Anonymous Interview: Someone who took early retirement from Company D
Japan's largest advertising agency! The title might have changed, though??
I think this is an interview from one of the extremes.
Enjoy!!
Joining us this time is Masoo!
qbc: What kind of interview should we have?
Masoo: Well, I'm like a fish on a cutting board, so go ahead.
qbc: I see! What do you do for a living now?
Masoo: Originally, I worked at an advertising agency for 20 years, but I quit last year.
Basically, I had always worked in back-office roles, so now my main business is something like business efficiency consulting.
Also, I have project management work where I identify issues for each project, set goals, and actually run them. I've launched a company like that myself. I'm the president of a company with only one person.
qbc: Why did you quit the company?
Masoo: I'm 45 years old, and you can see the future, you know. There are many very talented people around five years older or younger than me, and as they become the big bosses, people like me can't move up. If that happens, I could see that I'd just be doing the same thing for the next 10 years without much changing. I thought that if I were to be pushed out at around 55, when my skills are outdated and my physical strength is failing, with them saying, 'We'll add to your retirement bonus, so please quit,' there would be nothing I could do. So, I thought it would be happier to quit at this timing while I'm still physically capable and spend a few years becoming able to support myself.
qbc: That's a sensible way of thinking.
Masoo: I don't know if it's sensible or stupid. But if I don't know anyway, I thought it might be better to make it interesting.
By chance, through a friend's connection, I've become involved with Tottori. There's a high school teacher in Tottori who wants to build a glamping facility at the Tottori Sand Dunes, and I'm acting as a mentor for that project.
For me, it feels like I'm doing it as a study or a test, so I'm not getting paid. I'm teaching business etiquette to a high school teacher who doesn't know anything about business but is well-known locally and has a lot of guts, so we can build a proper business.
qbc: I see.
Masoo: Teachers have their own unique protocol. Since they deal with students, they are used to thinking on the premise that people will basically do what they are told, so they don't ask for things in an orderly fashion.
They have no bad intentions at all, but they will casually send messages in the middle of the night to busy adults who are helping them as volunteers, saying things like, 'I need this tomorrow, can someone do it?' I'm teaching them that this is not how you ask adults to do things.
I met that teacher by accident; we accidentally became friends on Facebook.
A friend I worked with at my previous company is from Tottori. He started an e-commerce management company in Tottori, and when I was at the timing of quitting, I asked him what it was like to be independent, and he told me to come to Tottori because he would teach me.
I went to his company in Tottori around November, and I'm connected on Facebook with the employees of his company. As is the case now, you can't really tell what people look like because of the masks, right? The person I became friends with, thinking they were an employee of that company, turned out to be that high school teacher.
qbc: Yes.
Masoo: I went to Tottori in February and built a dome tent in the dunes as a test.
Just this weekend, for the first time, we are charging money to have people stay there.
If you search for 'Sand Hotel project' on CAMPFIRE, the page will come up.
qbc: That's wonderful!
Masoo: Even just building this requires permission from the government. Plus, the Tottori Sand Dunes is a national park, so you can't stay there. There is a campsite about a 10-minute walk away, so we decided to set up the so-called glamping tents there and have people stay there.
qbc: How do you feel about doing this?
Masoo: It's fun. I'm starting to think that what I've done at the advertising agency can be useful to the world.
I've worked on projects like building a 1,000-person office from scratch, and that starts with concept making. What is the purpose of moving to this office, what do we want the 1,000 people to become in this office, and so on.
I'm doing that in this project as well. High school teachers are not used to creating concepts. We talk about how it would be fun to build a tent like this in the dunes and have everyone stay there, but if it's just 'wouldn't that be fun,' it doesn't become a job.
So, I'm mentoring everything, including the meaning of having people stay here, what kind of contribution we can make to Tottori Prefecture, what kind of experience will make customers happy, and whether it's good as a facility for Tottori Prefecture. We're also trying to make all the food local Tottori products. We're partnering with a Tottori kimono company.
qbc: I see.
