"Always choose the most difficult path - you will not meet competitors on it"
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), French general and politician
WE WILL MANAGE WITHOUT LONG ENTRIES. WE DECIDED TO TELL ABOUT THE PERSON AND THE COMPANY CREATED BY HIM, BUT IT HAS RECEIVED THAT THE QUESTION WAS ABOUT THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE SELECTION OF OWN WAY, SUCCESS AND SELF-EDUCATION, PRESENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF A PERFORMANCE. MEET Maksim Artsinovich, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF THE ENGLISH JEWELERY HOUSE MAXIMILIAN. THE STORY WILL GO FROM THE FIRST PERSON.
Forty Years
Every man in his life comes a moment when he clearly realizes that half of his life has been lived. Not a quarter, not a third part, but really half of life. Man turns 40 years old! This is starting to bother someone, and experts call it the "midlife crisis." I do not know what a midlife crisis is. But definitely, I understand that the first half of my life has already been lived. This is despite the fact that in Russia the average life expectancy for a man is 56-60 years (now even less), and in Japan, for example, 90 years. I am silent about countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, where all people go in for sports, run marathons at the age of 60-70 years. In a word, I turned 40, and I thought about a lot.
Firstly, about the quality of life. I completely stopped drinking alcohol and returned to sports. Today I train for three to four hours daily and prepare for the Paris marathon. Thank God I never smoked. Many of my friends living in London and Dubai are involved in the triathlon (swimming, cycling and running), and try to introduce me to this sport. I also play golf and go to train in Japan, doing there an ancient and very closed view of martial arts - kendo. This is an elite sport that the Japanese aristocracy practices. For some reason, right now, I am trying to pay more attention to my spiritual life - to read books, to visit the theater more often. I’m less interested in all kinds of nonsense now, such as nightclubs or model girls, all this “glamorous” life that I spent a lot of time and money on before. I lived brightly and was a super mega playboy! I liked it all. And I was in a state of euphoria. But everything has its time. At some point, I clearly realized that all this is empty, a loss of strength and energy. Now for me the greatest happiness is simply to be at home alone and read a good book or watch a new movie on DVD, or when there are a lot of guests at home. Tired of restaurants and social life. Believe me, this is not an attempt to paint, I’m just a man of the world, and by the nature of my activity, I constantly move from one country to another. And for a long time I began to think about where it is better to live on Earth. There are many options, but it's better to live where you work. In Moscow, London, Monte Carlo, Dubai? Somewhere on the islands in peace and quiet? Or secluded in a villa in Tuscany among vineyards and stunning ecology? Each has its own formula for happiness.
The quality of life
In Moscow, I live on Ostozhenka. In the most prestigious area of the Russian capital. The price per square meter of housing there varies from 20 to 40 thousand euros, there is all the necessary infrastructure - underground parking lots, a pool and a gym in the house, restaurants nearby, beauty salons, and an office is within easy reach. But! I can’t walk down the street in Moscow. And most wealthy Muscovites and guests of the capital will agree with me. And not for safety reasons, but because modern Moscow means enormous distances and catastrophic dirt at any time of the year, dirt on the ground and in the air! Ecology is simply not there. Despite the fact that Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod are the cleanest cities in our country. Imagine what is being done in the outback?
We, Russian businessmen, have created for ourselves a closed elite world, a kind of "cocoon" called "Ostozhenka - Rublevka". Only 10-15 thousand people live in it, who have closed and fenced off from everyone and everything. But upon reaching a certain status and material well-being, another “quality of life” or “quality of life” begins to interest. And no matter how patriotic you are, no matter how much you love your homeland, at some point this refined "quality of life", but in a cocoon, ceases to suit you. And I want peace and comfort.
