Natalya Soboleva

Holding an executive position of a marketing director for a woman in a solely male business is, undoubtedly, a great responsibility, but what matters much more to me is that it’s my challenge and my fun, my initial motivation being the wish to do something I’d really enjoy. My hobby coincides with my profession.

I do yoga. There’s no other way to survive in Moscow. I’d award Nobel Prize to the founder of yoga and the genius who invented the TOD’s pills.

The worst cliché I come to encounter every day is the women stereotype: “All men are assholes.” Living with such a conviction equals everyday suicide.

The core criterion for assessing the design of a car, in my opinion, should be time: the longer it takes to go out of date, the better it is.

Avid car lover — that’s me. I’m one of those women who are perfectly capable of changing oil in their own car, and I don’t consider it to be some kind of a supernatural power.

I make sure that my team consists of people who are passionate about the brand. You can’t make someone’s eyes sparkle with interest forcibly, not even by increasing their salary, if they don’t feel for what they’re doing.

“Living in the fast lane” is my definition of our company’s target audience. Not because these people talk and walk fast, or break traffic laws. They are fast to adapt to the rapid changes, fast to find their way in the world around them, make instant decisions, and I match my definition perfectly.

My choice is MINI Cooper S and BMW X6.

Helping people can only be applicable if they ask you for it. Ideally, they’re supposed to look into your eyes when they do so.

When I was just starting with a job in car industry, a lot of my friends reproached me for having an underlying intention to find myself a husband. But everything fell into place later in life: my husband and I didn’t meet at work, and the friends who used to say that are long gone.

Privacy of one’s own home allows one to avoid the fuss and having to wear all the diamonds that were put away for a rainy day, so I enjoy having friends visit me at my place. Lifestyle of clubbing and dining out was getting a bit boring. Nowadays I enjoy cooking seven kilograms of cancers for the guests, after which we play scrabble or chess, or just watch a movie together.

Weather-induced depression is a good excuse for people who suffer from melancholy and other fashionable illnesses. To me, going with the flow seems like a pretty miserable venture.

My every morning begins with my husband’s smile. We start our mornings by making each other laugh and picking an appropriate line from some song to replace the traditional “Good morning!”

It’s crucial that the parties in the marriage don’t get bored with it, that you change roles, and allow your partner to play different characters. Generally, it’s the woman who manages this kind of processes in the family, but it could also be the least lazy one of the partners.

I rate honesty as the most important human quality. I was watching an interview with Garik Sukachev yesterday. I admire everything he does, but when I heard him answering the question about his worst character trait by saying that he lies, I felt terribly disappointed. When a person lies, you can see it in everything. That means he can lie to me in his song about his mood, his worldview… I’m his audience, after all, I’m the one watching his performance, and all I get is lies! I really hope that this was just another lie!

In my view, money has more to do not with the green colour, like we’re all used to imagining it, but rather grey. Finances constitute tools and means for achieving something, but they cannot serve as a goal of their own. The only reason one might need them is a valid goal that requires it.

The bravest thing I’ve ever done was moving to another city where I built my life practically from scratch. It was a well-reasoned decision: I’d graduated from a university and was looking for a path to carry on with my life. I wanted to fly, to do something completely different… Looking back, I think I’d probably never have had the guts for such a move now. But you never know.