Muslim Magomayev: “It is better to be the first in the village than the last in the city. "100 ways to change lives": Why return to your hometown from the capital

Better to be first in the country than second in the city
The ancient Greek historian Plutarch wrote about the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) in his work “The sayings of uapeii and generals” about the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100-44 BC): strife, strife among the nobility? “As for me,” Caesar answered them with complete seriousness, “I would rather be the first here than the second in Rome” (Plutarch. Selected biographies. M.; L., 1941).
Allegorically: about life position ambitious person.
Quoted: also as a consolation to one who, though not attained greater degrees in high spheres, but achieved success in his place, received recognition from professionals, is respected among like-minded people, etc.

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .

Better to be first in the country than second in the city

Plutarch ("The Sayings of Kings and Generals. Julius Caesar", 5) says that Caesar said, passing through a miserable alpine town: "I would rather be the first here than the second in Rome." This phrase of Caesar, characterizing the ambitious, has acquired wingedness in a modified edition.

Dictionary of winged words. Plutex. 2004

See what "Better to be first in a village than second in a city" is in other dictionaries:

Better to be first in the country than second in the city- wing. sl. Plutarch (“The Sayings of Kings and Generals. Julius Caesar”, 5) tells that Caesar said, passing through a miserable alpine town: “I would rather be the first here than the second in Rome.” This phrase of Caesar, characterizing the ambitious ... Universal optional practical Dictionary I. Mostitsky

The ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his work “The Sayings of Kings and Generals” wrote about the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100 44 BC): “They say that when Caesar crossed the Alps and passed by a poor town with extremely few ... ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

Cæsar Wed. Plutarch. Caesar. eleven). Wed He lives for the second summer in this stinking town, because it is better to be the first in the village than the second in the city. Ant. P. Chekhov. Duel. 9. Wed. Numa Pompilius, if I'm not mistaken... has always said that he prefers to be... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary

- - was born on May 26, 1799 in Moscow, on Nemetskaya Street in the house of Skvortsov; died January 29, 1837 in St. Petersburg. On his father's side, Pushkin belonged to the ancient noble family, which, according to the legend of genealogies, came from a native "from ... ...

Writer, born October 30, 1821 in Moscow, died January 29, 1881, in St. Petersburg. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, married to the daughter of a merchant, Marya Fedorovna Nechaeva, served as the headquarters of the doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. Employed in the hospital and… … Big biographical encyclopedia

Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov (Golenishchev Kutuzov Smolensky), 40th General Field Marshal. Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev Kutuzov [The Golenishchev Kutuzovs descended from Germany, who left for Russia to Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia- Ukrainian SSR (Ukrainian Radianska Socialist Republic), Ukraine (Ukraine). I. General information The Ukrainian SSR was formed on December 25, 1917. With the creation USSR December 30, 1922 became part of it as a union republic. Located on… … Great Soviet Encyclopedia

100 ways to change your life book. Part two". In it, an expert in the field of personal change, speaker, motivator, writer Larisa Parfentyeva, who herself once quit her job and left the capital for her native Ufa, writes about other ways you can improve your life. The Village publishes a chapter on when to return to small homeland and why one can become more successful there than in Moscow.

Moscow does not believe in tears: how to “leave” the capital and return to your hometown?

“I have a sister who lives in Moscow. She is totally unhappy. But he does not want to return to Chelyabinsk, because he is afraid of being labeled a loser. What to say to her? - a girl from Chelyabinsk wrote to me recently. I'll tell you a few stories about leaving the big cities, where the provincials come for a big dream or money, and how they return to their native land.

My history

... I came to Moscow from Ufa to enter the university. On the day when my feet had just set foot on the Kazansky railway station, I said to myself with the face of a winner: “I will never return to Ufa!” I adored our beautiful capital, and I had many hopes connected with Moscow. Everything seemed to work out right here. I was almost sure that at the age of 21 I would have everything I want. When I left the provinces, my friends said: “Moscow is a city of great opportunities. There are more chances to succeed.”

