Success Means Becoming a Minority

Subtitle: To become a person who can speak of their own path, not just their title

Introduction

How can I become like you?

I have been asked that before.

The words I answered with then were:

──Success means becoming a minority.

People might laugh if I say that.

But that is what I believe.

Because success is not about...

“Going up,” but about “the number of people decreasing.”

How many assistant managers are there?

Department managers?

General managers?

Executives?

The president? ...There is only one, right?

In other words, success is a structure that gradually becomes lonely.

Having fewer people means being different from those around you.

Therefore, to succeed is to “keep becoming a minority.”

But when I talk about this, I am often told:

“No, that’s because you achieved results, right?”

“Wasn’t it because you had talent?”

“Wasn’t it just luck?”

Certainly, there is that aspect too.

But that is not all.

I have never walked the so-called “proper path” until now.

– Truancy in junior high

– Class representative in high school

– Just entered university but didn’t attend

– Didn’t even go to my coming-of-age ceremony

– First job was through a connection

– Repeated job changes and even experienced being a NEET

– Didn’t have anything I particularly wanted to do

…Even so, I have a conviction.

People who succeed are not people who follow the atmosphere.

They are not people who imitate others.

Those who do what others won’t, without reading the room, are the ones who remain as a minority in the end.

What is written in this article is not some flashy story about making hundreds of millions.

Rather, it is a record of thoughts that I, who have achieved nothing, still could not help but speak about.

Handing a pickled plum to the president in the corner of an izakaya──

A single action like that can move people’s hearts.

Whether you can believe in that.

I think that is what it means to “live your own unique path.”

You have your own weapons.

I’m saying it, so it must be true.

I hope this book becomes a trigger for you to remember that.

──Do not fear being a minority.

That is the beginning of your “success.”

※Words known as a liberal translation of Yoshida Shoin’s Chinese poem “Risshi Sho Tokui”

To establish one’s will, one must not fear being different from others.

One must not be swayed by worldly opinions.

Chapter 1

The Structure of Success──Why is it lonely at the top?

What does it mean to succeed?

I have one answer to that question.

Success is to keep becoming a minority.

It might not click for you.

But I want you to imagine for a moment.

For example, let’s say your company has 200 employees.

How many chiefs are there among them?

Assistant managers?

Department managers?

General managers?

Executives?

President?

It would probably be like this:

• Chiefs: about 20

• Assistant managers: about 15

• Department managers: about 10

• General managers: about 5

• Executives: 2–3

• President: just 1

In other words, the higher you go, the more the “number of people decreases.”

That structure itself tells the story that success equals becoming a minority.

Therefore, success is not about being in the majority.

It is not about acting arrogant or achieving amazing results.

Success is a series of choices to “place yourself in a structure that accepts loneliness.”

Becoming a minority means becoming lonely.

They say successful people are lonely for a reason.

The higher you go, the fewer people there are.

This is not a story about “only those who win the competition remain.”

Rather, it is the reality that “those who remain become isolated.”

• You stop having common ground in conversations with friends

• Distance grows between you and your former colleagues

• You drift away from the vibe of your peers

In short, success is the act of “accepting loneliness, one step at a time.”

“Comfort” and “going up” are incompatible

Many people think, “If I work hard with my friends, I will go up someday.”

But reality is different.

• Soaking in the same atmosphere

• Licking each other’s wounds with the same people

• Sharing the same complaints

──As long as you maintain comfort like that,
you are only using your energy to “stay right there.”

If you want to succeed, you have no choice but to accept the “pain of leaving that place.”

Whether you can consciously choose to “become lonely”

I don’t want you to misunderstand;
this is not a story about telling you to be lonely.

It is about whether you can “endure” loneliness, not “become” it.

• If you start something, you will definitely be opposed

• If you do something different from usual, you will be criticized

• If you don’t read the room, you will be treated as a nuisance

Can you still move forward?

Can you choose to become a minority as your “own style”?

That is the resolve required first in the structure of success.

Success is not about your position, but a “stacking of choices.”

You stay where you are for another 5 years, repeating the same days as someone else.

That’s not bad either.

But if you think even a little bit that you “want to change,”
the next action you should take is──

stepping into a slightly uncomfortable place with your own feet.

People who leave where they are now, one by one, like that,
will eventually stand at the top as a “minority”.

Conclusion

Success is not “climbing to the heights.”

Success is “quietly walking the path where the numbers decrease.”

And only those who can keep choosing that path
might reach the place called “President,” which is the “pinnacle of the minority.”

