On Freedom

Since childhood, personal freedom has been one of my core values… or at least what I took it to mean back then. I read the books and watched the films that glorified independence and the right to forge your own fate. Those were my ideals.

In time I realized that reality sits a long way from the fantasies and the advertising slogans. The countries and institutions that proclaim freedom as their highest value often fail to live up to it in practice. And the louder the declarations, the less freedom there usually is underneath.

When I grew up and started running businesses, the dream of total independence still drove my decisions. I passed up significant opportunities, afraid of letting anything encroach on my autonomy. Not that I regret it — what was, was.

Strangely enough, only recently did I come to understand what freedom actually means to me. It happened when I began to radically accept my dependence and my vulnerability — to other people, to outside circumstances, to those close to me, to colleagues, partners, state institutions, the people running the country, and all the other factors I simply can’t influence right now. I started to feel far more focused. By concentrating only on what is genuinely within my power, I felt freer than I ever had.

My anxiety about external circumstances vanished. I stopped sitting in company and discussing “how bad everything is” or “how everyone’s being wronged.” Because, when you really look at it, there are always three ways out: change the external conditions (your place of residence, say), reshape them through your own influence, or accept them as they are.

Here’s another example. In his book Kovodstvo, Artemy Lebedev — a well-known Russian designer — noted that good designers differ from bad ones in that they follow the standards and the guidelines. Inside strict constraints, they create something striking and, at the same time, practical. You’d hardly want to hire an architect who waves off the basic rules — the proper routing of utilities, for instance — and starts building purely out of his own imagination. I’ve lived through that experience; I don’t recommend it.

The world is full of limits, rules, sociocultural norms and interdependencies. That’s natural, and it’s fine. The art of living freely lies in creating something remarkable inside those boundaries — in building your life not in your dreams, but in reality, which is at times harsh and unfair.

Here’s to accepting our dependencies and becoming truly free! 😎