No excuses: "I move people" - an interview with the head of web projects Igor Gakov

Igor Gakov is the head of the Open Planet project. This is a unique travel site. What is its uniqueness, because there are thousands of travel resources? The fact that it is one of the few portals that tells about tourism for people with special needs. These are people with disabilities, the elderly, mothers with small children and other people for whom the journey requires more logistics than packing a suitcase and buying a ticket.

In an interview with Lifehacker, Igor gave a number of valuable advice to people who love and want to travel (including despite the lack of mobility).

The origins of entrepreneurship

- Hello, Nastya!

- I am from Moscow. But I keep trying to understand whether I am a native Muscovite or not. There are two approaches. Some believe that the fourth generation is considered indigenous; others that first.

My grandparents came to Moscow in the 1930s. They were villagers, but they came to the capital in search of a better life.

- The roots, of course, are felt. I feel gorgeous in nature, even despite my lack of mobility.

In Russia, nature is very barrier, in contrast to Europe, where even in the forest there are well-groomed paths.

But for me it is all the same to be outside the city - a complete thrill.

- It's subjective. I've been to many places. Nature is beautiful everywhere. I felt comfortable in the Crimean Bakhchisarai, and in the steppes, and on the Russian Plain.

For me, the temperature regime is more important. I don't like the cold. Over the past 17 years that I have been in a stroller, every year I love winter less and less.

- Curious. I learned a lot and quickly. I read a lot, memorized poems in pages.

There is a family "corporate" story on this topic. I was 3 years old, and I knew "Borodino" by heart. On May 9, we always went to visit friends of the family, where grandmother Zina is a partisan, she went through the whole war, the "iconostasis" of orders and medals. The parade then started at 9 am. We arrived, the table had already been laid. With the opening of the parade, adults drank the first glass of "For Victory", and after the end of the parade, as a rule, "my way out" came. They put me on a stool and read Borodino.

I still remember quite large chunks of this piece.:)

- Not at all. One who is smart or well-read and erudite does not become an excellent student at school. An excellent student is someone who is liked by the teacher, who is assiduous and diligent.

I wasn't like that.

I remember that the first two classes at school I frankly missed, because my classmates were studying what I had known for a long time.

Besides, my mother raised me alone. She had her own tasks - work, part-time work, making money. I was left on my own and spent a lot of time not with textbooks, but on the street with friends.

Later, by the time I was 7, I had comrades who could be called intellectuals. With them, instead of playing football, we played in a kind of state. It was such a world that we built based on the many books we read. We had our own money, titles (I was a duke), we made our own laws, fought with fictitious opponents, etc. But among the rest of the guys, of course, we were "freaks." Although we did not care at all - we were interested.

Well, it's not hard to guess that I had good grades only in humanitarian subjects.

- It so happened that in the 8th grade, I skipped more than half of the school hours. They told me: “Boy, we won't take you to the 9th grade. If you want, go to another school. As I imagined that these are new people, to join the established team … From the alternative: to look for a new school or go to college - I chose the latter.

But I absolutely did not understand what I want. I liked reading, I swallowed dozens of books. However, then it seemed that learning was not cool.

Now, with age, you understand that learning is very cool.

In the last 3-4 years I have studied a lot (both at the Higher School of Economics and the British Higher School of Art and Design).

So I decided to go with someone for the company. I had a friend who also did not make it to the 9th grade. He decided to enter the technical school of refrigeration units. I told my mother that I would go with him. She didn't mind. I bought me a textbook for preparing for exams, which I leafed sluggishly and realized that somehow there was too much mathematics …

And one fine day my mother came and said that she had submitted my documents to the printing college. I was extremely surprised. I asked my mom why? She said, “Well, you don’t know what you want? And this is a good place, next to the house. Then you go to college."

Mom's strategy turned out to be absolutely correct.

Igor Gakov: "At the age of 14 I unloaded wagons"

- No.:) I went to college for 3, 5 years, but did not go to college. Not because I failed my exams, but because I simply didn’t enter.

I was already so grown up - I wanted an independent life.

