Artem Nesterenko is a charismatic businessman who was poor until the age of 30. Now he makes millions in various fields. His credo is to give 10 times more value than the price the client pays. Especially for our magazine, Artem told how he succeeds, and also about the principles, investments and his own development.
Artem, is your job a hobby or a difficult necessity?
About 10 years ago, I decided I didn’t want to go through trials. I like it better when life is about adventure. I feel the same way about business, so, of course, I am passionate about what I do. I don’t need a weekend, I don’t force myself to get up in the morning. For me, it’s kind of like a computer game, but in a good way.
Your path is unique, what are the five main principles that made you change your thinking and life?
There are fundamental things that underlie everything I do. These are 5 laws that are important to me.
Law #1, which I follow and am already instilling in my children. This is 100% responsibility. For everything that happens in my life, only I am responsible. It helps to feel confident, because I am not looking for those responsible for any of my failures and difficulties. It is very important for an entrepreneur to take full responsibility.
Law #2: It’s a discipline. It leads to where motivation cannot lead. Patience and endurance while doing repetitive actions over a long distance is the principle of billionaires. It is important to constantly hit one point.
Law #3: This is training. The modern world is changing rapidly and you need to constantly learn new things in your topic. It takes me about 5-6 hours a day. I read, watch, analyze, strategize my content. This always helps to be a few steps ahead of other players in the market.
Law #4: This is to model those who have already made a result. It is very important for me. It would be difficult to achieve something in life and in business if I didn’t find people who already have a result and didn’t model them. It’s like a puzzle. Everything is simple here if you pour the details on the table, but you do not have a picture with the final result, you will not assemble a huge puzzle. Even if you collect it, you will spend much more time on this process.
Therefore, I analyze a lot of those people who have been in business for a long time in different directions.
Law #5: Give It Back. Contribute to other people. I have such a principle or rather a technique — «Contribution». Everything I do has to carry ten times the value. It is important that people, when buying a product, understand that they receive much more than they give.
It is often said that knowledge is worth more than money. Do you agree with this expression?
Of course, yes, especially if we know some unique technology. And I remember when I first used the training technology proven by world marketers. This has brought a very good result. Therefore, if knowledge leads you to a result, then yes, it is more valuable than money. But, if knowledge remains just knowledge, then its price is zero.
You earn by giving knowledge to people. How much do you yourself invest in education?
I am very picky about educational products. Therefore, I always choose premium programs to communicate with successful people. It’s a ticket to an inspiring environment. Therefore, I invest a lot of money in knowledge. This year it has been about $50,000. And if you look in general, I have been to the USA for more than 20 educational events. On average, one such trip costs about $5,000, including all costs. Therefore, you can calculate how much I spent on average on studying in the United States. But, it allowed me to take and implement cutting edge marketing strategies.
I am sure there are many people who have more fundamental knowledge, but they earn a pittance. Why is this happening?
The answer is very simple — thinking. If knowledge were the only criteria for getting on the Forbes list, then all librarians and scholars would be there. But for a great result, knowledge alone is not enough. You also need to be able to make decisions, not be afraid to act and take risks, constantly analyze and think ahead, assemble a team, sell — all this refers to thinking. And often this is what is lacking for those who have more than enough knowledge.
Sales is the backbone of almost any business. Did you have sales skills from the beginning or did you hire people to do this?
I didn’t immediately accept the sale. It was difficult, because I did not study it, but immediately went to sell it. To be honest, it was outright vaping, not a sale. But then, when I learned, they began to bring great pleasure. Because I do not sell, I solve the problem with my product, based on the needs of the person.
Do you think that anyone can become a millionaire or is it a utopia?
Theoretically yes, practically no.
If you take an absolutely hopeless person and send them for six months to live with billionaires, their thinking will definitely change and there will be more chances of becoming a millionaire. This is in theory. But in practice, the principle of crabs in a bucket works more often. The crab cannot get out of the bucket because others are pulling it down. When a person decides to become successful, society interferes with irony, ridicule, and criticism. And unfortunately, not everyone can become a millionaire under these conditions. You need to have great willpower to abandon all these opinions and act only according to your inner feelings.
How many successful cases do you have and how many of your students have become successful?
According to my statistics, about 5% of people who have completed my programs become super successful. Another 10-15% achieve average results.
There is also a sad statistics — 10% of people, having bought training, do not even enter the platform. So the result of the participant does not always depend on the program. There is my area of responsibility as an author — to give knowledge that will lead to a result. And there is a student’s area of responsibility — to study and do homework. Over 9 years of entrepreneurial activity, more than 10,000 people have changed their lives with the help of my educational programs. This is very inspiring.
When you have to select a partner for a business, does their character matter? By what criteria do you generally assess whether a partner is right for you?
I have one partner with whom we have been working for 6 years. I am completely different from him and our friendship is based on business. We started a business and then became friends. He is an analyst, a mathematician, and a human system. I am more charismatic, I am the frontman, I am the speaker, I perform and sell. And I have no experience with other partners.
But, in general, I produce several people. I cannot call this a full-fledged partnership, since I am more of an expert producer, and here the values of a person and the principles that I spoke about above are important for me.
I know that you are not limited to the educational business. What else do you earn?
I have 2 restaurants of Japanese and Italian cuisine in Ukraine, there is an online school, and we also attract investors to the X100 holding. This is the focus of my activity. And since I invest, it also brings certain dividends.
What’s your personal formula for success?
Discipline works wonders. Only it allowed me to become who I became.
What’s your most risky business move?
Last year I had to close a project that I had been doing for more than 3 years and start a completely new activity. Almost 80% of the environment did not support this. It was very stressful and risky. But in the end, my intuition led us to the fact that we have grown very much. We have changed direction in business. Flexibility decides a lot in this rapidly changing world, which is why the risky move has produced such results.
What advice would you give to those who, like you, start from scratch?
Apparently, our interview today is called: «Discipline Works Wonders». Therefore, I would recommend to those who are starting from scratch, first of all, to choose a business model that is guaranteed to lead to results. This is the first thing.
The second is to find those people who have already done this and try to get to know them, observe, analyze and communicate. The whole world is built on communication. Therefore, remove the embarrassment and show courage — get acquainted and communicate with those who already have the result that you want to achieve.
The third is to make the decision to hit one point for one year and go to your result in a disciplined way. After all, at first you have no experience, vision, knowledge, but, over time, you become a professional. And a professional always has money.