And outwardly everything seemed to be fine - I already told my story in the first part of the book. But in 2012, completely lost, I returned to hometown. And then she said: “I will never return to Moscow!” Now (I want to believe) I have become wiser and just do not promise. I don't know where I'll be in a couple of years. main conclusion very simple: "Sometimes in order to take two steps forward, you need to take a step back."

Four Insights

... 4.5 years have passed. I have published the first book, I am writing the second. I fly to Moscow to perform and give master classes. If that girl had been told 12 years ago that the main changes and the main triumph would begin from Ufa, she would not have believed it. And here are four things that I would like to say to myself then. (Don't be embarrassed by the fact that I will call other cities "provincial". This is for ease of understanding.)

You can return if you know why

My colleague Marina returned to her native Perm after several years in Moscow. She told how she left because she started to go crazy. “My life was unbearable. I worked 16 hours [a day] in order to pay for a rented apartment and food. And it was unbearable! Some vicious circle. But I had a dream - to create clothes. When I returned to Perm, I did this. In five years, I have never regretted my decision. I got married in Perm, and my brand is entering the Russian level. Small towns have their advantages. There is usually less competition. And if you return with "Moscow baggage", then you have a clear head start. If you know why you are coming back, you don’t need to become attached to Moscow.” And, by the way, now Marina, who has successfully got on her feet, is thinking about returning to Moscow. But already as a designer.

Sometimes it's better to be a king in the provinces than nobody in Moscow

I remember once, when I was still living in Moscow, a friend from Samara came to visit me. He was a restaurant manager, and he was doing brilliantly. "Why don't you move to Moscow?" I wondered. And he replied: “I made a choice for myself. Sometimes it is better to be a king in the provinces than nobody in Moscow.” Here, too, everyone chooses for himself: where and how he wants to feel.

Taking a step back, you don't lose

Our own way unique. And he's a weird guy who loves flexibility. Giving up a "prestigious" job or leaving for country town you don't take a step back. This is just part of the path. This happened to my friend, 29-year-old Sasha, who did not immediately see all the greatness of his Path. “At first in Moscow, nothing worked out for me. I had to leave with my tail between my legs. I felt like a huge loser. I was embarrassed in front of my relatives. But an inner voice kept saying: "You need to come back." I went to Penza and opened my own pizzeria. And then I realized that I needed to move to Moscow again with new experience and already here I launched a pizzeria. And everything went down! Maybe it was a “step back”, but it was he who pushed me a few meters forward. This is such a paradox,” says Sasha.

Every city is good for certain things

For example, in Ufa there are fewer things going on and far fewer distractions. And this is very good for writing. My friend, a native Muscovite, moved from the capital to Sochi. When I heard this, I told her: “Well done!” She replied: “Please say it again! And I have such a feeling of guilt ... All my friends say that I “got drunk”. And I just want peace." You need to learn to feel your Way. It is impossible to confidently say: "In Moscow, you will succeed." And it cannot be said that those who returned are losers. If you feel that you need to go “home” or to another city, go. Nobody knows what awaits you there. The question is not where is better: in Moscow or on the periphery. The question is where is the best for you. And right now. Good luck returnees!

Why is that? After all, it has always been believed that our enterprises cannot provide their employees with such conditions as Western firms. For clarification, I went to recruiting agencies.

It turned out that such a trend really exists. The flow of mid-level specialists (and most of all the process affected this particular category of workers) from foreign to Russian companies started around the end of 2000. If in 1998 90 percent of people who applied to recruiting companies were sent to work in foreign firms, now a third of their clients are domestic companies. And after a couple of years the share Russian enterprises, according to all forecasts, will be equal to half. This happens, according to recruiting companies, not only because more and more domestic entrepreneurs understand that hiring people through acquaintances is dangerous for business, and prefer to look for personnel with the help of specialists. Not only demand has increased, but also supply.

Domestic companies are starting to do business in a Western way, - says the head of the recruitment department of one of the largest recruitment firms, Natalya Zavyalova. - Naturally, it is tempting for them to invite people who already have experience of working at enterprises with foreign participation. On the other hand, specialists who are not satisfied with their position in foreign firms tend to move to Russian ones, but who know how to conduct business in a new way.

