4th book

My 4th book (in Japanese) will be published in ten days, but it's the first book in that it focuses on myself - about my lifestyle.

It was really painful experience to talk about myself. Reading drafts, some guys of my NPO said to me: "oh TJ, the book seems to be a bit arrogant, and I don't like it", although I was extremely careful about abolishing self-consciousness in the book. I resisted 100 temptations to say "shut up. then you do it" (actually I couldn't swallow all of them, haha).

To be honest, I'm not sure if I want to publish the book. Whenever I author a book, I wonder whether my future kids would proud of it. If the answer is no, I don't write it, although the book could be a  good promotional opportunity for my NPO or my business.

I know it is no use crying over spilled milk. I just would wait judgment of the readers.

Hold tightly

When I was a boy, I sometimes hold precious things (at that time they were mainly toys or insects) so tightly that they were broken or squashed. Even after I got old, from time to time I did the same, although the broken were not toys anymore, but relationships with my significant others. 

I think it's not only me who experienced such bitter events; some of my friends went through unwanted breakup because they love their steadies too much. Having experienced agonies, one of my friends said to me, " the most important thing in relationship building is to keep the appropriate distance. If the distance gets too close or too far, something would go wrong. " "Preaching truth after storm is very easy.", I said to her. 

Occasionally, I am reminded of what I did wrong and regret them, even knowing that regretting something means and creates nothing. However, at the same time, I cherish those memories, as they were the very vivid proof of my life, in which I tried to do the best as an imperfect man. A good thing is that memory would never be broken down but even tell me more, when I hold it tightly. 

2012 review & 2013 objectives

3 years ago I started to write about 2012 review and 2013 objectives and share it with my friends. One purpose is purely greeting, and another is to make an oath, which always drives me to achieve my goal. 

1. Professional lifeLed two big deals about LBO financing and exit (selling shares of a portfolio company). Having gone through those deals, I now became more confident in what I can do as an investment professional.

I will start something new next year. While I stay in the current firm, I would like to achieve the followings:
- Learn more about fund administration; study how the investment scheme works
- Never prepare “draft“ works; prepare them as the final version
- Make progress in writing charts: create “chart notebook” and hand-write more than 100 great charts I encounter through work and study

2. NPO lifeThree key achievements of 2012 are as follows:
- Living in Peace (LIP) became a “registered” non-profit organization. Donations for registered NPOs are all tax deductible and it will be of help to accelerate fund raising
- Cumulative invested capital for“LIP Microfinance Fund (investment fund for microfinance institutions around the world)” reached +$1 million
- Doubled the donors for “Chance Maker”, a fund raising program for foster homes in Japan. Thanks to support from donors, we initiated construction of new foster homes, to be completed by the end of 2013. The kids are all excited.

In 2013, I would strengthen board of directors meetings (currently they are not working perfectly), launch new investment projects, and make a breakthrough in fund raising. I also would augment my presentation skill, by putting more time on practice.

3. LearningI read more than 200 books and academic papers regarding innovation (main purpose is to author a book about the topic). After reading these materials, I noticed that the concepts on innovation, such as abduction, tacit knowledge, dialectic, design thinking, story, etc., are all connected and is meaning essentially the same.

This year, I also tried to read the most cited books according to Google Scholar and wrote English blog every week. Due to some schedule conflicts with my professional job and book writing, I could read only 34 books. I couldn’t achieve the original goals, but the experience was amazing. Now I can see the world from broader perspectives than I could a year ago.

Best books of 2012: “Poor Economics (Banerjee & Duflo)”, “Science and Methodology (Poincare)”, “Tacit Dimension (Polanyi)”,　“Making Democracy Work (Pugnam)”, “Mind in Society (Vygotsky)”, “The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Popper)”.

In 2012, I learned from the other opportunities as well. This year I attended St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland and Summer Davos in China. The best thing I learned from these events is that there are great people in my generation doing cool things to really change the world. They gave me motivation and inspirations more than great business and political leaders in the world. I also realized that I need to make a quantum progress in my English.

Next year’s key targets are:
- Read books about finance, governance & management and emerging countries: more exactly, the books about industrial organizations, game theory, history of governance, asset pricing, etc.
- Continue a study group to read and discuss articles of the Economist magazine every Sunday morning
- Post +100 English blog entries
- Learn +2000 new English words

4. Authoring “Social Finance Revolution”, my third book, was published in July. The book is about how social network influences the future of finance. I also wrote drafts of three books, which will be published early next year.

Next year, I will write book(s) about asset pricing and corporate governance. The purpose is to summarize what I have learned so far through my study and professional career.

5. Other activitiesDue to schedule conflict, I could enter only two races. One is long-distance triathlon (3.8 km swimming, 190 bicycle, and 42.2 km running), and another is 100km ultra marathon. In May 2012, I will have a 6-days ultra-marathon competition, in which I’ll run 520km in total.

I could perform drums in a live session as scheduled. The problem is that I wasn’t well prepared, and I think I need to make time for practice.

6. Behavior
I think I need to change some of my behaviors to start new things. Although they may sound childish, the reality is that I couldn’t overcome them in 30 years. I’ll make a check list and fill it everyday when writing my diary:
- Be in time. Be the place 10 minutes before the appointment (and study new English words while waiting) and prepare works 24 hours before the deadline.
- Handwrite thank you letters for everyone whom I appreciate
- Concentrate on one thing at one time
- Ameliorate posture. It influences state of mind
- Make 10 minutes for silent reflection.