One day I met a famous Siberian businessman Igor, who was a major banker and an investor. I had an idea of setting up “Grill-Master” – the first fast-food restaurant in Siberia. And he had a suitable place. We bought a franchise and started a brand-new project. And again, people started staying in line to visit us just a few days after opening.

That was an extremely successful project, the first of its kind, outcompeting all other Novosibirsk restaurants at that time, in terms of popularity.

It looks as if everybody in the city visited us: wealthy and not, intellectuals and workers, young and old. Just imagine: people brought their families to our café for a common lunch!

Working on that project was a pleasure. We had a great staff, the place was in a great location. So, our expenses were soon paid off. I understood that I found a good and interesting business. We opened new places of different types, and they immediately became popular and profitable.

Those were the days I felt I was a creator: I always wanted to imagine something new, design business solutions, experiment with different formats. Business became not only a source of income for me, but also a source of art, interesting ideas, communication, and a means to create new, bright, and widescale projects…

That’s how “Vilka-Lozhka”, “Zhili-Byli” (“Pechki-Lavochki” now), “Etno”, “Boulevard”, “Macaroni” and a dozen of other food service establishments were born. There were more and more restaurants in the city, our ideas were being developed, replicated, and prosperous. I liked this kind of life: an interesting and creative business, high income, and an ability to live the familiar free life of a successful young man. Entertainment, pleasure, clubs, trips… I started travelling abroad and visited different countries. Our business went really well.

Simultaneously, I decided that it was high time to develop a management system, and went to Moscow – to study for an MBA degree and learn the modern craft of management. I had an idea to stop being an entrepreneur, and become a professional manager, who would be able to lead any business in the “right” way, however large it was.

Of course, the first thing that happened to our business was an expansion of our staff. While, de facto, we had almost no managers beforehand, and everything swam with the flow, now there was a huge interlayer between me and the business: marketing and management, many specialists in “this” and experts in “that”…

My personal time and attention span were too little to manage everything established yet. The administrative pie grew wider and higher, bringing nothing new to our business. On one hand, there was a feeling that a company with management is “right”, and everything was going as it should go. On the other hand, I understood that the company was dying down in front of my eyes. I was losing my influence. I was losing the feeling of the company – and drowning in the flow of bureaucracy! There was a fog of paperwork, separating me from real people and my own feelings of a developing business.

I continued supporting the “system” as a habit, but I didn’t understand why we need these plans, coordination chains, multilayer departments, and tons of reports. I didn’t even look through them!

Multiple instructions, internal orders and regulations, made a group of adherents turn into a bunch of obedient doers. Releasing the staff from their responsibilities regarding “what” and “how” they should do their jobs, I fully put all of them on myself.