In the morning we get down to the underground garage, filled to capacity with security guards - “thugs” and drivers (security guards will save only from hooligans on the street, but not from professional performers), we get into our “Mercedes” and BMW in the back seats and close again in the “cocoon” ", drive to the nearest restaurant or office, and go only from the car to the entrance. That's all the movement! In Moscow, the car has long turned into an office on wheels. Businessmen spend more time in their cars every day than with their children. An average of four five hours daily. Trying to get home from work in the evening turns into torture. Because of this, scandals, suspicions, and divorces arise. For us in Moscow, a personal driver is not a whim, but a necessity. I drive with pleasure in Geneva, London and Dubai. And in Moscow, I do not want to spend my nerve cells in traffic jams and trying to park in the city center. For the capital, being late for business meetings has become the norm. After thinking about all this, I came to the conclusion that most of all leads our people to depression - endless traffic jams, unstable weather, darkness and lack of sun.
And what happens? They say in London - the weather is terrible. In what? Let's compare the weather in London and Russia, looking at the statistics of meteorologists, and then it turns out that in Moscow or St. Petersburg in the year about 60-65 sunny days, and in London there are 250! Yes, London weather, yes, London rain ... But it’s paradoxical that in London I don’t even clean my shoes. Never! I don’t know what it is, although I run 10 km every morning. And for a person who plays sports, the state of the environment in the city where he lives, in which his parents live, and future children will be born, is important. In London, I am pleased to see that the white sneakers remained clean after a run. Even in the fall and winter!
Waves of emigration periodically emanated from our country. Once upon a time in tsarist Russia wealthy people had everything: houses, their own suburban estates, serfs. After the October Revolution, the aristocracy began to immigrate to Europe, where many had "dachas": Paris, Cannes, Nice, Saint-Tropez. There was an "iron curtain" in the Soviet Union, and doctors, scientists, athletes, musicians, those who could find themselves abroad and succeed there were slowly leaving the country. In the new Russia since 1991, when Boris Yeltsin came to power, on the first wave of privatization, someone managed to steal something and then simply left. I can now determine very precisely what is happening. Today, people aged 30-40 years and older are leaving Russia. Professionals are leaving. Moreover, these are not those who sold their business, saved up huge fortunes, and now they are fleeing the country, taking out money. Not! Now people are striving for a different quality of life. People who realized that you still won’t earn all the money, and that one year spent in Russia goes for three to four years of life abroad.
I also understand very well that if I leave for Europe at 40, I’ll live at least 10 years longer. It’s impossible to defeat traffic jams, and if you don’t have a flasher, then you lose the ability to move around and interact normally with business partners, friends, family members. I feel sorry for Sobyanin, who was given such responsibility, and I objectively understand that every official, young or old, can’t get the German or Japanese mentality in mind. The last 10 years that I live in Moscow, having moved to the capital from St. Petersburg, I get to my home on Ostozhenka from Sheremetyevo Airport, about three hours each time. During this time, you can fly to Europe: two hours to Berlin or Vienna and three hours to Geneva. It sometimes takes five hours to get to or from Domodedovo, and to get on a flight that leaves for the Emirates at 17.30, you need to leave at the airport at one o’clock in the afternoon. In Geneva, I can drive from the Four Seasons Hotel to the airport in 12 minutes. In Shanghai, I board a high-speed train in the city center, and having a great first-class ride, I literally fly to the airport in 15 minutes on a magnetic cushion train. Our "Aero-express" from Sheremetyevo to the Belorussky railway station in 30 minutes is just ridiculous for the 21st century, because from Belorussky, getting into the car, you get stuck on Tverskaya.
So an interesting reverse trend has begun. People change their place of residence. Many people like me, having arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg, Siberia and other regions in order to earn money and make a career, at first they think that their life is fast. But in fact, we are marking time. We spend our lives slipping in traffic jams! A modern businessman sits in a car, sits in an office, sits in a restaurant and, arriving home, sits at home with his wife on a sofa. The "elite" of our society, both men and women, are constantly at their "fifth point". All Europeans, Americans and Asians, regardless of their financial situation, walk at least 2-3 hours daily. I believe that even a daily exercise in 100 minutes is a harsh necessity for our life, otherwise death. Unfortunately, a lot of friends and acquaintances left in 37-42 years.
