As the famous expression goes: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And when I say enemies, I don't mean true outside antagonists. I'm talking about rivals—perhaps those within your own company. How well do you relate to others? How well do you understand the theory of relationships? Friend or foe, understanding what makes a relationship productive is essential.

27 Offer value‐added services. Anything less is meaningless

In everything from your products to your work effort, always offer value.

Understanding value is the key to success in business. Imagine two watches in a glass case before you. One is a $50 watch, the other is a $10,000 watch. As you gaze through the glass, can you tell the difference?

After quartz watches were invented, the price of a watch ceased to bear any relation to its ability to accurately keep time. A $50 watch tells the same time as a $10,000 watch. So why would someone pay a premium price for a watch? The only reason is the additional value that you would perceive in wearing the more expensive watch.

Every product or service faces the same test when offered to the consumer, not just watches. Everyone in business must constantly be asking whether what they provide, in terms of products or services, has an added value above and beyond the price. Creating a product that a consumer can substitute with another is unacceptable. Brands must matter to sustain long‐term growth.

Do you know the true source of your profit margin—why customers are buying what you sell? What is it that distinguishes your product or service above all others? Does your customer actually feel a level of satisfaction above the actual price of the product? And what can you do to increase that satisfaction—whether it be convenience, functionality, or celebrity glamor? Continuing to think about this is the best way to develop your business. It's a question you must revisit again and again over time.

If you're ambitious and you want to excel as an employee and as a leader, it's also useful to ask yourself what skills and expertise are adding value in your personal interactions with colleagues, teams, and customers. The product of your work and your work habits, after all, are a service. That service also needs to carry added value. Why does your company pay you? If you think that it's only because you've signed a contract, then you are not going to achieve all that is possible for yourself. Strive to boost what makes you valuable to your colleagues. Committing to this process isn't hard. All it takes is a little time and effort.

I'm sure everyone who leads a team knows this, but if you carefully analyze the difference between direct reports who are outstanding and those who aren't, you'll realize that it's only slight. Even so, slight differences translate into additional perceived value for leaders whose performance depends on efficient execution of ideas. This is because most people don't make that extra small effort. Every effort in business counts. Those who surprise because of attention to small details will find it creates enormous opportunities for personal growth. Incrementally, it can lead to big wins for organizations and leaders that foster this initiative at an individual level.

What's your added value? Think hard about it and try to do something concrete to increase it, however small. That small effort may be the difference between success and failure. Always remember that a service that does not add value is meaningless.

28 Put yourself in their shoes

To transform the world, start by seeing another person's perspective. This is a lesson I learned early. But it did not come naturally to me; I needed to be taught.

When I was a child, I had a tendency to do my own thing. In my early years in school, I often had to stand in the corner for disobeying the rules. I was not bothered much by this, but I remember my older sister was upset when her classmates teased her about my misbehavior.

It was my grandmother who taught me my lesson in empathy. She could see that I was not considering others when I acted. I used to love to visit my grandmother in her store and watch her as she engaged with her customers, selling tobacco or ice cream. It's important, she told me, to think about how others are feeling. Put yourself in their shoes.

It's a lesson that had an enormous impact on me, and has stuck with me ever since. After all, it's a fundamental principle of religions and moral systems around the world. You could perhaps even say that all moral codes are just variations on this idea expressed in different ways.

Seeing the world from another's perspective is transformational for both sides. If people actually did this, virtually all the world's problems—war, famine, the North‐South divide, ethnic conflict, even environmental problems—could readily be solved. Conversely, it's precisely because we don't take this moral code to heart that the world is experiencing so many major problems.

The ability to see a situation from someone else's perspective is unique to humankind. It's a definitive sign of our common humanity, more so than the ability to use tools or build a fire. People aren't born with this ability, because it's not inherited genetically. It's shared with us. It is culturally acquired each time a community of humans aspires to perpetuate what they all hold sacred.

The reason I was so struck by my grandmother's words is probably because I was too young to have ever considered perspectives other than my own before. Today, that lesson rings true for me every day as I work to consider the perspectives of my customers, my colleagues, my investors, and my family. This lesson she taught me as I sat in her store is with me as I travel the world, running a global business.

