implement. It turns out to be a magical circle - to start production, you need money, and to become a consumer, you need money. That is, we haven't even started to produce or consume, and money is already needed. Who will give them - if not production and not consumption? "In the beginning was the Word". Logos, thought - the planned abundance - and only then, on greater optimism and expectation of the best, on a bolder dream, comes material well-being.

On the Good and Evil Spirit

Here I would like to warn again about the danger of the knowledge you have gained. I deliberately separate God, as a creative and personal beginning, from the Universe, as a faceless machine for producing illusions. Essentially, you have seen the world without matter, energy, space, as it is - a world of three entities: Your Spirit, the Good Spirit, and the Evil Spirit. The world has always been like this, whether you know it or not - you are always in the space between the Absolute Good and the Absolute Evil in an intermediate-suspended state. Money is an absolutely neutral substance, it becomes good or evil only in your hands. Actually, money is not coins and not papers (placebo), but measures of our power in the modern world. If wealthy - then you become like magicians, capable of blessing and cursing, calling rain and dispersing clouds, raising palaces and destroying cities. But do not be deceived by the neutrality of the "Matrix" - the Universe. It issues everything indiscriminately, according to your request. The evil spirit stands behind every volpinist exercise. The temptation to use the power of your "pumped" will will always pursue you, as "itch" pursues the thirst to test oneself in a fight. Volpinism is divided into two levels - "will for acquiring for oneself" and "will for alienating from others". Since the Universe is infinite, there is an infinite amount of everything conceivable and even inconceivable, so the gloomy sentences in the Malthusian sense about the "limitation of nature" are the machinations of the Evil spirit. Possessed by evil, a volpinist does not follow the wise rule "take bread for lunch in moderation", he asserts himself not in acquiring things for himself, but in humiliating and pressing down the losers around him, in their deliberate trepanation. Wealth is considered not as "my cash" but as "another's absence", greatness not in possession itself, but in leading above the level of others. This is very developed in modern Russia. The desire to "shut the door" on those following, to "bite off more than I can chew" constantly traces through the red thread of Russian reforms. It gives birth to a love for the factor of poverty in power, a deeply ingrained sense of the powerful. As a result, a volpinist from the people has to overcome not only their own fears and complexes but also a powerful foreign will, directed downwards, to drop followers.