Two Questions That Could Have Stumped Me

April 11. Lecture "Cosmonauts Are Not Born — They Are Made. And It's Within Reach for Many" at the "Cosmos" pavilion at VDNKh, organized by the Russian Society "Knowledge." For an hour I talk about my path to space, about the analysis of the experience I gained. We get to questions. A young man stands up: "Tell me, have you flown to space?"

He must have come in late.

Sber Corporate University. A ninety-minute lecture on team building. Everything is going great — active discussion, on-topic questions. And suddenly a young man stands up and, with respect, asks: "Why are you telling us all this?"

That question could have thrown me off. But it didn't. Maybe because I had seen video recordings of other speakers being asked something similar. Or maybe simply because I sincerely believe in what I say.

Wherever there is one person and an external environment, there is an exchange of energy between them. Wherever there are two or more people, there is interaction between them. Space differs from Earth not in the nature of these processes, but in their intensity: situations of heightened uncertainty are more frequent, and the degrees of freedom are lower. On Earth, if something goes wrong at work, you can take a vacation, change positions, quit. In space — like it or not, you go through it.

But after a flight comes a unique opportunity for retrospective analysis: how everything unfolded, whether the result was achieved, how much effort was spent, whether everything was done right. And this analysis gives me a conviction: everything that works in space works on Earth too.

After lectures, I've often heard people leaving the hall say to one another: "It works exactly the same way for us." That's the best confirmation. Not mine — theirs.

That is exactly what gives me energy and motivation to do the work of a speaker. Not abstract self-assurance — "I'm a cosmonaut, so listen up" — but a concrete, repeatedly confirmed understanding: what I share is useful. People see it. I see it.

It seems to me that this kind of approach should define any activity: meaning first, everything else after. There's a good line from the Russian film "What Men Talk About": "You are what you do." I agree with it. If there's no meaning in your work, that is itself the verdict on you.