[Final Episode] The 'True Definition of a Winner' I Realized After a Multi-Million Dollar Buyout | What Ordinary Yakiniku Taught Me
It was the day I completed the buyout (sale) of my company for a massive sum of several hundred million yen, and all the business transfer procedures were finalized.
I stood at a bank counter in Tokyo and received my newly updated bankbook.
As I flipped the page, there was a long string of countless '0's, the likes of which I had never seen in my life.
That inorganic sequence of numbers printed in ink was also the final financial report of the days I spent fighting in the mud.
If I were the protagonist of a drama or movie, this would be the scene where I look up to the heavens and shed tears of joy, or clench my fists in a victory pose.
Or perhaps, remembering the grueling hardships I had endured, I might collapse on the spot.
Until I actually reached this day, I had imagined that I would experience a more dramatic emotional explosion myself.
However, no particular sense of achievement or trembling joy welled up in my heart.
To my surprise, there were no waves of emotion at all.
There was only a terribly quiet and dry fact that 'Ah, it's over'.
Even when I left the bank and was blown by the wind in Nishi-Shinjuku, my steps didn't feel any lighter; I walked with the same gravity as always.
The arrogant sense of omnipotence I felt when I earned 10 million yen a month as a host and looked down from the top floor of a tower mansion, as if I were the king of the world,
and the bottomless misery I felt on the night I lost everything, eating a 7-Eleven smoked chicken alone in a dark 1DK apartment, as if the taste of blood were spreading in my mouth—neither of those exist anymore.
All that remained was the normal, everyday life passing by as if nothing had happened.
The string of ink printed in the bankbook was proof of the 'result' of my life, but it was no longer a magic piece of paper that could disturb my 'heart'.
When I saw the massive numbers and my heart didn't even stir, I realized that I had truly been freed from the curses of the past.
That night, as a celebration, I invited the secretary from the founding period who had supported me ever since 'that morning' when the company disappeared, and we went out to eat.
I didn't choose a Michelin-starred high-end French restaurant costing tens of thousands of yen per person, nor a super-exclusive club in Ginza. It was a smoky 'yakiniku restaurant' with ordinary prices that I frequent.
The smell of meat burning on the grill, the sound of mugs clinking, the laughter of salarymen around us.
I sat across from my secretary, talking about old company stories and trivial small talk, laughing together.
Secretary: 'President, I really thought it was all over back then. Everyone was quitting, and the phone wouldn't stop ringing.'
Me: 'You're telling me. If you hadn't stayed and refused to run away, I don't know where I'd be right now. Didn't you want to quit back then?'
Secretary: 'Hmm, I just couldn't leave you to deal with it alone, I guess.'
As we exchanged those words, we stuffed our cheeks with kalbi and washed it down with ice-cold draft beer.
That was my 'final dinner,' the most delicious and luxurious meal I'd ever had after getting my hands on several hundred million yen.
That draft beer that night soaked into my very soul hundreds of times more than the expensive champagne I'd spent millions of yen on in a single night in a VIP room in Ginza.
It was the first time I think I let out a long, deep,
'Ahhhhhh!!!'
and just soaked in the lingering aftertaste of the beer.
I finally understood from the bottom of my heart that the true richness of life is eating a meal with'people you can trust,'something money cannot buy.
By the way, this secretary is now my wife.
■ Checking the Answers for Our Past Selves
If I had a time machine and could go back to the past right now.
I would go to our 'former selves'—who were stepping on life's landmines, covered in mud, and collapsing—and pat them on the shoulder.
And I would want to tell them justone thing.
To the elementary school me, who went from a household with a 20-million-yen annual income to gnawing on oily 'bread crusts' in a dilapidated 1DK apartment, having stolen 'normalcy' from my classmates.
To the 20-year-old me, who clung to the obsession that 'if I just had a degree, I could turn everything around,' failed all my entrance exams after two years of ronin study, and fled into the night of Kabukicho in despair.