- I started working much earlier. As I said, my mother raised me alone, provided me as best she could. But still not enough. Classmates and dressed better, and had some "gadgets".

At the age of 14, girls already wanted to like it and dress fashionably. So I started looking for a job. Found it pretty quickly. I always seemed older than I really was. Therefore, I managed to get in at the Savyolovsky railway station to unload the wagons.

It was a great job - with the men, carrying 50-kilogram bales of tobacco.

- Mom's example. She is already over 70, but I have never seen or see her just relaxing. For her, rest is a change of activity. I am the same. When I lie down on the sofa and pick up a book or turn on some kind of movie, the question arises in my head: "Did I deserve it?..". Therefore, it was always strange for me how people can do nothing all day, and for them is this normal? Just as uninteresting …

- I bought boots. Yugoslavian.:)

- I wondered this question.

For me, the determining factor is whether a person works or not. Everyone should work.

As my friend says, if a person is sick, his place is in a hospital, if rehabilitation is needed, in a rehabilitation center, but then he has to go to work. There are no alternatives. Otherwise, existence is simply meaningless.

But, unfortunately, for many, a wheelchair is really an excuse not to work. I call these people "space tourists." Because their year goes something like this: first one rehabilitation center, then a couple of weeks at home, then another, again a little at home, then somewhere to a resort. The whole year is spent on trips to rehabilitation centers, where they, in fact, go not for treatment, but to hang out.

- Important. But rehabilitation is also needed. If this is really work on yourself, and not just a pastime. For example, once a year for a month I go to a rehabilitation center in order to get nonspecific physical activity for myself and pump up my weakened back muscles.

Open planet

- In 1997 I got sick. The illness brought me to the wheelchair. Having gone through the difficult primary path of adaptation, I realized that the time when I was fed by my legs is over. You need to look for something new.

I bought a computer. I began to think what profession I would like to master in the IT sphere? I wrote the possible options on a piece of paper and realized that "site building" is closer to me.

Found a guy who taught me the basics. Under his supervision, I made one site, then another on my own. And off we go.

- No, I got my first money on the Internet in a different way. He worked for a British company that conducted social research. They collected statistical information on paper. My task was to digitize and encode data.

The work is, oddly enough, hard. You need to be extremely careful and have perseverance. But in 2-3 months I became the fastest coder in the agency and was making 35-40 dollars a day.

But then this work disappeared. I began to deal with all sorts of projects in the field of development and support of sites.

- Yes. Invatravel.ru or "Open Planet", as we now call this project, is a site about tourism for people with disabilities. We position ourselves as a recommendation service. Our content is unique - it is the personal travel experience of people with limited mobility.

- Also my own experience. I believe that you always need to do what you know well, in which you have competence. Three points coincided here: I was versed in the Internet, in the life of people with limited mobility (I myself have been for many years), and it was interesting for me to travel.

By the way, I have always loved to travel. Has always been easy-going. You know, there are people who say: "Oh, what are you, I better go home - I like to sleep in my bed!". This is not about me. I can sleep anywhere: on someone else's bed, on the floor, in a tent, on the ground, if it's warm …

I also felt that by doing a travel website, I myself would be traveling more.:) In fact, this is certainly not the case. To travel a lot, you need to do something that generates income.

- The first time, knocked down. You just had to go the way to understand: you lost something, but gained something.

I have a friend who is completely blind. He has a whole theory on this. It's very simple.

If a person loses something of his physical capabilities (the ability to walk, see, hear, etc.), he (as compensation) gets something in return. Is always.

This is what comes in return, he calls "extrability." They are different, but all people with physical limitations have them.

I agree with this theory.

- As my wife says, I move people.:) Probably, really, my extrability, instead of the lost ability to walk upright, is to be able to organize some things remotely.

- Including. The Open Planet Project started out as a personal blog. I didn’t have enough information when I was going to go somewhere: there is practically no data on the availability of this or that place on the Runet, and information on English-language sites is often irrelevant. I decided that I needed to create a website where I would share my experience.

