— What is true, proper development for a modern person?
— I have been in the field of education for many years — professional and business training. And over the last ten years, the same concept has been repeated again and again: one must study and develop throughout life. With the arrival of artificial intelligence, this thesis began to be repeated even more often: it is important for a person to constantly learn in order to keep up and adapt to new conditions. Against this background, the topic of developing soft skills has become especially popular. They have been talking about this for more than ten years now, and it creates the impression that everything was done wrong before, and now there are those who know how it should be. But for a modern person the key question sounds different: what exactly is truly important for them to study? Why is it needed? How exactly should one study?
If a person makes a mistake in choosing education, it is not just a waste of time. Such a choice can change their life for decades ahead and affect the destinies of those around them. For example, once I chose programming instead of trading in the market. At the university, my classmates who were doing small business had higher incomes than beginner programmers. In 2004, I got a job for $100, whereas on the market one could earn a thousand or two. But in the long run it was programmers who consistently earned more and grew steadily. This is a question of probabilities and strategy: short-term profit versus long-term development.
So, it is not just about choosing a profession or a set of knowledge for the sake of earnings. It is important to understand where to study and what to study in order to act as effectively and truly as possible in all areas of life. And this applies to everything: professional activity, business, leadership, personal development, relationships, spiritual pursuits.
Today, a person may not be interested in business, but in ten years they may become the owner of a company. Now they may be an ordinary employee, and in twenty years — a manager. Or vice versa: today they are a manager, and later consciously choose a simple job without responsibility. Therefore, the question is always one: what exactly should I study so that in any sphere I can make the right decisions and take the next step consciously?
Efficiency here is not about saving time, but about the truthfulness of actions. One person starts a business, invests three years, money, effort, and then closes it as a mistake. For them this is inefficiency. But for another person the same experience may become a necessary stage of development, even if the result was closure. For someone else, refusing to enter a project is a loss, but for another it is the right decision. The truth of actions is always different and is determined not by external measures, but by inner understanding.
I view development not from the standpoint of maximum profit — money, connections, or recognition, but from the standpoint of truth. True action can be connected both with the laws of the Universe and relationships with other people, as well as with pragmatic social strategies. The world is complex: it often requires strategic decisions — when they try to deceive, fire, use, pay less, exclude. This happens at the level of countries, companies, families. And it is important to be able to see the right strategy and understand what needs to be studied in order to act effectively.
Once people sought learning in books, courses, YouTube, or Instagram in order to really learn something new. But over time, for many it became a drug: not for learning, but for envy, comparison, negativity, meaningless discussions. A huge number of learning systems have appeared, and now the choice has become not only difficult but also dangerous. They shout at you: “Go study programming!” and you choose from thousands of programs, risking a mistake. After all, quite a few of those who teach do not themselves understand the subject and act for hype or pleasure, not understanding the real consequences for the student.
“Personal learning trajectories”
In the Russian-speaking space, I introduced the term “personal learning trajectories” and worked a lot with it. But in most cases what they call a personal trajectory is an illusion. There is no real personalization, because no one truly understands who you are now and who you will be in the future. No one considers all the circumstances of your life, your goals, priorities, risks.
A mistake in education may not just be small, like in a restaurant when you didn’t like the steak you ordered. A mistake can become fatal: change life, destroy it, or on the contrary, give a colossal push. Someone chooses a profession or knowledge that leads to joy, stability, and development, while another ends up in endless tension and unhappiness. These decisions can shape your confidence or lack of it, and the consequences stretch for decades. For example, an insecure marketer will not be able to promote a product, and a teacher with inner doubts will transmit them to students. Therefore, the question “how to build your personal learning trajectory?” is always a personal and very responsible choice, which no one else will make for you.
Conscious approach to learning
I want to show with the example of my programs how one can approach the choice of learning and with what degree of awareness this should be done. We once created children’s education programs in IT, and 5–6 thousand children studied there. At the same time, I always held meetings for parents and teachers.