Think of it this way: If you don't understand another person's perspective, it will be nearly impossible to have them accept your own. Of course, if you're in a far superior position to the person you're talking to, you can impose your views. But making an executive decision isn't as valuable as having the individual understand the decision from your point of view. And, in the long run, imposing on others will hurt you in ways you cannot anticipate. The expression, “What goes around, comes around,” cannot be more true.

It is particularly important in business to think long and hard about this dynamic between you and others. In simple terms, in business, if you make a profit, someone else may face an equivalent loss. A key point that leads to success in business is how well you can reconcile these opposing interests. It is only when those opposing interests align that you will be able to create an ongoing relationship. To achieve this, you must think about things from the perspective of the other stakeholder.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of bending too far. Seeing a business deal as a winning proposition means that you have explored the transaction from both sides. It's about finding the point where you are able to generate profit and the other party is also gaining a sufficient profit. Whether you're selling something, offering a service, or involved in a major deal, you'll never fail if you negotiate in this way.

The most successful business deals happen when you align the deal from the vantage point of someone else, while remaining keenly aware of your own.

29 See the essence of things

Why do people buy things? When you can understand the real reasons (and they may be hard to see at first), you have a clear advantage.

When we started Rakuten Ichiba in Japan, every other internet shopping mall out there had already failed. The prevailing public opinion was that this was tangible proof that internet shopping malls would never work. I had my reasons for thinking otherwise.

I thought about the must‐have functionality of internet shopping malls, what their unique advantages would be, and what the gaps in the online experience were. I thought through every possible aspect of internet shopping malls. And my analysis lead to one conclusion: If you could fully leverage the unique advantages of the internet, you could create a shopping mall with a merchandise offering and competitive prices far superior to brick‐and‐mortar stores. And if you could create a system that provided customers with real‐time information on products and prices, success would be a given. Needless to say, this was the cornerstone for Rakuten Ichiba. If I'd given up on the idea just because other people said it was impossible, Rakuten would never have come into existence.

It's essential in the real world of business to ask the simple question why, and to continue asking questions that allow you to peel away the layers until you can see the true nature of things. Now that Rakuten Ichiba has taken off and continued to grow over the last 20 years, I have never stopped asking the questions that created success.

So why do we buy things in the first place? While we can talk about people “buying things,” there are so many different kinds of “shopping.” You could say we buy what's necessary, but is that really true? Is that all there is to it? Do we really only buy things out of necessity?

This is something I thought about a lot in those days—whether I was asleep, awake, watching TV, walking around town or at work. I always had this question somewhere bouncing around in my brain.

We all buy things for various reasons but all these reasons fundamentally have one thing in common: it's enjoyable. In other words, shopping is entertainment. That core idea underlies everything we do at Rakuten Ichiba. It prompts millions of customers to visit our site every day.

Seeing the essence of things isn't just the job of philosophers. It's even more important in business to determine the true nature of things. Every employee must have that level of attention to detail. If you only pay attention to the latest superficial trends, you'll never really come up with a revolutionary idea. Great business ideas and directions are born from looking into the essence of things. Steve Jobs is famously credited with understanding that design was just as important as functionality when it came to creating great technology products. His design aesthetic is closely bound up in the Apple brand—in everything from the décor of its stores to the design of the iPhone. He understood the essence of what motivated his customers—and why they came back again and again.

When you hit a roadblock, go back to the essence. Look into it deeply. Why did you end up here? Keep asking why—that simple question—in order to work your way back to the essence. That's where you start out again to search for a real solution.

You can't solve anything without a clear picture of what makes a product, service, or experience invaluable to the consumer. When you work backward to uncover original insights—the essence of things—you can discover the ideas that will drive a company forward.

30 Size up risk by quantifying it

Risk is a word we so often associate with the pairing risk avoidance. So much so that most feel it's prudent to simply steer clear of risk overall. But I would argue there is another way to see risk. Consider this: the Japanese word for “crisis” is composed of two characters: the one for “danger” and the character for “opportunity.” Within the concept of risk there is certainly a warning, but also a path forward, for those willing to make the effort and face the possible dangers.

Successful business leaders know they must face risk to succeed. Daring to face risk head‐on leads to success in business. If you look back in history, you'll find countless examples of successful companies that were risk‐takers. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard after two years to found Microsoft. The Wright Brothers invested years in their pursuit of flight. That trend continues today with individuals such as Elon Musk exploring the possibilities of business in space and autonomous driving. I am on a mission to cure cancer and I've helped to found a medical startup to do just that. No business leaders, myself included, are ever presented with a sure thing. All of us have to embrace risk.

