Vladimir Yakovlev, "The Age of Happiness": content. Vladimir Yakovlev: biography and creativity

Someone is afraid of old age, someone takes it as inevitable, and for someone it's a beautiful time, when you can realize your every dream and do what you want.

Vladimir Yakovlev, a Russian journalist and businessman, admitted that he considered 50 years of age in his youth as a milestone, after which nothing interesting can happen in life any more.

When he hit 50 himself, he decided to find out if a person can feel happy, be happy and feel the fullness of life brighter than even in his youth.

Biography of Vladimir Yakovlev

Vladimir Yakovlev was born in Moscow on March 8, 1959. For his shoulders, he studied at the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Journalism and worked in newspapers such as Sobesednik, Sovetskaya Rossiya, and Rabotnitsa.

In 1987, Yakovlev became his own correspondent for the magazine Ogonyok. From 1988 to 1990, he organized the information co-operative "Fact" (1988) and the agency "Postfactum" (1989-1990). Vladimir Egorovich Yakovlev, editor of Kommersant (1989-1992), founder of the publishing house Kommersant (1994), one of the founders of the Nos., In 1999, selling his shares, leaves for the United States.

Since 2007, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of such companies as Stream Content and Media System. In 2008, Vladimir Yakovlev became one of the founders of the media group Zhivi and the editor-in-chief of the Snob journal.

Since 2012, Vladimir has been organizing a project on the possibilities of people in old age called "The Age of Happiness". It is implemented in both Russian and English and covers the lives of people whose age line has passed for half a century and even a century.

Happy age

Vladimir Yakovlev, whose age passed beyond the fifty-year line, became interested in what people are doing after retirement and why they categorically do not want to grow old and live out their age near the TV.

In the post-Soviet space, people of retirement age are called old men and are often considered an obsolete generation, who has only one road left - to the cemetery. The pensioners themselves call themselves old men, accordingly behave like an old man - they groan, get sick, complain and die early.

The book "The Age of Happiness" (Vladimir Yakovlev) destroys people's idea of old age. It turns out that for many people in different countries this is the period of life when you can devote your time to yourself entirely, because children have grown, work has been left behind, and unfulfilled dreams of youth are still waiting for their realization.

The book not only reveals the stories of people of the older generation, but also transfers their appearance through author's photographs. Vladimir Egorovich Yakovlev is a wonderful master of words, but also a very talented photographer who conveys both events and images, and the emotions that accompany them.

Heroes of the book "The Age of Happiness"

Heroes of Vladimir Yakovlev are absolutely different people not only in age, but also in social, financial and professional status.

Among them there are very successful and well-off people, and there are those who "pull" from pension to pension, or live on welfare.

The goal that defined the project of Vladimir Yakovlev and all his research is the search for an "elixir" of youth and happiness for people who are far beyond 50, 60 and even 100 years. But as reality shows, this topic turned out to be important for people of different ages, as there are too many young "old people" who, apart from home, work and television, are not interested in anything in life.

Here are some conclusions from which one can understand that is not an elixir of happiness at any age:

• First, the amount of money is absolutely not proportional to the volume of happiness. It often happens quite the contrary - there is money, there is no happiness.
• Secondly, it is not the opinion of others that creates a person. The dependence of a person on what others say about him or think about him, gives him the right to life imprisonment in the slavery of other people's notions of him.
• Thirdly, wasting time on actions or work that does not bring pleasure and drive, shortens life.

As the author himself notes, no external attributes make the elderly happy, but the fact that they do only what gives them joy.

Anrey Chirkov

The example of Andrei Chirkov, the hero of Vladimir Yakovlev's book "The Age of Happiness", is one of the most understandable and revealing for the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space. He was 52 years old when he was drinking with his American colleagues and not quite realizing what he was doing, he promised one of them to run together the Moscow marathon.

Since the promise, although it was drunk, was given, Andrei Chirkov decided to do it. For a hundred days he went out for the morning jogging, thinking that this would help him to overcome the distance of 42 km. Although an American friend could not come to the marathon, the hero of the book nevertheless went to the distance, at the end of which he was restored by ambulance doctors.

In time the delivered dropper saved Andrei from a heart attack, but he did not stop running. Today he is 72 years old, and not only participated in a variety of marathon races, but also 2 published books about running, a lot of stories and participation in a TV show.

