One more lesson took place at the Kirov Lyceum of Natural Sciences. Valentin Pugach, Chancellor of the Vyatka State University, came to talk to its pupils. 9th and 11th form students attended the lesson. The hero easily won the attention of the audience by communicating and asking questions. He started with his school years.
You have an exciting time now. I think of myself in those years: we wanted to communicate with friends rather than study. I wasn’t comfortable when answering the question "What do you want to be?" The right answer was: "an astronaut" or "a doctor." Yet I decided to become an engineer, - said the chancellor of the Vyatka State University.
When Valentin Pugach addressed the audience to speculate about success, there was silence at first. But the hero skillfully involved the kids in the dialogue. As a result, they together deduced several parameters of success:
• wealth the size of which everyone evaluates in their own way;
• reaching one’s goals in life;
• absence of problems with the law;
• a job that brings pleasure.
The chancellor also gave the audience a specific scheme for setting goals. Give answers to the following three questions: What do I like to do? What can I do? What is in demand in the world, required by the market? Wherever there is an intersection of all three answers, your area will be there, probably even the goal itself !
Then, according to the theory of Lev Gumilyov, you need to decide to whom you belong: passionaries or subpassionaries. This theory also has a third concept of "harmonious individuals," but for the sake of contrast the chancellor told the lyceum students only about two, approximately 98% of people belonging to the first concept, 2% to the second one. Surely, many pupils want to "move the world", so they choose to be "exceptional" ones - i.e., to be included in those 2%.
The path to success of Valentin Pugach was made of a continuous analysis. First, he asked himself, "What do I want to be?" There was no answer, but the hero evaluated his initial data: school certificate of honors, his parents being ordinary workers (thus unable to back up just every choice of their son), and Donetsk being a city of miners. So he went to study to be a mining engineer. But in order not to be a pure theorist, he studied and worked at a mine at the same time. At 6 am going to the mine, from 16 to 18 doing his homework, from 18 to 22 attending classes at the institute. It was hard, but an immediate result was needed. Then followed the Army that gave him some experience in management. Back In the ‘90s the situation in the country changed, and engineers became outsiders, while managers, economists and lawyers were riding high. Valentin moved to the Moscow Institute of Finance and Economics, upon graduation from which, for 10 years, he was engaged in what was in demand in Moscow: he worked as an auditor, an economist and a manager.
When the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the competition "New Generation Personnel" in 2000, he decided to take part in that program. As a result, he was appointed Federal Inspector in the Republic of Mari El. Then another personnel competition and a new appointment: Chief Federal Inspector in the Kirov region. It was then that he obtained his second university diploma - in "State and Municipal Management" at the Russian Academy of Public Administration. After six years in politics, he again changed the area: working first at the Ministry of Education, then being appointed chancellor of Vyatka State University.
If you set to something, try to be the best! - our hero advised the pupils, - Even if you are not the best, you are with leaders anyway! The key to success is team building. Teamwork creates synergies - when 1 + 1 = 5.
Valentin Pugach has proved this by his own example: according to the Ministry of Education and Science, the Vyatka State University has been acknowledged as an efficient university.
Our ongoing project partner, Elena Sharova, founder of the "Positive Dynamics Club "and a Gestalt therapist, spoke of the interim result of the entire project "Lessons of Success" after the lesson with the chancellor of Vyatka State University.
Participating in the project "Lessons of Success" and talking to the people who have reached a rather high level of professional skills, I have noted the similarity of certain personality traits: openness, tendency to introspection, optimism, commitment, activeness, energy, enthusiasm, emotionality, passion for one’s work, continuous self-improvement and self-development, - says Elena. - Valentin Pugach possesses the above qualities in full. We should add to them such qualities as a positive view on any event (he finds positive aspects in seemingly hopeless projects), he is a tactician, a strategist, he boldly enters into competitive relations, and he has the power of persuasion. It should be mentioned that the lyceum students not merely heard a story about himself and his background at that lesson. Valentin Pugach held a workshop with a step-by-step analysis and drawing a universal formula of the professional success. He fully demonstrated his abilities of both a tactician and strategist.
Natalya Kasatkina
