At an age when most people begin their business careers, German Sterligov was already a millionaire. He was only 24
years old when he founded the company that would make him one of the richest men in Russia. The financial empire he built – with offices in London and New York – ensured a lifetime of comfort for the young man. But his life today is the opposite of everything you’d imagine – after 15 years of fame and riches, he gave it all up in for the quiet life of a peasant living in the woods
Sterligov’s biography is as fascinating as it is uncommon. Inspite of having been an extremely rich and effective man, the 47-year-old feels that he is currently much better set to withstand the worldwide monetary emergency than a large portion of the other Russian oligarchs. “I’m in clover contrasted with them,” he said in a meeting, a couple of years prior. “I’m free here. I don’t rely on upon anybody and we’re absolutely independent. A large portion of my companions thought I had taken leave of my faculties however I think I have been demonstrated right.”
In the mid 1990s, as the Communist period was blurring, Sterligov set up Russia’s first items trade. The business became rapidly, and he soon turned into Russia’s first legitimate tycoon since the 1917 Revolution. At a certain point, he had more than 2,500 representatives and was getting along great with the Americans as ‘another sort’ of Russian. In the mid-2000s, in charge of his prosperity, he staggered the world by reporting his expectation to keep running for the Russian administration.
Business and politics turned out to be a lethal combination for Sterligov; he was barred by election officials for odd reasons and he built up huge debts because of the cost of his political campaigning. To cover the debt, he was forced to sell his four-storey mansion in Moscow’s most exclusive neighborhood. But he didn’t stop there. An idea seized him – what if he were to give up everything he ever owned? So he also sold his New York penthouse, his offices in Wall Street and 
Central London, his retreat in Geneva, his castle in Burgundy and his headquarters in Moscow.
Sterligov additionally gave away shares worth countless pounds, and requested that his wife Alyona exchange her adornments and planner garments for the conventional long skirt and headscarf worn by Russian workers. With nothing to their name, the couple and their four kids withdrew to the forested areas – they set up a portable shelter and stayed outdoors amidst no place. With the minimal expenditure they had left, the Sterligovs fabricated a little log lodge with no power. Ten days after they moved into their new home, Alyona brought forth the couple’s fifth tyke.
Today, Sterligov has no second thoughts: “Not in a million years would I like to be a specialist with these senseless, gleaming identifications of progress – the Rublyovka houses, swanky yachts, Bentleys et cetera,” he said. “I’m content with my peace in the farmland, and my sheep, alongside my wife and children.” In their previous life, Sterligov says that he and his family were similar to ‘flying creatures in an overlaid confine’. “Being super-rich is a sort of subjection from which we’re free, fortunately.”
Things being what they are Sterligov isn’t overstating. As a businessperson, he and his family lived in consistent trepidation of being abducted or getting to be casualties of agreement executing. The couple had changed their location no under 23 times even with new dangers. They loathed having workers since they didn’t need outsiders in the house, yet family unit help was unavoidable when they moved to Moscow. So they continually lived in trepidation of the help betraying them. At a certain point, Sterligov even showed up at gatherings with other ladies, asserting to have isolated from his wife, just to keep his family protect.
The children don’t attend school, either. Instead, they have old-fashioned tutors who visit their home to teach them math, history, Russian, and hand-to-hand combat. Sterligov raises his children strictly in the Russian Orthodox faith. In their free time, they dig vegetables, milk the cows, and make traditional peasants’ timber stools, which are sold for for around $200. They usually sell two stools a week – that pays for food, clothes and tuition. Reports suggest that the Sterligov home is filled with love, the children are obedient and speak with intelligence, and they are equipped with survival skills that other kids their age have no idea of.
