With his app he wants to beat Whatsapp. Here is the story of the young Russian who made it on the web with Telegram and Vk

His name is Pavel Durov. They had already renamed him the Russian Mark Zuckerberg. But at some point he was forced to flee his country, because the government was angry with him. He had to start all over again.

Pavel, along with his brother Nikolai, is the owner of Telegram. It is the app similar to WhatsApp that is climbing the charts of the Apple and Android stores.

Today he is a web guru and is doing very well. He is 36 years old and a multimillionaire. And even though he is Soviet, he has attended preschool in Turin for years.

In 2011 something upsets his life: the police arrived at his home. He was forced to leave Russia and no longer work at his first company. He is talking about VK, a social network like Facebook.

So he was forced to reinvent himself. And I found his life experience enlightening and taught me something more. It can probably be a stimulus to you too.

Keep reading until the end, you will understand what I mean.

But the troubles with the Soviet State Duma (the majority political groups based in Moscow) were not his only problem to face.

AS A YOUNG MAN, THEY BULLY HIM BUT HE IS STRONGER; HE ALREADY WANTED BE THE BEST

Pavel’s father is called Valery Durov and he was a professor of philology. He moved from St. Petersburg to Turin to teach.

And so also the young Pavel followed him. Only in 2001 did the Durov family return to Russia where Pavel continued his classical studies starting in Italy and then graduated in philology (like his father) at the University of St. Petersburg.

But the experience in Italy marks it.

A school teacher recalls that Pavel stood out from other students. “He had some special features that did not appeal to all of his classmates.”

He had a difficult relationship with part of them. And he was judged for his marked ambition at such a young age.

At the Turin school, for example, there was an educational competition and he wanted at all costs to win a medal.

He can’t get any awards in Italy. But his desire to do so emerges immediately as a young man.

After graduating he started an entrepreneurial activity. At 22, Pavel Durov started the Russian social network VKontakte (VK). It is 2006.

And this is where they begin to call it the Zuckerberg of Russia. And in fact he has suffered success and wealth. He should have had a downhill road instead he risks crashing.

Here’s what happened…

In early December 2011, after the elections to the State Duma, there were street protests in Russia.

Protesters organized and networked mainly through closed groups on Pavel’s social network, VKontakte.

So the FSB officials asked the VK administration to block these groups. But he refused. And once again, as in class, he finds himself on the side of the minority and the weakest forced to suffer.

He is disobedient and must flee Russia. But this will be his rebirth.

THE KEY ROLE OF HIS BROTHER NIKOLAJ

Pavel would not have gotten out of the mud if he hadn’t had his brother. A little genius. Together they make a team.

Nikolai Durov is a reserved type. But it is he who in silence has the idea of the blockchain that is the basis of how Telegram works.

And so he infected Pavel and the messaging app was born.

– It is completely free.

– People like it for the security it guarantees its users.

On the website of the app you can read a sentence that dictates the cardinal principles of the company.

“Telegram is not meant to make a profit, it will never sell advertising, and it will never accept outside investment.”

And then…

“It is not for sale. We are not building a database but a messaging program for people.”

And the message on the site works.

So in a few years it has become the rival application of Whatsapp. And it has been noticed these days. When Zuckerberg’s software went haywire for several hours.

Do you know what happened in those down hours?

Telegram has reached a new record in terms of new user registrations and business activities.

“It welcomed over 70 million users who took refuge on Pavel’s platform with the blue logo with a paper airplane in the middle.”

HAVING SERIOUS PROBLEMS FORGED HIS CHARACTER

Today Pavel is one of the most influential figures in global online communication.

But he started out as the loser in the class and turned away from the others. And then like Russia’s villain, he was banned from there too.

It is common sense to think that problems are always a bad thing. That having a troubled and painful past is a factor to be avoided.

If you think so, I’m not saying that we should get into trouble or else we wouldn’t be able to cut our teeth.

– But if big obstacles happen to us and we have to start over, don’t despair.

– Because life makes strange turns and in the end, if trust is not lacking, the result will come.

– But basically there must be the ambition that Pavel had.

As a teenager he could have lived the experience of being bullied in the classroom as a distrust of life and of people.

He didn’t and he continued to follow his big dreams.

Today he is 36 years old and has an estimated assets of 17.2 billion dollars. He is the 112th richest man in the world according to Forbes.

And he founded Telegram only in 2013.

This messaging application has some features that make it very popular:

– Telegram has end-to-end encryption only in so-called Secret Chats

– Prevents messages from being re-sent

– The screenshot cannot be taken

– calls are encrypted at every moment

– Telegram can be used without a telephone number (even if one is required for initial registration)

– It has a cloud for messages, photos, videos and documents of up to 2Gb

In other words, it is a very inviting alternative. I have already installed it on my smartphone. And you?

Now if you want to have fun, and read cool things to tell your friends and that will amaze you, follow my Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/SirNickNite

Nico Nobili —Alias SirNickNite