Whether you can get there depends on luck too,

but “whether you can keep choosing that route” is up to you.

Chapter 2

The Ethics of Action──Instead of being chosen, keep choosing

Success is not about being chosen by someone.

As long as you think that, you will remain on the “side that gets chosen” forever.

What is truly important is

whether you can keep choosing your “own actions” even if no one asks you to.

Don’t lick each other’s wounds. Don’t fear being out of sync.

People naturally form groups with those they get along with.

Complaining to each other,
comforting each other by saying, “I know, right?” and “I get it,”
and somehow getting through today.

There is a sense of security in those days.

But there is no “growth” there.

Rather, when that atmosphere starts to exclude “anything even slightly different,”
you will definitely be dyed in the “lukewarm water of the majority.”

• Daring to say something out of sync

• Doing what no one else does first

• Trying to move without reading the room

Such people are treated as nuisances.

But being treated as a nuisance is also “proof that you moved.”

Do not laugh at people who have failed

Because that person tried to move forward

Those who do what no one else does, without being asked, stand out.

What people who succeed have in common is the attitude of “seriously doing work that wasn’t requested.”

• Fixing invisible flaws

• Correcting bugs no one noticed

• Giving your all to work that doesn’t lead to your own evaluation

“No one is watching anyway,”

“I won’t get scolded if I don’t do it,”

──Even while hearing those voices, you still do it.

And strangely enough,

people like that are, in the end, properly “found”.

Even if you don’t try to stand out, you will stand out.

Even if you don’t try to catch eyes, you will be noticed.

Going against the atmosphere also means making enemies.

Naturally, backlash is part of this kind of action.

• “Why is he the only one working so hard?”

• “No one asked for that, right?”

• “Isn’t that doing too much?”

──People who say that are just afraid of “the atmosphere being broken.”

But if you back down there, it’s over.

If you stay silent there, you will return to being “the same as everyone else.”

Becoming a minority means
that even if you receive criticism, you “do not stop the action you chose”.

Small actions become “trust.”

In places where no one is watching,
doing work that no one wants to do,
finishing it without telling anyone.

Does that have any meaning?

…Yes, it does.

• “He’s actually watching more than I thought.”

• “Oh, it’s fixed before I knew it.”

• “I wonder who did this.”

The “unseen trust” that piles up like that
suddenly appears as an evaluation at some point.

And at that moment, people realize for the first time:

“He’s a bit different.”

“Choosing to keep choosing” is far more difficult than “being chosen.”

• I want to be evaluated by my boss

• I want to be recognized by those around me

• I want a chance

──It’s not bad to think that and take action.

But that is just action based on the premise of being chosen.

People who truly succeed

accumulate actions of “keeping on choosing even if no one chooses me.”

That is precisely why

they gather enough trust that someone eventually “has no choice but to choose them.”

Conclusion

Success is not about reading the atmosphere and “doing well.”

Success is about resisting the atmosphere and “keeping on choosing for yourself.”

Instead of a life of waiting for someone’s evaluation in the majority,
a life of believing in and stacking the actions you chose while remaining a minority──

I want you to walk that path.

Chapter 3

Rewards and Costs: On Enemies, Time, and Solitude

Become a minority.

Resist the status quo.

Stick to the actions you have chosen for yourself.

──If you live like that, enemies will inevitably appear.

But rest assured.

The fact that enemies have appeared is proof that you are “a step ahead” of those around you.

Because no one obsesses over a person of no value.

No one is jealous of them.

No one speaks ill of them.

Being criticized means you have become an “entity that cannot be ignored.”

When enemies appear, people feel anxious.

“Wait? Did I go too far?”

“Maybe I’m breaking the atmosphere…”

But that is wrong.

• Your actions stimulated someone’s “inferiority complex”

• Your stance created a fear that “I need to change too”

• Your achievements disrupted the comfort of the silent majority

That is why enemies appear.

That is why you have become a “visible entity.”

The appearance of enemies is proof not of “achievement” but of “presence”.

The psychology of enemies: Your good intentions expose their anxiety

What are enemies angry about?

It is not your “success.”

It is your “well-intentioned actions.”

• Doing things that no one else will do

• Taking action even when it’s a loss to do so

• Not quitting even when there are no results

──This image of you illuminates the “self that isn’t doing anything” within them.

“I’m not doing anything. That guy is doing it. ……This is bad.”

“At this rate, my ‘normal’ will be destroyed.”

People who think that will start trying to stop your actions.

Enemies first appear with the face of an ally

This is important.

Enemies do not appear as enemies from the start.