When we started out with Rakuten Ichiba, we were ourselves risk‐takers. At that time, the idea of an internet shopping mall was already regarded in Japan as a business model that clearly didn't work. More than one pundit suggested we were more likely to fail than succeed. But we took that risk nonetheless.

Some might call taking a risk like this, or rather, betting against popular wisdom, to be a form of gambling. Undeniably, business includes gambling‐like elements. But I would argue that the essentials of business are completely different from gambling.

I did bet against a risk. But I did so only after quantifying the size and type of risk I faced, reducing it as much as I could, and preparing ways to mitigate it. It wasn't an all‐or‐nothing bet that would be simply won or lost.

The biggest single risk I faced at that time was the possibility that the internet wouldn't spread as fast as I'd predicted. However appealing we made Rakuten Ichiba, with the level of internet penetration that existed in 1997, it appeared to many that our idea was never going to reach a mass audience. The business model depended on a projection that internet use would rise quickly. Rakuten Ichiba could have gone bankrupt if widespread adoption of the internet did not play out as we anticipated.

To minimize this risk, we set the monthly fee for operating a store on Rakuten Ichiba at a low ¥50,000, or about US$400, an almost crazy price for the times, and asked store owners to pay six months in advance. Even if internet use didn't rise as quickly as we projected, the fee assured we'd be able to maintain a minimum cash flow to keep the business afloat. We kept capital and employee numbers low. We believed the smaller we were, the longer we'd be able to wait for internet use to pick up. We didn't just take a risk, but also tried to estimate how long we could afford to pursue this opportunity. We determined the type and the size of the risk and prepared as best we could to deal with it over a variety of scenarios.

Risk‐taking leads to opportunities because those very fields with high risks often can be disputed by those prepared to challenge the status quo. Rakuten Ichiba effectively had no competitors in Japan at the outset, which gave us just the window of opportunity we needed. Needless to say, this contributed significantly to its success.

If you understand clearly the type and size of the risk you face, and come up with robust plans to deal with it, great risks will become great opportunities.

31 Seek out best practices all around you

In your work, first look for inspiration close at hand. Do the same when you hit a roadblock. The person sitting right next to you might be able to help you through it.

Strangely enough, we often forget to draw upon what lies around us. Like the characters in the children's play The Blue Bird, we like to look for answers far away, believing the far away solutions are the most valuable. This is an illusion. We figure intuitively that the harder something is to obtain, the more valuable it must be. This may be so with precious metals and gemstones, but not when it comes to getting your work done efficiently.

The wheel does not need to be reinvented everywhere. Our workspaces in Japan and Germany may not look exactly the same, but the essence of the underlying work in those locations does not change all that much. The problem‐solving in each location may be remarkably similar and easily duplicated, once colleagues share information and strategy.

In teams at Rakuten, for example, we often combine colleagues who can solve a particular problem with others who can't. That way, the ability to learn that particular problem solving skill is close at hand. The curious and engaged mind will learn and excel. Those who don't see this as an opportunity really aren't looking. Those who reach out to colleagues to understand how they excel at getting their jobs done are destined themselves for greater success.

Let me share something here. At Rakuten Ichiba, we started up a system known as “two‐minute calls.” The system was that the person in charge must call clients on the phone within two minutes of receiving an email request for information. The potential clients who receive a phone call before they've even had time to close the Rakuten page where they made a request, as you'd expect, are sometimes a little surprised, but this also works to build customer trust. And customers appreciate that the rapid response isn't facilitated by a computer program alone, but is fully supported by customer services representatives who follow up.

This system increases the likelihood that the person requesting materials will go to the next stage, of signing a contract or engaging with us, and it has been extremely effective for Rakuten Ichiba. I call it a system, but actually, it's not all that complicated. All we did was designate someone to call the customers sending us emails for information within two minutes of receiving them.

Later, we applied this principle to respond to customers posting negative ratings on Ichiba as well. We were keen to get to the bottom of issues quickly, and we also wanted to let customers know that we were paying attention to their feedback.

