I came, saw, fell in love: how an immigrant from Russia moved to the USA and built a successful business - ForumDaily
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Came, saw, fell in love: how an immigrant from Russia moved to the USA and built a successful business

Ruslan Safarov fell in love with the United States on his first visit there. He says that although he went from a criminal investigation officer and plumber to a businessman in Russia, only the States gave him the opportunity to feel truly free. In Silicon Valley, he studies how the largest organizations work and talks about it at business trainings. More details about his move and success were told by the publication Lenta.ru report.

Photo: Shutterstock

First ride

“I visited the USA for the first time in 2015. My family and I decided to go to the States in order to understand this country. My wife had already been there before and talked a lot about America. It was she who encouraged me to travel,” says Ruslan. — To be honest, I didn’t even believe that they would give me a visa, because at one time I worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the criminal investigation department, and I thought that this could be a problem. However, everything worked out.”

“The first trip just blew our minds. We realized: everything we saw in the films actually exists - it’s not just scenery, people really live like this. We immediately visited several states, were in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, flew to Miami, and ended up driving about six thousand kilometers. We saw how people live in different parts of America, and, of course, we liked California the most,” the Russian recalls.

And when he first saw Steve Jobs's garage, he realized: it's time to dream big.

“Then for the first time I came to the garage of Steve Jobs, my idol, for whom I came to Silicon Valley. And I realized that if a person who worked as a plumber in a housing department and as a simple clerk in a bank got to Steve Jobs’ garage, he could already set more ambitious goals for himself. It may sound strange, but this small achievement gave me self-confidence. And in general, this trip showed me that there is a country in which you can feel free,” explains Ruslan.

Business tours

After the first visit, he decided to come to the United States more often.

“I realized that I want to study here, I want to understand these people. And that’s how the #maliktrip project was born. Soon I suggested to my followers on Instagram that I organize a business tour for them to show them everything that I myself had seen in the USA. We agreed that companies from Silicon Valley would meet us and tell us everything,” the businessman shares. “I myself wanted to go on such a business tour, but there were no such things then, so I organized it myself. Friends, acquaintances, subscribers came with us. In New York we visited Keller Williams, the UN, in Nevada we visited Zappos, and we visited film studios.”

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Initially, he just often visited the United States, but when the project began to gain momentum, the spouses had to move.

“Until 2018, my family and I visited the United States on visits, and with the development of the project, we settled in Silicon Valley, in the city of Palo Alto. I decided to focus on learning business while taking people on business tours. After the pandemic, I packaged all this experience into the book “Culture of Silicon Valley Organizations,” Ruslan continued.

USA and Russia

When he moved to the United States, he realized that business in Russia and the United States is built in completely different ways.

“I saw that Russia was adopting many business models from the West, but the business that was being built in Russia was not a business, but the elimination of the deficit that arose after the collapse of the USSR. Unfortunately, we haven’t learned how to create something new,” the businessman notes. — I realized that in Russia there is no idea, but there are double standards: there are written and unwritten laws. For example, there is an entrepreneur who studied law and went to business school, and there is someone who did not study business, but he has a rich mom and dad, and they tell him what he should do. And it is clear that the second one will be more successful. This leads to inequality. It seems to me that inequality kills people’s desire to create something new.”

Трудности

As it turned out, getting a visa is not so easy. There is a lot of competition in the USA, but you can always find a way out.

“If you did a successful business in Russia, then you can definitely find some way out. For me, the O1 visa was a suitable option. I collected evidence that for the last 10 years I have been running a successful business in Russia, spoke at various venues, and showed that I am one of the few who talk about the culture of organizations. The consulate studied this and saw that I was developing as an entrepreneur, so I could potentially do business in California and pay taxes,” the immigrant explained.

At first, he says, it was very difficult: you had to perform many functions, find many solutions - all at the same time.

“It was hard both at the start and during the pandemic. At the start, many things are unclear: how to open a bank account, how to find housing, how to buy a car, how to open a visa. All these questions had to be answered at the same time. And not only to answer, but also to complete a lot of documents. Therefore, it was very difficult,” says Safarov. “However, the most difficult part of the move was running the business remotely. The team had to be left without physical attention. Due to the time difference, we could only communicate for two hours. We had to simultaneously change business processes and work schedules, so in the end the team was greatly transformed. The knowledge I received in Silicon Valley helped me a lot in coping with all this.”

Infrastructure

“Everything we can only dream of was created in the USA 30 years ago. For example, developed infrastructure for travelers, ideal roads, many gas stations. You won’t find such developed domestic tourism as here anywhere in the world,” notes the businessman.

There are nuances that our immigrants find it difficult to get used to. For example, paying for mowing the lawn, which is essentially considered public utilities.

