I’m an entrepreneur, haha that’s not too broad is it? I focus on marketing consulting for established and start up companies. On top of that I’m a media buyer, and an angel investor. My clients used to be exclusively U.S. based but then I branched out into the Asian market and that means learning the basics of new languages, educating myself about new customs, and traveling to awesome places. But will people in Japan ever understand what an entrepreneur is or does or how he or she lives?
When I’m at home I work from my SOHO (very small office home office) but in the last few years problems have come up that can affect relationships because people don’t understand my work schedule and situation. I don’t keep a routine schedule, it’s not the standard Japanese way, and I don’t play by the rules of a normal work environment or a Japanese company (or any other).
Besides the fluctuation in my work hours, I think there are two main factors involved. One is called “Holiday Mode” and the other is called “In The Zone Mode” and it’s hard for people in my life to witness the transition from one to the other. I see a lot of confusion, jealousy for having too much play time, and anger for not having enough time. Here’s a quick breakdown…
Welcome to... HOLIDAY MODE!
Holiday Mode: Some days people see that I work only 1-2 hours giving me a lot of free time. My clients are taken care of, I need a break, and it’s the perfect time for me to take advantage of this. I have time to spend with my loved ones, time to explore, time to travel to visit family and friends, time to party, time to spend money and have fun. I go to sleep late, I wake up late. Holiday Mode usually lasts anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks with an occasional blip (once it lasted more than a month).
Welcome to... IN THE ZONE MODE!
In The Zone Mode: When I need to get things done I dedicate everything to my clients and projects. I enjoy what I do and I can easily get “IN THE ZONE!” with a full tank of energy and confidence. I’m no stranger to working 80 hours a week when I need to. My sleep schedule starts to become batches of 2-4 hours so my working hours can conform to other timezones. Some days I’m so busy that I work long stretches without stepping away for a meal or to answer non business related calls to my keitai (cell phone). I’m marketing, networking, researching, ad buying, having conference calls, among other things, and “In The Zone Mode” usually lasts 1-2 weeks at a time.
Regular Mode: This wasn’t mentioned as a problem because it’s not an issue This mode comes up once in a while and I can keep regular Japan time office hours.
My work structure goes in cycles. From Holiday Mode to In The Zone Mode to Holiday Mode to Regular Mode back to In The Zone and so on with little prediction of when things will change. My work schedule offers me my own time off but that time off usually doesn’t land on many national holidays.
Let’s face the facts… I wasn’t raised in an Asian or Japanese culture and I’m not a “salary man” that slaves away with a set schedule with certain days off. Over 7 years ago I left a six-figure income job to pursue my dream of owning a business that gives me freedom, time, and money. Sure it was a bumpy ride in the beginning but I pushed ahead and smoothed things out. Now I’m living abroad, enjoying what I do, and it feels like I’m making magic happen. I’ll hit the grind stone when I need to because I don’t want to end up being forced to go back to the U.S. or work for an unpleasant employer while possibly earning a lower salary than I’m worth. When I’m in the zone, I have to take full advantage of the situation and mental power because it’s a part of my life.
Increasing Business and Capital for Longevity
Here’s more details of the problems with people not understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur.
During Holiday Mode my woman and friends love it! Sure, why not? I’m a younger looking enthusiastic gaijin that seems like he’s on a permanent holiday with time and money to burn. A lot of fun times could be had! On the down side sometimes friends and family get jealous if they are a slave to the office. They go to sleep when I’m still out having fun or they wake up when I’m still sleeping or playing video games.
During In The Zone Mode my woman easily gets upset. She thinks I’m ignoring her, my personal schedule changes and all of a sudden I have no time for fun, and she doesn’t understand why I’m working so much and ignoring friends and family. People go to sleep while I’m still working, and people wake up to go to the office when I’m still working. In the home base I speak firmly, I speak briefly, when I say I’m going to eat out it means I’m leaving in 3 minutes with or without a companion, and this easily causes her to become emotional. (It feels like a woman having her period for a really long time!) Luckily I quickly learned to ignore things that negatively affect my In The Zone Mode and that means Holiday Mode will be more enjoyable because I won’t be carrying around any resentment.
In Japan I feel that people define one another too much based on what job you have, meaning ‘what you do‘ is ‘who you are‘. On the flip side, a lot of Japanese girls (and guys) see a job or work like this… a person works for a boss who tells them what to do, a person talks up or down to coworkers depending on status, a person does his or her task for a set amount of days per week, a person gets paid holidays, a person gets a paycheck and after a person puts in a lifetime of work that person retires with a nice pension, the end. That’s not usually how an entrepreneur works.
I feel that life needs to be prioritized especially when you work for yourself. Money = taking care of family. Do you love your family? Sure! Having a good job can cover that money issue, but if you run a business there’s more at stake The equation should look something like Work = money = family financial security = family understanding. But that understanding part isn’t so easy. Also an entrepreneur that works from home experiences many tough situations because his wife or girlfriend sees him all the time and might associate his work with “playing on the Internet” and start asking for help with household chores or help with something ‘really quick’. This would never happen in an office, and having somebody breaking your train of though to ask you these questions destroys productivity.
Because of the way of life Japan, I think it’s easy to become less manly and have less control of the family and finances. As an entrepreneur you need to really cowboy up and take control of the situation before it gets too deep into the dead zone of unhappiness, but at the same time don’t forget to understand and respect the culture of the country you’re living in.
