A few years ago, I thought everything was fine. My business was growing, my projects were getting attention, I had moved to the capital.

But what I remember most are not the workdays, but the Friday nights.

I seemed to know a few people, we met up from time to time. But there were Fridays when I wanted to go out somewhere… and my phone stayed silent. In the evening you check your messenger — nothing. You think, “Okay, they’ll probably text later.” But nothing happens at seven, or at nine. And there you are, sitting at home, scrolling your feed, then turning on a show or going to bed at ten — right when you’d rather be walking around the center on Patriarshiye Ponds, sitting in a café with friends.

That’s when I realized: I was waiting for other people to invite me into life. I was passively expecting that new acquaintances and connections would “somehow just happen” by themselves.

Then came the insight: if I want to surround myself with interesting people, if I need partners, clients, and friends, it’s not going to happen on its own. I need to take action, I need to learn how to meet people and train my communication skills just like we train muscles or learn a new language.

And what turned out to be really strange? That many people are ready to live their whole lives calling themselves “shy” or “awkward,” without ever checking whether that can be changed through practice.

From that moment on, I started treating networking as a system: I learned to ask the right questions, honed my opening lines, and looked for environments where new connections are formed easily. Over time, this became one of my key pillars — both in business and in life.