Why was this necessary? The main audience of my projects was adults: 250 thousand people took additional professional education programs. Teachers separately took advanced training courses. But it was precisely the parents and teachers who had to understand the basic principles in order to make more conscious decisions about the development of children.
Therefore, even now the information I give is aimed at helping you make decisions yourself: what is worth doing, what trends and ideas to treat with caution, and what knowledge will really be useful.
Mistakes of the past and lessons of the 2000s
This is clearly seen in the example of the 2000s, when active informatization began. A huge number of people aged 40–60 did not know how to type, did not understand computers, and consciously distanced themselves from these topics. They thought: “I am already living out my life, I don’t need this.” But many of them lived to 80–100 years.
Imagine how much easier it would have been at 40 to master basic technologies than at 70. This knowledge could have facilitated communication with children, colleagues, friends, simplified work processes. And many of them consciously closed themselves off from the new, and this decision had consequences.
Spectrum of development
Today I want to talk not so much about technologies, but about the broad spectrum of development. Let’s highlight the main areas:
- professional development;
- business development;
- management skills;
- personal development — psyche, inner state, perception of life;
- relationships — with family, children, colleagues, partners, friends, loved ones;
- spiritual development.
I am convinced: it is important to develop comprehensively, and not get stuck in one sphere. Many people begin to take interest in a topic only when the situation already requires it. In partnership — when a partner appears. In upbringing — when children appear. In marketing — when business starts to stall. But then it is already late: a person acts unconsciously.
Of course, you can say that “mistakes are useful,” but this is only partly true. It is much better to expand horizons in advance and be ready for different life scenarios.
Two development programs
I divided development into two large directions:
- Program V100 — this is the comprehensive scaling of a person. It covers professional and business development, building relationships, understanding combinations and cycles of interaction, perception of business and profession in the long term — 20, 30, 40 years ahead. This is a completely different way of thinking: not only about the current job, but about life as a whole.
- Spiritual development program — focus on the perception of the spiritual world, spiritual science, and understanding that life itself is spiritual. Here I always explain: I do not see it as “there is something spiritual in the material world.” I perceive it differently: “in the spiritual world there is material.” Therefore, a person who asks a business question, but at the same time lives only in material perception, will get from me answers only at the level of business. But if a person looks more broadly, I explain everything based on spiritual truth.
Imagine someone comes to me and asks: “How do I set up a CRM correctly? How do I hire 20 directors? How do I enter the market of 10 countries and make $400 million in revenue per year?” And I see that this person will die in a year. Or that the business will close in a year and a half. Or that they will sell the company in two. Then the question is: should they spend energy on CRM, automation, and hiring? Or is it more correct to pay attention to a completely different layer of development? When a person consciously engages in their development, they can decide for themselves in which layer they want to be and what exactly to study at that moment. This is true freedom of choice — to see different levels and understand what you are ready for right now.
In the modern world, most are not ready for true spiritual development. They are not ready to enter into it, study it, look deeper. And this is not a problem. You can go into the V100 program and engage in the whole spectrum of development, different approaches, knowledge, and materials. This is not limited only to V100 — you supplement the path with other literature, experience, the vision of other people. But there must be a foundation that supports.
The key thing in any programs is regularity. That is why I made them subscription-based: not a “course with a beginning and an end,” but a continuous process. You can leave at any time, just as life can stop at any moment. But the important thing is that development does not have an artificial ending: a methodological end is a limitation. It is important to have a support — people, programs, a system that supports your constant development, and not to participate in the race of trendy ideas.
Today there are many beautiful slogans: “lifelong learning,” “endless learning.” But there is a lot of deception and marketing in this. The true goal of education is to help make the right decisions at any moment in life, not just “to study for the sake of studying.”
— How not to get into the race for knowledge? How to study different spheres — business, profession, relationships — and not fall into the race or into apathy when there is too much material?
— Everything comes down to the question: why are you studying? Development is needed not for money, not for happiness, not for career or social achievements. A person does not live for this. They live because they live. And learning is needed to know yourself, connect with yourself, understand causes and effects.
