Kazakh entrepreneur, founder of the investment holding Freedom Holding Corp. Timur Turlov gave an interview to the project “Without Tinsel” by Victoria Novichkova, in which he talked about his business and personal life. The most striking quotes from the conversation are further in our material.
“Money should always work”
The American magazine Forbes estimates Turlov’s fortune at $3.6 billion, but the entrepreneur himself is quite skeptical about the status of a billionaire, understanding its ephemeral nature – this is just an assessment of the value of the company shares he owns. He does not keep any huge sums in his accounts, and in general positions himself as an ideological opponent of the “bedside tables”. “I really don’t like the idea of any non-working money – no matter where it lies… Any dead money gives me a strong desire to invest it in something,” admits Timur Turlov. According to the businessman, money is a reflection of the human energy spent on earning it. Therefore, Timur Ruslanovich considers it “immoral” to accumulate “rooms of money” – as if a huge amount of human energy was wasted.
At the same time, the entrepreneur tries to show a certain amount of stinginess in personal expenses. True, this is not always possible: Turlov has six children who often travel with him during business trips. In a conversation with Victoria Novichkova, Timur Turlov also recalled an incident that happened with his eldest daughter. A few years ago, she went to a gymnastics training camp in Dubai and sincerely did not understand why her dad didn’t give her a thousand dollars “for shopping” – after all, the parents of the other children did so.
“I didn’t have a goal to become a billionaire”
Freedom Holding was founded 15 years ago as a broker providing access to the American stock market. Today it is one of the largest ecosystems in Kazakhstan and throughout the post-Soviet space, which includes brokers, a bank, insurance companies, an online payment service and many other businesses.
Recalling the beginning of his journey, Turlov admits that he never aspired to become a billionaire, and now he has no dream of selling everything, “going cash” and doing nothing. An entrepreneur is motivated not by assessments of his fortune, but by the opportunity to create new value for people. “It’s cool when you can build a new mobile operator, your own digital bank with infrastructure,” he describes his dreams.
“I really want to be able to achieve a new standard in what we do, to create something big and important, of great value for people. The main dream of an entrepreneur is that there will be a queue for your product,” says Turlov. — Money is always an indicator of usefulness. If you have a negative net profit, you are not creating enough utility for the consumer to pay for it.”
“Over the years I’ve developed a thick skin.”
“I would like to answer briefly that no [покровителей — ред.], but there are a lot of them at the same time,” says the founder of Freedom. — Any business is about building relationships, and we have always been strong with our clients and counterparties. If no one supports you, it’s unclear what you’re doing.” When a holding company launches another business, its management constantly communicates with government officials, negotiates, tries to be clear and explain how the new direction can benefit the country and society. And often this position finds support.
The downside of any growth in the business environment is growing competition and inevitably emerging cases of black PR. Turlov admits that he used to take criticism closer to heart, but over the years he got used to it and “grew up his skin.” According to his estimates, most of the negative stories that periodically appear in the media were usually inflated by scammers who were trying to rob the company and did not hesitate to order articles for this. Competitors, on the contrary, in most cases behave quite adequately: they can sarcastically discuss you in private conversations, write official complaints to regulators, but their struggle does not go beyond traditional norms, says Timur Turlov.
“You build an ecosystem to survive”
Last year, the holding announced the creation of a telecom operator of the 5G network, capable of becoming one of the industry leaders in a few years. It will organically complement the existing services of the Freedom ecosystem and give impetus to its further development. Now this project is the focus of Turlov’s attention
At the same time, building an ecosystem is not the main goal, but only a way to maintain competitiveness in the market. Scale, a high degree of automation, and integration of business lines together allow us to achieve success, Timur Turlov is sure.
“So who is Timur Turlov?” asks Victoria Novichkova at the end of the interview.
“Husband, father, entrepreneur”
Source: Rosbalt
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
