Today the dominant themes of the future exist now. Things thought impossible yesterday are today a reality. Technologies changed our world wonderfully in a few decades. The human brain now has a com-petitor, artificial intelligence. Our new columnist, CEO of Vitrina A, Victoria Popylkova tells how to program a human brain to solve the hardest tasks and still be yourself.
The human brain is a mysterious mechanism and it remains difficult to fully analyse its nature. Theoretical research of its functioning is in process and one researcher, Tatiana Chernigovskaya says that it is not for sure yet if a man takes decisions by himself or this incomprehensible biological supercomputer is leading. Anyway, during my existence in business I came to a conclusion that comparison with a calculating machine, you can give the hardest tasks to solve, is quite reasonable.
We all read novels by Arthur Conan Doyle about the genius Sherlock Holmes. What unites him with another genius man Albert Einstein is that they played violin horribly, in order to stop the process of conscious deduction and this paradoxical way find the decision. It makes sense.
I lead a business that solves different tasks simultaneously. A rate of projects I qualify as understandable but there are also hard ones. They are difficult to approach and at the first sight there are hundreds of hard to preview moments. It is not something new from the nuclear physics field, but the necessity to add and integrate new, sometimes impossible elements constantly, sometimes needs a special methodical attitude. Some things are done with out my help, the team copes itself with the operation management. But the recent situation with the big retailer was very difficult, percent of my understanding and not understanding was thirty to seventy. My brain was refusing to cope with the hundred percent. So, I had to program it for the time: I had to finish it at a certain moment. I was always focused on it in my thoughts and I can share one wonderful observation, all the answers to the hardest questions came to me at night. My brain was working on it all of the time, new information came every day and, in the end, computer worked it out. I don’t think though that if I were distracted by playing violin, going to a concert or museum, the result would be the same in the aspect of speed. Methods of being distracted to achieve a result are good when you have time and you don’t have to do something right here right now. But if I have to do something quickly, I program myself like a robot. Deadline comes and the brain is working on the highest tune. We finished that project brilliantly but all decisions were made at three a.m. Puzzle was formed but people are not machines and after such a brainstorm came exhaustion, I needed a serious rest.
Second variant, with violin is useful mostly when a person is occupied with simpler and easier to understand projects. Typical job, no super challenging. I use it and in these cases my violin is sport and my children, my three year old twin daughters.
When children were born life turned upside down and divided into two — before and after. Two or three days I separated from work being in the hospital. I was like two persons, one was still existing in business, thinking of the projects, but another one appeared, mother who understood immediately that the reason you live for is children by all means. Twins mean sleepless nights unless you have a nanny. I began to have almost a real mental disorder with two personalities and one of them often interfered into another one’s existence. The thought formulated like it is more rational to choose a model of delegating some activity to someone else, washing machine, for example, definitely belonged no to a mother but to the business leader. Brain worked at the highest possible limit serving to two personalities. I became unhappy. I had a family, a perfect husband, work but I wasn’t happy. That was wrong. A person should follow his way further growing, being interesting for his children, team, being motivated and positive. But I was exhausted in two or three months. It became obvious that dividing my personality into two, for business and children was absolutely wrong. It was a utopia. Sooner or later one role model begins to dominate. If it is a business one, you will spend less time on children and progress in work. I realized that I should be happy uniting two models into one choos-ing the main one otherwise it won’t work out. You can’t be two in one, no matter how attractive and interesting this idea seems to be theoretically, it breaks by the rocks of reality. You should choose priorities but everything still should form one puzzle. It is impossible to tear someone who spent his entire life in business from his beloved occupation and make him sit at home with children, no one feels better then, nor business, neither children. This is the way I identified myself as a result and everything took its place. As soon as decision was made I had time for myself back, became balanced and active. Filipino Nanny closed the gaps, unloading me. I made a total restructuring and optimizations of everything, I moved the office closer to home to be able not to tear apart from my children too often. That was the exact time business became very successful. My children wake up and fall asleep with me and I know what they live through. We walk together and if I can’t join them I always explain them why. It is important for me not to loose contact with them.
Time will show what happens next. I have a defined plan for some future. Yet people are successful when they do things a bit differently. If you know what you are going to do in a year your brain becomes inertial. We live in a unique time today when brain should be open to any possibility. Situation is turbulent, it always changes and we should control and monitor it. The priorities are different for every leader. Mine are family, work, social activity. If it gives me a chance, I can go to an exhibition.