While you can see that this system follow‐up could have applications in various internet businesses, it took a considerable length of time to spread within the Rakuten Group. The colleagues closest to us didn't notice how effective and easy this system was to implement. At the same time, however, the system spread rapidly through our US subsidiaries. This is not to say that our American teams are better than our Japanese teams, but rather, that the Rakuten employees here in Japan couldn't see what was right under their noses, while our staff on the other side of the Pacific could.

Success can be that close without being seen. Every job done well often comes down to execution and operation. We need to recognize that outstanding talent within our organizations and ask others to adopt their best practice methods of execution and operation. You can't copy talent, but anyone can imitate best practices in execution and operation.

32 Listen especially closely to people you disagree with

Everyone gladly listens to opinions that make them feel good. But it's the opinions that make you feel uncomfortable or perhaps even angry that deserve your greatest attention. It's not just that you may not be mentally prepared to hear such opinions, but also because the older you get, the less you will find others are willing to say such things directly to your face.

It's better when you first enter the workforce. You're pelted with negative opinions from every side. You have to clench your teeth and hear them out. You might be blamed for something you didn't do, or know that the opinion is based on a misunderstanding. You may sometimes even experience criticism that seems malicious. But it's best just to take it all in, and think of it as a form of trial‐by‐fire training. This might not be the best choice of words, but as I said above, “Every thief has his reasons.” Even someone doing the wrong thing has reasons for their actions. Every opinion is likely to have at least one takeaway that you'll find useful. Take the time when you're alone to write down suggestions, even from your harshest critics, in a notebook and use them to better yourself. This is the best way of turning the tables on those who criticize you without constructive purpose. After all, getting angry rarely solves any problems.

While criticism may sting, real problems arise when you stop listening to others. When this starts to occur, you must be sure to convey through your attitude and words that you want to hear all opinions, no matter how difficult they may be to hear. That's why I don't have a door on my office. I want everyone to feel free to come to me with strong opinions and objections whenever they like.

I also always say, “If you have an opinion, please share it with me. I might sometimes react with anger, since I'm only human. But no matter how angry I get, no matter how much I dislike hearing it, I guarantee I will never mark you down for it, so don't hold back!”

I hesitate to say this, but to be honest, not every opinion I hear is valid and valuable. While they may not be wrong, some of the opinions I encounter can often be short‐sighted or miss the mark. It's not that the individual failed to deliver the opinion constructively or that the opinion lacks depths. More often than not, the opinion lacks perspective. Management tends to see things from more of a big‐picture perspective than individual employees typically do. Without this kind of bird's‐eye view, it's impossible to choose the best path. That's why, I have to admit, I do feel that many of the opinions I hear miss the mark. But if I actually said this to everyone who is brave enough to share ideas, I'd end up like the fabled emperor with his new clothes. And while this is a scary thought, what's even more terrifying is the prospect of those around the emperor ceasing to think for themselves.

An environment in which there can be no debate is lethal to a person's spirit and powers of judgment. To avoid this danger of too much group‐speak, you must always be very conscious to keep an independent and open mind. There may be only one worthwhile opinion among every hundred. But even so, that opinion might hit on a serious mistake you've made. That single opinion can save a whole company. When industrial innovation firm 3M had a glue experiment go wrong, someone saw the potential of the non‐drying, failed adhesive—and the Post‐It note was created.

Not only that, but the leader who refuses to listen can never create an open, communicative environment in which every member of the organization will take the initiative to think through things. This is extremely important for any organization.

Be particularly respectful of the opinions of those with different values from your own, and demonstrate this respect through your constructive actions. As an example from my own work, as Rakuten has grown and we have moved to new office space, I have transitioned from a traditional office with walls and a door to an open floor plan in which my office is simply a corner of the large space. Anyone can see me, approach me, or talk to me. There are no walls to come between us. This has many positive aspects, but the one I point out here is the opportunity for opinion sharing. I am always visible and I believe this makes others see me as more accessible, so they are more likely to approach me and share their ideas.

33 Value the balance between cooperation and competition

Just as in the natural world, in any organization there must be both cooperation and competition. If there's only cooperation, you lose your sense of urgency. If there's only competition, teamwork becomes messy or simply stops.

