The Courage to be Disliked.

To be free out of living in someone else life. Episode #19

In my first year of junior high school, I took my first English class and realized how exciting things were in the world! I still remember how impressed I was.

Since then, I have dreamed of living in a foreign country. But I’ve not lived in any other country except Japan, where I was born and raised.

Writing about the startup landscape in Japan and my entrepreneurial life on Substack sometimes brings me some unexpected presents.

Today, I met a young woman, a so-called TCK (third-culture kid), who was born in Taiwan and grew up in several countries. Her father is Japanese, and her mother is Taiwanese. Such circumstances made her speak three languages. I envy a person like her.

By the way, she is interested in entrepreneurs and the Japanese startup ecosystem.

That’s why she is reading my Substack. My honor.

When we met in Daikanyama yesterday, she asked me how I see the startup landscape in Japan. So, I explained my perspective as I always explain below.

These conditions resulted in Japan becoming a Galapagos market.

My short thesis on the following slide is published in Tech in Asia. It is a paid article, but you can subscribe to it as a one-off, so please read it if you like.

After I saw her off, I read her Substack, and the story I randomly picked up inspired me. It was the confession she made about what she was afraid of and how she got rid of such “ugly” reasons.

But at the same time, my biggest decisions were always made out of fear. (omission) I was deeply terrified of being “unspecial”, so I pulled all nighters searching for + applying to internships. 

The above confession is not associated with the startup ecosystem in Japan.

Read her Substack, including other stories, to find out why she became interested in the Japanese startup ecosystem and how she came to want to contribute to its development.　Perhaps we can find out why.

But what caught my interest was her realization at a young age that the desire for approval does not bring true freedom, mental stability, or happiness.

I can tell from her writing that she is a philosophical and thoughtful person.

There is another reason why I was intrigued by her confession, which I happened to read.

Image from Wikipedia

I recently read a book about Alfred Adler, for one thing.

As those of you who have studied psychology know, he is an Austrian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychologist, and individual psychologist. He was one of the founders of modern personality theory and psychotherapy.

When I am consulted by young entrepreneurs (or even non-entrepreneurs), I explain that all problems come down to the issue of "people and money.”

Adler, on the other hand, says that all worries are worries about "human relationships.”

In other words, the desire for approval is the desire to be recognized by another person's values. He says it is a spirit of being willing not to be accepted by others, or even hated in some cases, to live one's own life.

Adlerian psychology says that what the other person thinks of you is their issue, not yours.

I don't know if she knows Adlerian psychology, but she must be brilliant and deeply spiritual.

Saying NO is not easy. Even if you have a clear reason and say NO in good faith and the other person hates you, it is their issue, not yours.

Contemplating my entrepreneurial life, I regret giving up the IPO of Interscope, which I co-founded.

Even though Webcrew, of which I am one of the co-founders, went public, I was not CEO or COO, and I was involved in the operation for just about a year and several months.

So this is the ugly “why” I always envy someone’s IPO.

However, the “why” I regret giving up the Interscope IPO and envying someone else's IPOs is to be accepted and admired by someone else.

It’s a life of living in someone else life.

If you understand it, it’s time to get rid of such an ugly “why.”