What Sparked My Husband’s Entrepreneurship

We received a comment on our blog like this:

I’m thinking about starting a business, but no one around me has done it, so I’d love for you two to share how and when you decided to start your businesses on your blog or Space.

Both my husband and I run our own companies.

Before we met, we each had already started our own businesses—he runs an IT company, and I run a company focused on lectures and writing. So in this article, I’d like to share the stories behind how we each got started.

My husband began his business about 15 years ago. Nowadays, he mostly delegates day-to-day operations to his employees and focuses on scouting future business opportunities.

His trigger for starting up was attending a startup seminar held by the Chamber of Commerce on weekends.

That said, he didn’t join with a strong “I’m going to start a business!” mindset. Rather, he thought casually,

“What kind of people actually start businesses? Are they all incredibly talented like Horie-san or Fujita-san from CyberAgent? I don’t have much to do on weekends anyway, so maybe I’ll just drop by.”

He attended on a whim with a very light heart.

But there was no one like Horie or Fujita there. Instead, the conversations were all about “Which financial institution is easiest to borrow from?” “Where are the lowest interest rates?” “This industry is booming lately, so maybe starting a business there would work out.”

At that moment, my husband thought,

“I see… They say only a few survive after starting a business in Japan, and now I understand why. Entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily special or brilliant. Maybe if I start a business, I might actually do okay.”

After that, he was enthusiastically invited by other seminar participants and ended up entering a city-sponsored business plan contest, which he unexpectedly won… and that’s how he started his company.

He didn’t set out with a firm plan to start a business; it was a series of coincidences and encouragement from those around him that led to the company’s founding. That’s the story of his entrepreneurship.

What Sparked My Entrepreneurship

As for me, I started my business at age 27.

After joining a company as a new graduate, I was selling training programs that my company planned and operated to small and medium-sized business owners. I worked hard aiming to be the top salesperson and thankfully achieved that goal, but afterward, I suffered from burnout, lost my sense of purpose, and spent many days feeling stuck.

At that time, a company president I was visiting asked me a question:

“Do you have any goals for your future?”

Since I was struggling to envision one, I didn’t know how to answer and blurted out, “I want to be a president someday.” I suddenly remembered that when I was a new employee, I once admired company presidents and thought, “It’d be nice to become one someday.”

But since I said it without any real follow-through, that president got very upset and said, “Don’t say things like that lightly. Are you going to start a business or not?”

Looking back, that president had only been running his own business for a few years and was deeply aware of how tough it was to increase sales. So maybe he couldn’t forgive me, who knew nothing, casually saying “I want to be a president.”

And I, caught off guard by his intensity, ended up saying, “I will start a business!” (What a gullible personality…)

Then he said, “Okay, I’ll introduce you to lots of business owners. Come to the business owners’ meetings.” and at those meetings, he introduced me to venture entrepreneurs around Kansai, saying, “This girl is starting a business next year.”

At that time in Kansai, it was rare for a woman in her mid-20s to start a business. So everyone said things like:

“You’re interesting, keep it up!” “It’s crazy you don’t have anything planned yet, come by my office and I’ll teach you!”

They cheered me on, and I found myself in a situation where I couldn’t back down after saying I’d start a business on a whim… so I made up my mind and launched it (lol).

By the way, when I told that president years later about this story, he completely forgot about it and said, “Huh, really?” (lol)

The Most Important Thing Is Taking That First Step

Looking back now, both my husband and I think, “How did we even start businesses in such situations?”

At the time, we were both riding high on a baseless confidence of “I can do anything,” but to put it in Dragon Quest terms, it was like charging into a cave with only a wooden stick and cloth armor, no save points, and no inn—a reckless challenge.

I definitely couldn’t do that now because it’s too scary.

But my husband says,

In Dragon Quest terms, even if you get wiped out by enemies, you can just restart from the church. You lose money, but you keep the experience. You don’t actually die. It’s the same with starting a business. Even if you hit a “this is bad!” situation, somehow you manage. So I think it’s good to try anything and everything.

That’s true… On a personal note, I recently finally finished repaying the loan I took out when I started my business. (I tweeted about it and got lots of likes—thank you!)

After 13 years, I finally finished repaying the long-term loan from when I started my business. It felt endless, and many times I thought “I might never pay it off,” but now I’m back to zero. Alright, time to start saving for a Porsche!!👊 pic.twitter.com/dIBzh5On75

— Mina-ポルシェがわが家にやってきた (@Mina_Panamera) February 28, 2022

It was an expensive lesson, but starting a business taught me so much, and those lessons have become my assets. Since last year, I’ve started a new challenge at work, and I feel that the struggles I went through back then have been very helpful.

My husband also said this:

If you’re thinking about starting a business, it’s important to take any small step forward. I took the small step of “going to a startup seminar,” and that changed my life. Instead of standing still because you don’t know what to do, buy a book, attend a seminar—anything to take that first step is important. Everyone’s path to entrepreneurship is different. Also, I was impressed by Atsuhiko Nakata’s YouTube introduction of the book “Dream-fulfilling Elephant,” where he said, “Life is a competition to make others happy.” I think that’s exactly right. The more you make people happy, the more money you earn in return. That’s the rule of this world. It’s not some lofty idea about serving or dedicating yourself to others; even in work, the attitude of “how can I make my customers happier?” is what matters.

I see… Actually, I touched on “how to improve your luck” a bit in a recent Space session, and it got a good response, so I hope to write more about this topic on the blog soon.