From Civil Servant to America, from MBA to Entrepreneurship: Along the Detour, Only Questions Remained

If there is anyone out there who is feeling a bit stuck in their work right now.
I cannot give you the answer, but as 'an example of a person who keeps thinking,' I would like to talk a little bit.
I would like to talk a little bit.

First of all, let me start with the time when my own outline had not yet been defined.
I wrote about the pain of this time in my next article. It felt like I was drowning in water.

The days I spent working at the Osaka City Board of Education, my first job as a working professional, were far too quiet.
The rules were clear, and the work went on without a hitch.
That is precisely why it was hard to see the 'meaning of me being here.'

Perhaps I was not trying hard enough.
Thinking that, I made efforts and worked seriously.
Even so, my heart just wouldn't move.

One day, I happened to let out a complaint to an American woman who had come as an assistant English teacher.
I happened to let out a complaint.

She laughed and said lightly.

"Why don't you quit?"

In that moment, my field of vision opened up.
Because the very idea that it was okay to quit being a civil servant was something I didn't have at the time.
At the time, I didn't have that idea.

The choices from there.
New York University MBA, Silicon Valley, consulting, New York.

Writing it like this makes it look like a straight-line career, but I think in reality, I was just 'wandering around looking for the right answer.'
I think in reality, I was just 'wandering around looking for the right answer.'

Silicon Valley in the 90s was not the sophisticated place it is now.
Mountains and highways, a wide sky.
Ambition and loneliness were drifting in the same air.

The work was tough, and my experience in Japan was almost useless.
Every day, it felt like I was losing.
Even so, I never stopped thinking.

There is no such thing as peace of mind anywhere

After that, I was transferred to the New York headquarters.
In September 2001, right after I arrived at work, a deafening roar.
It was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

I was working at the Financial Center right next door, so when I went outside the building, a scene like something out of an IMAX movie was spreading out before me.

Black smoke, fluttering scraps of paper, and the shock of the building collapsing.
'There is no eternal peace of mind here.'
I understood that with my body.

Entrepreneurship was not the answer

After that, I started thinking about starting a business.
That said, it wasn't because I had 'ambition' or a 'vision'.

At the time, I was raising my young daughter, and while choosing organic cotton baby clothes for my daughter who had sensitive skin, I thought, 'I wish there were cuter designs.' The discomfort remained as a small question.

I went to Egypt, famous for organic cotton, to buy fabric and looked for a sewing factory. And I launched the colorful organic cotton baby clothing brand 'Sckoon'.

Days were spent working at a consulting firm during the day and doing design and shipping work at home at night. I worked until 2 a.m. and then went to work at 6 a.m. With the tailwind of the eco-boom, sales continued to rise.

When I could no longer balance both, I quit my job and dedicated myself full-time to my own business.

The questions continue

It was in the same flow that I encountered the menstrual cup.
I learned about it at a donation site in Africa:
"Girls who cannot go to school because they lack sanitary products."

Why is there such a disparity?
Why has this not been talked about?
Why are there so few options?

SckoonCup Menstrual Cup was not born as an answer.
It was a form to keep holding onto the questions.
Thus, the new journey of "
SckoonCup" began.

—

Manufactured in America. Now sold in 36 countries around the world. It grew as the first menstrual cup approved in Japan.

Although I was initially told that it would be impossible in Japan, menstrual cups have now reached a point where more than 30 companies have entered the domestic market alone.

The term "Femtech," a portmanteau of feminine and technology, is now not just a buzzword, but is beginning to permeate each and every one of us.

What I have written so far might look like a so-called success story. Starting a business, growing a brand, selling in 36 countries around the world.

If you look at the numbers, that is what it is.

However, what I have truly valued is not success, but
the act of continuing to question.

Is it okay to stay like this? What is it that I really want to do?
For whom, and what am I doing?

Those questions have paved the way.

I still haven't found the right answer, and
I don't think I've completed anything.
I just want to hold onto the attitude of continuing to think.

An attitude for the future

Now, I want to live as a writer.
Rather than providing information, I want to be someone who continues to think with others.

Someone who values questions more than answers.
SckoonCup was a path I chose.
However, the words I will write from now on
might become a path that chooses me.

If there is someone now
whose career is wavering.
If you are holding onto a sense of discomfort that you cannot put into words.

It is not a failure.
Nor is it a precursor to the next title.

It is simply that the question is alive.

The path is still underway.
And perhaps, it always will be.

Life goes on.

⸻

Ambition and Afterword (11.03.2023)

When starting something new, people can sometimes get a bit over-ambitious.
When I started writing this article, I was like that too. Looking back after about a year and a half, I feel like I was trying way too hard.

From the person's perspective, major events like starting a business, finding a job, or giving birth naturally make you tense up,
and once you get past them, your body feels a bit more relaxed.

You start to realize that it's not such a big deal.

Maybe it's okay to just keep muddling through like that.

⸻

I will continue to keep asking questions.
That is my job (and, I'll add that in Osaka dialect at the end).

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I published the following three books last month. I would be happy if you could support me with a review.

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