"They say to me: 'Thank you for being." Stories of people who changed their lives and the world around

"Other people with disabilities look at me and often write that I motivate them."

Dmitry Ignatov

Para-athlete, journalist. Host of the program "Zadelo".

I come from Kogalym, after school I entered the St. Petersburg University of Engineering and Economics, specializing in Public Relations. Although in childhood he dreamed of being a patriarch - I don't know why, but my grandmother told me that. In my last years at university, I was doing a program about men's stuff - a kind of GQ video version about cars and all sorts of things. Therefore, it was interesting for me to go to the army just as a man who made content for men. I even wanted to write a book about it.

In the army, I lost my leg. I served in air defense, walked past a C-300 rocket launcher, it was poorly installed and fell on my leg. It happened in 2012, just the Olympic and Paralympic Games were going on - I watched them while I was in the hospital.

I was very inspired by the Paralympic guys. I told myself that I want to get to know them, and now we communicate calmly, I am even a member of the sailing team.

In 2013, I started swimming and immediately decided that I needed to swim something big and interesting. I was preparing for a long time, at some point they even began to hate me: they say, I constantly talk about it, but I don't. Last year I got together, found the right people, connected partners and swam across the Bosphorus.

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I'm very happy! 🤗 I dreamed about this swim for 5 years. 59 participating countries, 2390 swimmers. Water temperature 20-21 C, wind 3.5 km / h. I am the only para-athlete from Russia. The result is excellent in my opinion! Thank you all for your support, your one-legged friend ❤️ Gone to drink Guinness 🍺 #wewill #iloveswimming

Publication from Dmitry Ignatov (@dvignatov) 21 Jul 2019 at 7:17 PDT

It's actually not that difficult, more talk. Maybe you can't swim six kilometers without experience, but if you prepare and train, then everything is in order.

Over time, I got tired of swimming. Two years ago I went into sailing - this is a race where a lot depends not so much on you, but on the wind and weather. In September-October I plan to sail across the Atlantic on a yacht. It's cool, none of the Russian people with disabilities did this. If I can handle it, I'll be the first. In five years, I want to go on a yacht around the world, I am already preparing for this.

I play sports simply because I have a body and I can do it. Other people with disabilities look at me and often write that I motivate them. And ordinary people too. The other day I was walking around a shopping center, five people came up to me and said: "Thank you for being there."

Now I am running the program "Hurt"On the Klyuch TV channel. I had experience working in television, so when I saw a job on Facebook, I just threw my resume. And it seems that love happened.

Zadelo is a program about hopes. When you have an idea to do something global and, since it is a business, to make money, you can come to us and tell us about your idea. Our experts will support, give advice and warn against wrong steps. As a rule, one expert is a successful entrepreneur, while the other did not succeed, as a result he went bankrupt. In general, such positive and negative examples so that a person has an objective opinion.

“Most of all I am proud that new people are coming to us”

Elena Orochko

Director of the training and canine center "Help dogs for disabled people." The heroine of the "Agent K" project.

I worked at the school for training guide dogs of the All-Russian Society of the Blind. I came there when I was 20 years old and worked for another 20 - first as a student, then as a trainer, senior coach, methodologist... For me it was not just a job, but a part of life.

In the next financial crisis, almost all trainers were laid off, almost 20 people were left out of work. I wanted to develop the training of guide dogs, but there were no other organizations with the same direction. With our experience, we could well engage in private training and live happily ever after, but as if some kind of force did not allow us to disperse in different directions. We continued to work on a volunteer basis.

16 years ago, charitable activities did not have the same trust and development as they do now. I had to prove my worth with every step.

By that time, we had prepared several dogs. This, of course, was a plus: we don't just want - we do it. And they began to trust us. There were practically no funds, only skillful hands and knowledge. We invested our own money in it - small, of course. In order to receive some funds, to develop and present yourself to the world, you need to be a legal entity. I began to manage this legal entity - I probably had at that moment more energy and madness, or something.

Although I was the initiator of the change, nothing would have happened without colleagues and friends. When there were no funds, everything literally hung on strings and I had to make incredible efforts to keep working, they supported me.

We are a non-profit organization and donate dogs to blind people for free, so all the funds that we have are donations. Now there is support from the federal budget, but still there is not a day that I don’t think whether there will be an opportunity to continue working.

Most of all I am proud that new people are coming to us. They understand modern information technology, move from serious firms and leave jobs that seem impossible to leave. And all this in order to get a job in a small non-profit organization.

"Now people have one less problem: they don't worry about having to throw away food."

Alexandra Light

Founder of the food sharing movement in Russia. The heroine of the "Life Offline" project.

I learned about food sharing when I was caring for my one-year-old daughter and running the house. I decided to make a group where people could just give away their food, and maybe establishments would join this. For me personally, this was relevant, for sure there are others who also have nowhere to give food. I just made a group on VKontakte "Foodsharing. Give food for free”, And people themselves joined it.

