'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players … and one man in his time plays many parts' — it seems to be written by great Shakespeare about women who decided to be heroes of life and com-bine the roles of mother, wife and successful business-woman. But leading several business directions is hard even for a man. Our columnist Nadiya Cherkasova, Member of Executive Board of Bank 'Otkrytiye', in-vestor of a crowdfunding platform 'Boomstarter', project "Storiqa, representative of Russian Federation in 'We-Fi' Foundation of the World Bank, knows what is needed for that.

People don't think of the quantity of social roles they combine. A woman can be a daughter, mother, wife, sister, friend; man can be a son, father, husband, brother, friend. We play these roles every day and life changes them sometimes or we do but they are always several. No one wakes up thinking 'Today I'll be a wife but not a mother, sister or friend'. Esteems change 'I was a so-so friend today and a lazy mother' but the quantity doesn't change. It means that we cope with multitasking well enough.
I am a three children mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, banker, social activist and investor of startups. I managed to go beyond one role and combine different directions and all of them are united by one feature expertise on the B2B market and my twenty-five years long experience of work with small and middle business segment. During the last years I met a big quantity of successful people who follow the same life principles 'Act parallel'. To live and work at the same time and not the other way. It is all possible but not easy and we should think about some things on the shore before jumping into the river.
There are two reasons we can fail due to: physical time, and mental our fears and limits. The world is changing all of the time and it is important for us to be able to adapt and fasten. Consistent development and accomplishment of tasks one by one takes much time. The solution is to create several small teams for different directions and coordinate them. And to find time for rest and hobby in a non-standard format working as a volunteer in the charity foundation or social movement.
I answered myself a question about the source of courage to explore new directions. I found out that skills acquired in banking business can help in other spheres, not connected with banks such as investing and crowdfunding. This is a platform for businessmen and in bank I work with this segment so the target audience, behavioral models are clear to me and it means that investing in services like this is not a big deal because of the accumulated experience. Same was with social activity: I became a Head of the Committee of female business development "OPORY Rossii" and represent Russia on the international platforms. Female business and programs for women in business is correlated directly with my bank activity targeted segmental service offer and service for the targeted audience. All three directions of activity are connected with each other and that is why I succeeded in accomplishing it.

We are women and we are lucky because the nature created us able for multitasking, we can make a thousand types of work about the house and balance between home and work. This skill can and should be used while learning different business roles. The main thing is to concentrate on our advantages and expert qualities to leave fears behind and success is inevitable then.
Success is a relative and ambiguous notion. For example, in 2007 the World Business Magazine (Great Britain) together with the company Shell included me in the top-35 most successful women of the planet at the age under thirty-five for a project in small business area. And it was considered as success by society and me myself, we were of one opinion here. Moving forward in our lives we often keep to the society, friends, co-workers' esteem.
But there are moments when we are better to forget about other people's opinions and formal success criteria enforced by society. When in 2011 I spent eight months in the Hospital waiting for my twin sons to be born every of those 243 days was considered as not successful for my career by my colleagues. But as for me I knew it for sure that each of those days was a great success making me closer to the precious moment of my life. And this is the point where my and society's opinions were diametrically opposite.
Success is not measured by money. Success is what you know about yourself. It is your esteem and your choice of the role spectrum you play in the theatre called Life. Dream and live several lives.