Crocus City Hall hosted the second Atlanta business forum. Friedman spoke about the purchase he made with his first earned money. About big money and great success.

I had a scholarship of 100 rubles. At our institute, scholarships were distributed as follows: regular - 50 rubles, those with B's and A's - 57 rubles, those with A's - 62 rubles, and if you passed three semesters without B's and did social work, then you could receive 100 rubles.

The first idea to create a cooperative came when I read somewhere about grocery delivery in America. We had wild queues back then, people stood in them for hours. Instead, we offered to deliver food to them from the store for a small amount - 1 ruble. We agreed with the store that they would place orders for us. But this idea failed. It turned out that at that time few people were willing to pay for delivery; people were accustomed to queues.

To organize a cooperative, we spent about 100 rubles.

I overheard the main business idea on the subway. The man was telling his fellow traveler how he washes store windows for money on weekends. I came to our headquarters and said: “I have a brilliant idea - to wash windows.”

At that time, seconds passed from the origin of the idea to its implementation. We immediately went to the nearest store to find out if they needed to clean the windows. We signed the agreement and put the stamps on it. We hired girls from the hostel, bought rags and brushes and washed the windows for two days. The store director came and said: “It’s dirty here, they didn’t clean it well.” I answer: “We’ll redo it now.” And she: “No, don’t, get out of here, I won’t pay you anything.”

I told this sad story to my friend, the deputy director of the Institute of Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He replied: “I just have a lot of money in the economic service estimate, if I don’t spend it, it will all burn out. And all our windows are overgrown with dirt.” We signed an agreement with them, gathered about 30 students, and for a week they washed windows throughout the institute. We were paid 2,000 rubles by bank transfer. We withdrew them in cash and paid the students. And we had 1,000 rubles left - a lot of money. The average salary was 120–130 rubles.

I realized that we had hit a gold mine. All we have always done well is to properly structure and organize the process of any idea. This story with the windows happened in mid-May, and in June we had 100 people working for us.

In July I earned 10,000 rubles, with which I could buy a car. I bought it a little later - a used Zhiguli. Then a large Panasonic TV and a VCR. This is where my fantasy ended.

We started earning millions of rubles even before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

To get a Moscow residence permit, I worked in parallel with my business at the GiproTsMO design institute. Registration in general became an epoch-making event in my life. Without her, I got into trouble with the police a couple of times.

My mother considered the cooperative a frivolous part-time job. One day she came to visit and heard me talking on the phone about windows, carpets, scarves, and so on. She asked how much I earn. I replied that it was a thousand rubles. Mom turned white and said: “I beg you, quit this job immediately. You will all be imprisoned."

About personal finance

I kept my first money under the bathtub in my rented apartment.

How did we manage not to drink away our first big money? I didn’t have such a problem; I always drank in proportion to my budget.

In our family we were strict with money. My parents are world champions in saving.

I try to buy only what is really necessary. My imagination about shopping is very limited.

About friendship and business partners

Business partners, in my opinion, are more than friends. Friends are a wonderful thing, but in our general regulated world, friendship is rarely tested by very serious tests. Partnership is a serious test: there is money, fame, participation in decision-making, and the ability to sacrifice one’s interests for the common good.

We found several large managers and even partners through advertisements in the newspaper. This is how Andrei Rappoport came to us (from 1991 to 1996 he was the chairman of the board of CIB Alfa-Bank, now he is the president of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo - Compare.ru).

After several years of informal partnership, we decided to legally formalize all our relationships. We were very young people, 24–25 years old, but I understood: life is complicated. We wrote serious papers according to Western legal standards about how we will disagree, divide, and so on. And this helped us a lot. When one of our partners decided to leave for their own reasons, we had a very clear mechanism for how to do this. But even more important was the good will of each of us to follow this mechanism. The similarity of values and common views allowed us all to behave decently.

It is necessary that your partners share your human values. This applies not only to business, but also to family relationships. As it turned out over time, my partners and I were quite close people in our views on the world. And even at the moment when we began to differ in our views on business, our human values turned out to be quite compatible, so that we did it in a friendly, respectful and constructive manner. And as you know, we didn’t have any scandals.

Do people, when they begin to be friends, talk about values among themselves? They simply discuss stories of good and evil and come to general conclusions about how they would behave in a given situation. My partners and I were people of the same generation, more or less the same social background, and we also studied at the same institute. Of course, the commonality of views on many things - on politics, on music - all this was revealed in the process of communication.

About children

I would hate for my children to feel like they grew up in their dad's shadow their whole lives.