Masoo: In local areas, there are people with a passion to do things, and there are also an absurd amount of subsidies available.
However, I often find that they aren't able to create something like a concept and break it down into a plan.
I feel a sense of accomplishment in supporting that part. Just feeling that sense of accomplishment is enough for now.
qbc: Does this project itself exist as a company?
Masoo: His company is a one-person company. It feels like it's being run by volunteers, including students he gathered and people around 40 who want to revitalize Tottori.
qbc: It's an interesting development from a chance friend request.
Masoo: I don't think it would have worked without me. I think he would have gone with a photo of himself wearing a turban and smiling, with fancy text and a picture like 'Sand Hideaway,' promoting it as a way to feel like a king. Before COVID, Tottori actually had a lot of tourists from Asia, but if they want turbans and deserts, they'd go to the real thing in the Arab world. I talked to him about 'creating something original to Tottori' and had him change direction.
On the other hand, the barriers from people talking about nature conservation and the government are incredibly thick. There's a limit to what you can do in the sand dunes. In February, it was so cold I thought I might freeze to death. And in the summer, I heard the surface of the sand reaches about 60°C. So, I figured we could only do it in April, May, October, and November. Within that, maybe twice a week. That's about four months of weekends in total. We can't just keep putting up tents, so let's say we put up 10. That's about the scale of doing it 16 times over two months.
So, this itself probably won't be a business, but I'm saying the goal should be to make it a topic of conversation that 'this kind of thing exists at the sand dunes.' As a completely separate movement, there's a government-led initiative to renovate the facilities around the Tottori Sand Dunes, so there's also the unique dome tents in the dunes, and we're aiming for a situation where people come to see those, there are nice tourist facilities around, and people who used to leave the dunes in 30 minutes now stay for three hours.
The Tottori Sand Dunes right now have a real Showa-era vibe. You know how there are hot spring towns where time has stopped since around 1970? It's like that.
qbc: I see. What were you like as a child, Masoo-san?
Masoo: I think I was very much at my own pace. I was a child overflowing with a desire for self-approval and self-display.
I stood out in a weird, annoying way, and I became a target for bullying.
However, when I took a gap year before going to university, my ego was completely crushed, and I became much milder, so I'm probably normal now. Or rather, I don't think I'm that bad.
qbc: Is there any connection between this Tottori project and your childhood?
Masoo: I definitely have a strong desire to be useful to someone.
I think that's been the case since I was in junior high or high school. I was a club president, and in college, I became a representative of a circle. There's what I want to do, but I also like being useful to those around me. That's still true today.
So, back-office work suited me perfectly. Conversely, I'm bad at making money.
I was in a business division once, but customer satisfaction was the first priority. I think I was the type to think, 'If giving a discount makes the customer happy, then just give the discount.'
If the work wasn't being done properly, I wanted to lower it to an appropriate profit level.
In that sense, the corporate department isn't exactly ignoring profitability, but...
qbc: I see.
Masoo: Also, I'm involved in business improvement consulting at a home center in Tottori. I'm creating workflows for things like how to handle orders from customers and the flow from purchasing to sales. Eventually, I want to get to the point where I give them tablets and digitize everything.
It's a world where they carry notebooks, write down what they hear, talk to suppliers on the phone, and everything is left in notes written in free format. The president asked if it wouldn't be better to put it into Excel or something. But in a store where there's barely one computer per person, if I told everyone to put their notes into Excel, they wouldn't do it, and it would actually be less efficient. So, I'm starting by having them write by hand in a standardized format and keep it neatly in a binder.
qbc: I see.
Masoo: Right now, it feels like I'm doing a proof-of-concept experiment on myself to see if I can do consulting. I get hired by small and medium-sized enterprises, start by writing out flowcharts, call in vendors to build the systems, have them deliver them, and then get them running.