Rather, at first they say things like:

• “You shouldn’t push yourself too hard.”

• “It’s okay, you don’t have to go that far.”

• “No one is watching even if you do that, you know?”

……They look like kind words, don’t they?

But the essence is a defensive reaction of “I want to stop you”.

And then, once they think you have become somewhat close,

they turn toward “making fun of” your actions.

• “Is there any meaning in that?”

• “In the end, it’s just self-satisfaction, right?”

• “Are you aiming for a promotion? You’re so self-conscious.”

Even so, you must not stop.

There is a “silence” that can be gained by having your reputation drop.

Enemies start speaking ill of you.

He’s getting carried away.

He’s changed.

When that happens, people drift away.

However, there is one thing you gain.

Time.

• Invitations to drinking parties decrease

• You are excluded from meaningless small talk

• You no longer have to join the circle of gossip

In that void, time for yourself flows in.

Solitude is the greatest “freedom”.

Solitude is certainly bitter.

But in exchange, freedom quietly increases.

• You can think without caring about anyone’s eyes

• You can act without getting anyone’s permission

• You can read books, deepen your learning, or do whatever you like

You are not expected by anyone, and you are not blamed by anyone.

Whether you swallow that state as “emptiness” or use it as an “opportunity.”

That is where life diverges.

Conclusion

Success is not a way of living that avoids making enemies.

Success is a way of living where you do not bend your own axis even when enemies appear.

And solitude is both the cost and the reward for that.

How you use the time you have gained──

That choice determines the true value of “being a minority.”

Chapter 4

Life Choices: Becoming Someone or Being with Someone

Whether to succeed or not.

That question might look like a talk about careers or positions.

But in reality, that is not the case.

Success is not a choice of profession, but a choice of “life style”.

Do you want to become someone?

Or do you want to be with someone?

Depending on which you choose, your life will become a completely different landscape.

You are being asked not “how you want to be seen” but “how you want to live.”

• I want to be called amazing

• I want to succeed

• I want to be respected by those around me

Wishing for that is natural.

However, when you proceed with only that as your standard,
you are always dominated by “someone else’s evaluation.”

Is there “a sense of fulfillment for yourself” in that life?

Success is not a “goal” decided by someone else.

Success is “the outline that emerges as a result of what you have continued to choose.”

The cost of becoming someone

To become someone, there is always a cost.

You must accept solitude, responsibility, and misunderstanding.

• You stop being able to hold conversations

• You run out of people you can consult with

• People who supported you drift away

──Even so, do you want to stick to your own axis?

If you can answer “yes” to that question,
you have already begun walking the path toward “becoming someone.”

The strength of being with someone

Conversely, there are people who choose “being together” over success.

• Spending time with family

• Laughing with friends

• Living within your own range without stretching yourself unnecessarily

This is by no means “running away”.

Rather, it requires a different kind of strength: to continue engaging seriously with others.

That is why it is a choice.

What do you desire?

What is it that you want to protect even if you have to sacrifice something else?

Clarifying that becomes your map for life.

There is no correct answer. There is only a “way of choosing.”

It is not a story about whose life is correct or which route is superior.

What is important is that being swept away while “choosing neither” is what creates the most regret.

• I was supposed to want success, but before I knew it, I was swept away by the atmosphere

• I was supposed to want to be with someone, but I got lost in a competition of self-satisfaction

……In that way, the “choices you didn’t make” will sting later on.

Taking responsibility for your own way of living

There are crossroads in life.

• Will you stick to your own actions even if it means being alone?

• Will you value the time you can laugh with friends?

Neither is wrong.

But both are paths where you “lose something.”

And whether or not you can refrain from making excuses for what you lost
is what makes that choice something you can “be proud of.”

Conclusion

Success is not a title or an annual income.

Success is a life where you can speak about your choices in your own words.

What will you choose?

Who will you live with?

How far will you stand on your own two feet?

Facing that question without running away.

That is what becomes your own “success as a life.”

Chapter 5

The Polished Minority: Beyond Imitation, Experience It

“If you want to succeed, do it seriously.”

“If you want to succeed, behave like that person.”

There are many people who believe such words and trace someone else’s “correct answer”.

But──

Seriousness is a foundation, not a weapon.

Imitation is an entrance, not a path.

Everything starts with imitation at first

How did you learn Japanese?

You imitated your parents or someone close to them

So imitation is not evil

But what you are aiming for is not “becoming someone who is evaluated.”

It is becoming “a self that resembles no one else”.

The reason you cannot succeed even if you work seriously

This is reality.

