«The other side of freedom is despondency»: the story of a young millionaire

He has two higher educations: economic and legal. Even in his student years, Sergei Potanin realized that he was not going to work in his specialty. First of all, because working with a tight schedule automatically turned the dream of traveling into a pipe dream.

He worked as a bartender and saved money for his own business. Which one is unknown. He only knew that he needed a business to gain financial independence.

Captivated by the idea of ​​​​creating a business for the sake of a dream, at 23, together with a friend, Sergey opened a sports nutrition store. I bought ads in large VKontakte groups. The shop worked, but the income was low. Then I decided to create my own sports group and promote the product there.

The group grew, advertisers appeared. Now the income came not only from the sale of goods, but also from advertising. A few months later, Potanin created several more groups of popular topics: about cinema, learning languages, education, and so on. In old groups advertised new ones. At 24, he earned his first million selling ads.

Today he has 36 groups with a total of 20 million subscribers. The business works practically without his participation, and Sergey himself has been spending most of the year traveling around the world for several years. In June 2016, Potanin became interested in video filming, created the YouTube channel Notes of a Traveler, which was regularly watched by 50 people.

Businessman, blogger, traveler. Who is he? Sergei answered this question in our interview. We have selected the most interesting moments of the conversation. Watch the video version of the interview at the end of the article.

Psychologies: How do you position yourself? Who are you?

Sergei Potanin: Im free person. A person who does what he wants. My business is fully automated. The only thing I do myself is pay taxes online once a quarter. 70% of the time that people spend on making money, I have free.

What to spend them on? When everything is available to you, you don’t want it so much anymore. Therefore, I am looking for new places, events, people who will captivate me.

We are talking about financial freedom in the first place. How did you achieve this?

I created groups by myself. For the first two years, from eight in the morning until four in the morning, I sat at the computer: I looked for content, posted it, and communicated with advertisers. Everyone around thought that I was doing nonsense. Even parents. But I believed in what I was doing. I saw some future in this. It didn’t matter to me who said what.

But those are the parents…

Yes, parents who were born in Ryazan and are not «on you» with a computer cannot be competent in making money online. Especially when I received money, I understood that it works. And I got them right away.

At first he advertised a product — sports nutrition, and immediately beat off the money invested in advertising. A month later, he began to earn money by selling ads in his own group. I did not sit for a year or two, as is often the case, waiting for profit. And it gave me confidence: I’m doing everything right.

As soon as your work began to make a profit, all questions disappeared?

Yes. But my mother had another question. She asked to help her cousin, who at that moment was sitting at home with a child and could not get a job. I created a new group for her. Then for other relatives. I personally had enough money when there were 10 groups, and there was no motivation to do it yet. Thanks to my mother’s request, the existing network of groups was born.

That is, all hired employees are your relatives?

Yes, they have a simple job as content managers: find content and post. But there are two strangers who are engaged in more responsible work: one — the sale of advertising, the other — finances and documentation. Relatives should not be trusted …

Why?

The income depends on this work. People in these positions should be interested. Understand that they can be fired at any time. Or some other motivation. The person who sells ads in the group is my partner. He has no salary, and earnings — a percentage of the sale.

New meaning

You have been traveling since 2011. How many countries have you visited?

Not many — only 20 countries. But in many I have been 5, 10 times, in Bali — 15. There are favorite places where I want to return. There are times in life when travel gets boring. Then I choose a place where I feel comfortable and sit there for three months.

I created the Traveler’s Notes YouTube channel, and it became easier for me to travel to new countries — it made sense. Not just a trip, but in order to shoot something interesting for the blog. During this year, I realized that what subscribers are most interested in is not even the trips themselves, but the people I meet. If I meet an interesting person, I record an interview about his life.

Was the idea to create a channel born out of a desire to diversify travel?

There was no global idea to create a channel for the sake of something. At some point in time, I was actively involved in sports: I gained weight, then lost weight, and watched sports channels on YouTube. I liked this format. Once, with my Instagram follower (an extremist organization banned in Russia), we were driving along the “road of death” to the Teide volcano in Tenerife. I turned on the camera and said: «Now we will start my blog.»

And in this video you say: “I will shoot beautiful views so that there is no emphasis on me. Why is this…” At what point did you realize that your face in the frame was still necessary for some reason?

Probably, it all started with Periscope (an application for online broadcasts in real time). I made broadcasts from trips, sometimes I got into the frame myself. People liked to see who was on the other side of the camera.