All my Petersburg friends who work as top managers of the largest Russian companies, in the Presidential Administration or the Presidential Administration, in various ministries and departments, today agree on one thing - it’s time to return home. Now the head office of Gazprom Neft is moving to St. Petersburg, and a huge number of friends and acquaintances are moving with him. I am also invited to work in St. Petersburg. There are many options, but the question of the quality of life remains. We won’t change the weather and traffic conditions, and until something real begins to happen, we’ll probably die. And our children, who are now 5-10 years old, will grow up as adults with an unhealthy psyche. From Russia there is now a wave of immigration of "business downshifters" who want the usual warmth, ecology, lack of stress and daily good mood. Then you will have a good potency, and a desire to work harder and earn more. People want a new quality of life. Simply put, people just want to live!
Big cities
The small town of Karlovy Vary, where I have been traveling twice a year for 12 years now, in order to undergo a detox and rehabilitation program, exercise, play golf, is 80% inhabited by Russians. My parents have been going there for many years in a row twice a year. In this town with a population of 40 thousand people, real estate costs 2-3 thousand euros per square meter. In Dubai, after the crisis, real estate prices of good quality in prestigious areas such as Dubai Marina amount to 3-4 thousand dollars per square meter. Compare this with the prices of apartments on Ostozhenka (from 5 to 10 million dollars), where a garage costs 300 thousand dollars!
In Dubai, the developer is obliged to rent an apartment to the buyer of the apartment with decoration, underground parking, concierge services and 24-hour security. A person pays certain maintenance fees for this, the so-called “maintenance”, but no one objects, because your apartment has a terrace or balcony with sea views, because the sun shines in Dubai all year round. All of my Dubai friends are native Muscovites or Almaty residents. These people were born in Moscow and grew up there, went to school and graduated from universities, and now live in the Emirates.
Moscow is a great place to live in the summer. But only three months a year. Dubai is an ideal place for the quality of life. Someone says that this is a Muslim country. And it is hard for us Christians. I’ve been traveling here for the past fifteen years, and didn’t notice that I wasn’t happy or annoyed with something here, although I am a great perfectionist in everything. Dubai, in my opinion, is a very Europeanized city in the heart of the Middle East, at the intersection of all trade routes. The absence of taxes gives rise to the fact that for relatively little money a person can live quietly in a luxurious and large apartment, drive a prestigious car. And all this is three times cheaper than in Russia. The quality of life here is very high. When we have darkness and slush, in Dubai - the sun, sea and the highest level of security. Therefore, it is comfortable and pleasant to be here all year round, to educate your children, to work and to enjoy everything that surrounds you - beautiful roads, cleanliness, luxury hotels, excellent restaurants, high quality service. If I may say so, then Allah awarded this city with an amazing geographical position, and all its inhabitants were incredibly lucky.
What is more indicative of Dubai? There are many Russian millionaires and billionaires who bought property on the island of Palm Jumeirah and opened their own companies. I asked my friends why they moved to Dubai? They told me what I was seriously thinking. In the UAE and, in particular, in Dubai, the use and distribution of drugs is prohibited under pain of long prison sentences or even the death penalty. There is no free sale of alcohol in the country, everything is licensed and available only in specialized stores for non-Muslims, so a child under 21 will never, anywhere and under any circumstances sell alcohol.
If we talk about London, then this, of course, is science, and finance, and art, and the legacy of the great British Empire, and a multinational society, and the intersection of cultures. But London is not as safe as Dubai. In the English capital, you cannot protect your children from drug and alcohol use, from terrorist attacks or student unrest. And Russian students, leaving the walls of universities after class, take out cans and bottles from these bags with these “explosive mixtures,” such as vodka with juice, which is unknown, and drink it every day! And then they get behind the wheel, crash ... All schoolgirls and students in Moscow smoke because it is fashionable and prestigious. Half of the metropolitan youth "sits" on the grass and heroine. And this is our future generation! In Russia, young women have difficulty giving birth to one child, and in Muslim countries, meanwhile, four to five children grow up in families. Where are we going and what will they come to?