• Faithfully following your boss’s instructions

• Coming to work earlier than anyone else every day

• Being careful about minor mistakes

• Giving your all to the company

──Even so, people who don’t succeed won’t succeed.

Why?

Because being serious is proof that you are a person who can only provide “seriousness” to the company.

Of course, seriousness is important.

But even if that becomes a “reason to be chosen”,
it does not become a “reason to stand out”.

When you find an amazing person

Don’t imitate them, ask them questions

“How can I become like you?”

I have been taught by someone with an annual income of 100 million yen that way

“You should read a lot of books,” they said

Most people try to imitate the methods of "successful people."

• What kind of studies did they do?

• What kind of work style do they have?

• What kind of skills do they possess?

But what is truly important is to ask, "Why are they doing it that way?"

“How they did it” instead of asking “Why they thought that way”.

That is where their unique “criteria for judgment” lies.

And you need to translate that into your own field.

Imitation produces “reproduction”, but
questioning produces “re-creation”.

Challenges and a sense of discomfort will polish you into “your own form”

"Why am I doing this?"

"Is this right for me?"

──Keep repeating challenges while asking yourself these questions.

The accumulation of that will create your "own way of doing things."

There is no right answer from the start.

Rather, it is only through "discomfort" and "failure" that
the “shape of your limits” becomes visible.

Becoming a minority does not mean continuing to imitate someone else.

Becoming a minority means finding for yourself a "method that no one else has discovered."

Life is polished by the friction of experience.

A challenge is also "having your own form worn down."

• Actions you thought were a waste of time

• Workplaces where you didn't fit in

• Business negotiations that didn't go well

• Presentations that made you feel embarrassed

These are neither “dark history” nor “stains”.

All of them will wear down your rough edges and polish your core.

Have your own “minority thinking”

If you only do what someone else is doing, you are merely “a reproduction of someone else”.

But when you start “building it yourself” by doing what no one else is doing──

you are no longer an "imitator," but a "builder."

You don't become a minority through someone else's “recognition”.

It is the result of you having “become different from others” before you knew it, through the trajectory of your choices.

Conclusion

Success is not about becoming someone amazing.

Success is about gradually giving shape to “the self that couldn't become anyone else”.

And that is not polished by earnestness alone.

It cannot be built by imitation alone.

Only the friction of challenges, discomfort, and experience
will turn you into “your own form”.

Chapter 6

Designing a Route—The Art of Moving Without Reading the Room

Becoming a minority does not mean
someone who "happened to end up that way by chance."

It refers to a person who intentionally designed and kept walkingtheir own unique path." However, many people think like this:

• If I read books by people who have achieved something, I will see the path

• If I imitate successful people, I can advance in the same way

......But that is not a path; you are just chasing a "

history".Do not look at the results, read the actions

It is important to be interested in someone's life.

But if you only look at "what they achieved," you cannot replicate it.

• When, at what moment

• Why, they made that decision

• In what kind of environment

• Did they do something no one else noticed

──There, lies the "

trajectory of thought" = the seeds of a route.Results are nothing more than "passing points."

What you should really steal is "how that person moved."

Do not imitate successful people, imitate the "structure"

For example──

Suppose there is someone who made hundreds of millions in sales within two years of joining the company.
You read their book. Amazing. Let's try it. ...But, you can't.

Why?

The environment is different

The personality is different

The market, the team, and the era are also different

☞ That person's "way of doing things" will not become the "answer" for you.

But, if you decipher "

why they moved at that moment" and "where they were looking,"it will become a "way of framing questions" for you.
Your own unique route can only be found through actions and a sense of discomfort

• Things that caught your attention for some reason

• Areas no one has touched

• Issues that have not been articulated

• A sudden question that arises: "Isn't this strange?"

Whether you let this kind of "

discomfort" slide by with a "oh well," or pick it up with a "let's try it,"will greatly change your route.
The minority route only appears on the flip side of "

actions you stopped because you read the room

".There is no map. There are only a series of hypotheses and choices"If I do this, it will work"──Such a guarantee does not exist on the minority path.

What exists is:

• A small sense of discomfort
• An area no one is paying attention to

• Actions that no one evaluates

• A hypothesis you believed had "meaning" despite that

Only through the accumulation of those things,

will your "



footprints
" eventually become a "path" for others.What you design is not the "result

" but the "policy".Rather than what you want to obtain,what kind of stance you want to have.• "If no one else will do it, I will"

• "If there is no answer, I will create it myself"
• "Even if the atmosphere tries to stop me, I will trust my intuition"

This "



principle of action

" is the compass for route design.