It's often noted that Rakuten is a very competitive company. But it's also a place where everyone is encouraged to share a sense of accomplishment about their work. Employees are rivals, but also irreplaceable teammates. This might seem like a paradox, but it's not at Rakuten.

This isn't just the case for individual organizations. It's also the case for society as a whole. The business world is becoming more and more complicated, and countless areas have arisen where you have to cooperate with your rivals. I've even heard there's a word for this in English—coopetition—to mean a relationship where you are both cooperating and competing. Coopetition is the act of cooperation between competing companies. Certain businesses gain an advantage by using a judicious mixture of cooperation with supplier, customers and firms producing complementary or related products. For example, Ford and Toyota teamed up in 2013 to design new hybrid systems technology, Microsoft and Intel created a long working relationship around Intel chips and Microsoft software, and the US Postal Service entered into coopetition arrangements with rivals FedEx and UPS.

It's important that cooperation and competition exist side‐by‐side, and that they are well‐balanced. To strike this balance, you must abandon any law‐of‐the‐jungle ideas you may have and look at your business from a broader perspective. You must realize that without the development of society or an industry, individuals and businesses alone are not able to develop.

Competition is important, but does it contribute to overall development or hinder it? You have to pause for a second sometimes and really think about this. Should you be competing or cooperating? Swallow your pride and think about it objectively from a third person's perspective. When you should cooperate, put your heart into it. When it's time to compete, make every effort, but always compete fairly. This is the best approach, both for companies and for individuals.

34 Teaching others will help you grow

A leader must always be a teacher. It is the best way to lead and the best way to learn.

No doubt, many of us may feel burdened at first when asked to guide junior team members. But which of us haven't benefited from a colleague willing to share invaluable insights earned from their own experiences? Successful people must learn that teaching is part of the leader's job and what's more, both mentor and mentee benefit from it.

To teach someone something, you must think about and analyze things you normally do unconsciously and put them into words in a way that others can understand. Teaching would be easy if work processes and methods were always exactly the same. However, in actual work there are always special circumstances, and you often run into situations that can't be predicted. So you have to be flexible and change processes and methods in response. You probably won't be able to teach this kind of flexibility if you don't always think deeply about how you judge situations and deal with things. Teaching is not a burden when you reflect on the insights you might also receive from those you mentor.

Of course, it's easy to get lost in the daily pressures of work. Few of us think that deeply about our jobs. That's exactly why guiding junior team members will lead to improvement in your own performance.

From time to time, I meet people who are exceptional teachers. They may not stand out in the business world, but I'm sure all of us can recall instances of great instruction, either in the classroom or on the playing field. Great sports coaches make an excellent example of this experience. Great coaches have worked incredibly hard early on in life. They're skilled teachers because they've thought deeply about their sport, repeating every possible kind of trial and error. One Japanese precept applies here: “Experience hardship early, even if it costs you.”

Teaching others can be a way you yourself learn new skills. The people you are teaching will have different abilities and personalities. With some, positive encouragement is fine, while others need to be scolded. Teaching others will therefore also help you develop a discerning eye for people with talent and potential.

One more thing: If you are going to guide others, you have to make sure you can do your own job properly first. One often hears of young new employees who lack professionalism when they joined a company, but as soon as the next wave of new employees joined, they suddenly develop the skills they need to excel. It's also sometimes said that children raise their parents. I've seen this with my own eyes. Young team members often have much to share with their leaders.

You must not neglect teaching, as it will improve your own performance as well.

35 Develop win‐win relationships

Aligning opposing interests is a fundamental principle of business.

In days gone by, it's been said that pirates were also traders. They often wore two hats, depending on whom they were dealing with on any given day. In other words, whether they would plunder or trade in any given situation depended on which was more efficient or profitable. Even plundering has its costs.

This is an extreme example I've raised to emphasize my point. But I'm sure most of us can draw parallel stories from modern experience. Logic dictates that trading partners will have opposing interests. A one‐yen profit for the seller is a one‐yen loss for the buyer. You don't have to be a pirate to want to take up an opportunity to make that profit. But there are good reasons why you won't be able to build a business to scale in this way.

There was a time when piracy was rampant (it still is in some places). But when the world became “smaller,” pirates lost their place in it. I suspect this change was due more to the increasing importance of trust in business transactions than to crackdowns on piracy. Trading simply became more profitable than plundering.

