Mr. Kitashiro

For today's class, Mr. Kitashiro came in to give us a speech on leadership. It was incredible to know all the things he have done to bring back IBM back to business. He gave a lot of advice he learned throughout his own experience which we can implement in real life from today. 

One of the things he talked about that I thought was important was to always try your best in anything. Even if that task is something you dislike or disagree, never complain but try your best and change the factor that will change that problem. Moreover, another thing he mentioned was to choose the difficult whenever you have a choice. There are more things you can learn when you choose the difficult. It was interesting because Shiho and I were having a similar conversation whether to challenge every opportunity and be really busy or to refrain from complicated challenges. I strongly believe that taking in and appreciating every opportunity is essential in order to bring yourself up to a new stage. Therefore, I try never to miss an opportunity whenever I encounter one.

Hearing from Hibiya sensei and Mr. Kitashiro, and reading several books by successful leaders made me realize how all leaders carry similar  traits. Having an optimistic mind, carrying and sharing a common long-term objective, having passion and so on. I think that these qualities are not only crucial for a leader to enhance, but are also pivotal in order to become a good human being. 

Hibiya sensei

Today the head of ICU, Junko Hibiya sensei came to give us a speech about leadership. Throughout the whole lecture, I was awed by the flow of her words and the techniques that were used in her presentation. It really showed that she knew what she was talking about and the passion that follows.
One of the things she mentioned that caught my attention was when she talked about the differences between a job and a career. According to Hibiya sensei, a job is just a thing you do in order to earn a living where satisfaction doesn't matter. On the other hand, a career is a work that is more professional and satisfactory. Most importantly, it's a work that is according to his/her calling. I strongly believe that pursuing a career is a crucial element in life that would enrich people's quality of living and make life more worth living. However, it is also extremely difficult to determine what that calling is. In fact, that is what I'm struggling for right now. I still don't know what I want to pursue as a career, but I've reached to a conclusion that I would just have to struggle within my 4 years of college. I will try to build up experiences of various fields to open up my future vision believing that someday it will help me determine what I want to spend my life doing. Because experience will lead the way. As Steve Jobs once said, "connect the dots". Creating as many "dots" as possible will be my task during my four years in ICU :)

Chapter 9

Taking risks is a hard thing to do, but once you overcome that risk, you are able to accomplish, overcome, and exceed the person who you used to be. In my life, one of my biggest risks I've taken recently was about the entrance exams for universities. I was deciding whether to take normal examinations and study Japanese, World History, and English, or to take special exams such as for returnees and study English and Writing. The former had more possibilities but the work load was quite demanding, while the latter demanded memorization less but decreased the chances and the number of possibilities to get in. Moreover, there weren't any other students who were taking the same examination as me in my school, therefore, there wasn't much information about special ones. All the teachers were against me because of that decision's risk. If I couldn't get into any universities through those special examinations, there was no other way for me to get into any. However, I chose to apply for the special examinations despite the obstacles. Unlike normal examinations, they required a lot of preparation and a specialized type of studying, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Throughout the preparation, I acquired a sort of ability to understand and express myself, since that was the quality that they were demanding which was a thing that never could have been acquired through a normal preparation. Fortunately, I was able to get into ICU which was the very university that I've longed to enter. Giving up an option did require a lot of thinking and risk, however, the elements which I gained were something I could never have gotten through the other option. And thanks to that decision, I am now able to enjoy my university life here at ICU!

Hong Kong

Today, a lady from Hong Kong came to our class to give a speech about the Speech contest. It was really surprising to know that the student from ICU who won the contest before was a jun-japa. When one of her slides showed that she was "born and raised inside of Japan", I really couldn't believe it. Her pronunciation was just as similar as a native speaker and the delivery of the speech conspicuously showed her confidence. There's no wonder she won the contest.

