My career vision in next 20 years~risk and rewards
「アントレプレナーシップ」という授業で、「どういう人生を歩みたいか？そのリスクと報償は何か？」というエッセイ課題があった。
自分のマイルストンにもなるので、ここに残しておきたい。
My Life Plan
I am 50 years old (In 2035)
When I am 50 years old, I want to be a high level postion in the Japanese government or governor of Tokyo. This is not because I want to become a prestigious man but because this is the best way to pursuit my dream, which is to utilize the Japanese asset to soleve the world challenging problem.
I think the area that Japan can contribute most to the rest of the world is the know-how to make cities which can prosper with high density, with aged people and with resource constraint world. This is because Japan is the most rapid aging country in the world, so Japan has a potential to come up the role model of cities in which aged people feel confortable. Also, resources such as fossil fuel are facing limitation in this world due to the increase of the population and the increase of the consumption in developing countries. Also, Japan should attarct world best talents in this fild to offer the best solution.
I am 40 years old (In 2025)
I will found a company that utilize the latest technology to solve the problem I proposed. The good example of the company I would like to found is Sidewalk Labs, founded by Dan Docoroff, deputy mayor of New York City and Larry Page, CEO of Google. The company has just been founded, so it does not have solid business model but it has a mission, “improve life in cities for everyone through the application of technology to solve urban problems”. The urgent issues and latest technology would change in 10 years, so my start-ups would be different but this company could be a reference point.Also, it is important to stay not in Tokyo, my home town, but in some international cities such as Singapore and New York.
I am 35 years old (In 2020)
I want to join energy/health care start-ups/company as a executive position, which using latest technology to solve the issues I proposed. Also, I want to stay not in Tokyo, my home town, but in some international cities such as Singapore and New York.
Next step after graduation
Uopn graduation, I would like to join management consulting firm to solidify my business skill sets. Other option is to join some start-up directly. If I can get a good position such as manager or COO, I think I should take it. Management experience is much more worth than consulting, taking into my long term career.
Risk
The short-term risk is that I end up continuing consulting for a long time and lose an opportunity to achieve my long-term goal. To decrease this risk, I want to make it a habit to reflect myself at the New Year.
The other aspect of risk is about my personal life. When I become 40 to 50 years old, hopefully I have a wife and children. I want to spend enough time with them. Also, I want to invest enough money to my children. If possible, I want my children to have a proper education from pre-school to university such as Cambridge University. But the career I propose in this essay seem to have risk. One risk is taht I spend too much time on work. The other is that I lose financial asset or salary when i join new environment because I cannot perfom well in the new environment.
To avoid this risk, joining consulting company is very important for two reasons. First, consulting skills is quite transferable. Then, even if I lose job, it would be easy to find the next job using the skill. Secondly, the high salary even for the associate level save my life. This is because I hav already have a debt to pay my study at Cambridge and Columbia, so I have to pay back this student loan as soon as possible.
Reward
The biggest reward I would get is that I could live my own life. Especially in Japan, most people stay in one company and take it for granted that people stay in one company for their entire life. But reality is that even executive people who seem to be successful from outside do not satisfy or feel the meaning of their jobs. It is too sad that we spend most of the time for our work and just end up feeling no meaning. But, if I stick to the jobs that I feel meaningful, that kinds of things would not happen.
Then, what is the most important “meaning” to my life? In my personal life , it is the time I spend with my family. From professional perspective, it is to continue to challenge the world challenging problems by collaborating with interesting people.
The other important things are to show a role model of new entrepreneurial career. In Japan, a lot of talented people join the government as a policy maker and stay there for their entire career. Most of them work extremely hard like investment bankers or management consulting. But due to the lack of efficiency and diverse of experience, the productivity is pretty low. They need much more diverse experience. On the other hand, most people who work at private sector do not understand how difficult it is to change social and economic system through political procedure, so they end up complaining the politicians and governments. If I can show a role model of career in which people go back and froth from government to private, I can contribute to creat a new career pass. This new career pass definitely can contribute to diversify the people who would tackle the world public challenging problems.