Conclusion

Advancing in your career as a minority does not mean
tracing someone else's path.

It means reaching out to your own sense of discomfort, accumulating hypotheses, and
shaping your own unique principle of action.

Acting without reading the room.

Walking a route no one else chooses.

That doesn't mean I'm telling you to disrupt teamwork or do bad things

Whether you are the only one or the number one, it doesn't matter; it means continuing to be yourself

That will become your map.

And that map can only be drawn by you.

※By the way, there is someone who rose to become the vice president of a company with over 1,000 employees, despite having a past where they accidentally burned down a factory

Chapter 7

My Proof: I Exist Because I Think So

Come to think of it, my life has always been in the minority.

– Truancy in junior high

– Class representative in high school

– Entered university but never attended

– Didn't even go to my coming-of-age ceremony

──Full of contradictions, I didn't belong anywhere.

My first job was through a connection.

After that, I repeated job changes,

and there were times I didn't work.

There were times I was a NEET.

To be honest, I couldn't become anyone.

Even now, I'm doing a job anyone can do in the corner of a factory.

That is precisely why I believe that what I can do now is──

to do the "job anyone can do" better than anyone else.

Even so, I couldn't help but speak out.


This is not a story about a successful person

Everything written in this book is not a "theory of success".
• It's not a story about being evaluated by someone

• It's not a story about achieving amazing results

• Much less am I in a position to talk down to others

This is a record of the realizations found by "me, who is nobody," while still walking my path.
Have you ever read a book like this?

But I think it had persuasiveness

Becoming a person who can speak for themselves

You don't have to advance in your career.

You don't need a big title.

But──

"I want to be a person who can tell their own life story in their own words," I think.

Surprisingly few people can do that.

Adapting to others, following the atmosphere,
trying to force themselves to become something,
before they know it, people who can't talk about their own lives are being mass-produced.

But I can say it.

Even if no one evaluates me,
I have taken actions I chose myself, with my own responsibility.

That much is certain.

Even a single pickled plum can move a life

A year-end party one year.

The president said, "I want to drink plum-flavored shochu."

But the restaurant didn't have plums.

Drunk, I went to a convenience store to buy a pickled plum while on my way to buy cigarettes,
and silently handed it to the president.

Normally, you'd get scolded and that would be it.

Like, "Bringing your own food is prohibited," or "Don't do weird things."

But the president was very happy about it.

I think it was probably a first-time experience for him

I replied like this

"I got a big bonus, so I'm giving a little back."

Surely the aides around him are just a group of YES-men who only think about pleasing the president

That's why they care about the eyes of those around them and can't take actions that deviate from the norm

──Such moments can sometimes be the starting point of what is called "career advancement".


I wasn't aiming to be evaluated.

I just thought about "what I could do" in that situation and acted.

Only those kinds of actions become "memories no one else can have".


You have your own weapons

That's why I can say this.

You have your own weapons.

It might be a skill.

It might be intuition.

It might be failure.

It might be a sense of being out of sync.

But, in whatever form──

the "differences" that only you possess will become your route.

There is no need to envy other people's routes.

You "continuing to choose your own differences" will draw a map that only you have.

Conclusion

Career advancement is not about becoming someone.

Career advancement is about accepting and being able to talk about the self that didn't become anyone.

I am still in the corner of a factory.

But I can say this much.

I have chosen my own life.

As long as I have that realization, I have already advanced enough as a minority.

And now──
for you, who has read these words this far,
something must have already begun.

Final Proposition

Career advancement is not about going up in titles or annual income.

It is about continuing to choose your own differences and finally being able to tell your life story in your own words.

Afterword

──To choose to be a minority once again

What is written in this article
is neither a great achievement nor a theory of success.

If anything,
it is a record of how I, who became nothing, still walked through life without giving up.

Truancy, NEET, job changes, factory work.

A life that no one would see as a "success."

But I didn't want to be ashamed of it.

Because even in those days,
I was certainly walking by my own choices.

There is only one thing this article wanted to convey.

Success is not something special.

Success is the accumulation of the attitude of "taking responsibility for yourself."

No matter what the world says,
even if you aren't doing as well as someone else,
you have your own unique differences.

Those differences will become your weapon.

So, I want to ask you one more time.

Can you tell your own story, in your own words?

If you can think "yes," even a little,
you have already begun to walk as more of a minority than anyone else.

Finally

I don't have children.

But I wrote this article while thinking about what I would want to tell them, and how I would want to tell them, if I did.

Thank you for reading until the end.

──Hiroki Tani