The memories of Hong Kong for me is pretty fresh because I visited there and spent my New Years holiday about two years ago. Because it was my first time to visit a place in Asia other than Japan, there were many new and unique encounters of culture. One of the most memorable aspect that caught my attention was the fact that they eat turtles. Turtles are used to make tea in Hong Kong. Seeing a quite large number of turtles being boiled in a huge pot for tea was an unpleasant yet striking scenery during my visit. Moreover, many restaurants served us pigeons which was also surprising. While it is normal to eat these unusual kinds of animals in Hong Kong, the traditional Chinese meal that they served was inexplicably delicious. Adding to it, experiencing the new years was also an unforgettable scenery that will remain in my memories forever. Observing millions of fireworks coming out from various of places simultaneously in the city and the reflection of them on the sea  was extremely beautiful.

I don't know if I will apply for this contest but if time would let me, I will try to participate in it since it's a great opportunity to challenge my skills and share the moments I'd experienced in Hong Kong.

My part-time job

I teach English to kids at an American preschool as a part-time job. Half of the teachers that work there are bilingual Japanese people and others are native English speakers. So the workers are pretty diverse. The job itself is very enjoyable and the unique type of workplace is also quite interesting for me.

The other day, we had a gathering of what people call "nominication" of my part-time job (I didn't drink because I am under 20). The members were mainly consisted by the part-timers and almost no full-times were there.
During this gathering, the topic of "what makes a great leader?" was brought into the conversation, and of course I thought that it was something really related to what we are doing in RW right now. Therefore, I would like to share it in my blog :) Because we are part-timers, we often get scolded of our mistakes. However, there are two types of bosses in our workplace. One is the type who says our faults directly to us, and the other one is the type who tells our mistakes to a third person who then speaks to us indirectly. The latter was obviously the unpopular type among our little discussion. If the person talks badly about us behind our backs, it is unpleasant, mean, and uncomfortable. Moreover, I believe that people intend to correct their mistakes deliberately when they are told face to face. Thus, I've reassured my thoughts that a pivotal quality of a good leader is that the person never speaks ill about others indirectly. Not only does an open relationship between leaders and workers give leaders a good image, but also it offers the workplace a positive atmosphere that is a plus for both sides.

Chapter 7 "Conflict"

As some of the people might have noticed, I am an extremely optimistic person. I try to live my life as happy as possible. Whenever I encounter a conflict, I try to avoid thinking about it for a while and do something that refreshes my mind, then I come back and deal with it in a brighter view.
People might take this wrong, but it is not that I've never encountered any tragic events or sad moments in my life. In fact, I'm sure that I've gone through many harsh obstacles than a number of the ordinary people. Those worries used to bug me all the time. However, once you come face to face with a problem that's so bad and notice that you can't really do anything about it, there's a shift in the way of thinking. You come to realize that worrying too much will never yield any positive consequences. If you change the stand point of how to look at matters, life becomes so much easier and happier.

I've learned quite a lot from my personal experiences, and each one of the adversities made me stronger. And I hold that belief whenever I encounter a worrisome matter. Each one of the difficulty that I face makes me both mentally and physically stronger, and is rather a "chance" to reach over to a better me. Therefore, it is better to try to appreciate getting that chance. Thinking in this way is surely hard but once you get the point, it'll make you  more optimistic.
I don't want to be swaggy or anything but I really love the term, "YOLO". Though the way of usage is sometimes used inappropriately these days, the idea that stems from is really a thing that all of the people should keep in mind about.
You Only Live Once. Do what you love, and do what will make you happy and satisfied.

Chapter 5

It is always hard to be in control of a team consisted by individuals that have different minds. Each acts, thinks, and talks differently. However, bringing about 'teamwork' is the key to success.

In this chapter the author expressed about how shared identity and efficient communication between team members is important to teamwork. This idea can be implemented in many cases, but the one that I want to talk about is sports. Especially, I go crazy of is football. For the reason that I spent a considerable amount of time in my life living in such a football-fanatic-country/city, I have keen eyes for watching football.

Forgive the fact that I'm holding a towel from Manchester United instead of Barca.