"But there are also disadvantages. There are very few quality homes in the valley where I live. However, throughout the country there are mostly one-story buildings made of plywood and chipboard. The roof is made simply: boards and that’s it. Because the USA is about practicality. The climate here is mild, so almost no one spends a lot of money on building houses,” he says. - But you have to pay a lot of money for utilities. I pay $900 for gas, but the whole house is leaky, and all the heat that the gas provides is dissipated because of these holes. Since I rent a house, it’s not profitable to redo everything, so you just accept the rules and live. And so it was in most of the houses where we lived.”

Medicine

“When you watch films about how the criminal investigation department works, for example “Streets of Broken Lights,” and then you come to work in the authorities in Russia, you understand that everything in the movies is clearly embellished. But when you watch TV series about medicine in the USA, and then you have to put your wife in the hospital, you understand that the directors did not lie about anything. Everyone here really does their job very well,” says Ruslan. — The quality of medicine is largely explained by the fact that there are no public hospitals in Silicon Valley, only private ones. A doctor is the highest paid profession here. The demand for their services is huge. But the price of insurance in Silicon Valley and, for example, in Georgia differs by about five times. We turn to doctors through insurance and are sure that if something happens to us, God forbid, they will help us, because we have good insurance.”

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Well, without insurance, of course, it's better not to go to the doctor and even in Silicon Valley.

“If you don't have insurance, then expect problems. Cure something will be cured, but left with a huge debt.

Some of my friends wanted to save money on insurance, but then they wrung their hands. As a result, they flew to Russia with broken bones because they were billed for tens of thousands of dollars. But, as far as I know, COVID-19 is treated free of charge. And if the patient is over 50 years old, then you can come to the doctor regardless of whether he has a US passport, visa and insurance. That is, if my mother was visiting me, I could send her here to the doctor,” explains the businessman.

American character

“If we talk about the locals, everyone is very sociable and friendly. “I traveled through 20 states in a trailer and realized that Americans are the people who came here to jointly create something valuable and sell this value,” says Ruslan. — Each state is almost a separate state, each of them has its own rules and laws. Because of this, there is a very high level of self-organization throughout the country. States differ from each other in mentality.”

Therefore, when moving, it is very important to understand the "character" of the state in order to find like-minded people there and to settle down.

“We need to clearly understand that each state has its own mission, which is broadcast to citizens. When choosing a place to live, you need to be aware of what kind of people live there. Americans are proud of their country. In this regard, they are very different from people from other countries, and I’ve been to a lot of places—I’ve visited about 30 countries. It is the Americans who stand out for their friendliness, openness and practicality in everything,” the interlocutor notes.

“Most of them don’t care what nationality you are or what your sexual orientation is. However, to be fair, it happened that people came up to me, smiled and introduced themselves, and when they found out that I was Russian, they turned around and left. But in California, most of the time, no one cares who you are. They won't look at your past here. Here they take into account what value you can bring. This is what they will evaluate in you,” the entrepreneur emphasizes.

State trip

2020 has changed a lot, it has affected almost all business in the United States. Ruslan and his family decided to spend this time in an unusual way.

“In 2020, we decided to take a six-month trip across the states in a trailer. With the onset of the pandemic, everything changed: we realized that the world had collapsed to online communication. All the live meetings that we had planned for several years in advance were cancelled, and we had to communicate about work only remotely,” says the businessman. “It was very difficult emotionally, I wanted to bring some adventures, new emotions into life: for me, my wife, and my daughter. We often went traveling in our trailer before. When we once again returned from a two-week trip from Yellowstone, I suggested that my wife not go home, but continue to travel around the country.”

Without hesitation, the whole family went on a trip to the United States.

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“It was summer, my daughter was on vacation, and in the fall she was supposed to study online again. We notified the school, sold the car, resolved housing issues, collected all our things and put them in storage, and on August 19 we went on a trip,” recalls Ruslan. — Every school day on the trip, my daughter attended all classes. During this time, she improved greatly in mathematics, English and other subjects. And I realized that working while traveling is amazingly energizing, because while on the road you are constantly in a state of flow. And once again I was convinced that I made the right choice of state to live in.”

Pandemic and protests

The businessman notes that Californians follow the safety rules very strictly, unlike, say, Florida residents. But there are black days in California too.

“When mass protests against police violence began, it was scary. People were screaming, there were a lot of police. It's very sad to see broken windows. This whole situation made people restless, and when I returned to the valley, I saw that things were not even financially, but emotionally, going difficult,” explains Ruslan. “People worry, especially if someone has something to lose. Someone has to sell their business. It’s not easy for investors either, because banks have introduced strict policies and started monitoring all financial flows.”

He says he really misses his family and relatives who stayed in Russia. But the current situation forces us not only to find extraordinary solutions, but also to work harder. In the coming years, Ruslan plans to live in the United States and engage in a startup.

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