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 BEAUTIFULLY DANGEROUS 'Uncommon Lessons on Living & Leading Without Fear' Exclusive Interview with Yuly Grosman Featured in 'Innerviews' Hosted by Allié McGuire There are lives that unfold quietly — and then there are lives that shout. Yuly Grosman’s story is the latter: a journey that began with an escape from the Soviet Union and evolved into a symphony of survival, risk, and revelation. In his book The Most Beautiful and Dangerous Business: Uncommon Lessons for Unstoppable Leadership, Yuly invites us to see that leadership isn’t found in safety, but in the art of daring beautifully. ALLIÉ: You’ve lived a life that defies borders—escaping the USSR, rebuilding in Israel, growing a business that spans continents—but before the danger, before the destiny, who were you, Yuly, as a child? What did the world feel like to that boy before he learned what it meant to fight, to build, and to lead? Who were you? YULY: Wow, that’s an unprepared question. Okay, I’ll try my best. So imagine yourself, a 12-year-old child growing up in the USSR. We have a joke that we didn’t have toys. The best toys were a piece of wood nailed to the floor. But that’s just a joke. Moving from the USSR to Israel after Gorbachev made his announcement and the Berlin Wall came down, there was fear because nobody knew for how long that border would stay open. So my parents took the opportunity, and we ran to Israel. I didn’t know much about Israel—maybe I saw a movie or two. When I got there, it was the first time in my life I saw yogurt, the first time I saw things I had never seen in Russia. As Jews, we were supposed to feel fear and face antisemitism. When we arrived in Israel in 1990, there were many families like mine—well-educated engineers, professors, doctors—who couldn’t find jobs, which happens in most countries with waves of immigration. Israeli employers often hired repatriated families because they asked for lower pay and were highly educated. Of course, that created frustration and tension within local Israeli families. I remember hearing parents talk about it at home—arguments that turned into resentment. As a 12-year-old going to school, I was bullied. Israeli kids would hide in the bushes and throw stones, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes—not just at me, but at others like me. We were a small community back then. Two years later, when more immigrants came, things slowly changed. But those early years were painful. That’s what pushed me to study martial arts. I started with Kung Fu, later Karate and Krav Maga. I was 12 when I started. That was my first boost. My first business began when I was 14. I was a young serial entrepreneur, and that business generated most of the income that helped my parents buy an apartment. Imagine celebrating your Bar Mitzvah at 13, while your parents wore gas masks in an isolated room because there was also a war with Saddam Hussein. But not everything was bad. There were beautiful moments, too. I’ve worked since I was 12, and everything I learned and achieved started with resilience, communication, self-defense, and understanding how to open doors and talk to people. That’s all in my book. ALLIÉ: That’s still kind of blowing my mind. At 14, you started your own business. What was this business? YULY: Selling paintings and flower bouquets door to door. That was my first introduction to the flower industry. It’s a small part of my book where I talk about learning about flowers when I was 13. The business combined a few kids like me who needed money and wanted to help their parents. I couldn’t run the business alone, so I shared my ideas and strategy with my parents, and we launched together. That’s how it started. ALLIÉ: Wow, at such a young age. Your story is filled with moments when survival wasn’t a choice—it was necessity. When you think about the hardest chapter, the one that nearly broke you, what did endurance look like then? YULY: There have been many moments in my life that almost broke me, but I always found a way to move forward. It’s no secret anymore—it’s in my book. I’m a disabled veteran of the Israeli military. After my second surgery, I became addicted to painkillers for many years. Eventually, I realized I had a problem, and I found a way to fight it and overcome it. Sports and business were a big part of my recovery. ALLIÉ: You’ve moved between worlds that seem to contradict each other—training Special Forces and cultivating flowers. Yet in both, there’s a symmetry of precision, patience, and purpose. When did you first realize that beauty and danger weren’t opposites, but partners in the same kind of dance? YULY: They complement each other—one is part of the other. After the military, I worked in hospital security in Israel. It was a very tense environment, full of aggression and frustration—especially from families of patients. You eventually realize you can’t fight aggression with aggression. That’s when I began to understand the power of communication and empathy. We called it “Stop violence without violence.” You learn to de-escalate conflict by understanding the person’s emotions. Later, I needed a break from that intensity and joined a Russian-Israeli flower export company. I didn’t know how to grow flowers—I’d probably kill your roses if you asked me to—but I saw opportunity. Kenya was exporting all its flowers to Holland, where they were auctioned and distributed globally. I thought, Why not cut out the middle step? I built a supply chain directly from growers to markets, reducing transportation costs by 30%. I even advised growers on what to grow—not how, but what varieties would fit future trends. For example, predicting what lipstick colors women would wear in Europe five years from now helped determine which flower shades to grow. It created an indirect economic and social impact in Africa—building roads, villages, and electricity around expanding farms. And here’s the connection: I once used a rose stem as a tool in my workshop. It can de-escalate aggression, shift focus, and even reduce stress. It’s symbolic—a rose can bring opportunity, peace, and perspective. Beauty and danger do dance together.  ALLIÉ: That’s beautiful. Your book shares uncommon lessons born not from theory but from a life lived at full tilt—in risk, responsibility, and relentless pursuit. Of all the lessons you’ve carried, which one still challenges you the most, the one you have to keep relearning no matter how far you’ve come? YULY: Stay human. Be real. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Keep fighting for what you believe in. And be creative—society needs that more than ever. Technology is incredible—I use ChatGPT all the time to help me structure my thoughts as a non-native English speaker—but creativity and real-world experience can’t be replaced. Creativity and clarity of mind matter most. ALLIÉ: I love that. You’ve had so much diverse field experience that you now use to empower others—to help leaders lead better. Let’s talk about the title of your book, The Most Beautiful and Dangerous Business. It feels like a reflection of life and leadership. In your experience, what makes a leader truly unstoppable? Is it fearlessness in the face of danger or the courage to lead beautifully—with heart, humanity, and humility? YULY: I think it’s about how leaders manage situations. I’m also a bodyguard instructor, so I think about risk assessment all the time. In elite security, we’re trained to prevent danger before it happens—to anticipate and mitigate risk. Unfortunately, many leaders sit in their offices and delegate tasks without firsthand understanding. True leadership requires field experience. Leaders should be on the ground—visiting packing rooms, farms, production floors—to see how things actually work. Otherwise, decisions are made based on filtered opinions. Field experience builds critical thinking and better judgment. ALLIÉ: That’s great advice. Well, thank you so much. I feel like there are so many more layers and chapters of you yet to explore—and those are things we can find in your book, right? YULY: Absolutely. And one of those chapters is how I met my wife. Picture this: I’m in Nairobi with my dog—he’s taller than me when standing, and I’m 6’1”—and somewhere nearby is a woman I’ve never met. Years later, she takes a photo of a poster advertising my self-defense classes but never calls. Two years after that, she loses her business partner in a terrorist attack at a complex where I had previously done a security assessment. She flew to Kenya to organize things and decided her team needed training. That’s how we finally met—through tragedy but in the right place, at the right time. We now have a child born in Kenya and a beautiful life together. ALLIÉ: Wow. That’s quite a story—the timing of the universe is always something incredible. YULY: I always believe that things happen at the right time and in the right place. ∎ 
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