After some time, I realized that there are still people who have such information, and they are ready to share it. They can be conditionally divided into 3 types. The first are those who can write a text, that is, it is not difficult for them, and even like to translate the verbal into the epistolary. The second are those who can only tell. At the same time, some can only tell because they have no desire to write text, and others because it is physically difficult for them to type text on the keyboard (we interview them). And the third are people who can neither tell nor write, but they have great photos from their trips.

- Not only. It is very different. Someone draws information for themselves, someone for their loved ones.

By the way, there was an absolutely wonderful story. One girl set out to "give" her elderly mother, who is under 70 and does not walk well, Venice. I found the information I needed on our website, then called me for additional advice. In general, her mother saw Venice. Then they called and thanked for a long time. I said the best gratitude is the trip report. This is how the article "Venice for the Elderly" appeared.

- No, there are others. But they do not generate anything, do not create. Almost all of their content is copy-paste. Therefore, they are not competitors to us.

For me, the Open Planet is a constant search. I understand well the life of people with limited mobility, so I try to do the most useful project for them. For example, I have a car, I do not need to go to work by public transport. But one day I pick up and go to the office by bus. From this comes the article.

Igor Gakov: "the world is not yet friendly to people in wheelchairs"

Life hacks for travelers

- Unfortunately, the world (even Europe) is still not friendly to people in wheelchairs. That's why, hack # 1 - be ready for this and do not be afraid of anything. The world is not covered with ramps. From time to time you will have to ask strangers for help. This is fine.

Hack # 2 - always check and double-check the information you find on the web. This is especially true for hotel reservations. Booking.com is a convenient and time-tested system, but you need to understand that this is just an intermediary. In other words, if the hotel wants to force you to their conditions, then Booking.com is not a decree to them. When you book a room through the system, the hotel has no obligation to you. Do not be lazy to call / write to the hotel and duplicate information from the booking request (that you are, for example, on a wheelchair, that you need such and such conditions). Do not hesitate to ask the staff to take photographs of the rooms for you, measure the width of the doorways, if you have doubts about their adaptability from the photographs.

Hack # 3 - contact the service that deals with helping people with limited mobility at airports in advance. Call and warn that on such and such a date, at about such and such time you will arrive at the airport and you will need help. Keep your phone and email contacts in your notebook.

Hack # 4 - if you rent a car, then rent it properly. How does it usually happen? He came running, gave the keys, and ran on. You don't have to do that. Ask the person who accepts the car from you to check if everything is in order with it and write you the appropriate piece of paper. This will save you from force majeure debiting of money from your card.

Hack # 5 - if you are driving your car, find out how it should be marked for parking. The fact is that there are countries where there is enough universal badge "disabled" on the windshield and rear window, and there are countries where the right to use a specialized parking lot is received only by those who have local badges pasted on.

Hack # 6 - buy insurance with a small time margin. It is not expensive. For example, if you are driving from 1 to 10, then take insurance from 1 to 11 or (better) 12. Why? Because insurance companies, if the insured event occurs on the last day of the insurance period, in every possible way prevent from providing treatment in the host country. They will do everything to put you on a plane and send you to Russia for treatment. But if you have one day's supply, it will be more difficult for them to do that.

The traveler may not return

- There are many opinions. For me personally, this is how to live several lives at the same time. After all, the scenario that I have here in Russia is very understandable. I speak Russian, communicate with a certain circle of people, do certain things.

Overseas scenarios are completely different.

People there do not speak Russian, they have a different culture and a different life. This is very interesting for me, because for a while you yourself become different.

They say that it is worth visiting a couple of European countries, and you can no longer go to the Old World - everything is the same. Nothing like this. I drove from Germany by car through Austria to Northern Italy. Even countries as close as Germany and Austria turned out to be completely different, not to mention Italy. Even the regions of one state are very different.

And one more aspect. There is the film "Broken Sky", where one character says that the tourist differs from the traveler in that the latter may not return. It means a lot to me. Because a person should be where he feels good, where he is harmonious. And this is not necessarily the country where he was born …

- Not yet. Haven't been everywhere yet.

- From the nearest plans - Holland for the May holidays, we are going to ride handbikes.