Who are they, "Flying Dutchmen"? Which specialists age groups, level and profile most often change a job in a foreign company to a place in a Russian company? According to the observations of employees of recruitment agencies, these are, first of all, people aged 27 to 35 years. Which, in principle, is natural: the most mobile age, and at the same time there is some experience. The described trend is typical for mid-level managers and top management. Most often, they leave Western companies for Russian companies as specialists in the field of logistics, sales, and work with personnel. In the latter sphere, transitions are especially common. Analysts explain this by the fact that in Russian companies all greater value acquires the selection and work with personnel, and in the West this area of activity is well developed. That is, our businessmen need managers who already know how to work with personnel at a modern level, and they can only be poached from foreign companies.

What makes people leave, does not suit the work of Western firms? It turns out that almost the main argument in favor of changing jobs is the rejection by many Russian specialists of corporate habits and traditions that have been established in Western firms. Often, energetic young Russians, leaving foreign companies, complain that they were not allowed to prove themselves there, constantly stopping the "flight of thought": "it's not customary with us." It turns out that bureaucracy is no less developed in Western business, and perhaps even more developed than in Russian business, which is more risky (and therefore more attractive for young Russian specialists). Moreover, Western managers who occupy leading positions in Russian branches of foreign companies, in the opinion of our compatriots, hinder the growth of their Russian subordinates even when this is to the detriment of the cause. The limit of responsibility and slowness in making decisions discourage energetic young people from working for foreign masters.

What are Russian entrepreneurs trying to attract to themselves? First of all, a higher status. If a person in a Western company is an ordinary specialist, in a domestic company he can be offered the position of a department head, project manager, a department head - the position of director of a regional representative office, etc. According to experts, the possibility career development- the main incentive for the transition from a foreign company to a Russian one. They often move from St. Petersburg branches of foreign companies to Russian companies in Moscow. But even in branches in other cities, when this allows you to seriously improve your status, people go very willingly. Young managers no longer hold on to the "capitals". Better to be first in a village than second in Rome.

As it turned out, the second reason that prompts you to change a foreign company to a domestic one is ... salary. By inertia, we believe that domestic companies cannot pay their employees such money as Western ones. “They can,” they say in recruitment agencies. “And they pay. When you need to lure some specialist from a foreign company, they sometimes offer him a salary twice as high.” And in the practice of Natalia Zavyalova there was a case when, having changed her place of work, a procurement specialist won three times in earnings.

Western companies have always had a more developed compensation package, says Zavyalova. - For example, they got additional medical insurance much earlier than in Russian companies. The same applies to car payments, mobile communications, fitness centers, etc. Ours could only counter this with more earnings. What they do.

True, social packages have also appeared in Russian companies. However, in terms of content, they are not quite the same as those of Western competitors. Thus, large foreign companies have introduced additional sick pay, maternity leave, pensions, thus compensating for the decline in social guarantees states. Ours is practically non-existent.

I must say that the big earnings that domestic businessmen promise their potential managers, luring them to work, are becoming one of the main reasons ... for the reverse outflow of personnel. The fact is that if in large Western companies, according to the observation of recruiting agencies, salaries are predominantly "white", then in domestic, even very eminent ones, the share of "gray" and "black" earnings is still large. We often change owners of companies. When this happens, the contracts of the specialist with the previous owners, not fixed on paper, can be canceled.

People come back also because the business where they go is not ready to accept a person who has already mastered Western norms. It is precisely the very corporate traditions that young specialists rebel against that after a while begin to seem like a paradise to them compared to Russian voluntarism. And since one person corporate culture it is difficult to establish in the whole enterprise, people prefer to return to the more stable world of a Western company. However, returns for this reason are becoming less and less. And this is natural: managers who have gone through the Western school are gradually arriving in Russian companies. So the stream of middle and top level from foreign companies to domestic ones prevails over the reverse outflow. If almost a third of those who left returned five years ago, now we are talking about a few percent.

how do you like your "foreigners"?