The race begins when a person ties development to final goals: career, money, marriage, status. This is exactly the limited perception of education. Let us recall the Soviet system and generally many schools in the post-Soviet space: if you do not get an education — you will be nobody. The main emphasis was placed on “work,” “place in society.” But there was no goal — to help a person know themselves, to learn to perceive the world.
Most parents set a final goal for their children:
- get into high school,
- then into university,
- find a job.
But where is the task — to get to know the child, to understand who they really are? There isn’t one. Parents act out of their own fears and experience: “I didn’t make it — let it work out for you,” or the opposite.
A race is always about the end result. But development should not be crammed into a goal. Yes, there is nothing wrong with taking a course for a specific task — to get a job, acquire a skill, improve networking. But it’s important to understand: in what system does this sit? How does it affect an entire life?
Some say, “You can’t spread yourself thin; you must be an expert in one thing.” Others: “On the contrary, you need to try different things.” A third group: “First work hard for a long time, then get the results.”
Entire social attitudes were built on these views: first you work for 50 years — then family, then joy. Hence — birthrate crises.
Recently I read an unsubstantiated piece: it was thought that for stability a woman needed to have 2.1 children. Today they already say 2.7. And in the USA this figure is 1.3–1.6. The decline is especially visible in wealthy countries: people choose to enjoy “bliss” and freedom instead of family. Elon Musk even commented: people are going too far into illusory freedom.
I’m not promoting Musk as a philosopher, but the remark matters: everything depends on the causes and effects we set in motion. What will this lead to?
What if work disappears?
Imagine: in five years artificial intelligence completely replaces labor. It earns money, provides for a person, and people are left only to rest.
What then happens to the idea “develop yourself for a profession”? It will turn out to be an illusion. Everything that was said about education and career will dissolve. The same with the concept of a “universal basic income”: the state pays because a person simply lives. And at the same time the same people promote “lifelong learning.” But why then?
The question: how does a country look at life?
- As work and hobby, separated from each other?
- Or as life itself, in which work is only a part?
In America the question sounds: What do you do for a living? The answer is a profession: “I’m a programmer, a manager, an entrepreneur.” In the post-Soviet space, however, the question is: who do you work as? And this shows a difference in perception: life = work. And what happens if work disappears? What will people answer then?
Today many well-known experts say: the probability of an AI that changes everything is 10%, 20%, 30%. Some give timelines: in 20 years, in 50. There is a chance that AI will take control of everything, and people will become slaves. What will happen then? How to adapt? What in this case will become truly important?
The question of basic needs
One V100 participant said: he earned money, provided for himself, but feels “locked in a cage” in Kyiv. The question arises: what is a basic need?
- Money?
- Having a family, children, home comfort?
- Annual vacations?
- A bank account — $1,000, $20 million, $30 million?
Or maybe the basic need is a person’s state?
In fact, the basic need is to find a connection with oneself, to be able to hear oneself, to understand causes and effects. If you call money a basic need — let it be so. But it’s worth honestly admitting: this is an illusion. At any moment money can disappear: a grenade, account reset, bandits, redenomination, default, war, the state, or AI.
The real question: what can’t be taken away from you? What belongs to you always? Most people don’t realize this, just as they don’t realize the fact of their own death. Everyone knows they will die, but they fall asleep sure they will wake up tomorrow.
Finiteness and the illusion of the race
When you understand the finiteness of everything, perception changes: what is born, what dies, and what does not. The basic need is not in accumulation, but in what cannot be lost.
A goal race arises only in a limited world where nothing “higher” is visible. But any business has one ending: it was closed, sold, or the owner died. There is no other outcome.
Therefore, if you study only for short-term goals (work, money, status) — this is the path of a hamster on a wheel. In the modern world coaches multiply: one teaches setting goals, another — “to get yourself together right now.” Five years ago these same people were saying the same things. It’s like TV: “Now we’ll all get together.”
But instead it’s worth asking something else:
- What causes and effects do I want to understand?
- What do I truly want to study?
- How to know myself and my loved ones more deeply?
