Not long ago I talked to one of our former compatriots who moved to the Silicon Valley.

     “Tell me about your impressions,” I asked him. “What surprised you the most in the Valley?”

     “You know, there is an absolutely inverted idea of coolness and showing off. What we consider cool is considered to be inappropriate and vice versa.”

     “How is that so? Explain.”

     “Well, for example, all millionaires here look like our simple guys: they wear jeans, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sneakers. Normal Kazakh agashkas would not even say hello to them. And then they would find out with horror that it was Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin. Or, for example, all millionaires, except, of course, some fans, drive simple cars like Toyota Prius or Mazda-6. They do not evaluate a person by car or look. Do you get it? Here, on the contrary, if you come to a meeting in a suit and tie, all at once will understand that you are just puffing and making yourself cool, although you, for sure, do not cost anything.”

     “But how is it? And why then become a millionaire if you still wear ripped jeans and drive a Mazda? Don’t you need wealth to enjoy life as well?”

     “See, you cannot even understand them. For them, the pleasure is not to wear expensive bling-bling or have a cool ride. This is really uninteresting to them. Their plants are different. That’s if you raise a company like “Google” or “Facebook”. Attract a billion subscribers, like “WhatsApp”. That’s cool! That does count! Therefore, they generally do not pay attention to what many see as the goal of life. They are aimed at something else and are immersed in their work. Maybe that’s why they are millionaires?”

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