Until the age of 24, I thought that talent is an innate gift that I don't have. Creativity seems like something that belongs to people who are born with it.
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The limiting belief I had about talent and creativity shaped my worldview. When I was in 10th grade, I wanted to learn how to make websites. When I was learning - I encountered difficulties, and eventually gave up. The guitar was also on my list of things to learn, but I gave up on it as well. Dance, music, design, web development, writing is not for me.
All my independent studies ended the same way - I gave up because  I was thinking that I am not talented.

Creative people were doing it better than me, so I kept thinking that creativity was an inner gift.I was always jealous of talented people and wished to be born talented.

I heard that happiness can be found in the family, in the religion, in business and wealth, entertainment, creativity, travel, politics, and helping people. Let me share with you another path to happiness, which still brings me joy to this day. You probably don't know about it yet, just like I didn't. 
To define "happiness" let's use a metaphor.Imagine the world around us is a forest. It is huge, unpredictable, and dangerous, but it gives us so much joy to discover its secrets.I used to go mushroom hunting with my father and brother when I was a child. It happened one day that I got lost.

To find the way back to our car, my father taught us to use the sun.I started walking toward the car, orienting myself to the sun, thinking I was walking in the right direction, but I wasn't sure about it. It was my first time getting lost, and it was very scary. I was crying but kept walking.

On the way, I saw other people, who were also doing mushroom hunting. I ran to them and asked where is the parking lot?
They told me that I’m going in the right direction. After they told me that, my mood and psychological state changed completely. I became calm and happy. I continued my journey and walked to the car, happily.

End of the story.

What is interesting about this story, was that I was going in the right direction the whole time. But half of the way I was unhappy, and the other half of the way I was happy. What happened in the middle? In the first part of my journey, I was unsure of what I was doing, even though I happened to be going in the right direction the entire time.

However, only after other people confirmed that I was actually going in the right direction, I was able to calm down and be happy.
Sometimes, all we need in life is confirmation of our direction.


We all experience ups and downs along our earthly journey called "life." The most important thing in life is to be confident about your direction. It will give you a state of happiness and tranquility. I don’t mean the instant release of dopamine and endorphins, but a deep feeling of fullness, confidence, and harmony.
Childhood is a time when we are given direction. School, university, work, and the institution of the family are examples of directions. As I said at the very beginning family, religion, and business ... - are all directions one can take in life, and in my case, they didn’t work.
When could something go wrong?
When we go out into the world and generally accepted values ​​no longer work. 
After graduating from university, I never mastered a profession, and as a result, I completely lost my direction. The quality of education can be compared to the Internet in the 60s - useful, but not at its best.
I did not know where to go next, it seemed to me that 5 years of my life had been lost.Usually, in cases like this, people say, "I'm searching for myself." But they usually fail to mention where exactly they are searching.
I suppose this phrase is intentionally left unfinished.“I am searching for myself in the world” - this suggests that the world is a puzzle, and I am a small piece of this puzzle, which should be placed in the right spot.
Considering that the world is huge, and life is relatively short, you may not have the time to find your place in this huge puzzle. If the world is like a forest, then you need to know which way to go or just confirm it (since you are probably on the right track).
This is exactly what happened in my life. 

At 24, I would never have believed I would write a music album, enter the world of theater, learn to dance, sing, play various musical instruments, create an IT company (I didn't even know how to program), and complete many exciting projects!Despite studying well, I wasn't all that creative.
At that time there weren’t classes on creativity and nobody really understood its importance to human life. In a former soviet country like Belarus, creativity wasn’t considered a good life skill. Most creative people have problems with drugs, and it’s hard to find a well-paid job.

Only if you have natural creative abilities, then you have chances, otherwise - not worth trying. When I finish composing my first electronic music track, I called my mom and excitedly told her all about it.
She replied:
“Roman, our neighbor, is a musician. And he is an alcoholic”.
It sounds funny today, but this describes how people generally perceived creativity at that time and maybe even to this day.  Throughout my life, I admired musicians, actors, businessmen, writers, designers, and artists. I thought creativity was for the elite, and talent is an innate gift.--
It’s normal to say “I’m not a creative person”, but it’s strange to say “I’m a stupid person”.