To the 30-something me, who had everything taken away by a protégé due to my own arrogance, punched the office wall with all my might in anger and despair, and was huddled in a corner with my right hand in a cast.
'I'm not saying you shouldn't complain about your environment. You can curse the unfairness. But that terrible environment will definitely bloom 20 years from now, so please, survive without giving up.'
Successful people in this world often spout platitudes like 'hard work always pays off.'
But I have no intention of telling the irresponsible lie that hard work bears fruit one hundred percent of the time.
There are countless times in this society where hard work is trampled upon for unreasonable reasons.
There are places you cannot reach no matter how much you cough up blood.
Back then, I was struggling and suffering because I wanted someone to acknowledge me.
It is precisely because I fell down so many times and stood back up, swallowing mud each time, that I can see the view I see today.
That is why I can say this with certainty.
There is a 'summit' that can only be reached by those who have put in the effort.
It doesn't matter whether that 'summit' is a success or a failure.
Those who give up halfway are not even given the right to see that view.
Only those who kept moving their feet, even if it looked clumsy, can be the ones to laugh at the end.
And through the deception in the city at night and the betrayals of organizational collapse, I learned an absolute law to the marrow of my bones.
It is the difference in the final outcome between 'TAKE people' and 'GIVE people'.
People who only take from others, people who only think of their own interests, may look like they are winning temporarily, but in the end, they will inevitably have everything taken from them by someone else.
Karma always comes back in one form or another.
However, for 'GIVE people' who try to give to others even in the mud, even if it looks like a loss at the time, someone around them will always return the favor in some form and pull them up.
The reason I have achieved a result of several hundred million yen and can sit here laughing and eating yakiniku is undoubtedly because I chose to be a 'GIVE person' again when I was at rock bottom.
■ A final cheer for you who are at rock bottom
To you who have read my long and 'unsightly resume' spanning 16 episodes, including my self-introduction.
To you who are currently at rock bottom in life,
'I have nothing',
'I can't turn things around anymore',
'I want to disappear'—to you who are in despair.
Finally, let me just say this.
Escaping from despair is honestly tough.
It is many times, dozens of times tougher than living an ordinary life.
While those around you are walking normally, you will likely feel the absurdity of being forced to walk a thorny path while dragging heavy shackles only you have.
There must be countless nights when you want to cry and mornings when you want to throw everything away.
But that 'toughness' will absolutely become your greatest asset.
There is something in the world called the '2:6:2 rule'.
It is the rule that organizations and society are divided into:
The top 2% who are excellent,
The middle 6% who are ordinary,
And the bottom 2% who are dropouts.
Usually, it is said that the bottom 2% are incompetent people who should be discarded.
But I am convinced that those who have known the rock bottom of life and have tasted the ugliness, the grittiness, and the helpless weaknesses of human beings (the world of the bottom 2%) to the marrow of their bones are the ones who will flip into the 'most valuable existence (the top 2%)' in the coming AI era.
The more efficiency and rationalization progress, the more humans hunger for 'humanity'.
People are moved and empathize with that clumsy figure who is not afraid of failure and stands up even while wounded.
That is precisely why you must never hide the intense pain or complexes you are feeling right now.
They are your greatest weapon and will become a one-of-a-kind passport to connecting deeply with others.
In the coming era, AI will instantly churn out logical correct answers and polished prose, but AI cannot understand 'pain'.
AI will never understand the smell of oil in a one-room apartment, the heart-crushing pain of being betrayed, or the misery of eating a 7-Eleven smoked chicken alone.
No one is moved anymore by words that are merely pretty or by the logical arguments written by AI.
People will only follow someone who uses raw, living words born from knowing the pain of being covered in mud.
Your despair and pain will become your 'strongest asset' for moving people in the future. This is absolutely certain.
I want you not to view the present as a 'point'.
If you look at yourself now as a point, you are just a 'failure' and it is painful.