Even if it's difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to do it themselves, if you analyze it calmly from a third-party perspective, there's often a lot that can be made more efficient.
What was interesting was that at one company, they had a processing center in Okinawa, and they were gathering all their administrative work there.
For example, even with processing rental car application documents, if you really break it down, 80% of the work is things anyone can do, like receiving a fax, typing it in, or carrying it to another department. Only 20% of the work involves judgment that requires a certain level of skill.
But if you treat that work as a single block, the skilled people end up spending 80% of their time doing things like copying from faxes to slips. I heard that if you can break it down into work units, you can have part-timers do those, and the skilled people can focus on the difficult tasks.
I think that's what it's about, and nobody is doing that kind of decomposition. Right now, I'm doing it at small and medium-sized businesses and town shops, but I think it would be fun if I could eventually do it at larger companies too.
qbc: Yes.
Masoo: Ideally, the best way to make a living would be to be an advisor to presidents, listening to their troubles for two hours a week, and gathering about 10 such clients, but I can't do that without acquiring the skills and experience.
Anyway, for about two years, I'll be polishing my skills and searching for what I want to do. It's a bit too vague, but I'm looking for where the balance lies between what I can do and the needs of the world.
qbc: What kind of image do you have for the future, like five or ten years from now?
Masoo: I might want to be semi-retired and doing things like this as my main focus. I also met someone who is doing a project to revive a mountain hut in a place called Mount Norikura. They're asking me to help out right now.
After all, when you say you're doing one interesting project, people start coming to you with things like, 'We have this too, are you interested?' I learned a lot from the crowdfunding consulting for this sand hotel, and I'm already sharing those lessons with the people at the Norikura mountain hut.
When that happens, there are so many people doing interesting things in regional revitalization that don't necessarily have much money. I think it's fun to have those people reach out to me, and even if it doesn't make money, to increase the number of success stories.
I think there are quite a few places that are hidden gems known only to locals that people want to do something about. Like, there's actually a hot spring in the deep mountains of Nagano that no one knows about.
However, I don't think there are many things as easy to understand as the Sand Hotel. I mean, everyone knows the sand dunes, right? It's a project at a super famous spot.
The mountain hut story is also interesting.
Mountain huts are basically family-run, and they are passed down through the family for generations.
Most of them are family-run. So, it basically never happens that a new manager comes to a mountain hut. But in this case, it's a rare occurrence where the person is actually getting the management rights transferred to them. It's that kind of fan-boy feeling.
qbc: What is happiness to you, Masoo-san?
Masoo: It's a cliché, but if I can be in a position where people say 'thank you' to me, that's generally good enough.
In my case, if I can reach a situation where my altruistic activities are going well to some extent by about five years from now, and I'm earning enough not to worry about food, then I've probably succeeded.
If I only do work that doesn't pay, I won't be able to make a living. It's a question of where I'll be in five years.
But I'm actually surprisingly anxious. Even though I talk as if I'm not.
qbc: Do you like the challenge itself?
Masoo: I'm not the type who loves going from one venture to another, but I'm not the type who finds it fun to get a salary for doing the same thing forever either.
qbc: Thank you very much. Finally, if there is anything left unsaid, I am listening.
Masoo: Thank you for your time today. Also, I ended up talking only about work. I thought I should have talked about my hobbies too.
Mountain climbing, trips to Okinawa, and following Frontale.
qbc: Too bad! Thank you very much.
Masoo: Thank you very much.
Afterword
How did you feel after reading this interview? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!!
Actually, I also work on adjusting the internal environment of a company, so I felt quite a lot of empathy! Our ages are close, too! I thought that no matter how old you get, humans need to take on challenges.
But I also thought that this might be one of the pinnacles of happiness.
Thank you for your support.
Editorial Cooperation: Hina Arishima-san 5th Anniversary-san
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