They say that different people in their mindset and behavior are similar to dogs of different breeds.
There are fighting dogs and the same people; there are guard dogs and the similar people; there are hunting dogs, there are guide dogs, service dogs, rescuers. There are also just decorative ones.
If you didn't know, there are some that are grown just to be eaten…

If we follow this classification, I have always been and am a bloodhound. I always loved to climb somewhere, learn something, explore something; from the first grade I read books about travel, Sherlock Holmes and about the construction of submarines, airplanes and spaceships. Like many, from early childhood I was a fan of the TV show "What? Where? When?"
Therefore, do not be surprised that once upon a time, quite a long time ago, I decided to deal personally with the topic of factors that make it possible to achieve success in life (and came to completely unexpected conclusions in it, writing as a result of "Driving into debts"), and later, after years of training, I tried to "hack" katas.
That is why, to be more clear, let me briefly outline my fate and, as it is customary to say, "define the competencies" that allowed me to write my books:

I was born in the USSR in 1972 in Kerch. Despite of this, I spent whole life in Siberia.
As a child, I attended all kinds of clubs, engaged in various sports, went hiking, including speleological. But I've always dreamed of karate: I've read magazines and watched some movies about it.
Also I dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot (in order to be able to get into the cosmonaut squad, what was quite a normal aspiration for a Soviet child).
But I lived much more cheerful and diverse life:
To begin with, I survived the collapse of the country and Perestroika. Pilots, especially military ones, have become useless to anyone. Graduated from Novosibirsk State Technical University with a degree in management and economics, I refused to continue at postgraduate study (although they invited me very much), because I considered myself unworthy to teach others without knowing anything in practice myself (but now I know a lot of things to teach).
I served in the army (intelligence), then made my way to the Tax Police. I rose to the rank of captain. I had a second category of access to information classified as a state secret. I also had a younger brother at that time; and he was much smarter than me; however, having started earning crazy money at the age of about twenty, he got hooked first on light, and then predictably plunged into heavy drugs, which resulted in suicide.
In 1991 I took up Kyokushin (the ban on karate in the USSR was lifted only in 1989). Before that, having lost my purpose in life, I smoked “like a locomotive” since high school; a pack of cigarettes without a filter a day (at least) was the norm for me; only thanks to karate training from the twenty-fifth time I quited.
When I was conscripted into the army, I had been practicing karate (and all that it included) for only four years. But it was such training that when the doctors at the medical board measured the volume of my lungs (and I was a former hard-core smoker who choked on the slightest run), they could not believe the results of their measurements. The numbers didn’t match my asthenic physique in any way.
Since 1991 I practice karate (in groups and independently) all the time. For several years, I was a coach – I led my own group. 28.01.2007 passed for 1 dan. When I was asked at work in 2019, I easily and with a good margin passed on the “Golden Badge” of sports.
I jumped with a parachute and from a ten-meter tower into the water upside down. During diving classes, I dived to a depth of 25 meters. I can swim in all styles, I can dive in the pool for 30 - 40 meters. In the mode of relaxation, I was able not to breathe for more than 2 minutes. I ran 2 hours of cross-country. The maximum distance I ran without stopping was 25 km (in summer, in heat). Capable of hanging upside down in gravity boots for 12 - 15 minutes.
I have been practicing yoga, Zen, Taoism and other Eastern practices; studied a lot of books about Western psychology, Eastern philosophies and martial arts (in particular, about Kyokushin).
I worked at a construction site, in warehouses, as an administrator in a shopping center, in a semi-legal pawnshop (a great place to study the full range of human vices, as well as the true value of words and things; it was during this period that “Driving into debts” appeared from accumulated materials).
For five years, I "had done time" in the Precinct Election Commission.
A music lover, I have an absolute musical ear. Thanks to the love of music, various courses on tape cassettes, I learned English on my own. Then, using various manuals, I also figured out its structure and grammar. Later I improved the language during work, personal communication and resolution of all kinds of conflict and crisis situations with English-speaking representatives of various countries, nationalities and airlines at the international airport. I have read a large amount of fiction, and also mastered a considerable number of specialized literature in various fields in English.
I participated in competitions in various sports, in fights according to various rules and almost without them (it was prohibited except to bite, but to hit in the throat and in the groin; and it was never known with whom I would fight – with a boxer or a kicker, a wrestler or a melee, a fan of Thai boxing or just someone aggressive inadequate). I had to fight on the street too; I had to break noses and bones several times...On the other hand, I dislocated my fingers and toes, received several cuts on my face and a crack in my sternum, broke ribs during sparring and belt exems; destroyed tooth enamel during Muay Thai training and boxing competitions. Once I broke my leg (5 months on crutches), and also half my life my head – over its meaning (both my specific and life in general).
Nevertheless, married; I have a daughter and two sons.