I think what's important is not just thinking about 'what you want to do,' but also 'what you don't want to do'

I currently run a coffee shop called Laughter in Kyoto.

It has been five and a half years since I launched a green coffee bean import company, and it is about to be three and a half years since I opened the shop to sell that coffee.

Since I started my business while I was still in university, I often get told things like, 'You must have loved coffee from the start,' or 'I envy you for making a living doing what you love and what you want to do,' but...

Actually, I had never even had a single drop of coffee until about a year before I started my business.
It all began when I visited a coffee farm in the mountainous region of northern Thailand with an employee who had come to work in Japan from Thailand, whom I had met through a company I was helping during my university seminar activities.

I am probably the only person in Japan whose very first cup of coffee in life was sent directly from a farm they had actually visited (laughs).

The main reason I became obsessed with coffee, despite never having had a drop before, was that I was attracted to the work style of being able to spread Thai coffee—which was still rare in Japan—with our own efforts.
(Of course, I also grew to love coffee itself as I studied it and compared different types.)
So, rather than coffee being something I 'loved' or 'wanted to do,' for me, coffee was a tool that offered the possibility of realizing the future image and work style I wanted to achieve.

People often say, 'Find what you love and what you want to do!', but I think it is just as important to face 'what you don't want to do' as it is to find what you love or want to do.

There are three reasons for this.
The first is 'finding what you love or want to do is incredibly difficult'.

I think it is actually incredibly difficult to find something you love or want to do enough to make it your career.
There is a big difference between liking something as a hobby and working in that field to earn money. I have many hobbies, but when job hunting approached, I found myself unable to give a clear answer when I asked myself, 'Do I want to make this field my job?'

I realized that there is a difficulty in making something your job precisely because you like it or are interested in it.
If I had loved coffee since I was a child and worked part-time at a coffee shop during my student days, I might have instead thought, 'I've had enough of coffee shops. It's better to just enjoy coffee as a hobby.'

The second reason is 'it is easier to find what you don't want to do than what you want to do'.
Everyone, please think of your favorite food and your least favorite food.
Next, try to think of the reasons why you like or dislike each one.
You will probably find that you can come up with more specific reasons for why you dislike something.

In this way, I think it is easier for humans to verbalize negative emotions.
It might be difficult to verbalize what you like or want to do right away, but
even if it is something trivial like, 'I'm not good at waking up early, so I want a company that has introduced flextime,' by facing yourself, I think your ideal work style and future image will naturally come into view.

And the third reason is 'there are actually many things that are neither what you want to do nor what you don't want to do'.

I believe there are actually many things that don't fall into either category of what you want to do or what you don't want to do, and I think most people end up doing many tasks they never imagined after joining a company.
I have many classmates who say, 'I never thought about it during job hunting, but once I started working on it, it was actually quite fun!'

In the first place, there is a real limit to what you can encounter in the 20-something years of life before you start job hunting as a new graduate.
There are still many things you haven't encountered yet that you might actually want to do.

That is precisely why I think it is quite interesting to have the perspective of listing things you think, 'I don't want to do this!', and exploring a way of life and work that allows you to eliminate them.

By the way, I think the key to finding 'what you want to do' and 'what you don't want to do' is to be exposed to various ways of working and living.
In that sense, I think internships and visiting alumni are effective means.
There are truly many 'interesting adults' in the world.
Nowadays, you can be exposed to various ways of working and living on YouTube and the like, so I think you should make full use of those things.

And even if you go down the path you wanted to follow, you will inevitably encounter things you don't want to do (laughs).

'Things you don't want to do' also have a link to 'things you are not good at.'
I think it is important to think about 'what you don't want to do' in the sense of recognizing your own 'weaknesses' as well.

I also asked myself a lot about 'how should I live?' as the time for job hunting approached.
I think the time spent job hunting is an irreplaceable period where you can look back on your life so far in your own way and have it objectively evaluated, just as much as it is about which company you can get a job at.

Furthermore, turning points where you have to think about how you live and work will come not just during job hunting, but at every stage of your life.
I believe that more turning points in life will come for me as well.
What do I want to do? What do I not want to do? What kind of life do I want to lead? I want to keep searching and continue living a life I can be proud of.

And if you ever feel like talking about anything, no matter how trivial, I'll be waiting for you at the shop!