Conversation with Japanese Students
Last summer when I taught in Japan I had an informal discussion with a few students there. The subject came to the topic of entrepreneur. One student asked: “Our education system is one of the best, our technical people have achieved many things but I do not know why we do not have entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Marc Zuckerberg?”
I explained: “Before answer your question, I want to know how many of you would turn down a job offer to become an entrepreneur and start your own company?”
The students looked at each other; no one raised their hands so they know that they had the answer. They were all best students, studied at top universities and when graduate, they will get good jobs from top companies. Of course, there is no reason to start a company with no guarantee of success when you have good jobs and good salaries. I asked them why they chose to work for somebody when they could be their own bosses themselves. They hesitated and answered: “No risks”.
I explained: “Of course, most people do not want to risk anything. Entrepreneur is about having passion for something and willing to take the risk to get it. If you do not want risk, you cannot be entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is like having a baby. When a mother wants to have a baby she forgets about the changes in life that she will endure for the next 10 months; or the labor pain she will have while delivering the baby. She forgets everything because she wants a baby. She wants to be a nourishing, caring mother and willing to risk everything. Starting a company is also like having a baby, if you do not want it enough, you will never get it. To start company, entrepreneurs forget about the risk, and uncertainties waiting ahead because they are passionate about what they want to do. Without passion, they will not be able to overcome obstacles. Some would quit when they face problem. Most of you look at successful entrepreneurs and wish you were them. You need to know that for every one who succeed, there are probably thousands or more people who failed.”
A student commented: “You are correct. Most of us talk about it and envy the American but in reality; no one wants to venture into something like that. From childhood we grow up in an environment where the aim of education is to get a good job in a good company. Our parents do that, our grandparents do that, and we follow them. We do not want to change our tradition.”
Another student added: “In our country, if a student says “I want to start a company”, the family would think: “He is crazy, he wants to waste his life, and his family's money on something stupid”. In our culture, you do not start a company, you work for a company. It is our culture that prohibits entrepreneurship.”
One student said: “Part of the reason why we choose a good job rather than start our own company is lack of role model. We do not have “Japanese Bill Gates” so we have no one to look up to.”
A student added: “In our country, from elementary to high school, and even college, the only objective is to get good grade and graduate with high ranking. Our university does not encourage discovery or self enquiry. We are taught to follow an orderly process rather than something else.”
Another student disagreed; “But our education has changed. We start to apply new concept and encourage more independent thinking now. Of course still there are gaps due to our view of hierarchical from top down but it will change. It may take time but things will change. Today students need guidance and exposure to new ideas, new concepts which are not available now. If we are trained in entrepreneurship, we can make it happen.”
I explained: “I do not think you can train a person to be an entrepreneur. It has to be in their blood, in their minds, and in their passions. They must pursue something that they believe in. Japan had many entrepreneurs in history but somehow many of you forget. You only look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs as your heroes but many years before Gates and Jobs, there were Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita who started a small company to repair radio in Tokyo. During a visit to the U.S in 1950s, Ibuka heard about the invention of the transistor. He brought the license of the transistor technology back to Japan and developed the transistor radio. While some American companies already built the first radio transistor but Japanese's transistor radio was the most successful commercial venture at that time. In the 1960s about 85% of the transistor radio market belonged to Japan. It was the transistor radio that gave birth to the electronic industry in Japan. The name of the company is Sony.”
“Today some of you think entrepreneurship is something foreign so you look outward to people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and never look inward to your own success. Entrepreneurship is about passion, motivation and sometime necessity. Some of the best entrepreneurs in your country did it for their basic necessity. They have experienced the devastation of World War II so they have the passion to rebuilt, to start anew. Instead of reading books about Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, you should read the book about Akio Morita and how he transformed Sony into one of the largest electronic company in the world. I read Mr. Morita's book many years ago and I still reread it as it gave me a lot of admirations for his courage under extreme difficulty time.”
“Many of you probably did not know that Steve Jobs' hero is Akio Morita and he often contacted Mr. Morita for advices during his early years at Apple. Here are some advices that Mr. Morita gave Steve Jobs that may surprised you: “If you want bring something to the market, it had to be something different, something that nobody else was making.” …. “You do not need to do market research or follow somebody, carefully watch how people live, get an intuitive sense as to what they might want and then go with it.” … “If you go through life convinced that your way is always best, all the new ideas in the world will pass you by. Observe and learn, don't be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don't make the same mistake twice.” … “Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for the times. Create the best product, the highest quality product...”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
