The day she changed her future
Once, on a beautiful June evening, a pretty, well-dressed girl wandered the streets of Cherkassy: her shoulders were lowered, her face depressed. At the sight of an outsider, Natalya's life was developing well: she graduated from a pedagogical university, received a diploma and even - as one of the best female students - a distribution in an elite gymnasium. But she absolutely did not want to be a teacher! I entered the department of Ukrainian philology only because there were only two universities in the city: the Polytech and the Pedagogical Institute, and Natalia, the girl at home, was an eternal horoshistka, she did not even think about going to the big city. And now she was ready to burst into tears from the future prospects.
A sign of the city employment center flashed before my eyes. Obeying a sudden impulse, the director of the Ukrainian House, Natalya Zabolotnaya, approached the door. A man came towards her: "I'm sorry, we are closing!" - "Please help me!" - she begged. - "And what happened?" Hurrying, she told about her misfortune. The man paused, looking at her appraisingly. "You know, today we just got a strange announcement:" We need communicative, funny, nice people. " Natalya nodded willingly. Although she was quieter and, being in the center of attention, instantly burst out with paint, in her heart she considered herself fussy, fighting and fearless. This was her mother - a sociable, with the same humor, met adversity, a lover of folk festivals and Ukrainian songs. Dad, a drawing teacher, was very different - subtle, intelligent, kind and romantic. Parents could not get along and divorced immediately after the birth of their youngest daughter, Natalia. In it, these two beginnings - modesty and liveliness of character - have interwoven fancifully.
As it turned out, the announcement gave a new advertising newspaper, which recruited agents for the sale of advertising space. Natalia made the first visit in this capacity to a large commercial company near the house. She made her way to the director's office, she told me for a long time and in detail what the prices were, the advantages for the customers, and only then noticed that the director and his deputy hardly restrained laughter. "Honey, did you read the newspaper's output? After all, we are its founders. " On an amusing episode, an energetic girl was remembered, and soon she became a journalist, and later a deputy editor in another, more serious project of the same investors - the political newspaper "Gubernskie Vedomosti". All of her future career successes, one way or another, were associated with that sudden impulse to change destiny.
The day she realized her dream
Once Natalia decided to become a publisher. That is not exactly true - she just thought that it would be good to release a series of Ukrainian bestsellers. A pretty smiling blonde herself controlled the seal, took books from the printing shop, took them to the shops, and entered into contracts. The first edition was followed by another, even more interesting - "The Anthology of Ukrainian Horror", unexpectedly for Natalia recognized as one of the 10 best books of the decade at the Lviv Book Forum. Later, several dozen children's books were printed, which now her children are also trying to read.
Of all the components of success, the Director of the Ukrainian House, Natalia Zabolotnaya, had one thing: the readiness to take a chance to win. Neither initial capital, nor experience, nor professional consultants, nor support of a loved one. My mother died early of cancer, my father passed away earlier, my older sister had her own life, and the young conquistador was completely left to herself. She has already stopped blushing from any joke, felt much more confident thanks to the aura surrounding the journalist of a respected newspaper, became a star in Cherkasy and now she dreamed of conquering Kiev. To make it easier, I decided to buy a car, took a loan, not really thinking about how to pay it.
"I still buy buttons at first, and then the fabric on my coat," laughs Zabolotnaya, recalling her youth. - And then I was like that ... there is a good Ukrainian word - "zuhvala". Provincial-direct, self-confident, open-minded. In Cherkassy nothing held me - neither parents, nor my favorite work, nor cavaliers - it seemed that there were no worthy ones. I wanted to escape somewhere. " The sensation of intoxicating, but also frightening freedom - that's what it coveted. And one day she fulfilled her cherished dream: she sat down in her own "neu-noir" silvery color, turned on the music and ran with a breeze at first through the Cherkasy dam above the Dnieper, and two hours later - along Khreshchatyk. On the main street ... and I want to add - with the orchestra. He really sounded in Natasha's soul.
The day she became a very important person
Once the director of the Ukrainian House Natalia Zabolotnaya was offered to create a press center in the Ukrainian house. By that time, she already had a job in the "President's Herald" behind her, where she was taken due to the fact that the girl often came from Cherkasy to presidential press conferences and managed to make friends with the press service. In parallel, engaged in the PR of a well-known political party, she hoped that after the victory in the parliamentary elections will be a press attaché of the first person. However, the boss refused her services: the close presence of a beautiful unmarried woman could cause undesirable talk. In politics, Natalia was disappointed, they stopped paying salaries in Vestnik, and again, as in her early youth, she was in a state of uncertainty: what to do? What does she really like? Publishing has stalled, journalism is fed up. "I am an impatient person, for me to write an article in two strips, and even in such a conservative newspaper - torture," Natalia admits. "She always envied television reporters and news agencies."