My son wants to be a businessman. He has been working since he was 12 years old, and has been involved in securities for the last few years. He helps his mother invest her personal money, and quite successfully. Now he is 17 years old, and he fully manages her capital.

Why should I give money to my son? It already has enough competitive advantages to achieve good results. He grew up seeing the world. He studies at a wonderful institution in England and dreams of going to Stanford. His social circle consists of bright and interesting people from various professions. It will be more important and emotionally stronger for him to achieve everything on his own.

My heir is a charitable foundation.

About personal qualities and business success

There is no one reason for success. It is always a combination of different factors. My partners and I are reactive, non-dogmatic people and quickly respond to environmental changes. In business, and in life in general, these are valuable qualities.

In life you need to be able to be flexible, on the one hand. On the other hand, you need to be very principled about something.

I strongly disagree that business is a dirty business. I am sure that any major businessman who has created a serious business structure around himself has a clear set of principles. Another thing is that very often some of these principles do not coincide with generally accepted ones.

There is an idea about Alfa-Bank that we are very tough and mercilessly pursue our borrowers who do not pay their loans.

But we are responsible to our investors and give loans from money that is only 10% ours.

We have a principle: never negotiate with those who are trying to blackmail us. With age, the sense of deep understanding of the surrounding reality is most lost.

When I was 20 years old, and I lived in a hostel and rode the subway, I was very aware of everything that was happening in my life and around me. Now I understand less well how life works in a wide range. I'm not trying to prove anything to others, and I'm lucky in that.

I am a very ambitious person, but not at all vain.

About power We have always consciously tried to distance ourselves from the state.

There is an old soldier's principle: away from the authorities, closer to the kitchen. In relations with authorities, it is best to be in the second row.

Because it’s dangerous in the front row, all the favorite businessmen of one politician leave, and they are replaced by a new politician with his favorite businessmen. And it is irrational to be very far away - you may not be able to shout at the right moment. It seems to me that it is wrong to think that the authorities are trying to attack everyone who is doing well.

I've been to Africa many times. There are many predatory animals there, but one of the most dangerous for humans is the herbivorous hippopotamus. There is a main rule - do not stand between him and access to water, otherwise he will instantly attack. The situation is similar with the authorities.

Posted on a business forum

Mikhail Fridman earned his first thousand rubles by cleaning windows. According to him, he did not spend this money right away, but “kept it under the bathroom.” When his capital reached 10 thousand rubles, the entrepreneur bought a car Mikhail Fridman

(Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)

Initially, according to Friedman, he wanted to engage in scientific activities and entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Chemistry. "I was a bright schoolboy<...>. But I didn’t get in due to poor passport data - this is my last name and nationality,” the businessman explained, noting that after that he was accepted into MISiS, from which he graduated with honors. However, Friedman was not accepted into graduate school, “for the same reason,” he noted. “I was very upset because, in principle, I had a dream to do science - theoretical physics. I co-wrote articles with the head of the department,” he said.

In 1987, according to Friedman, the story of cooperatives began. “One of my friends came to me and suggested creating a cooperative for grocery delivery,” he said, recalling that “at that time there were wild queues in stores” and “people stood for hours.” “We had the idea of delivering products, but since the only audience was students, we could implement all the ideas in the student environment,” Friedman said. The idea of the cooperative, he said, was that he and his comrades “offered to deliver groceries from the store for a small amount.” But this startup “didn’t take off” among students, the businessman added, noting that after that he decided to “wash windows in institutions.”

“Then there was no point in washing windows for private individuals, but institutions had budgets,” the entrepreneur emphasized. However, his first experience, according to him, was unsuccessful: the store manager did not pay off the students hired by Friedman for this work. “She just found a couple of places that weren’t cleaned well enough and didn’t give us a chance to clean them,” he said, emphasizing that he still paid the “students who did the work.”

The entrepreneur received a successful order for window cleaning only in 1988. “In May I started working on windows, and already in July I [already had] a thousand rubles,” said Friedman. At the same time, average salaries then, as the businessman recalled, “were still around 150 rubles.”

However, according to the businessman, collecting money during this period was “pointless”, and he began to “invest it in various cooperatives”, finding many of his business partners through advertisements in the newspaper. When Friedman’s mother found out about this, she, according to the entrepreneur, advised him to “immediately quit” these activities.

“Mom asked how much I earn and why I don’t go to work every day. When I answered that I was earning a thousand, she said: give it up immediately,” the entrepreneur shared. He did not follow his mother's advice. Through an advertisement in the Moscow News newspaper, he, in his words, found “the future chairman of the board of Alfa Bank, Andrei Rybakov, who later worked at RAO UES.” “And my partner, the current Andrei Kosogov, also came from an advertisement in the newspaper: there was no HR then,” said Fridman. He now considers his current business partners “more than just friends.”

