Seeing My Future Reflected Through My Seniors

I'm Taishi, and I've been going to a lot of drinking parties lately!
(A middle-aged man with big ambitions | 👉Self-introduction)

About two months ago, I wrote about a time I went out to eat with a former mentor and a friend from my university days for the first time in five years. After graduating from university and getting married, I had been so busy with work that I hadn't sought out new encounters. Meeting my mentor and friend made me realize how important such connections are. I decided that I want to be more open and enjoy meeting new people in the life ahead of me.

Since I wrote that story, and partly because the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, I have been meeting people at least once a week.

This time, I want to deeply engrave into my heart the things I realized were important to me while meeting and talking with people.

1. The fact that my senior had gone bald

The Event

When I met a senior five years my senior for the first time in about five years, I noticed that the front and top of his head had gone bald. It meant that over these five years, his hair follicles had reached the end of their ability to grow hair.

Thinking back, when I met him five years ago, his bangs were already thinning, and I feel like he was at the same AGA stage I am at now. If that is the case, this is likely the form I will take in five years if I do nothing.

My Thoughts

Through a senior in life who shares the same characteristics as me, I can see a reflection of my future self. This is because the mechanism of male pattern baldness is the same for all humans, and if we share the same characteristics, there is a high probability that the same result will occur if the mechanism runs for the same amount of time.

If the future self I see through my senior is not what I desire, I must start doing things differently from him now and change the rotation of that mechanism. This was also the trigger for me to start AGA treatment.

2. Getting a glimpse into the daily life of an executive fighting on the global stage

The Event

I met a senior ten years my senior for the first time in about 15 years. At the time, he was working at a foreign consulting firm and taught me about the fun and hardships of consulting work before I started my career.

The senior, who had said he intended to take over the family business eventually, had done exactly that over the past 15 years, becoming the president and doing things I couldn't even imagine. He grew the company to over 100 times its original size, went to an MBA program in the U.S. to learn about the world, and was flying all over Japan and the world for work.

My Thoughts

What left a particularly strong impression on me was his story about how four friends who became close during their U.S. MBA program take turns hosting each other every three months. They spend about a week together in places recommended by the host all over the world, such as Hawaii, the Maldives, and South Africa, to update each other on their lives, exchange opinions on politics, economics, and business, and continue to support each other through life.

One of the things I want to do is '79. Make friends around the world with whom I can talk about anything.' I hadn't been able to think seriously about how to achieve this, but hearing the story of my senior who has already achieved it, I feel that the resolution of my goal and the path to reaching it has increased significantly.

3. When in similar positions, everyone struggles with similar things

The Event

I went out for drinks with two colleagues from the same year. We are all in similar positions at our respective companies and are struggling with various things. Regarding work, we talked about our roles as managers, the difficulty in achieving results, demands from superiors, managing subordinates, and how to think about our careers and how many more years we will continue. Regarding family, we discussed work-life balance, children's education, and so on.

Thoughts

It would be a boring conversation if it just ended in complaining or wallowing in self-pity, but since each of us is ahead in certain areas, we empathized, exchanged opinions constructively, and promised to take next actions. Since we are colleagues in similar professional fields, I felt it would be great to build a relationship where we can help each other, cooperate in our mutual growth and happiness, and create things that we couldn't achieve alone. I intend to keep this relationship going regularly.

Summary - Let's enjoy good encounters

No matter how old you get, there are many possibilities for encounters that can fundamentally change your life. Through others, you can see your own future, or notice options and breakthroughs you hadn't realized before. You can also become partners in cooperation. You yourself can sometimes have an impact that fundamentally changes someone else's life. Life becomes more fun through encounters with people. Let's be more open and proactive toward meeting new people. Let's enjoy good encounters.

Well then, let's go get a drink!

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To be continued