Doodle Card

 

Play a different game.
違う手を使おう。

 

If your daily life has no room for trying something new or different, that’s a bad sign.

Repeating the same thing over and over again only leads to boredom, not excellence. Many companies force their employees to follow standard procedures all the time, and waste their talent. In such environment, questioning the procedures is often considered “taboo”—in other words, a foolhardy attempt to challenge authority. Creative people—those who can figure out much better way to do the same thing (or do more) in less time—have no place to work comfortably.

I worked in such “restricted” environment for years. Now I hate doing the same thing repeatedly, regardless of frequency—even annual tax filings—so I always try a new way of doing thing whenever possible. But when I need to follow a certain procedure (like tax filings…), I always change how I work on it to get the same (or better) result. It’s a bit inefficient way to do that thing, but I can learn a lot about how an effective procedure should be.

We can never make a difference in anything if we don’t seek a difference. Take time to explore what you haven’t tried yet.

 

 

Be good & avoid evil.
親切になろう、邪悪さを避けよう。

 

This world is full of good and evil. While we often enjoy the good, the evil comes to us one after another.

The same applies to our business. Someone would call you useless in front of many people. People around you would talk about bad things of others who are not there. Your boss might tell you to forge a company paperwork or cook the book. Or your employee would steal company’s money or equipments.

We can choose to be good even when we are surrounded by the evil. If you choose to be good, the evil might harass you. But always remember that NOT becoming evil is a big win. Removing the evil is a big win. Staying away from the evil is also a big win, even though you might feel you are beaten by them. In the end, they will need to pay a price for being evil—which can be extremely big.

 

 

Take time to use it well.
時間を活用するための時間を取ろう。

 

8,760 hours per year. We all have the same length of time, but we don’t always use it well.

What is a good use of our time? There is no single answer. Arguing about what is right means nothing because we are all different and have a different purpose of life. If someone tries to persuade you to use your time in a certain way, they are most likely trying to sell you something or control you for the sake of their purpose.

All we can do is to live this day to the fullest. We better take time to figure out how we use our time today. It’s not a waste of time; it’s the first action to make good use of the day we’re just given as a gift.

 

 

Learn less, create more.
より少なく学び、より多く創ろう。

 

By default, we all are programmed to learn too much.

Remember school exams. We tried to absorb knowledge as much as possible, but what we saw on the exam paper was only part of it. After we graduated, the knowledge became completely useless. But through those experiences, learning too much becomes our basic rule of conduct.

Learning itself is a good thing, but learning too much often paralyzes our thoughts. If we only focus on remembering something and don’t generate ideas, our idea muscle atrophies. Even worse, we often would not be aware of them—because learning something can also give us a feeling of satisfaction, even when we don’t use the knowledge we’ve just acquired.

Creating something is almost always the best way to learn something. Cook a meal. Make a presentation or speech. Form a local community. Start a business. Or anything from scratch.

At the beginning we might keep failing and make mistakes, but those experiences are invaluable. The more we create, the more we begin to know what to learn. At this point, we no longer seek any excessive information; we focus on acquiring knowledge that matter the most to the thing we are creating.

If you feel comfortable about being exposed to too much information all the time, it’s time to reprogram your code of conduct. Unlike computer programs, we all have the ability to do so ourselves.

 

 

Show up and tell.
姿を見せて語ろう。

 

Now that the idea of selling things on the Internet might be for non-savvy people.

Later in 1990s, the Internet was the revolutionary way of selling things. Smart people loved that idea, and innovators and early adopters eagerly bought things on the Internet.

Twenty years later, the Internet is so crowded and mixture of the brilliant and the mediocre. The majority is the latter. Online marketers are keen to sell their “solutions” to sell effectively on the Internet, without giving assurance about the outcome, because they also desperately struggle with selling their things.

Contrary to common belief, nowadays it’s often more effective and efficient to sell things or services offline rather than online. Face-to-face approach still works. A trust-building dialogue is crucial. Location still do matters. Merchants with a physical presence have many opportunities now, although they don’t always make the most of them.

Reconsider opening your online store by using a free service. Zillions of similar stores already exist. Stop creating and uploading sappy YouTube videos, because almost no one would watch.

Instead, go outside. Show your product to someone, and see how they respond. Or provide someone with your service for free, and ask their feedback. Takeaways from those offline experiences is indispensable, regardless whether your business goes online or not.