In terms of security, I can only compare Dubai with Monte Carlo, where more than 30 thousand CCTV cameras are installed that track the movement of any person in the country. Crime in Monaco is minimized, and security has been put in the highest priority of this small principality. In Dubai, crime exists, but compared to our country, it is practically zero. There are no corrupt traffic cops, and for a glass of wine, drunk before you drive, a man put in jail. Here is a very serious CID service, which has developed an agent network among migrant workers and service personnel, and there is a crime prevention program. Simply put, anyone who heard information about an impending crime considers it his duty to transmit it to their destination. People respect and take pride in the security of their country. At the airport, all tourists scan the retina of the eye, and for residents introduced new identification cards that indicate the biometric data of their owners - a scan of the retina, fingerprints, photographs. I am in favor of such security measures! I dream when we in Russia introduce total control over every citizen using modern information technologies and stop giving guest workers fictitious pieces of paper with the place of their "registration".
And one more important observation.My friends' wives, not embarrassed, not hiding, and not fearing, wear in Dubai all their best jewelry, watches with diamonds every day, going shopping or in a cafe, for children to school or in the evening to a restaurant with her husband. Here is the East, therefore it is quite natural when a woman has a lot of beautiful jewelry, and she proudly wears them. But on the Cote d'Azur, the same ladies have long ceased to take their diamonds and handbags from Hermes with them. Ask me why? Yes, because all my friends are robbed at the most fashionable resorts in France in their own villas every year, even if there are guards in the house. So today the rich and famous fly on holiday with jewelry and do not attract attention.
Talking about Dubai, I will explain why I still chose London as the headquarters of my company. Each businessman finds for himself his own place where he is most comfortable living and working. For me, London has become the second capital. When I created the company and looked at the top ten jewelry houses of the world, which includes names such as Cartier, Chaumet, Boucheron, Graff, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and others, it became clear to me that they all work in three main centers high jewelry art: the first is, of course, Place Vendôme in Paris, it all began with it; the second is New York, where such "monsters" as Harry Winston and Tiffany are based; and finally, the third - London, where there are Graff Houses, David Morris, Moussaieff. There are also Switzerland, Italy, Spain and other European countries.
But when I conducted preliminary marketing research in a focus group of people with incomes of more than 1 million dollars a year, and we interviewed more than a thousand people, the respondents said that they had already heard about the London jewelry company MaximiliaN, although, in fact, the House in its present format then did not exist. And when the question arose about the location of the MaximiliaN headquarters, I thought that Place Vendome is a direct competition with the oldest leaders in the industry, with those who supplied their jewelry to the imperial courts of Europe and Russia. Today, more than 400 thousand Russians live in London, this is our second "capital". Taxation for the unborn in London is very attractive. Therefore, in 2005, I registered and opened my jewelry house there. Since then, London has become my second home.
MaximiliaN - London
My jewelry business was not an accident. I have been doing it for over 15 years. By the way, I created my first jewelry at the age of 6 years. I was born in Grozny and grew up in a military family. It was there, in the basement of my grandfather’s house, I drank a ring from a bronze tube, processed the product with a file and polished it on a machine with GOI paste. If someone else remembers what it is ... Already at a conscious age, after an officer career, I started a business, like everyone else. He came to the Emirates, was engaged in the distribution of watches and jewelry. Hundreds of thousands of products of world famous brands passed through my hands. Thanks to this experience, I learned to understand the quality, I understood this business from the inside. For 15 years I have visited hundreds of watch and jewelry exhibitions and thousands of stores around the world. This prompted me to create my own jewelry house. Being a client of Patek Philippe, Graff and Hermes home, I understood why people are willing to pay big money for a great brand. Creating your own jewelry brand and entering the elite of the world jewelry art is a very difficult task. But I decided that she could do me. At some point, I realized that I wouldn’t want to bring great names to Russia at once - Cartier, Chaumet, Boucheron, Graff, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels. Russian customers are not idiots, they are well versed in large gems. In our country, the customs duty on the import of jewelry and watches is 23% and from above - 18% VAT. A store cannot be profitable at Moscow rental rates if its profitability is below 50%. The buyer always thinks - if I travel abroad 5-10 times a year, then why should I overpay for watches and jewelry 30-50% more than in Europe? When it comes to large stones worth millions of dollars, not only size matters, but also price.
