I flew to Moscow in 2016 partly to meet an extraordinary man.
A man for whom work, life, and purpose have become one.
Albert Shiryaev, 86—a renowned mathematician and professor at Moscow State University.
He did his PhD next to the father of Probability Theory, Andrey Kolmogorov.
As a mathematician, I always admired the famous Russian mathematicians—and this was a reason I learned Russian.
It was a snowy Friday afternoon when I met Albert.
I had to convince a student to let me in as their guest otherwise it would have been impossible to enter the building.
I didn’t know if he was there but I was determined to find him.
While I was wandering in the long corridors, old photos on the walls caught my attention.
It was scholars who had passed away.
What struck me was that most of them got to live until their late 80’s or 90’s.
A coincidence?
How was that possible in a country where the life expectancy was only in the 105th position?
When I met him, I understood it wasn’t a coincidence.
This man’s aura was something else…
It was Friday afternoon and as you see in the picture I look exhausted, whereas his face is full of energy!
We had a short chat and then he said, “Angelos, I apologise but we are too busy today and I’ll have to go back to work”—and he left accompanied by his research students.
Later, I realised that this man doesn’t simply “work”.
I’ll never forget the respect and love he received from everyone around him.
The same love Andrey Kolmogorov gave and received from his students on those long walks in the forest talking about mathematics and life.
I understood why life is given to these people.
The ones who never retire.
The ones for whom work, life and purpose have become one.
I’ll finish with my favourite quote by James A. Michener:
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.”
Loving you, Angelos
