No excuses: "I have always had the freedom-loving" - an interview with IT-entrepreneur Alexander Crowe
Motivation Inspiration / / December 19, 2019
Knigoman
- Hello, Sasha! I am pleased to welcome you on the pages Layfhakera.
- Hi, Nastya!
- To begin with, according to tradition, tell us about your childhood.
- I was born in Magnitogorsk in the ordinary working family. Mother changed many areas of activity, but the last 15-20 years in the meat sector, buys and sells the meat - it is a butcher. :) My father worked all his life as an electrician at the plant.
- What you wanted to be when you grow up?
- My answer will probably be boring. Special dream I did not. I did not want to become an astronaut or something similar.
The only thing I'm addicted - this book. Interest in literature instilled in me a father.
By the age of 12, I read as much as most of my peers are not "mastered" and 25 years.
At the same time I was interested in serious enough for pediatric literature: Pikul, Jules Verne and others. However, he grew up, I began to read much less. Unfortunately.
- By that time it has had an effect, "sore"?
- Yes, about 6 years old have difficulty with mobility. It turned out that I have a disease associated with muscle weakness. But baby I is not particularly loaded question is how serious it is and whether progress.
- Did you study well at school?
- It is enough to go to university.
"Physics and poetry"
- Who are you by profession?
- As I am a mathematician and computer scientist. Already in my youth, I tied their future with computers, so I chose the faculty, which, as it seemed to me, correlated with information technology. But as a result, five years spent at the university, have not yielded any practical skills. The only thing that was good - the process of learning.
- What is it like?
- With regard to informatics were given knowledge, completely divorced from reality.
If you want to learn how to make money online and you go to this university, you are likely to spend time in vain. No you did not, and do not even tell.
Although there are a number of disciplines where academic education, in my opinion, almost the only possible one. For example, the same mathematics.
Therefore, the only thing that gave me the years spent at the university - learning process. I learned self-discipline and self-control, gained new acquaintances, etc.
- The tendency to exact sciences - do you have a child?
- I have a very well developed as the left and right hemispheres of the brain, as a logical and creative components. Until the 15 years I have played good chess, participated in city tournaments.
Initially, I was doing more creative things. For example, web-design. But at the University of "pump" and the part of the brain is responsible for logic.
In my first year was such a case. It was the subject of "Algebra and Number Theory", many things which were incomprehensible to me. But nearing the end of the semester, it had to pass any exam. We learned from the textbook Yu.N.Smolina, he is with us and taught. Therefore, in order to pass the discipline, I just took it and learned the 150 pages of this tutorial. Without much understanding, simply memorized. When Yuri Nikolaevich took my Ladder, I told everything in memory on the fly by substituting synonyms to not sleeping. I got Ladder and began to spend more time exact disciplines. It is possible to develop a "logical" brain.
Money and Freedom
- When you have your first computer?
- In the year of 1995. In those days was a good model: 486 dx2 66 mhz. It is true that without the Internet. Internet appeared in my much later - in the year 1999.
- Do you remember your first money earned by the web?
- I do not remember the specific case, but I remember a time when it happened.
As I said, I was engaged in web design and web programming (teaching «Pascal», PHP, etc.). Around the same time I was introduced to a pretty powerful man. He lived in Chicago and at times tossed me orders for web-development and web design.
As a result, somewhere in the beginning of the "zero" I began to earn their first money. I can not say that great, but at that time a very decent.
- Money given you freedom?
- Probably not. Firstly, what is freedom? This is a rather complex philosophical theme. Freedom - it's not just when you're not limited in making decisions and is responsible for them, but also a kind of inner feeling. It is important not to confuse freedom with the will, that is, the concept of "what I want, then turn back."
Secondly, I was always freedom-loving. For me this is one of the main motivating things, forcing to move forward.
If I had been in some way I am not free, I have always sought to remove this restriction and get what I need.
Therefore, money as such does not give freedom, but a lot of money to help to become free. For example, received orders for one of the $ 15,000, I removed the restriction of movement, could for the first time to go abroad - to the island of Bali.
- Since you travel a lot. Where are you now? Where already visited and what horizons ahead?
- For the past nine months, I live in Thailand.
I can not call myself an avid traveler, as travel, in my opinion, is assumed to be an active movement of the planet with frequent change of locations. I stay long enough in one place. For example, I had as many as five times in Bali.
Also visited Laos, Malaysia, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates. Someday I want to take a ride by car from East to West of the USA, from New York to California. I think to visit Rio, go through the favelas, to feel the atmosphere of them. I hope there at the wheels do not disassemble. :-)
Without a dream, but with problems
- Sasha, tell us about Flytourist. As it occurred to create a search engine cheap tickets?
- The idea came after the first return to Bali. Then I thought about the fact that web development orders - it is certainly good. But this work involves hard deadline. To deliver product on time, sometimes we had to work at night, through the "can not". And it is not good for health, especially given my disease. I decided that I need to do something that will work autonomously and generate passive income without my active participation.
And it was created by a meta-search engine Flytourist. At that time, he had a distinct competitive advantage - he was able to determine the minimum cost of a ticket for each of the payment methods. As often encountered a situation where the search engine found the best offer travel-agency and then it turned out that the payment to produce, for example, "YandexMoney", which one does not have.
Now Flytourist developing, but without my active participation.
- You walked out of the project?
- Two weeks ago, I delegated the management of special person, but technical issues still oversee me. The fact is that initially Flytourist created by me from scratch, then joined two partners who have invested in the project money, buying minority stakes. A year ago came a new investor. He wanted to invest in the project of a million dollars, but with the proviso that one of his former partners leave. Sorry, we could not agree on the amount of cash out'a - investor left. And I had some lack of motivation, and I focused on the new project - Avilita.
- What will it be?
- This is a niche service for renting houses and other private property around the world. This project is already at the zero stage, ie at the stage of development, has been evaluated by a syndicate of investors of $ 1 million. This allowed me to attract appropriate investment. Now the service is already running, are the first orders, mainly from the West. We conclude direct contracts with management companies and owners of these villas are now beginning to connect the consolidators.
- Sasha, what do you dream about?
- I still do not have a dream.
Dream - this is something unrealizable. I have a problem that I can reach.
In particular, now all the forces thrown at Avilita. The project is necessary to withdraw from the "valley of death" in the "profit zone".
- What it means to live without justification from the point of view of Alexander Crowe?
- Everyone should treat themselves without any excuse, otherwise it will not reach. What justification can be to yourself?
In this case, I think that laziness - absolutely normal. The question of its quantity. Here, as with poison - in small doses, it can be a medicine.
- Finally covet anything Layfhakera readers?
Do not look and do not find yourself any excuses! :)
- Thank you for the conversation, Sasha! :)