Of course I still have my Barca spirit inside me.

Football is the very example that shows the efficiency of teamwork effecting its consequences conspicuously. A team can never success with a single key player. Nor can they achieve triumph without an elaborate defender. It's all about all the team members striving and helping each other in order to reach the common goal to win the match. The perfect balance is what makes a football team successful.Once one player looks into the different direction compared to others, the balance collapses all the sudden. Therefore, the principles that the book described about inside this chapter does surely work to bring all the team members together, which can be shown by the example of football.

My favorite team :) Nihon Daihyou!

Gratitude

About gratitude.
The things that I gratify doing and that I know is missing in my life right now is to make and play in musicals. I became a member of my high school's English musical club when I came back to Japan from Spain after 9th grade. At first I wasn't a great fan of musicals. Being effected by the whole stream of High School Musical, I used to find them kind of childish. Plus, I used to have the idea that performing on stage wasn't a thing for me. My intentions of becoming a member of this club was mostly to maintain my English skills. However, my views on musicals completely changed once I started performing them. I've never found anything more exciting and thrilling in my life than singing, dancing, and acting on stage. Although this club was one of the most toughest clubs in the entire school having practice 6 days a week, I dedicated my time and effort in realizing that common goal to make this piece to a success with the other 70 members of my club.

One scene of the musical "Fame"

Not only did being a part of ESS made my three years in high school satisfying but it also gave me a clue of what I want to do in the future as a job for a living. I realized how I loved changing other people's feeling by my actions. When you're playing a role in a musical, you have the power to make the audience happy, sad, overwhelmed, impressed, passionate, or any other feelings that could exist. The moment is all yours. That's what I love about musicals. And that also connects to the volunteer activity that I am now doing outside of college. Watching people motivated throughout my accomplishments satisfies my life. 

During my four years in college, I would like to find the thing that I really want to do using the clue that I found in high school :)

A video that all of you should absolutely watch

A feedback to the video that Ken introduced to us about smiling from TED and the metro laugh. It's been a while but I felt that I want to share something related to those two videos.

Please watch! It will make your day.

HAHA! Did you enjoy it?:)

As Charlie Todd explained in the very beginning, he is the founder of Improv Everywhere. What this performance group does is that they create laugh and joy in public places where there's no shared experience of absurdity. I completely fell in love with this idea. Once that experience becomes mutual with other people, it turns out to be something meaningful. 

Plus, we already know about the power of smiling. I strongly believe that this world will become a better place if we respect shared moments of laugh between the interaction of individuals.

If you feel that everyday life is boring, why don't you make it more laughable with a single action? 

Fill your life with laugh. Though your sad or mad, just smile! Happiness will lead the way:)

Chapter 2 and 3

One of the leaders that I personally look up to is Walt Disney. Yes, as everyone knows he is the founder of The Walt Disney Company that creates animation and manages Disney Land. His company had been thriving in those days and still in present.

Walt Disney 

What made him so successful? The answer is simple. He believed in what he was doing and pursued his dream vigorously without any hesitations, even if people around told him that it is impossible.

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."--- Walt Disney

Before his industry became prosperous, animations were completely silent. That was the way animations were and how they were kept. It was thought that making drawings talk was unimaginable. However, Disney challenged this norm. He simply believed that he was able to make drawings speak. And he did. He recorded his voice over the animation of Mickey Mouse, which became the first talking and most successful throughout history.

In addition to his strong pursuit of own beliefs, he was also extremely optimistic. He never stopped challenging the impossible. In fact, he took every adversity as a obstacle that would make himself stronger. Indeed, he surely did achieve to make fantasy into a reality.

"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic to know that life is a complex matter."---Walt Disney

There are many more qualities that made Walt Disney a good and distinct leader. He has left us with a lot of amazing quotes that explain how he was as a human being. Even after 50 years since his death, his preaches keep on inspiring others and will also continue to do so in the future.