Was there a desire for «stardom»?

It was and is, I do not deny it. It seems to me that all creative people have this desire. There are people who find it hard to show themselves: they come up with nicknames, hide their faces. Anyone who shows himself on camera, I’m sure, definitely wants a certain fame.

But for me, the desire to become famous is secondary. The main thing is motivation. More subscribers — more responsibility, which means you need to do better and better. This is personal development. Once you’re financially free, the next step is to find a hobby that interests you. I found. Thanks to the channel, I got a second wave of interest in travel.

Do you consider yourself a star?

No. A star — you need 500 thousand subscribers, probably. 50 is not enough. It happens that subscribers recognize me, but I still feel a little uncomfortable about this.

People often don’t like how they look in photos and videos. Complexes, inadequate self-perception. Have you experienced something similar?

Taking pictures of yourself is very hard. But everything comes with experience. I do advertising. An important lesson I learned from this activity is that your opinion is only your opinion. Definitely need to hear the opinion from the outside. When I shot the first videos, I didn’t like my voice, the way I spoke. I understood that the only way to understand how my opinion of myself corresponds to reality is to post a video and hear others. Then it will be a real picture.

If you focus only on your opinion, you can try all your life to correct shortcomings, smooth out, bring to the ideal and as a result do nothing. You need to start with what you have, read the reviews and correct those moments, the criticism of which seems adequate to you.

But what about the haters who don’t like anything ever?

I was ready for a wave of negativity, because initially I did not count on a perfect result. I understood that I was not a professional: I didn’t speak to large audiences either when traveling or shooting videos. I knew that I was not perfect, and I was waiting for comments on how to correct imperfections.

Video is a hobby that helps me develop. And the haters who talk about the case help me without realizing it. For example, they wrote to me that somewhere I have a bad sound, light. These are constructive comments. I don’t pay attention to those who carry nonsense like: “Nasty man, why have you come?”

Price of freedom

Parents do not ask you a natural question: when are you getting married?

Mom doesn’t ask questions like that anymore. She has two grandchildren, her sister’s children. She doesn’t attack as hard as before.

Don’t you think about it yourself?

I’m already thinking. But without fanaticism. I’m just talking to new people, I’m interested. If I come to Moscow, I go on dates every other day, but I always warn that this is a date of one day.

Most people who live in Moscow tell you their problems on the first date. And when you travel, communicate with tourists, you get used to positive conversations, and it becomes very difficult to listen to the negative.

It happens that interesting people come across, they talk about their profession. With such I can meet the second time. But this rarely happens.

In Moscow, I’m not trying to build anything. Because I am here for a short time and I will definitely fly away. Therefore, if any relationship arises, for a maximum of a month. In this regard, travel is easier. People understand that they will fly away. You don’t need to explain anything.

What about intimacy with a person?

Two weeks, it seems to me, is quite enough to feel closeness.

So, are you a loner?

Not certainly in that way. Look, when you are alone all the time, it gets boring. When you are constantly with someone, it also gets boring over time. There are two things fighting inside of me all the time.

Now, of course, I already see that the essence that wants to be with someone is becoming stronger. But in my case, it is difficult to find a person who also does something creative, travels, because I don’t want to give up this, and at the same time I like him, it’s difficult.

Are you not going to settle somewhere at all?

Why. It seems to me that in 20 years I will live in Bali. Maybe I’ll create some interesting project, business. For example, a hotel. But not just a hotel, but with some idea. So that it was not an inn, but something creative, aimed at the development of people who come. The project must be meaningful.

You live in your pleasure, do not worry about anything. Is there anything you would really like to achieve but haven’t achieved yet?

In terms of satisfaction with life, with myself as a person, everything suits me. Someone thinks that you need to somehow emphasize your status: expensive cars, clothes. But this is a limitation of freedom. I do not need it, I am satisfied with the way I live and what I have today. I have no desire to impress anyone, to prove something to anyone but myself. This is what freedom is.

Some ideal picture of the world is obtained. Are there negative sides to your freedom?

Inconsistency, boredom. I have tried many things, and there is little that can surprise me. It’s hard to find what turns you on. But I’d rather live like this than go to work every day. I was tormented by the question of what to do, I wanted to add interest, I found a video, created a channel. Then there will be something else.

A year ago, my life was more boring than it is now. But I’m already used to it. Because the other side of freedom is despondency. So I am a free man in eternal search. Perhaps this is something imperfect in my ideal life.