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Our creativity is unlimited.
私たちの創造性に限界はない。

 

My businesses are gaining momentum, and I often consider whether to stop creating and posting daily doodles on Instagram so that I can save time. Ironically though, my business is growing because of the creativity I developed through my daily doodling.

The quality of my daily Doodle Cards is way below the average of my works. That’s because I always focus on my intuitive inspiration, not the quality of my work, without worrying about what others say or react. Sometimes people like my doodles, sometimes don’t, and the most of the time, they don’t care at all. That’s fine—that’s what creativity is all about.

Because of my daily creative practice, the fear of rejection is getting much smaller than before. That makes me bolder, and helps me generate crazy ideas—and some people do love crazy ideas. I shouldn’t stop doodling, should I? 🙂

 

 

Hear your soul.
魂に耳を傾けよう。

 

We want to believe that we like (or love) what we do. But that’s not necessarily true.

Two decades ago, I thought I loved accounting and finance. I also thought I was lucky enough to have a decent job in that field. But that was completely wrong—what I really love is in fact creating something well-designed or well-organized. I was too afraid to admit that my accounting and finance job was far from it, because that means I had to accept that I made a completely wrong choice of my career. I kept trying to believe that accounting and finance was my thing—and such a false storytelling finally led me to a nervous breakdown.

Many people obsessively focus on the belief of ‘do what you love, love what you do.’ The opposite of this belief—do what you hate, hate what you do—will certainly drive us mad, but this is the reality we face from time to time.

The problem is, we are not always willing to accept that we do what we hate or we hate what we do. We worry that accepting the fact would let us down or make us worthless. But it’s completely opposite; when our ego surrenders, our soul starts telling us what we really love and shows us the way to get there. What we need to do is just listen to it and follow it.

 

 

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.