I began to draw sketches of my future collections, make their master models, place orders in factories. Then, in 2005, he released his first collection “Bullets” (“Bullets”), which he dedicated to five generations of soldiers in my family. The collection was sold in a large circulation around the world, because no one before me issued bullets from a Kalashnikov assault rifle from gold, studded with diamonds, or pistol bullets from TT and "Stechkin" in the form of cufflinks. Popularity immediately led to the fact that they began to copy me. I decided to sue anyone, just went on.
I named my brand MaximiliaN and immediately set a very high bar for myself - to enter the top ten world famous jewelry houses that are engaged in high jewelry art. Today, MaximiliaN House does not mass-produce jewelry. It has two main lines: the production of fashionable jewelry, which means searching for some new and interesting directions and forms, and the classic direction, which in general does not differ from what others do - these are rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces, brooches made of precious metals, but using rare large gemstones. The key word here is "large stones"! All my products are accompanied by an exclusive MaximiliaN certificate with five degrees of protection, like on bank shares and bonds. Each decoration has an individual number and on the facet (side face) of each stone there is an engraving and an individual number according to the GIA or Gubelin certificate.
Big stones and big ambitions
Where is the MaximiliaN production located? This is a good question. I make my jewelry in Japan because the quality is crazy there. I make them in Switzerland, because there is the famous "Geneva timepiece" of stones, this is when precious stones and diamonds are selected in color and size to thousandths of a millimeter, and then set on the dial or bezel of the watch so that a single canvas is obtained on which the joints between them are practically invisible. This is not done anywhere else in the world. I produce jewelry at several factories in Germany, because I firmly believe in German quality. By the way, that’s why I prefer to drive German cars. They never let me down.
An international team of 13 designers works with me, in which there are guys from Moscow and St. Petersburg, French, Americans, Italians, Germans, Swiss, even Japanese and Chinese. Many of them are constantly working for large brands, but thanks to the modern development of IT technologies, you can communicate online to coordinate work with everyone. I am the only person in the company who decides to purchase gems. I get the most expensive and rarest stones that exist in the world, and in this sense I don’t even compete, but look for the only person in the world - Lawrence Graff. For me, he was and remains a teacher. In rubies, emeralds and sapphires of large sizes and rare quality, today I have no equal. I am not trying to compete with Graff. Louis Glik or Levaev for big diamonds. This is a very complex world, and a lot of money is spinning there. But I found my niche in colored gemstones, and money is spinning no less. In the current economic environment, many leading jewelery houses are taking these stones from suppliers for consignment. Even Harry Winston and Cartier cannot afford to buy large gems in cash today. There are few collectors who understand such stones and are able to shell out millions of dollars for them. Moreover, this market is very closed and competitive, everyone knows each other in person. Reputation on it is your everything. It’s very important to never say anything bad about your competitors, but it’s even more important not to react if you hear that your competitors say bad things about you. Life teaches this. Ten years ago, at the age of 30, I would have rushed into a fight, and now I do not pay attention to the conversations behind me.
Today I have a very limited number of suppliers. I buy the best Colombian emeralds, the best Burmese rubies and sapphires. Each of my stones has several certificates from leading and recognized by banks of the first magnitude as reference gemological laboratories in the world: GRS, GIA, AGL, Gubelin. Especially valuable stones, these gemoglogic laboratories assign proper names and publish a "book about the stone." This is a special honor and respect for MaximiliaN. In fact, books about stones are the history of the best and most beautiful precious stones of the world that we write today. Such a service, and it is not cheap, is provided by laboratories to very few jewelers on Earth. And this gives added confidence to the buyer who purchases a unique and investment gem at MaximiliaN. Now, for example, I am selling the largest Burmese ruby on the planet weighing 18.28 carats, with an unusual emerald cut cut for a ruby, which costs $ 7.5 million, the initial price. By comparison, Lawrence Graff recently sold a Burmese oval ruby, “Pigeon Blood” color and exceptional purity, weighing 8.5 carats for $ 1,200,000 per carat. Such prices today are very revealing, there are practically no Burmese rubies. All mines have exhausted their capabilities. Over 10 years, prices for Burmese rubies increased 5 times. Therefore, I boldly argue that the Burmese ruby today is the most expensive stone on Earth after pink, blue and red diamonds, where prices go up to $ 2-3 million per carat.