At first, it looked kind of wild to some. Many thought that we would give away some leftovers: for example, someone did not finish the pasta from their plate. This became the biggest challenge. But then people saw that they were giving away normal food: packaged, completely new, including good vegetables and fruits. And, of course, the fact that I actively posted news from other countries helped: what about food sharing in Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic. People realized that this is normal.

Many said that this would not work for us, there is no "extra" food here at all, we have a different mentality.

Now the group is growing all the time. We are joined by establishments, including network ones.

We don't make money from the group, but it's nice that a reasonable approach to consumption is developing. Now people in St. Petersburg and Moscow have one less problem: they do not worry about having to throw away food. And it's very nice when they say thank you for the existence of such a group.

"You don't need to listen to anyone, you need to listen to yourself"

Valeria Kazanskaya

Entrepreneur, founder of a network of fitness studios. The heroine of the program "Touched".

I'm not a professional athlete. As a teenager, she lost 35 kilograms, then worked as a regular salesman in a store of a famous sports brand. The market was actively growing, various marathons and new fitness directions, which we knew nothing about, began to come to us. I liked that it all grows and develops. I learned to be a coach, worked in fitness clubs for a year and realized that I wanted to do something of my own.

I opened my first fitness studio at the age of 19. I had no business plan. There was no idea to build a business out of this. The only task was to realize my ambitions in terms of coaching and create some kind of authentic thing. But the end result is a network of full-fledged fitness studios with additional products - a beauty salon and an academy of trainers.

Many people think that in order to start a business, you need some kind of colossal funds, but in a small business usually you don't need a lot of money.

To open a studio, I took out a loan and saved money on my own. The fitness studio started generating income in just three months. Everyone has different projects and target audiences, the time frame may vary from this, but I think the average is a year. During this time, you can clearly understand whether the business model works or not. If there is no dynamics, there is definitely no point in delaying for more than a year, because something rarely changes for someone.

Every entrepreneur who is really serious about his project sooner or later has a period when he has to think: who is he, your environment? When you go on a new course, many friends are not ready for it. I have to look for new friends in an entrepreneurial environment. There are many drivers here - active people who understand what risk is and support you. And support at the time when you start a business, test and take risks is very important.

The more you start to immerse yourself in business, read and consult, the more you realize that there is a huge chance of losing something. Therefore, I made a decision for myself: I do not advise anyone.

Everyone makes an absolutely individual project, so you don't need to listen to anyone, you need to listen to yourself. We read articles on the Internet about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur, but, unfortunately, no one writes about how many problems arise and how many a huge percentage of people do not cope and go to hire. A very small percentage of Russian projects survive. I think not more than 20%.

People often give up because they don't see the goal. Now everyone is in a difficult situation, but I believe that the main thing for any business is not to dramatize. You need to look at business as pragmatically as possible and establish communication with the most important people. The Golden Troika is comprised of clients, employees and landlords. Communication is now the key to survival.

"Everything was one big challenge, I was not ready for anything at all."

Alexandra Kremenets

Head of the Bogorodskoye gallery, creator of the Nickel art residence. The heroine of the "Agent K" project.

I graduated from university with a degree in public relations and was mainly involved in sports and charitable projects. Organized events, connected people. Moscow was unbearably boring compared to European cities, but there was a chance to fix it. Under Sergei Kapkov, a "cultural revolution" took place in Moscow. Gorky Park, new cool museums - I really wanted to be a part of all this and create change myself.

In the modern world, so many people cannot find their vocation, they cannot even just realize what they really want. There is no price that would be high enough to understand this.

I was first invited to the gallery to work as a methodologist, but a year later I received an offer to head it. I agreed, almost without thinking, and I was right. Everything was one big challenge, I was not ready for anything at all.

The most difficult thing for me is working with the negative. I was very upset before when guests came to the exhibition and said: “Oh, this is not a gallery, but some kind of nook! Here is the Tretyakov Gallery - gallery! " It seems to be obvious, but the sediment remains.

In the Bogorodskoye gallery we showcase contemporary art of various genres: painting, graphics, sculpture, performances. The most unusual exhibit is an installation by the art group “P. AND. Sherstyukovs ”, it is called Ovulating. The artists made a huge three-dimensional panel with hundreds of different faces and faces, and next to them were chambers with chicken eggs. Anyone could break an egg into an installation. It was not easy to get hold of the exhibit; a chance acquaintance with the art group at Winzavod helped. And some wine.

My victories are the luck and breakthrough of the whole team. I am proud that by making culture we become a family.

Difficulties lie in wait constantly. But now my business is my life, my meaning, my way of dialogue with the world. Here I found everything that I love and everything that makes me me. I decided to make changes quickly and without delay, because now I know for sure: everything that is being done is for the better.