Oranges and Chocolates

The activity we did in class was really fun! It made me think of ways how both sides will benefit throughout efficient negotiations. This time it was simple using oranges and chocolates(snake eggs), however, what the society as a whole is lacking right now is this win-win situation. If all companies and countries apply this in real life situations, that will solve many of the issues this current world is struggling in present such as poverty, global warming etc.
One of the areas that I'm interested in is Social business. Social business is a business that works for the social collective good. This whole concept was created by a Bangladeshi university professor Muhammad Yunus who created the famous Grameen Bank. In short, he came up with a whole new idea of banking called microfinance which lends money for the poor who were previously excluded from borrowing money. His concept was innovative saving many lives, and a number of leaders look up to him ever since this concept came out.

Muhammad Yunus

Another social business company that I really like is Table For Two. This company created a system that when a person in a developed nation buys a Table For Two product, a partial amount of the price is given to developing nations which equals for one meal. A meal made by the Table For Two that is served for the people in the developed nations is more nutritious and healthier than other meals. Therefore, this creates a win-win situation. People in the developed nations are able to get healthier food which will solve many of the problems of obesity and other types of disorders related to over-consumption of food, whereas people in the developing nation are able to receive a free meal which enables them to do away with starvation.

Creating a win-win situation is not easy. However, it is probably the best way to solve many of the problems that this world is coping with right now:)

Pictures taken by,

http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/muhammad-yunus-a-hero-to-many

http://www.mitsui.com/jp/en/csr/contribution/employee_participation/tft/index.html

Chapter 1

I already knew about Shackleton and his glory as a great leader because I've learned a little at my cram school(But Haru told me she doesn't remember lol). However, it was my first time to know him in detail and all the accomplishments that he achieved. 

I've noticed that I've already been implementing the strategy "Never lose sight of the ultimate goal, and focus energy on shot-term objectives." naturally in my real life. Perhaps not only me but everyone unconsciously uses this strategy without even considering about it. 

For example, the ultimate goal of the students organization that I'm working right now is to revive the Tohoku area and help them reconstruct their beauty that they have lost due to the earthquake. Nevertheless, the goal itself is too vague and too hard to achieve for only a number university students without any support from the government. Instead of blindly rushing into the ultimate goal, we set short-term goals such as selling special products in order to revitalize its industry and holding events in Tokyo that would keep the memory of the 3.11 in people's minds. 

Sanriku Marche at Yurakucho. Shiho and Koji(not in this picture) came too!

Collecting messages at Tokyo Tower

Inside of each short-term goal, there are smaller goals and tasks including collecting volunteer members, organizing meetings between the members of the organization, and preparing for the actual event.

These things are steps that are necessary in order to achieve the ultimate goal. They're just normal steps that everyone will take without putting so much thought into it. Therefore, I believe that this strategy is something we all use unintentionally and is not an essential tactic that all great leaders should deliberately use. 

Maybe the qualities of a good leader are things that we all share but it's just that some people tend to show them more conspicuously than others :)

September 11th

My first blog for RW :)
For our first class, we learned how to give handshakes and to exchange cards. The three essential elements for a good handshake; warm, firm, and brief! It was quite interesting to know the right form because no one has ever taught me how to and it will be embarrassing if I keep it wrong for the rest of my life. As for the card exchange, I've exchanged many cards before so I was pretty confident with the way. However, in the past, I've made many embarrasing mistakes (giving the card other way around for example)  which made me learn from my experience. And I must say, I have THE MOST AMAZING card so feel free to exchange cards with me anytime! haha

The topic Leadership really caught my attention because I am currently running a student organization. Unlike other student organizations, my organization has two leaders other than me. I really like this system because the burden and the responsibility that one is supposed to enhance becomes one-third, while the fun we share becomes three times more! Because of this system and my unserious personality, I haven't really considered myself as a leader up until now. However, this course will be a chance for me to rethink and enrich my ability as a leader. And I am sure that the things I will learn will definitely be useful in the future.

P.S. I really love Ryan Higa's videos!