[#117-Fuku] What to discard: A mindset for taking on challenges

<The writers>

Fuku
Born in 1990. From Osaka Prefecture. CEO of Crown Partners Inc.
After graduating from university, he joined a medical equipment trading company and was involved in consulting work related to hospital relocations. Later, longing for performance-based sales, he changed jobs to a major housing sales company. However, he could not adapt to the military-style corporate culture and resigned after just six months. After a short period of withdrawal, he decided to challenge himself again as a performance-based salesperson. He joined an investment real estate sales company, and despite having no experience, he established his own sales style through trial and error and became a top salesperson. He became independent in April 2022. He is struggling every day to create a new form of real estate sales.

Kai
Born in 1988. From Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture.
Cram school teacher (and cram school manager).
Opened a cram school during his university days. He tried to create a school that improved everything he was dissatisfied with at major cram schools, but due to a lack of ability, it continued to run at a loss. It was forced to close.
He made a comeback and is now running a school that, thankfully, is 99% full through word of mouth.
He pioneered a new style specializing in "teaching learning methods" and works as a professional instructor, teaching classes at his own school and at major cram schools.
Currently, he is expanding his range of activities, including training for instructors and learning support for working adults.

Many of you probably thought, looking at the title, that this would be a story about guts and determination—like throwing away your private time, discarding meaningless friendships, or first getting rid of unnecessary things around you. (Haha)

Since I come from a sports-oriented background, I agree that guts and determination are important, but I'm the type who thinks, "Don't just rely on guts and determination from the start! Instead, complete about 90% of the work by devising a strategy, and then use guts and determination to finish it off at the very end!" So, today I'd like to talk about that 90% part.

Thinking from the perspective of stock investment

On a personal note, the stock investment I started in earnest this year is going well.

The reason is that I'm getting advice from an excellent professional called an IFA, but I'm achieving results I hadn't even imagined myself.

On the other hand, there was a friend who was recommended to start stock investment at the same time as me, but he didn't start investing at that time because he said, "I'll start after I study a bit more."

It's not that either I or this friend is better, but at least at this stage, I am achieving better results.
The reason isn't that I was more talented or had more courage; it's just thatI started earlier.This fact of "starting earlier" is actually quite significant, and because the difference in speed changes the subsequent results so much, I'd like to delve into this.

Mindset for starting early

There are huge advantages to starting early.
You can probably understand that if someone starts studying for entrance exams steadily from their first year of high school, they will have an advantage; the benefit of being able to spend time is substantial.
People who have madestarting early
a habit are very strong. As an important mindset for that, what I want to advocate isdiscarding.Let's go back to the stock investment story from earlier.
For those who don't know much about stock investment, to explain it simply, it's a simple game where you buy a certain amount of a company's stock, and if the value of that stock goes up, you make a profit, and if it goes down, you lose money. For this simple game, investors around the world talk to each other, saying things like, "That company's stock is a good target" or "It seems the economy in that industry will improve in the future."
When I started stock investment,

I invested with the feeling of discarding that initial fixed amount.I invested with the feeling, "It's the beginning and it also serves as study, so it's fine even if the value becomes zero."It happened to hit, I made a little profit, and as I repeated the process of investing that into the next stock, my knowledge gradually increased, and it became interesting—that's how it went.
Since it was "discarded money" to begin with, honestly, I didn't feel any risk at all.
But if you become too cautious here and the fear of "What if the value of the stock I bought goes down..." outweighs everything else, it's natural that the answer will be "I'll start after I study."
To avoid any misunderstanding, of course, studying is a good thing.
But I think that especially for studying after becoming a working adult,

"just start it, and if you get hooked, then study"is enough.As the saying goes, "Seeing is believing," there is a huge amount of learning contained in the act of experiencing something itself, and at least for the first 0 to 40 points, learning is definitely faster if you just start than if you study from books or the internet.For that purpose, I think it is effective to first start with a "feeling of discarding" without being obsessed with or expecting success.

Why not discard your career at first too?

I used stock investment as an example, but I think the same can be said for career formation.
Personally, I think it's fine to discard the first 2-3 years.
This doesn't mean spending time aimlessly.
Time is more valuable than money, so you have to work hard and seriously.
However, it just means you don't need to have a huge success there.
For example, even if you are thrown into an outrageous black company or made to work for extremely low pay, that is also one experience. Why not let whatever happens during those 2-3 years you discarded be fine?
Instead of being rigid about wanting to succeed from the start, you should think of it as a step toward a better 5 or 10 years from now.

For people who are choosing jobs now, I think things like "What kind of job suits me?" "What do I want to do?" and "What kind of company suits me?" are things they are very interested in.
But honestly, it's also a fact that you won't know until you try.
Thinking too much before you've even started often doesn't solve anything.
Whether you can get into an environment that suits you also involves elements of luck, and furthermore, "whether it suits you" is nothing more than subjective.
I think it's fine to have the image of summarizing your future vision while experiencing various things for a certain period, with the intention of discarding it.

This is the same for changing jobs.
I have also experienced various things, such as changing jobs and becoming independent.
Of course, I have an ideal image of where I want to end up in the end.
But this wasn't there from the beginning either; it's a story of how the thought of wanting to do things this way sprouted while experiencing various things.
Every time I changed jobs, I discarded the first year.
It might go well, or it might not.
However, it's a feeling of, "I worked hard for this year, so if it doesn't go well, it can't be helped."
Because I'm not obsessed with the results, I can try and error and make use of it further ahead.
If you get caught up in immediate results, your thinking tends to become rigid and you tend to settle for small things, and even if you get immediate results, it's hard to expand from there.

Summary

I've written various things, but in the end, what I want to convey is that it's often more beneficial to be moving somehow than to be stopped by thinking too much.
And to move somehow, discard the initial money or time it takes.
This "discarding" means not being bound by results or achievements.
It's like the vibe of a YouTuber's "I tried doing X," where it's okay if everyone watches the video regardless of whether it succeeds or not.
As for clear goals or learning, you can think about them if you seem to get hooked as a result of trying it out for now.

If you think about it to that extent, wouldn't it be easier to take the first step toward a challenge?

Please give it a try!
See you later!