When I buy large gemstones for my stock, I realize that someone needs to sell them later. We carry out orders of the palaces of sheikhs and sultans, large royalty, people from the world of big business and movie stars. I cherish every client. Something I buy in my collection for future products. But I am absolutely brave, looking into anyone’s eyes, I’ll say that today, in 2011, in the Middle East I have no competitors in colored gemstones. I have great respect for high jewelry houses, I draw my inspiration from such great masters as Rene Lalique, Verdura and Harry Winston. Today, all the world's jewelry houses are represented in Dubai, but not one of them has such a collection that is in my Dubai boutique. I’ve been preparing for its opening for three years, invested more than USD 30 million in the best gems, and during this period they have grown in price from 30 to 60%. Stones no longer become, like the earth. Our planet produced them millions of years ago. I do not buy shares, I do not play in the stock market. But I buy stones, because I understand them and believe in them sacredly.
I myself invent all the collections and sketch out future products myself. Then my designers and jewelers make master models and after my approval we put them into production. I place my orders in the best jewelry ateliers in the world and get the highest quality from them, corresponding to the bar that I set for MaximiliaN. The best stone fixers in the world are in Geneva, Japan, Italy and France and Hong Kong. It is naive to think that jewelry from leading jewelry brands today is made only in their own workshops. All modern business is integration and globalization.
Today, producing 2,000 pieces a year, I can personally control the entire process and be responsible for the quality of each MaximiliaN jewelry. Our products have fantastic packaging, which is made only in France and in Geneva. All of my leather product bags are sewn in the same factories where Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags are made. I design the packaging myself. MaximiliaN is my child growing under the slogan “When Size Matters”, because, basically, we work with large gems. Boys are always measured, who has more ... Jet, a boat, more powerful and more expensive cars, more beautiful and taller girl, and so on. Hear my “message”, begin to be measured by those whose wife has more and more expensive stones on her fingers and ears. In the end, this is your prestige, status and all that matters. The strategic development plan of the company was developed by the specialists of Goldman Sachs Bank.
In a few years, we will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. I expect to achieve a capitalization of $ 1 billion. Shares of all the world's leading jewelry houses are now traded on the stock exchange. Already today I am negotiating with large investors, including from the Middle East, about strategic investments in the development of MaximiliaN in the amount of $ 100 million. This is not just passion and not only art, and not just the sale of precious stones. This is a purely financial transaction, designed to create a global brand and a solid company with weight and reputation in the market. My potential buyers are LVMH and Richmont Group, as well as Chinese investors who are happy to buy European brands today. The bar is high, but I'm sure I will succeed.
Today I am the main owner, brain and creative director of MaximiliaN. My ambition is to make my brand go down in history like Harry Winston and Lawrence Graff and become a legend. It often happens that the founder of a brand cannot see what happened to him after his death. And today I am the youngest living jeweler working in the segment of high jewelry art - “haute couture jewelery”. And I'm not interested in what MaximiliaN will be like, even after several decades. I hope that I can learn the taste of victory and see the empire I created during my life, like Lawrence Graff’s.
In our boutique in Dubai, which is located in the Jumairah Zabeel Saray hotel, jewelry is sold only by appointment (sales by appointment only), that is, a person from the street will not be able to get into it. MaximiliaN jewelry is sold in more than 30 countries of the world, including all the leading fashion resorts, such as Monte Carlo, Saint-Tropez, Nice, Cannes, St. Barth, Courchevel, St. Moritz. We are represented in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. In London, we have branded departments in all the leading major department stores. In general, the company's strategy is to have flagship stores in three parts of the world, where today the main financial markets are concentrated - London, Dubai and Hong Kong, and 40-50 points of sale in multi-brand stores along with other great brands.