Thanks to the running Andrey Chirkov acquired a lot of new friends of his age who, like him, radically changed their lives after 60 years or even later.

Fauja Singh

An elderly Indian who moved from a remote Indian village to London to his son, also became the hero of the book "The Age of Happiness". Vladimir Yakovlev drew attention to the age when an elderly Indian was carried away by running and became a marathoner - 82 years old.

A man who used to work all his life on earth took the only right decision that obviously prolonged his life - if you do not move, you can get sick and fall into depression. So he started running.

At 89, he took part in the London marathon and overcame it in almost 7 hours. It was for him a record that he easily beat after 4 years, when he ran a marathon distance in less than 6 hours. This time he became the record holder for the whole world in the category of those who are over 90 years old.

Today he is 104 years old, and behind him not only 8 marathons, on which he earned money for charitable organizations, but also participated in the commercial of the company Adidas. As the hero himself says, apparently, God wanted him to become the oldest marathon runner on the planet and confesses that only when he started running he started a real life.

Lynn Ruth Miller

Not so often there are women at the age of 77 who could light their jokes with a huge hall, participate in a TV show, as well as with young ones compete in a talent show, and even go to the finals.

She became the heroine of the book "The Age of Happiness" by Vladimir Yakovlev. About the fact that she has a comic talent, Lynn realized in 70, and engaged in striptease in 77 years. And he does it all with brilliance, with a "twinkle" in his eyes, gambling and obviously enjoying the process itself.

As the heroine herself says, she is pleased with aging. It was the old age that freed her from stereotypes about old age, filled her with energy and allowed her to do only what she wanted.

Pat and Alicia

Vladimir Yakovlev, whose books "The Age of Happiness", "The Rules of Happiness", "I Wanted and Could" are devoted to amazing people, could not help but pay attention to an elderly couple who spend most of their time traveling and parachuting.

Pat Moorehead is 81 years old, and his wife Alicia 66, they have been together for 27 years devoted to their favorite business - travel and height.

The difference between a traveler and a tourist is that the first one never walks the specified route. Pat and Alicia are on trips more than 200 days a year, and when they return to their homeland, they also do not sit at home. Pat teaches lessons in skydiving and directs the club, and for those over 60 years old, he is the main assistant in the development of this sport.

Being poor people, they are forced to fly the cheapest airlines, live in inexpensive hotels, but nevertheless they visited already in 180 countries. At the same time, they met a huge number of people and fell into a variety of "scrapes" - from street brawls, to uprisings.

As the heroes of the book themselves say, maybe later, when they grow old, they will sit at home and write their memoirs.

Tao Poschon-Lynch

Another bright heroine of Vladimir Yakovlev is Tao, who, due to a heavy snowfall, began to dance at 84 years old.

Yoga trainer, she did not think she would dance every day, but when neither the students nor the ballroom dancing teachers came to the lesson, they decided to dance the tango, which was the beginning of her hobby.

Today, Tao is 95 years old, she still gives yoga lessons 3 hours a day, and also 2 hours a day she dances with her young dance partners.

When a couple of years ago she had a fracture of the hip and wrist, the doctor said that she would never be able to make a stand on her hands any more, since she had pins inserted. This did not stop Tao, and a few months later she again performed all the asanas, as before.

Tao believes that she feels young thanks to the energy that she receives while doing what she likes.

The formula of happiness

As Vladimir Yakovlev found out, the formula of happiness does exist, and age for it is not a hindrance. In the composition of the elixir such ingredients:

• Daily exercise supports muscles in tonus and gives energy for the whole day.
• Learning new, thinking, writing - all this helps the brain stay young.
• Charge positive, smile not only to others, but to yourself.
• Getting pleasure from the process without binding to a specific result.
• Accepting yourself and the world as it is.
• Be cheerful and active.

As the author notes, all of his characters eat a variety of food, do not adhere to diets, but there is one principle that unites them - moderation in food. They either do not at all eat meat, or in very small quantities.

But the most important product of this elixir is the fullness of life, the enjoyment of what you do and the joy of each day.

Other works of the author

Among other books that brought the same fame to Vladimir, as well as "The Age of Happiness" - "I Wanted and Could", "Rules of Happiness", "You'll Be Healthier" and "Another Thing".

All his books are devoted to the issues of happiness, health and the realization of human life. The heroes of his works are real living people who change not just their lives, but their world view. Their examples inspire and help make the first step towards happiness.