But I want you to view it as a 'line' and aim the goal of that line just a little bit 'upward'.
There is no need to rush to the top all at once.
It is okay to take a break. You should just move forward one step at a time at your own pace.
As long as the line is pointing upward, you will surely reach a place where the light shines someday.
Who do you think wins at the end of life?
Is it the lonely person who achieved great success in business, lives on the top floor of a tower mansion no one can reach, and has 2 billion yen in savings?
The definition of a winner I found is 'a life where, even with only 1 million yen in savings, you have dozens of friends around you, and you can laugh and eat delicious food together'.
Starting from bread crusts, wandering the night streets, losing everything, and finally selling for hundreds of millions of yen—this is the absolute conviction I have arrived at.
■ To be freed from stress and live a little more easily
We spend the majority of our time in life on 'communication with other people'.
As it is said that '90% of work is human relationships,' friction in relationships and misunderstandings with others are the heaviest and most troublesome stresses in life.
There are not a few people who fall ill or give up on life because of that.
It is no exaggeration to say that the majority of life is made up of human relationships.
Every morning, while being jostled on a crowded train, I would feel a knot in my stomach, thinking, 'Do I really have to face that annoying boss again?'
An unreasonable work environment where no one appreciates you, and you are just silently forced to clean up everyone else's messes.
Such days kill your spirit little by little, but surely.
In 'work,' which consumes most of the limited time we call life, letting others hold the reins of your relationships is the same as handing over your life itself to them.
Over ten years in the nightlife industry and through the heaven and hell of being an entrepreneur, I have seen more than enough of the dark side of the human heart, our desires, and our 'bugs'.
Naturally, some people are suited for socializing, and others are not.
There are introverts, and there are extroverts.
However,communication skills are not an innate talent; they can be mastered through 'technique'.
The 'art of winning hearts' that I wrote about elsewhere.
That is not just some dark technique for making money.
It is the 'ultimate armor' for you, who are exhausted by the power dynamics of relationships and worn out from constantly walking on eggshells, so that you can stop being pushed around by others and spend your days more easily and stress-free.
・A boss who yells unreasonably
・A colleague who tries to assert dominance
・A senior who dumps their work on you
・A romantic relationship that doesn't go your way
Please don't let things like that drain any more of your precious life energy.
By exploiting the bugs in others' hearts and taking control of the power balance in your relationships, you can live more lightly and freely.
I want you to be freed from that painful stress, even if just a little.
That is the real reason I have made this technique public.
With this, my long 'clumsy resume' comes to an end.
From here on, it is your story. I pray that the minefields of my life and the footprints I left behind will become a small 'map' for you as you live out your tomorrow.
Thank you so much for sticking with me until the end. Next, it is your turn for a comeback. Please, survive.
※If there is anything you would like me to write about regarding my clumsy life, I would appreciate it if you could leave a comment.
📖 What will be told in the following story (17 episodes in total)
① Self-introduction article
② Memories of the day we went from a 20-million-yen annual income household to a destitute single-mother household at age 7
③ My destitute elementary school days
④ Middle school days when reality hit me
⑤ Why didn't I turn to delinquency?
⑥ Choosing a high school with no basis
⑦ Dropping out of high school at 16 / Becoming a NEET
⑧ The story of how I raised my deviation score to 73, but failed all entrance exams after two years of ronin
⑨ Becoming a 'host' to earn money
⑩ From extreme life in Kabukicho to reaching a peak monthly income of 10 million yen
⑪ Starting a business → Dissolving my savings in an instant
⑫ The morning that vanished in 3 minutes due to my beloved disciple's betrayal: 1
⑬ The morning that vanished in 3 minutes due to my beloved disciple's betrayal: 2
⑭ Rebuilding a company on the verge of bankruptcy
⑮ Reunion with the beloved disciple who betrayed me
Last A buyout worth hundreds of millions
Afterword The buyout was the wrong answer