In London, private sales are made at our Mayfair office, and I plan to open a New Bond Street boutique. The Dubai boutique covers the entire Middle East region, where in addition to it, we sell jewelry in large multi-brands at Burj Al Arab, Dubai Mall, several other shopping centers. In Dubai, I also expect to attract the attention of major Chinese customers, as they have the future. Finally, the store in Hong Kong, which I plan to open in 2012, will cover the entire Asia-Pacific region. This is important, since all rich Chinese go shopping in Hong Kong, because there is a tax-free zone, plus 80% of the Swiss watch industry is consumed today by China. Today there is a huge number of millionaires, and in the next 10 years the market will be there. That's for sure.
I have only one problem so far - not enough products. People want my jewelry to be on St. Barth, where the jetters fly in the winter, and in Monte Carlo, and St. Maurice, and Courchevel, in Los Angeles on Rodeo Drive. So far, there is no way to meet this growing demand for our jewelry. By the way, it is my jewelry that I classify as family, which will be inherited from generation to generation in the family.
About time and about myself
Yesterday I woke up in Japan, had a couple of meetings, got on a plane, fell asleep at a hotel in London in the evening. Spent a few days in England, then Geneva, signed some papers, met with the bank. And in the evening - Moscow again, traffic jam on the way home and, finally, I'm home.When I am in New York, I am welcomed by celebrities, the owners of Harry Winston are inviting me to dinner, everyone knows me at jewelry exhibitions in Hong Kong or Basel, greets me, invites me to dinners. And here I am forced to choose for myself - to continue such a life or to lead a calm family life. Combining does not work. Because, those women whom he loved did not want to put up with my schedule and constant movements. And I am such a person that I can’t forgive the betrayal, and I will never enter the same door twice. I have a fairly conservative outlook on life. I believe that you need to get married once and for the rest of your life, give birth to children only in marriage and pass on to them everything that I myself have learned. I really do not like that today the institution of marriage is becoming obsolete. I have many friends who have three or four children from several marriages, and they do not really remember the birthdays of the children, whoever studies in any country, or any other important milestones in their life. Many in Russia tell me that I’m already overripe and I want a lot from my family. But I think that by European standards I am still young and full of energy. At forty-forty-five, starting a family and having children is normal. I have gained tremendous life experience, I have achieved everything myself, and now I am developing the company that I have dreamed about all my life. Each person has his own path. I do a lot of martial arts and adhere to the Bushido Code. When I am in Japan, I walk down the street in Japanese national clothes - kimonos and wooden sandals. When I pick up a sword, its blade merges with me into one. Probably in a past life I was a samurai.
I have the honor
I am to the marrow of bones - a Russian person and a patriot of my homeland. I have always served and continue to serve my country, first as an officer, and now as an adviser to the state structure. I am a representative of the fifth-generation military family. My parents, grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts were all military personnel. I am the first person in the family who managed to earn money on his own without receiving any capital from his parents. I even entered a military school myself, without patronage, having overcome a competition of 20 people per place. I understand like no one else what it means when the old Russian officers said goodbye when they said goodbye, these words had weight and deep meaning. And today it is important for me that not only officers, but also men have the honor, can do something for their family and be responsible for their words and deeds. I am convinced that a real man and officer should be honest, principled, purposeful. It is a pity that many young people today already want to be officials from school, because they see that this class lives well in our country, drives expensive cars and rests abroad. This not normal! For me, it’s necessary to work honestly and hard, not sparing yourself. I was brought up differently, and I care about what I can leave behind on Earth. And even if I fail to transfer my company to my children, I want the name MaximiliaN to be heard all over the world. I hope I have enough time, money and ambition for this. I emphasize once again that my main directions for the next 10 years are the Middle East, India and China. These markets consume more than 80% of European production of luxury goods.
So I need my flagship stores in London, Du
