Life Strategy to Smoothly Cross the '40-Year-Old Wall'
Author: Haru Oishi
Publisher: Discover 21
🗣️ Quick Note:
A book that guides you in finding your 'personal business' based on the premise that your way of life will change once you hit 40.
—Until about age 40, people develop primarily by acquiring new sensations and knowledge. After being born into this world, both body and mind grow, you enter society, choose a way of life, build your own family, and gain love as you grow. You reach the peak of your growth at around 40.—
It also presents steps to find your 'personal business' through an exercise where you write down what you have 'spent the most money and time on so far.' (In this book, 'personal business' refers to 'work' that satisfies the three elements of 'money,' 'connections,' and 'health,' and which you can engage in with a sense of fulfillment.)
For me, that would currently be English, travel, reading, customer service, food, health, shopping and decluttering, self-improvement... I suppose.
① Something you can do without difficulty (can sustain)
② Something where experience accumulates (can be stocked)
③ Something for which there is a market
I want to spend my 30s focusing on output with these in mind, and re-read this book again at the end of my 30s.
📝 Introduction:
A book on career design that allows you to maintain 'money, connections, and health' for a lifetime. Learn concrete steps to transition to a lifestyle with multiple income streams while working as a company employee! For those of you feeling anxious about your future way of life and work in this era of the 100-year life.
【Recommended for those who:】
・Feel anxious about whether they should continue working the way they are now.
・Feel they don't have enough experience, qualifications, or work history.
・Are interested in changing jobs or becoming independent but feel they lack the skills.
・Feel they have reached their limit in balancing work with housework and childcare.
・Feel anxious about future parenting ahead of the 'first-grade wall' and 'fourth-grade wall'.
・Feel anxious about their second life after retirement.
☕️ Post-reading Note:
Level of understanding: ★★★ | Understood thoroughly
Post-reading impression: 💡 Felt inspired
Recommendation level: ★★★ | Highly recommended
📕 Memorable Quotes:
Narrow down your theater and repertoire while taking action; output is just a matter of whether you do it or not. Because it is simple, many people don't do it, and many people cannot sustain it; that is precisely why output has value.
Think of a personal business where you can turn expenses into costs; discard the perspective of 'Will this become a personal business? Will this make money?' This is because whether it becomes a personal business is decided by the market, not by you. Ask someone to 'ask me, "What have you spent the most money and time on so far?"' When humans are asked a question, the brain reacts by trying to 'answer it'.
Rather than worrying alone, try using the power of others. As an added side effect, you might be told about a 'side of yourself you couldn't see,' such as: 'You say you spent money on X, but haven't you also spent a lot on Y?' or 'Because you are knowledgeable about Z, I thought you spent the most time on that.'
Customers purchase what fits their current stage from among 'knowing,' 'doing,' and 'polishing.' Especially when targeting the 'doing' zone, it is necessary to diagnose where they are stumbling among the three 'walls of inability' and provide individual support (Figure 16). Since it takes time and effort, one-to-many business is difficult. Therefore, it becomes higher-priced than businesses in the 'knowing' zone at the bottom of the pyramid.
People who are putting out content but don't feel it's quite right or aren't succeeding lack self-understanding.
I was thinking, 'I'll try to do five or six challenges that can earn me about 50,000 to 100,000 yen per month, taking about two years.'
Kahoko Kezawa, representative of Kids Line Inc. (who has experience taking a company public), recommended aiming for a company with 100 million yen in annual sales, 2-3 employees, and a president's salary of 20-30 million yen as a 'scale for doing what you want to do.' If you aim for a company with 100 million yen in annual sales, if you hire three employees, personnel costs would be 6 million yen x 3 people per year. However, since social insurance and welfare expenses are incurred, calculate double that cost. If the annual salary is 6 million yen, it's 12 million yen.
・Personnel costs... 36 million yen (12 million yen x 3)
・Product costs, expenses, and others... around 35 million yen
・President's salary... 20 million to 30 million yen.
If annual sales are 100 million yen, with 4 employees including the president, that's 25 million yen in sales per person per year. You need about 2 million yen in sales per month. In other words, you need to create a 'product that can generate 2 million yen in sales in 20 working days.' What kind of product could sell for 100,000 yen every day, or four products for 500,000 yen a month, or one product for 2 million yen a month? If you are going to incorporate and run a business, why not try thinking this way, as written in the book ('What It Means to Build Your Own Company' by Kahoko Kezawa, published by Diamond Inc.).