“We started by cleaning windows, we had a cooperative. When relationships are tested on a scale, then, of course, you feel that partnership is much more than friendship,” said the entrepreneur, adding that he is “very grateful to my partners.” "For many years<...>“We have never been in a situation where one of us crossed some invisible moral line, beyond which partnership is impossible,” he noted, emphasizing, however, that “most of all in his life he was lucky with his work.” “When I relax somewhere on the beach, after a week I get tired and start calling at work, waiting for the moment when I return from vacation,” concluded Friedman.

In the 1990s, the entrepreneur was among the businessmen who supported the nomination of Boris Yeltsin for the post of President of Russia. During the same period, he was one of the most influential businessmen in the country: in 1988, he founded the Courier cooperative, in which Alexander Kurt worked with him (later co-owner of the Russian Oils holding, the railway operator Neftetransservice, a manufacturer of pipeline fittings "Splav" and others), as well as Alexey Kuzmichev (later co-owner of Alfa Group and LetterOne).

At the same time, Friedman and German Khan (later co-owner of Alfa Group and LetterOne) organized the Alfa Photo company, which was engaged in the sale of computers, and the Alexandrina cooperative, which was engaged in tailoring.

In 1989, together with his partners, the entrepreneur created the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco. In 2006 it was renamed "A1". In 1990, Friedman founded the Alfa Capital check fund, and in 1991, Alfa Bank, where he served as chairman of the board of directors.

Later, from 1995 to 1998, the entrepreneur was on the board of directors of ORT CJSC. At the beginning of 1998, he also joined the board of directors of the Perekrestok trading house. In 2002, Fridman's structures acquired a strategic stake in VimpelCom, and in 2005, Alfa Group acquired a controlling stake in X5 Retail Group. In 2013, Alfa Group sold its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft for $14 billion.

Today, Mikhail Fridman, together with German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, who worked with him in cooperatives, control the Alfa Group consortium (owner of 90.1% of Alfa Bank, 48% of X5 Retail Group, A1, Rosvodokanal ") and the LetterOne Holdings group (owns the German oil and gas company Dea, 56.2% VimpelCom, 13.22% Turkcell). The businessman's fortune is estimated at $14.6 billion.

The day before, Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman spoke at the Atlanta business forum. The most striking quotes from the entrepreneur are published by Rusbase.

About studying and the first big money

Friedman studied well at school and won the Ukrainian Olympiad in physics. As a student, he received an increased Lenin scholarship - 100 rubles - and worked part-time as a plumber. Friedman’s first business was grocery delivery (he was inspired by the experience of American companies), but the idea “failed miserably”: in the USSR, people were used to standing in lines.

Mikhail Fridman

“After my first failed business idea, I was riding on the subway and heard one guy tell another that during the May holidays he would wash windows in a store for money. I overheard this, went to my friends and announced that I had a brilliant business idea. […] At that time, from coming up with an idea to implementation it was a matter of minutes. […] I, however, did not wash the windows myself. I organized everything: I bought rags, invited the students. But we were never paid for the first job.”

When they finally started paying, Friedman managed to earn 10 thousand rubles in a few months. Before the collapse of the USSR, the cooperative founded by Friedman earned millions. Since 1998, the entrepreneur admits, he stopped paying attention to the receipt in the restaurant.

About partners and principles in business

“There are no secrets to success; I am convinced that success in business is a continuation of your human qualities,” says Friedman. He admits that he understands business much less than his top managers. The entrepreneur considers one of his main successes to be the partners with whom he has worked and is working.

Mikhail Fridman

“Partners are more than friends. Friendship is not so often tested by trials, but in partnership you go through money, fame and the ability to sacrifice your interests.”

In 1992, the concept of “partnership” was vague and not supported by laws, so Friedman acted intuitively. He found several partners “literally through an advertisement in the newspaper”: for example, Andrei Rappoport, who from 1991 to 1996 headed the board of CIB Alfa-Bank, and now heads the coordinating council of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo.

“Any big businessman has a clear set of principles. Very often they may not coincide with generally accepted ones, but they definitely exist,” says Friedman. Thus, Alfa-Bank consciously pursues defaulters because it feels responsible to depositors. Moreover, if a client comes to the bank and honestly talks about the problem, they try to meet him halfway. The bank reacts harshly to blackmail.

About business and government

Friedman believes that the main thing in relations with the authorities is not to get close to them. “We have never been in opposition, but we have never been ‘pro-government,’” he explains.

