MONACO WORDS OF WISDOM
ENG
HelloMonaco: What is success for you? Victoria Bonya: I believe it is someone making their own path, step by step, to reach their goal— not when somebody else points it out for you. As for me, I was born in a small town in a remote region in Russia. This is a mining town, and for many residents, just visiting Moscow is already an achievement. That is why my kind of success may seem grandiose for those in my hometown. I’ ve never had a particular feeling of being successful. It’ s like an athlete who doesn’ t know he will be a champion before he gets to the finish line. I don’ t feel like I’ ve won my Olympic medal yet. I have things to strive for, to accomplish. But I do get pleasure from the process.
HM: What are your criteria for success? VB: It has to do with creativity. The fact that you get recognized in the street is not success for me. What matters to me, just like for men, is success in business. This is my masculine energy and this part of me is not yet satisfied. I will only feel successful when I have a good business. I already have my own brand, a cosmetics line that I created myself after struggling to find the right product for me. I was always mixing several products to get what I wanted. With the help of my consultants, we started manufacturing a lipstick and an eyeliner based on my formula. The eyeliner is made in Japan, the lipstick in Italy.
HM: Is money important? VB: Money comes and goes, it is just paper. I’ m not greedy by nature; I like making gifts. I’ m not attached to money and I do not dwell over it. That is why it comes my way all the time, like a stream. It is always there, and I am happy to take and share it.
HM: Do you have no fear of being out of money? VB: Where I was born, there was no money at all. Up to a certain time, I lived without it. It was a normal way of life. You could be happy, healthy, beautiful and relatively successful. Money, success and health for me are therefore not one and the same thing. Many people mistakenly confuse these concepts and believe that they cannot be happy without money. Material things do not matter, I can lose everything, but I will not be a less happy person for that. I will go out there again, make money and buy things. The most important thing is not to lose your light.
HM: Your life is always on display, which attracts both positive and negative attention. How do you find harmony? VB: We all need to do inner work on ourselves. Public people become immune to the negative attention. Trash makes up part of the Universe too, but it’ s not about you! It is important for me to preserve my inner light. I engage in spiritual practices. If your heart is full of absolute love for the world and everything around, if your thoughts are pure and bright, that makes you harmonious. Nothing bad will ever happen to someone like that. After all, our thoughts are measured by waves, vibrations. If you have a negative thought, it brings you down and attracts more negative. That is why it’ s very important to think right and good. Life changes if you start to think positively.
HM: How important is love to you? VB: I live by love, I need it. The energy of love can heal, it can work miracles, and it is life’ s gift to us. You need to find love for yourself in the first place, and then love for the rest of the world. If you don’ t have it, you cannot give love to your child. My daughter knows exactly how much I love her. But this love must be universal and directed to everything. Then people are drawn to you, they want to be with you. Those who want to offend you, they are like gnats fighting against a lamp— they can’ t do anything. Love is light.
HM: The love for yourself, have you had it all along? VB: No, it has been a process. When I was 13, a guy once told me: « Look at your skinny legs, are you sure they won’ t break?» I came home, looked in the mirror and realized that my knees were the largest part of my legs. And then I thought I was ugly. For 2 years I was only wearing baggy trousers. But then I got fed up one day. I asked my friend to lend me a skirt and we went out to a local disco. And no one said a word to me. These days, I
Those who want to offend you are like gnats fighting against a lamp; they can’ t do anything. Love is light. only get compliments; they call my legs chiselled. I am not far off from forty, but I don’ t have any excess weight and I don’ t have to hide my legs.
HM: And how do you get to love yourself? VB: Self-acceptance was quite a process. I have always tried to do sports, which brought me to love myself through respecting myself. It’ s not fair to just sit there and whine without making any effort. Self-love can be nurtured. It is important to thank life for being fully able. I believe that life is a journey of my soul that transforms and acquires wisdom on its way. So even if we made mistakes in our youth, it should not be embarrassing. Any process should grow into knowledge, into an experience. So loving yourself takes time.
HM: Are you afraid of loneliness? VB: I often ask this question in my own interviews: << Loneliness or poverty, what’ s worse?>> Ksenia Sobchak( candidate for Russian presidency, TV and radio presenter) was the only one who said that poverty was worse. My eyes widened large. I believe that nothing is more terrible than loneliness. And I often stay on my own, but this is fine.
HM: What about social networks, don’ t they exacerbate the problem of loneliness, only creating an illusion of company? VB: I absolutely agree that people nowadays experience more loneliness than they used to. Social networks and virtual communication only bring us apart. We used to go see somebody « without knocking on his door » and now we build our fences high. My Instagram account rarely has anything to do with my real life. Everything I do,
Hello Monaco – Winter 2018 / 41