Finance, of course, sang romances. Natalia recalls how she once had to ask the tanker to pour gasoline on exactly five hryvnia, because there was no more money. "I lost my wallet, I'd like to get home," she muttered, and smiled brightly at the servant of the gas station. Two loans, an unstable income, ahead of the unknown ... And although she had influential friends, the language did not turn to ask for debt. "I'll come to the office, smile, give a new book, I'll leave, and then I sob in the car," says Zabolotnaya. - I - like Bulgakov's Margarita: "Never ask anything! Never anything, and especially those who are stronger than you. They will offer themselves, and they will give it all themselves! "To search for oneself in 20 years is natural, but at 30, only very courageous or very carefree people are capable of doing it. In Zabolotnaya, both are combined. Plus incredible efficiency and enterprise. After receiving a proposal to create a press center of the Ukrainian House, she quickly got down to business, developed a style, designed the room, arranged so that at the opening of the press center, the Prime Minister spoke ... "I was given a shovel in hand - I dig, Natalya laughs. It is generally easy to laugh, it is - the direct opposite of all the previous directors of the Ukrainian House, deserved retired officials of high rank. She did not even think about the post, until she entered the clinic with the next headmistress - they changed almost every six months. "I do not know how to argue, I do not like to conflict, that's why I had only two options: to leave and lose work ... or to become a director by the principle" if you want to defeat the mafia, it must be headed ". Natalya twisted her independent nature into a mutton horn, engaged all connections and even decided to paint herself in a brown-haired woman to look more impressive. Then, the truth, was recoloured back. While she was sitting in hairdressing salons, somewhere in high spheres someone raised a hand and inscribed a signature under the final document. The lively young lady got the helm of a huge concrete multi-deck ship and subordination - a team of 160 people.
The day she fell in love with the wrong man
Once, at a meeting of the Cherkasy community, Natalya met a young businessman named Igor. She did not even think that there would be a novel. At first, exactly in the text "The Irony of Fate," she did not like it at all. Too young, untenable. Like many girls who grew up without a father, Natalia was drawn to older men (though, for this she had to pay solitude on weekends and holidays).
However, another meeting took place with Igor, which changed everything. Later, he confessed to the director of the Ukrainian House, Natalia Zabolotnaya, that, having broken up with her ex-wife, set herself the goal: immediately after 40 to get a new family and children. So one of the two knew exactly what he wanted. A year after the appointment, the new director of the "Ukrainian House" was already walking with a round belly. Decent leave was not taken, and when the first child was three months old, she went to work. "This place was not easy for me, I gave him too much spiritual strength, so I treasure it very much. So, swallowing her tears, she left her son in the care of a nanny and went to work. Nevertheless, she fed Bogdan up to a year and a half - three times a day she came home, since the apartment is also in the center. At night he asked to eat eight times, and by nine in the morning I went to work. But she was slim without any diets. "
The story was repeated and with little Katerina, who is now two and a half. The deputy husband does not approve of the husband's dedication, always laughs: "Nine hours, and you're at work. What, there is no one else to guard the Ukrainian house? "But recently, Natalia accidentally overheard how her husband on the phone told someone about her successes, and his voice sounded unconcealed pride. "That's what I always wanted - that someone was proud of me ..."
The day she did the impossible
Once she decided to change the "specialization" of the Ukrainian house. Previously, the main income brought rent: there were political forums, business conferences, round tables and children's Christmas trees. Now all this is also there, but because of the crisis, business activity has significantly decreased. But the new direction created by Zabolotno is flourishing - exhibition art-activity. Even before the order on her appointment was signed, Natalia decided to hold the first art fair. She had no experience, no connections in the artistic environment, no special education. But he atoned for enthusiasm. At first she decided to exhibit works from private collections of famous politicians, which gave the exhibition a light yellow, many visitors were interested not so much in pictures as in the name of the owner on the plate. Art critics condemned the exhibition for eclecticism. But the director of the Ukrainian House, Natalia Zabolotnaya, is not easily knocked off the planned path. After a couple of years the experts waved their hands and said: "What are you, what sculpture salon? The sculpture is in decline, it does not interest anyone ... "For the first time sculptors really had to be lured, but now, three years later, a real boom of sculpture began in Kiev! As a bonus for visitors Natalia brings from Europe masterpieces of great masters - last year, for example, Rodin's "Thinker" and surreal women Dali. Sincere joy is delivered to her in the book of reviews, left not only by venerable art historians, but also intelligent old men and old women who have never been to Paris and are happy because they saw the work of Picasso, Zadkine, Giacometti ...
"Friends often discourage me from shares that seem to them to be failures, unrealizable. And I feel that this is real, although there are no grounds for it. There are, of course, moments when I worry, depress, but then I say to myself: "Get together! The main thing is not to stop! Go to the big goal step by step! "And I start to work."
The Ukrainian house now arranges four large specialized art fairs a year. They come to foreign curators, representatives of auction houses, among the guests there are a lot of VIP-persons and, of course, artists who jokingly called Zabolotnaya "housewife". On her own money, Natalia publishes a monthly magazine about contemporary art in support of these actions, which was initially addressed only to "her own", but with a light Natasha's hand began to disperse a decent circulation.
Passionately carried away by art, she herself began to collect ("I am Taurus, everything I like, I immediately want to get into the property!"). Already having a philological and legal education, she decided to eliminate the art history gap, and entered the correspondence department of the National Academy of Painting and Architecture. She improves her English, participates in many social events ... How does she manage everything? The answer is simple: Natalia knows how to part with the past and is not afraid of the future, so her steps are so easy.