Mikhail Fridman

“With power, I adhere to the concept of the second row - the best way to communicate with her is sitting in the second row. Being close, under the spotlight, is dangerous. But being far away is irrational; you might not be able to shout at the right moment.”

Friedman talked about his trips to Africa and the most dangerous local animals - hippos. He compares power to a hippopotamus, which begins to behave aggressively when a living creature comes between it and the water. “It’s the same with power - the main thing is not to be between them and the water,” explained the entrepreneur.

At the end of August, the leaders of the fastest growing US companies talk about the start of their careers. They recalled what inspired them to start a business, who they chose as partners, and where they got the money from.

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MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Entrepreneur Mikhail Fridman spoke in an interview with Nikolai Uskov, which took place as part of the Atlanta business forum, about why he washed the windows, how he decided to invest money rather than save it, and about the principles on which his relationships with partners are built.

Friedman was among the businessmen who supported Boris Yeltsin's candidacy in 1995. In the 90s, he was one of the most influential businessmen in the country. In the 2000s, Fridman and his partners sold one of their main assets, a stake in TNK-BP, to Rosneft, and since then has focused on managing assets in finance and telecoms. Fridman and his partners invested the funds received from the sale of TNK-BP mainly in foreign assets through the company LetterOne.

Currently, Fridman is a co-owner and chairman of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group consortium, and a member of the supervisory board of Vimpelcom Ltd. (owns 100% of the Russian operator VimpelCom). He once wanted to engage in scientific activities, but his last name prevented him from entering graduate school.

"It didn't work out with physics"

“I graduated from the institute in 1986. I initially entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Chemistry, I was a capable schoolboy, I won all sorts of Olympiads, the Olympiad in Physics. But I didn’t enter due to poor passport data - this is my last name and nationality,” he said .

Fridman was accepted into MISiS, he graduated with honors, but did not get into graduate school, “and for the same reason.” “I was very upset because, in principle, I had a dream to do science, theoretical physics. I co-wrote articles with the head of the department,” he said.

In 1987, work with cooperatives began. “One of my friends came to me and suggested creating a cooperative - delivery of groceries. Then there were wild queues in the stores, people stood for hours. We had an idea to deliver groceries, but since the only audience was students, we could implement all the ideas in the student environment. Instead In order for a person to stand in line, we offered to deliver groceries from the store for a small amount,” Friedman said about his first startup.

However, this idea did not “take off” among students, and by chance Friedman began washing windows in institutions. “Then there was no point in cleaning windows for private individuals, but institutions had budgets,” he said. The first experience, however, turned out to be unsuccessful.

The entrepreneur found an order - it was necessary to wash the windows in a store - he hired students and bought them the necessary items for washing, but the manager of this store did not pay for the work done. “She just found a couple of places that weren’t cleaned well enough and didn’t give us a chance to clean them up. We were left without money, and I paid the students who did the work,” Friedman said.

In 1988, he received a good order for washing windows and received 2 thousand rubles, of which the net profit was 1 thousand. “In May I started working on windows, and already in July I had 1 thousand rubles, while salaries were still were around 150 rubles."

Money under the bathtub

When Friedman’s mother found out that her son was involved in “some kind of cooperatives,” she asked him to “quit immediately.” “My mother asked how much I earn and why I don’t go to work every day. When I answered that I earn 1 thousand, she said: “Give it up immediately!” the entrepreneur shared.

By that time, Friedman and his partners, after informal communication, decided (Friedman was the initiator) to formalize the relationship legally. “Sign some papers on how we will share... This was in 1992,” he said. The commonality of views - what is decent and what is not - allowed them to "behave decently." “And since the mechanism for this process was already at hand, all that was left was to follow these mechanisms,” Friedman said, adding that these papers still work today, although they have evolved.

The entrepreneur kept the money under the bathroom. He didn’t spend it right away, as he was always very calm about his purchases. Although when his capital reached 10 thousand rubles, Friedman bought a car. “But there was no point in keeping money, so I started investing it in various cooperatives,” he said.

Personnel search

Friedman said that he found many of his business partners and managers through advertisements. “Once, for example, in the newspaper “Moscow News” - there, based on an advertisement, the future chairman of the board of Alfa Bank Andrei Rybakov, who later worked at RAO UES, came to us. And my current partner Andrei Kosogov also came through an advertisement in the newspaper - then not there was no HR,” Friedman said.

He admitted that he is now meeting with people who know much more about business than he does. “The business has already reached a certain level of development; I meet mainly with people who apply for positions of top managers and, as a rule, they know much more about business than I do,” he said.

