Flying into space with Oscar winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, trekking Mt. Everest with Philippe Cousteau by helicopter, taking selfies with wild elephants, this is the daily life for famed Russian businessman, philanthropist and designer Vasily Klyukin.
I first heard about the 39 year-old multi-millionaire after the infamous amfAR charity purchase he made two years ago, buying a $1.5 million ticket to journey on the Virgin Galactic flight into space alongside Oscar winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
I was privileged to meet Klyukin on the French Riviera where we sat down at the famed Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc. I wanted to find out why such a successful banker and real estate tycoon from Russia would leave it all behind for a lifetime of adventures across the globe.
Whether he is diving in the Mediterranean with Prince Albert of Monaco or Ferrari racing across the Nevada desert with Michelle Rodriguez, Vasily Klyukin is a real life Walter Mitty. While the character Walter Mitty is a person who fantasizes about a life much more exciting and glamorous than his own, Klyukin actually lives the life through his dreams and inspirations.
“I was very successful in business and being active in Russia I used my imagination to create opportunities every day” Klyukin tells me, “One day I decided I needed to live every day as my last day. It's the only way to devalue money in your brain."
"If you have one last month - you start to do many things people keep for tomorrow. Even on Mount Everest and the North Pole, I was typing ideas for my book and creating drawings for my designs. I left a copy of my book in ice in Everest and the next one I will take into space. Being successful in the corporate world was a challenge that I completed, it's time to write a bestseller, build a tower based on my design, and maybe get to the bottom of Mariana Trench like the great James Cameron.”
In his free time, from his four story, $50 million dollar villa in the golden square of Monte Carlo, Klyukin has also become well known for creating spectacular renderings of skyscrapers. His inspirations were featured in a massive coffee table book “Designing Legends” and this Spring he adds Science Fiction novelist to his illustrious resume.
Instead of calmly sitting on a yacht, he jumped from the 200-meter-high television tower in Auckland; he journeyed to Venezuela to swim in the highest waterfall Angel Falls; he traveled across jungles of America and he conquered the North Pole. Why do I admire his journeys so much? Because all of them are bought at charity events and raise enormous funds for AIDS research, the World Wildlife Fund and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
All of his travels have become sources for his architectural design inspirations: whether it is skyscrapers in the shape of Nika of Samothrace and Venus Milos, a hospital in the shape of a sailing-ship, or the futuristic yacht-transformer Monaco 2050 which has an upper deck transforming into a private plane, Klyukin constantly amazes with his outrageous creations.
It’s easy to see why his new novel “Collective Mind” is a sci-fi thriller as full of adventures as his restless real life. Like the author, the book’s lead character effects a great change in his life and goes beyond the limits of common laws. The action takes place in the near future about a young inventor who challenged society’s transformation utilizing artificial brains.
I read the book and it’s an absorbing and dynamic thriller with an unpredictable end. It makes you think of genuine values, love and true friendship, devotion and self-sacrifice, the freedom of choice and difficulties when you fight the establishment. In my opinion it’s the best fiction ever written by a wealthy tycoon, and I am sure someone will end up making the film version. Perhaps some of Klyukin’s celebrity friends may even star in it.
The future looks even brighter for Klyukin, with a sharp change in his life style, the transition from banking and real estate now include plans to build a stunning new skyscraper in Monte-Carlo (whose penthouse designer Roberto Cavalli has already committed to buying). Klyukin also has a second novel in the works, a spectacular celebrity adventure to Mongolia and a new baby arriving soon. As the film character Walter Mitty once said “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.[/entity]” Bravo Mr. Klyukin for a life well spent.