Here you need a support, a constant of perception. Therefore, in V100 or in the spiritual program I create precisely such a constant: simple, regular, accessible. The price is symbolic: $50 for V100, $30 for the spiritual program. But the main thing is not the price, it’s the rhythm: day after day — learning to see the world as spiritual, not to argue with this, not to switch off from this perception.
The myth of “bright spirituality”
Sometimes people say: “I’m not spiritual today — I yelled at my wife.” But spirituality is not about being “proper.” In the spiritual world there is no division into “light” and “dark” in the usual sense. There, high abilities and murders and power are possible. It’s not paradise, not a daisy field.
Many perceive the spiritual world as a neighboring layer: “on — off.” But this is a distorted understanding. The spiritual and the material are not separated by simple frames. The spiritual is not a “daisy nearby.” It is a different order of perception.
It’s very important to realize: we live in a spiritual world. It’s easy to prove. Try to change your state in one hour: turn on stress and immediately turn it off. If you claim you fully control the material world — do this. But in fact, everything material happens inside the spiritual. Murders, misfortunes, joys — everything is accomplished in the spiritual.
A person, however, is arranged paradoxically: he deceives, steals, manipulates, and then asks: “Why was my child born ill?” But the reason is that he lives in endless psychological trauma.
For this I have spiritual development programs — by subscription, including a closed group “Life.” This is a simple point of entry that allows you day after day to enter the state of perceiving the spiritual world without intermediaries — without religions, esotericism, “clans and caves.” Everything is based on personal experience: to hear, to perceive, to distinguish whom to interact with and whom not to.
— Then why are the programs separated: spiritual life and V100?
— Because a person has a focus. Some perceive the spiritual world as part of the material and want to remain in this plane — to develop through business, money, profession. For such people V100 works. Of course, I also add spiritual aspects there, but I focus on personal development and effectiveness.
In the spiritual program the emphasis is different: continuous study of spiritual worlds, energies, expansion of perception. These are different entry points, but they complement each other perfectly. Some participants choose only the spiritual, others — only V100, and some combine both.
— How can a person understand what to choose: spiritual development or V100?
— It all depends on your impulse. If you are drawn to both environments — enter both. The entry price is simple: $50 and $30. If you can be only in one — choose by inner call. That is the point of the subscription: don’t be afraid to try and verify.
Today everyone wants “short programs,” “quick books,” “summaries.” Even ChatGPT can read a thousand books in a second and give a conclusion. But real understanding takes time: videos, articles, joint work. Otherwise the conclusions will be abstract and false.
Not deceiving yourself
It is very important to remember: we always know others partially. Husband, wife, parents, children, friends — we know everyone only in part. And that’s normal. The problem is that people deceive themselves, claiming: “I know everything.” But a minute later it turns out — they don’t. So they are lying to themselves. And this is unacceptable.
The real foundation of life is not to deceive yourself. At least for some period, give yourself a chance to live without self-deception.
Recently I made a file “66 elements of scaling.” It’s free; the link is at the end of the article. It collects tools that help get quick results — in a week, a month — and long-term effects, for years.
It’s important to remember: a quick result is not the only one. The real value lies in what works for decades. Many want an instant effect, but much more interesting is the result that will define the next 20–30 years.
— Does it matter whom to learn from?
— Of course. You need to look at what exactly the program offers. Not in illusions, but in reality: what is the goal, what is the result? If your goal is clarity of perception, understanding causes and effects, effective actions — look for those who offer this.
It is very important to remove illusions in the selection process. From the very beginning I clearly explain what exactly I offer. After that the responsibility is only yours.
— How to understand that in front of you is not a pseudo-coach?
— This is also a question of awareness. There are programs that can give a powerful increase in earnings, but at the same time take something else away. How much do you see this? How ready are you?
There is no magic wand. Only you can make the right decision, because each person has their own values, their own spectrum of perception, their own extremes. For someone killing is normal, for someone — stealing, for someone — deceiving. Everyone has their own limit.
Therefore it is impossible to give a universal solution. But you can learn to see patterns. That is exactly what the V100 program is created for: to make it easier for you to make the right decisions about any other programs, books, or people.