Weekly review (2024-01-07)
I decided to write weekly reviews in English for the time being, probably at least for a few years. Needless to say, I would like to maintain full confidentiality of my job, so I would never touch upon any sensitive subjects related to my job. As a result, the could be mainly about my personal life and reflections, but that does not mean that I am not working!
During the New Year holiday season, I spent my time with my family members & relatives. When I was a kid, I had always been looking forward to this winter and summer vacation season, because my aunt who used to run a business invited our family members to some nice places and gave us leisure time. I wanted to do the same thing to the kids of my brothers. I was able to spend only a few hours of personal time each day. Also, during this year-end period, there were some urgent matters that we needed to deal with. On top of that, Japan underwent a series of disasters - an earthquake and an airplane crash, so it was hardly a normal holiday mode.
One thing I did during the period was to update a bucket list. I made it two decades ago, and unfortunately, the original note was gone somewhere. However, I remember that almost 2/3 have been accomplished. If I remember correctly, the items are such as publishin
g a book, giving a lecture at a university, visiting 10 countries (which is not a small thing for a stateless like me), etc.
There is one thing that I did differently this time – I put a due date for each item and made sure that I could see at what age I would be on the due date. Putting a deadline is something that I learned from “Die with Zero”, but I think putting my age is my own invention. It is staggering. As a middle-aged person, I don’t have time. For example, one of my bucket list items is to climb Mount Everest, but it is not something that I can do while assuming the CEO position of my company, given that 5% of the people die from the trial. I asked ChatGPT about it, and it answered as follows:
”In my opinion, while a CEO of a publicly listed company has the personal freedom to climb Mount Everest, they must carefully consider the potential risks and implications. This includes evaluating company policies, stakeholder interests, and the impact on the company's operations and public perception. Ultimately, the decision should balance personal ambitions with professional responsibilities and the welfare of the company and its shareholders.”
Anyway, coming back to my original point on the bucket list. It was a great exercise to remind me of the shortness of life. I don’t have time, so I should focus on what is really important. To achieve this, frequent and short meditation (the custom that I introduced recently), helps a lot. It helps me not to digress from what matters to me.
Another thing that I did was to start reviewing the draft of my tenth book. It is about financial inclusion to be published by the most prestigious publisher for this sort of subject (at least in my opinion). It is a tough job, given the working memory the job spends. When you write a book, you have to remember the entire contents of the book to avoid any repetitions and maintain consistency in the writing. Writing is not my main job, and my memory needs to be spent on my business, so I always need to think about when to write a book. The original plan was to complete the task before I finished my vacation, but it didn’t work well. At least I should finish this task within the next week, because I am sure that things will be much busier after late January.
I read a book titled Design as an Attitude by Alice Rawsthorn. It made a big impression on me. The book made me realize that the coolest subject that design tackles is social issues, not the traditional realm of design, such as graphic and product design. It does not mean that graphic and product design will disappear. The point is that the best and brightest of the new generation of designers love to tackle social issues such as social injustice or environment conservation. The observation of the author agrees with my experience. It means that the field where I can pursue my passion for design is what I am doing now such as financial inclusion, child poverty alleviation, and so on. It brought me another motivation to continue the job, although I am the CEO not a designer of my company.
The book also made me understand that design is not something special but what we can do in everyday life. For example, reorganizing a desk space for one’s personal goal is a design. It is not a small design, given the potential impact this can bring about. So I did a complete overhaul of my desk space which I have not been so fond of for the last 24 months. I regretted that I hadn’t undertaken it before. Making a decision-making process better is another design. There is a lot that design can do in everything we do, and what matters is the attitude and the will.