Hello Monaco magazine Winter 2018 - issue HM02 | Page 43

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 ,
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