Karl-Christian Borup,
General Director of the Kazan hotel:

We now have only one specialist who has received a specialized education abroad - in Melbourne. Oksana Tubman has a bachelor's degree hotel business and holds the position of Sales Manager. I think we are very lucky: we will hold on to such a specialist.

Olga Mikhailova,
Director for information communications of the Rostov commercial and industrial holding:

Our holding is a clear example of how much demand there is today for specialists who have worked in the West. The CEO went through all the stages career ladder in a transnational corporation. Most of the top managers have experience of working in foreign companies. Having foreign luggage is a definite plus. Such people are aimed at success, are familiar with state-of-the-art technologies. Of course, they are more expensive, but these costs are fully justified.

Vladimir Tabunkin,
General Director of the Saransk Instrument-Making Plant:

We have four people trained abroad under the presidential program. However, we do not see the expected return from them. Maybe they made a mistake with the choice; maybe the quality of foreign practice was unimportant, but they do not stand out from the general mass of specialists.

Raffaele Bartoli,
General Director of the Oryol enterprise for the production of ceramic tiles:

TO today all heads of production and technical areas were trained in Italy and Spain. I know for sure that the costs pay off. Specialists who have been abroad, along with knowledge and skills, acquire there a completely different understanding of the production process. In five years, our production volumes have tripled. It would be impossible to achieve such results without highly qualified specialists.

Better to be first in the country than second in the city (in Rome)

The ancient Greek historian Plutarch wrote about the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) in his work “The Sayings of Kings and Generals”: , strife among the nobility?" - "As for me," Caesar answered them with complete seriousness. - then I would rather be the first here than the second in Rome ”(Plutarch. Selected Biographies. M.; L., 1941).

Allegorically: about the life position of an ambitious person.

It is also cited as a consolation to one who, although he has not reached great degrees in high spheres, has succeeded in his place, has received recognition from professionals, is respected among like-minded people, etc.

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .

See what "Better to be first in a village than second in a city (in Rome)" is in other dictionaries:

The ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his work “The sayings of uapeii and generals” wrote about the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100 44 BC): “They say that when Caesar crossed the Alps and passed by a poor town with extremely few ... ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

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Excerpt from autobiographical work"The Drooling of Iscariot or the Abductions of the Blue-White Collar".

To the sound of the wheels of an express train, in a warm compartment, sipping not hot tea, screwing up our eyes (according to Petrosyan) for safety, from a spoon sticking out of a glass, we had a mutually cognizant conversation. We are the general director, his deputy general issues and me (early OOTiZ) on the one hand, and a charming, talkative, ingenuous representative of the Moldovan wine-making working class, on the other hand. We were returning from the ministry after successfully extracting limits (financial and "numerical") for the newly created supply structure, and a fellow traveler, on the contrary, left her native village in order to "knock out" the Orenburgers for Home wine.

For younger generation, doubting that people of this rank were shaking in railway trains, I explain - In the 80s, in industrial enterprises travel advances for planes were not always enough, and private wine-making business, although illegal, but already in existence, was not so profitable for squandering on air Transport, and you can’t throw a tub of wine on a plane.

At some stage of the conversation, after listening to the story of a young Moldavian woman, about the ups and downs of employment in a branch of a poultry enterprise organized in their village, connected with a trip to the city to meet with the head of the personnel department, the director, catching the innocence of a representative of the Moldavian outcasts, asked - Well, what do you think, who is in charge at the enterprise? -and heard: - “Head of the personnel department. He took me to work!?”

I have always referred my director to the bearer of a charismatic management style, with a subtle sense of humor attached. But what I saw after the sincere phrase of our ingenuous narrator, struck me more than the loss of a party card (drinking) by our secretary of the party committee.

How was my CEO to know the principle life truth- the first principle of any realistic art according to the Stanislavsky system. “.... the actor must build his role, must not play by imitating the emotions of the hero, because in this way he will look fake or resort to the use of clichés that destroy the perception of his role. The actor must build a chain of elementary physical actions. Physical action will give birth to an inner experience, which will turn out not through suffering, but natural, truthful ... ".

