Doodle Card

 

Be different.
異なる存在でいよう。

 

I’m an early bird, and sometimes send emails or messages at five or six in the morning.

People say, “Why the heck did you email me so early? Do you want to give me a feeling of pressure? :)”

Well, that’s the one side of the story. I usually go to bed before 11 PM, and feel intimidated by the emails or messages that people send to me late at night. That often makes me feel like they tell me to work late.

Each one of us lives our lives in our own way. We don’t need to feel pressured by what others do. We don’t need to change our own way—the best way to make the best version of ourselves—to what others do either. We are all different, and that’s what a human being is all about.

 

 

See behind the mask.
仮面の後ろを見よう。

 

How do you deal with passive-aggressive people?

A decade ago, I was sick and tired of dealing with them in a corporate environment. They always thought they were right. They didn’t do anything proactively so that they were able to avoid taking ownership of anything. They were quite reluctant to do something new. And if something wrong happened, they would say, “Well, we thought that your decision and the instructions you gave us were wrong, but we had to follow because you’re a leader.”

Now that I’m self-employed, but I still see this kind of people quite often. They just drain my energy. I wish I were able to stay away from passive-aggressive people for the rest of my life. But it will never happen unless I shut myself off from everybody and the world.

All I can do is to improve myself and learn how to get around problems of passive-aggressive people—isn’t it?

 

 

Take your hobbies seriously.
趣味に真剣になろう。

 

I have no time for a hobby these days. I don’t even know what my hobbies are. Perhaps it doesn’t matter how I call them; no matter what I do, I take seriously.

Once we start doing something seriously, it can turn into an opportunity. There are many people who turned their hobbies into their businesses, as you might have seen some of them around you.

Hobbies are NOT for killing time. They can develop your skills, explore your creativity, and create a new business opportunity—if you take them seriously.

 

 

Seek the flow.
「流れ」を求めよう。

 

We can create our best work when we devote ourselves to something we forget about time.

The work might not be the best from other people’s point of view. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we focus on something and do our best. And if we keep doing that, someday our work will become too good to ignore.

 

 

Do what you want.
やりたいことをやろう。

 

We often become passionate about something, but our passion usually doesn’t last forever.

It happens to anyone. You don’t have to make an excuse. Do whatever you want at any given time. Do everything you want. Do as many things as you can.

When you think you’ve found something important and your passion about it will last—verify it. And if your passion is true, congratulations! You hit a jackpot.

Don’t expect that you will hit a jackpot on your first attempt. It never happens to most of us. The person who hit a jackpot is someone who kept trying until he hit a jackpot.