Owning your own business, even one online with or without employees, you will most likely create a business forecast estimating your profits and losses. See profits? Work hard and make more. See losses? Work harder, and get back into the green zone. But make sure to take some time to enjoy life! Anyway, this is the end of my little rant and I wish all international entrepreneurs and foreigners working abroad the best of luck!
Here are some books worth reading that will help you improve your life and business.
That it that really is what I do the break down goes like this:
In the zone: This could be 3 days working long hours then 3 days working a little less, kind of balance things out some.
This is 5 to 6 months
Which turns into this:
Time off:
this is 5 days to 3months just really depends on what im doing for my down time. like learn to scuba dive, mountain climb learn to play a musical instrument. That is not set in stone and does change
i really dont have a normal routine yet
As long as a person can stay organized, I think not having a normal routine is fine or else it would feel like you’re working for somebody.
I really liked this post. I think you should do more business related posts. I know you blog is more directed towards life and experiences in Japan, and that’s very interesting. I am almost done with my bachelors in international management (one year left), and plan to continue on for an MBA. I’ve also learned I’m not much the 9-5 type, so I have put serious thought into my own business. However, what I have come up with is that the majority of people who are successful in their entrepreneurial endeavors have many years of experience in a specific field, or pay for training or buy into franchises, which isn’t a bad way to go. My experience is mostly limited to customer service jobs and management positions, nothing like advertising or marketing or investing. Do you have any suggestions as to what directions to look, or tips on specific areas to focus? My interest is mostly for the flexibility, though income is important. I’m like you, I’m no stranger to 80+ hour work weeks. I look at it as I’ve survived my whole like on less then $30k/yr, I don’t really NEED more, but having more is always nice. Granted I’m single with no kids, so I kinda felt like now’s the best time for me to be looking into something like this, because I can afford skimming on minimal income for some time. Just kind of a shot in the dark, but any more information like what you have provided in this post is worth something, because it’s knowledge I don’t have myself.
Thanks,
Ryan
I tend to stay away from business related posts because I’m not the best at giving advice. I will have some coming up in the future though. Thanks for reading the blog!
“During In The Zone Mode my woman easily gets upset. She thinks I’m ignoring her, my personal schedule changes and all of a sudden I have no time for fun, and she doesn’t understand why I’m working so much and ignoring friends and family. … In the home base I speak firmly, I speak briefly, when I say I’m going to eat out it means I’m leaving in 3 minutes with or without a companion, and this easily causes her to become emotional. (It feels like a woman having her period for a really long time!)”
it’s strange that you think it’s your work schedule that gets on “your woman’s” nerves and not the fact that you sound like a complete and total asshole. I, too, am an entrepreneur, I have a small but successful IT-consulting business and, as with many service industry businesses, we sometimes have periods of high business and low business. No matter how busy I am, I still manage to maintain basic standards of social courtesy. It’s weird how for you this seems difficult, but instead of acknowledging it as a weakness – a good business person knows how to market himself as much as his product/service – you seem to think of it as something that deserves praise. “I am the world!” you boast, “I am the most important thing when I am in the zone! Do not trifle me with your petty expectations of decency and relationship maintenance!”
Your entire article here seems to be “lol people are so jealous of me” but you haven’t actually said much of anything about being an entrepreneur in Japan and you’ve expressed nothing unique, either. Japanese employees work by the book and follow rules? My word, this is revolutionary! Groundbreaking! A society that emphasizes conformity and collective good and has an economy that basically promotes monopolization has trouble popularizing entrepreneurship, you say? To the presses! We must alert the academics at once!
What a shallow, self-aggrandizing blog. Even your incredibly vague advice for doing business in a competitive environment amounts to no more than superficial talking points. “Work hard! Then work harder! But don’t forget to save time for yourself!” Please.
Hello Maria! You sound like a dick. But hey… I’m an asshole and I’m awesome.
The high business times helps balance out the low business times financially, and you need to bust ass during the high business times to make sure things happen so you stay in the green zone and add some savings in case things take a turn for the worst. I think it’s great how you can manage your time and maintain basic standards of social courtesy during both phases.
When I’m in the zone I am the most important thing in the world because it’s a competitive world and money is what’s needed to keep life going. Full confidence, or better yet “Super Confidence!” helps establish new client relationships, increase current client value, and get things done. When I’m not working my attitude is great and I’m pleasant to be around (see ‘holiday mode’ above), but I work from home so I have to take control of my “office work hours” and keep a #1 mentality and block out all distractions. Something to consider is an employee of a company – if a person is a CEO of a company or even a salaryman working 60 hours a week in the office I doubt their wife or husband frequently interrupts them while they’re working or on the phone. They go to lunch and they have a set time when they go and come back… they don’t say “I’m going to lunch” and wait around for somebody to do their makeup taking up half of their lunch break. One solution as an entrepreneur is to rent an office, or rent a shared office. A few professionals I know rent a shared office and it works great for them. I haven’t done this because I enjoy the freedom of being at home and working odd hours when I need to.
The point of my article is to touch base on the different working routines as an entrepreneur and some interaction with this and the society and culture of Japan. I’m not giving solid advice for working in Japan, just some tips and sharing my experience. I don’t go into details of what I do for a living because that doesn’t matter.