When I graduated from university, I worked at a job with no opportunities for advancement. I spent money carelessly, abandoned what I started, and compared myself with others, thinking that they were lucky, but I was not. There were times when I felt like I couldn't do anything, I didn't know what to do in my life and where to start.
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My search for a job only made me feel more depressed. There was always a requirement for 3-4 years of experience and a list of skills that I didn't have. I read a lot of motivational literature, and biographies of great people, but nothing helped. I was living with a deep feeling that I’m doing something wrong. I had everything I need, but I was not happy.
Today, I understand this phenomenon of human life. We could feel unhappy because our inner potential wants to grow, but we don’t allow it to happen because of our old habits or limiting beliefs. 
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It was a fortunate discovery that I came across the work of Viktor Klimenko, a Soviet professor of psychology. All his life he was working with talented and gifted kids. He wrote more than 100 works, including articles and books. I read one of his works about his research about creativity and talent, and it changed my life.---I was always going in the right direction, but I was not sure about it. In this work, I confirmed my direction and immediately become happy.
I learned that talent or creativity is not an innate gift. He describes talent and creativity as a state of mind that anyone can achieve. All you need to do is to develop your mind. So easy! So close and so powerful goal. If we have the option to choose reality, what it would be, the reality where talent is an innate gift or talent is a state of mind that everyone can achieve?
I choose the second one because I didn’t like the first one.---Clarity gives you motivation. This is the law of nature. Our brains work this way. Our brain needs valuable reasons to create action. We can understand what is good for us, but it’s impossible to do anything because our brains control our life. I wanted to be creative all my life, but I gave up not because I stop wanting, but because my brain didn’t have clarity.
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If we want to change a life, we need to give very valuable reasons for our brain. In another case, it’s very easy to give up very quickly and come back to old habits.

And most dangerous, that we're still going to survive. I would survive without developing creativity and revealing talent. I would survive without music, dance, theater, meditation, design, writing, new languages, and participation in exciting projects.
Understanding that talent is an achievable goal created a strong reason why should I learn how to dance, make music, learn new languages, take on challenges and accomplish projects.
Before I was giving up because I didn’t have strong reasoning why should I keep going, and for how long?
Understanding that talent is a state of mind, that I can achieve, changed my learning process. I didn’t give up anymore. I continue to challenge myself, work on projects that I want to do, learn and improve skills that I need, expand my world horizon by taking courses and reading books, and eventually do everything that is hard with a clear goal to develop my mind.
“Why are you doing these silly projects?” - I often heard this question.
“Because I want to develop my brain and achieve a new state”
When we talk about talent in a normal way, we think about some special ability that someone has. It could be acting, writing, music, math, chess, drawing and etc.
It’s clear.
But what is Talent as a state looks like? How to describe this state?It’s actually very simple. Just imagine yourself, but smarter. Talent is a state where you can:
1) Want to do different projects.
2) Know how to finish projects or don’t worry about if you don’t finish them.
3) You're not afraid to learn new things.
4) You're excited about new challenges.
5) You want to do things differently
6) You want to develop your skills and continue growingPeople at high levels seem to have a long and complicated journey to get there. But it's not the whole truth! A running engine is a good metaphor to explain the state of mind when you've confirmed your direction and have clarity. We think of gold medalists as successful people when we see them. The moment they received a gold medal was not the moment they became successful.

They become successful a long time ago when they developed a clarity of understanding of why they do what they do. A running engine took them to the top, where they became visible to the world. We can not do what inspires us when the engine is running. With the engine running, challenges become interesting tasks, problems become rivals with which we grow, and 10,000 hours become an exciting journey towards professionalism.

Portal Academy's existence is not the result of a sudden flash of talent and hard work. The engine was run many years ago, which naturally led to this point, where it became visible to the world. “What if anybody becomes talented, who going to clear the bathroom?” - sometimes I heard this question.
The answer is simple.
“Happy people!”

There is a big difference between a person who runs 40 kilometers, and a person who runs a marathon and wants to win.
There is a big difference between kids who struggle and learn how to play piano by memorizing complicated pieces of genius. And me doing the same thing, but with a deep understanding of why I am doing this. I took piano lessons and know how hard it is for kids.
Don’t worry, Portals Academy is here!As a result of my research on game phenomena, I realized that I had been playing the game for the past 10 years. This inner game helped me to be happy, overcome difficulties and eventually develop my mind and achieve a state of talent.
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I developed a game-based learning platform that I called "Portals Academy". Instead of classes, there are portals and mentors instead of teachers, and the goal is to go through 100 Portals and achieve a new state or level.This is a completely new and unique, playful approach to learning and solving most of our problems.I worked in the IT industry for more than 15 years and managed to create a successful IT company. I saw how our software helped small companies to grow and achieve success, and I learned a valuable lesson.
The software can help us to grow!I started a new project that could help us to study and motivate us to overcome challenges.
Believe me, I know how it is impossible to make at least the first step.
The voice in our heads stops us and says: “You don’t need it!”, ”Somebody already did it!”, “Look! They better than you!”, “It’s going to take a lot of time!”, “Nobody cares!”. This voice never stops.
But then I jumped into the Portal…Happiness is much closer than we think, all we need to do is to confirm our direction.

‍The goal of the Portals Academy is to confirm your direction.