[Irregular Series] A High School Teacher Learns Business (1): Digging for the Vein of Needs

I am now in my 15th year as a teacher.
I am a civil servant who never oversteps the rules,
working diligently within the framework of society,
but...

When I was a university student,
I had a rather careless personality,
and I loved playing silly pranks.

For example, submitting reports.

Instead of using the report submission box
provided at the university,
I made a game out of going out of my way
to deliver them to the professors' home mailboxes.

It's unthinkable now, but
until a little while ago, students could easily
obtain directories of university professors' addresses.

What are university professors' homes like?

Talking with friends,
that curiosity was the starting point.
Just around that time,
I had just gotten my driver's license,
so for the sake of a drive,
I drove my car toward the professors' homes
in Saitama New Urban Center, Den-en-chofu, Kamakura, and Tsujido.

The one that overwhelmed me the most
was the home of a university professor
who was an authority on classical Japanese literature
and famous for his research on 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' (Utsuho Monogatari).

It was in a prime location in Kamakura,
the house was huge, the garden was wide,
and it was such a long way from the gate to the house.

Amazing!
So if you become an authority on 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter',
you can build a mansion like this?
For us who were university students at the time,
it was full of dreams and romance.

The professor scolded us later,
saying, 'Don't come to my house!'
(bitter smile)

Recently, alongside my teaching job,
I have been having a mentor
teach me the basics of business.

Money is an item for exchanging value.

That teaching was an eye-opener for me.

Money is actually just a piece of paper, isn't it?
Money itself has no value.

It is a product of an illusion
that everyone collectively believes, 'Money has value!!'
Originally, rice, electricity, water, and gas
have much higher value
(because humans cannot live without them).

Money is a method or a means,

and the essence of business

is to provide value to the other party.

That is what it is.

It is a simple activity of receiving money in exchange for providing value.
And the key point is that the judgment of whether something has value or not is not made by the provider, but strictly by the recipient.

No matter how much I present something saying,
“This is amazing! It has value!!”
if the person receiving it thinks it is “not great,”
then it is not great.

Everyone is kind and considerate, so they might pretend to be happy,
but in reality, it might be an unwanted favor.

This is the difficult part of business.

What is value to the other person??
What kind of things would make someone want to obtain them even if they have to pay for them??

Thoroughly exploring these questions and accurately understanding the other party's needs is the ABCs of business.

While I think it sounds difficult, I was reminded of the mansion from the aforementioned “Utsuho Monogatari” (The Tale of the Hollow Tree).

Even for a niche classic work like “Utsuho Monogatari,” which the average person has likely never read or even heard of, someone found value in it, generated money, and was able to build such a grand mansion.

The diversity of human needs is interesting, isn't it?

The modern era is a society of diversity.
Therefore, the question of “what do people find value in?” is also incredibly varied.

Things that are so obvious to me that I feel no value in them at all might actually be needed by a vast number of people.

When I think about it that way,
I feel that business is full of nothing but opportunities!!

Of course, it is easier said than done, and digging for a vein of needs probably won't be easy, but it is worth the challenge.
Even if I fail, that is also a form of value.

It is better to do it than not to do it.
Because I will definitely grow.

So with that,

I am starting my search for the vein where needs gush forth!!

I will conclude this column with that declaration.

Although it is an irregular series, I would like to share the future process on this note as well.

Thank you for reading until the end.
I would be happy if this could be of even a little help to you who read this.