Turning to his deputy, the director said - “What is it, we have the main Genka Koin (head of the personnel department, a former “master” with a secondary technical education, appointed two years ago to this position, in order to compensate for the failure to initiate a case about the work injury due to the fault of the administration, which led to the amputation of one finger on the left hand)!?”.

Showing genuine concern, the director continued:

Get off at the nearest station and give a telegram (before mobile phones was still 10 years old) with the text - “Lydia Gerasimovna (secretary)! Don’t let anyone into the office, especially Ko-in.” And to my wife - “Vera! Don't let anyone into the house. Do not sign any protocols on confiscation of property. I'll be there early in the morning." All this was uttered with such delicately precise observance of Stanislavsky's system that I began to think - "How could he manage to hide the fact of studying at the Theater School in his autobiography?"

Anxious glint in the eyes, abruptness of speech, sweat on the forehead, tightly compressed lips, through which sounds flew out with a whistle - everything betrayed such suffering and naturalness of the experiences of the “general”, that the “deputy” in all seriousness began to get ready to carry out orders.

The situation was defused by the fellow traveler herself, turning to the fussing deputy:

Will you take me four pies with liver?

To which the deputy, who had already caught by this time, answered the dirty trick:

At this station, one pie costs more than a bottle of your sour wine.

The realism of the image with which the general director “played out” was taken seriously by the “deputy” also because of the preparedness of his body, contemplating Bad mood boss throughout the trip.

The bad mood had a purely philosophical beginning, based on the saying of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar - "It is better to be the first in the village than the second in the city (Rome)".

The bottom line is this - Going on a business trip to Moscow, the director previously called his friend to book hotel rooms - the most acute shortage (and the basis of corruption schemes) in the 60s, 70s and 80s in the country. A friend - and this is the General Director of the drilling association, a driller popular in Mingazprom and the Orenburg region, a mentor of my director, who before his last appointment supervised the construction of the famous well on the upper mantle of the earth (and maybe up to the Makhorovichich line) this time sent a company car for us to Domodedovo.

Everything went well; life is Beautiful; Moscow, with its strict elegance, inspired hopes for a brighter present, compared with the deathly prison-gray background of Soviet medium and small cities, which evoked some kind of uncertainty of the future.

On the way to the hotel, our general director asked the driver to stop by the administration, you know, to pay a debt of courtesy to a friend - their general director.

At the time when the last leg of the head of the delegation was leaving the car, and we, in accordance with our ranks, were already trampling on the outside of the car, the driver said in a distinct human indifferent voice - “Tell Nikolai Ignatievich, I'm going to the garage. I worked." Glancing at me with his eyes (are these not my tricks that were carried out behind me - it’s only 13 o’clock in the afternoon), my employer asked the driver - “What about, Nikolai Ignatievich?” - who, as it turned out, was not even the direct boss of the driver. The answer was even simpler - "He will call the expedition if he needs a car."

I am sure that by that time my leader had not read the “Sayings of Kings and Generals” of the ancient Greek historian Plutarch, because he would not have voiced the thoughts of Julius Caesar, given there, in such barbaric language, violating all the norms of deputy (district council level) ethics. (In our time, all directors were deputies of some level. This was the smartest element of the party leadership national economy- at the expense of enterprises to solve numerous communal and everyday problems population, and sometimes small industrial tasks (for example, the construction of a pedestrian bridge across the Ural River).

Grabbing me big and index finger right hand, behind the left lapel of his jacket, making a maliciously curious facial expression on his face, turning his head slightly so that it Auricle was in a straight line with my speaking organs, the overlord said:

- “You tell me, after all this, Gennady Mikhailovich - Fuck this Moscow for me, if my friend, being already CEO, and his wife and his children traveled on the subway and buses for the first time. You can imagine me in Orenburg scurrying to the bus with Olga on my left arm and Sasha chicking behind right hand in order to have time to “dump” them early to kindergarten?