Therefore, when choosing a person, Friedman is often guided by “human impressions.” “Whether he likes to read, whether he went to the cinema, or what kind - such things sometimes make a strong impression on me. But sometimes not,” he said. When asked whether his current business partners are friends, Friedman said that partners are "even more than friends."

"We started with washing windows, we had a cooperative. When relationships are tested on a scale, you, of course, feel that partnership is much more than friendship<…>I am very grateful to my partners that for many years (although there were first six of us, then five, and now three), we have never been in a situation where any of us would have crossed some invisible moral line beyond which partnership is impossible,” he said.

But most of all, according to Friedman, he is lucky with his work - he loves what he does. “When I relax somewhere on the beach, after a week I get tired and start calling at work, waiting for the moment when I return from vacation.”

He even won the Ukrainian Physics Olympiad.

I graduated from the university in 1986, but I was not accepted into graduate school with my nationality and surname.

While studying, I worked part-time as a plumber.

I received an increased Lenin scholarship - 100 rubles.

I dreamed of studying theoretical physics. He wrote articles and, in general, loved natural sciences.

About the first money, washing windows and mom’s reaction to the business

The main problem of Russian people is not to drink away what they have earned. I've always drank in moderation.

About big money and big success

If the definition of “very rich” means how much money you need to earn to last your entire life, then this happened to me very quickly.
Even before the collapse of the USSR, we were earning millions of rubles.
Starting in 1989, I stopped paying attention to the receipt in a restaurant.
I have always wanted to live well, I have a material attitude towards life.
There are no secrets to success; I am convinced that success in business is a continuation of your human qualities.
Things went well for us not because there were any formulas, but because we worked like people.

Now I understand much less [about business] than the people I interview. Top management knows more about business than I do.

About partners, principles and Alfa-Bank

If a person honestly comes and says: “This is all I have, help me solve the problem” - we will understand him. But if a person says: “Now there is a crisis, I cannot pay. Take this amount, otherwise I...” - that’s something else. We never agree to blackmail. This is our principle.

About life, motivation and my younger self

When I compare myself today with my twenty-year-old self, apart from the physical changes, it seems to me that I have not changed at all.
It's not very fashionable now, but I try to never be late.
I do yoga.
When I was 20, I rode the subway and felt what was happening in the world at my fingertips. Now I am losing my general understanding of mass reality.
Social status dominates, so in a wide range, I don’t have a good idea of what’s going on in life.
If I were to give advice to my younger self, I would prefer lessons in the area of personal life.
The main factor of motivation is self-realization.
I'm lucky. I don't want to prove anything to others. I am ambitious, but not at all vain.

There are a lot of vain people around me; it is important for them to be talked about and written about in the newspapers. It passed me by.

About children and inheritance that has already been transferred to a charitable foundation

I have 3 daughters, the eldest is 24 years old. She graduated from Yale University, but has always studied ballet, so she now dances at the Israel State Theater.
All my children study well, they are modest and decent.
My son wants to be a businessman, he is now 17 years old, and he helps his mother manage her money - he invests quite successfully.
Even without money, my children have many competitive advantages to succeed in life.
I don't want children to feel that everything they have is thanks to their dad.

The Genesis charity foundation has already become my heir. [The Genesis Philanthropy Group was created in 2007 to develop and strengthen Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews around the world].

About the relationship between business and government

We are not bankers, not oilmen - we are investors. We invest and help money work. This process is endless.
We have always tried to distance ourselves from the state. This is an old soldier's principle: further from the authorities - closer to the kitchen.
I am proud that I built a business from scratch and remember the first branch of Alfa Bank, I remember the first Perekrestok.
With authority, I adhere to the second row concept - it is best to communicate with her while sitting in the second row. Being close, under the spotlight, is dangerous. And being far away is irrational; you may not be able to shout at the right moment.
I have never met Putin one-on-one in my life.
I've been to Africa many times. One of the most dangerous animals for humans there is the hippopotamus. Let me explain: usually he is calm, but if any creature appears between him and the water, he instantly attacks. It’s the same with power - the main thing is not to be between them and the “water”.
There is no need to fall into the gap between the focus of power and power. We must consciously avoid this. This is all philosophy.

We have never been in opposition, but we have never been “pro-government.”

About inspiration

Business is not only a source of income, but also a source of inspiration.
This is the only thing in life that I have been doing for many years, and I enjoy it.
After a week of vacation, I become unbearably bored.

I don’t have time to notice how the week passes. And on the weekend I think: “Cool, tomorrow is Monday - there will be something interesting.”

Some statements are not given verbatim, but retain their meaning. And here is the full version of Mikhail Fridman’s speech at the Atlanta business forum.