The internet has further shrunk the world. And it has made relationships based on trust more important than ever to business. Building relationships based on trust is essential to growth, not only with customers and business partners but with society at large as well.

To develop relationships based on trust, you must align opposing interests, something that might seem to go against profit‐motivated logic. But win‐win relationships need not be counter to profit. Thinking this way simply means ensuring parties on both sides of the transaction benefit.

Here's an example from my own business. I founded Rakuten to be an online marketplace, and to make that happen, I needed merchants to use my site as their online host. Since I was brand new, I could not hope to attract big merchants to my marketplace and so I turned my focus to small and mid‐sized merchants. At first, they were not that easy to sign up, either. Many of them were wary about investing in something as new as an online marketplace. To overcome this hesitancy, I had to create win‐win situations. My early sales staff and I looked for ways to build relationships with our clients. Often, in those early days, we went with our clients to purchase their first computer and help them set up. As we grew, we sought to provide our merchants with the tools they needed to succeed. And we did not overmanage them and create a lot of rules about how they had to run their businesses online. We trusted them to do what was necessary to be successful on our platform. We didn't want to give up profits, and neither did they. So we created situations in which we could both be profitable. That became the foundation of our company.

What makes this logic‐defying feat possible is the creation of value. If the transaction generates new value, both you and the other party will benefit. The difficult thing is that you must constantly generate that additional value. As soon as a company loses its ability to add value, its social mission ends. An entity that only exploits society is destined to go the way of the pirates.

This, of course, also applies to us at Rakuten. We all must keep on striving to ensure the generation of new value. We must constantly be thinking hard about what we can do to help our customers lead richer lives and about how we can contribute to society as an organization—and ensure that we are delivering on that. Not only should this be the core mission of anyone in business today, it is also the best way to beat the competition.

36 Start with good footwork

Speed and agility are winning behaviors.

Being light on your feet is an essential quality for anyone in business. All the outstanding businesspeople I've ever met have had the ability to act quickly. I can't think of a single exception. They make decisions quickly, moving swiftly to implement ideas into action, without delay. They complete even small tasks with all due speed. And that goes even more for difficult tasks or those others would rather keep putting off. In other words, they will take care of the things that others will postpone indefinitely. Many of them are also impatient, but I assume that's because they know instinctively that it's also the most efficient way to be. Without knowing that, you will never be a success in business.

It is a common misconception that success in business is governed by an individual's innate ability. While we all have different levels of ability, most of us would also accept that those with superior skills and intellects don't necessarily become outstanding business people.

However, when it comes to being agile, there are no exceptions. If you compare those who do what they can today with those who put things off until tomorrow, you'll find the former are always the outstanding business people. In other words, being light‐footed is even more of a defining factor than brains. This is because, far more than a difference in skill levels, time is of the essence in business.

A day lasts 24 hours, a year 365 days. Time is a level playing field. How efficiently we use that equally allotted time is what will set us apart. Those who are quick on their feet will use their time many times more efficiently than those who are not. It's the equivalent of being given that much more time to work with. In that sense, time is relative in business. No matter how skilled you are, if you're only fitting 24 hours into a day, you'll never beat someone who fits in the equivalent of 30 or 40 hours.

If you're quick enough, you can overtake those who are more skilled. In other words, being light on your feet is an important business skill in itself. Also, in contrast to other skills, there are no limits to how much you can improve through your own commitment.

If you decide to do something, do it now. Don't put it off. View procrastination as the equivalent of doing nothing. In other words, decide then and there whether or not to do something. If you do this, work won't pile up. As a result, you'll always be able to put all of your energy into the challenges facing you.

Many business publications noted that Rakuten moved quickly to purchase the voice and messaging app Viber in February 2014 for $900 million. Later in the same month, Facebook purchased WhatsApp, another messaging app, for around $22 billion. Many speculated that our purchase price might have been considerably inflated if we had taken just a few weeks longer to close the deal.

Of course, you don't have to immediately decide everything right now. Just remember always to be light on your feet. You might not always keep to it. Sometimes it will be better not to rush a decision but to wait. But you must always be sure to make that assessment. In principle, you should never procrastinate, but there are times when holding off will be the better option. That may seem paradoxical, but it's one more thing to keep in mind as you aim to become light‐footed. As an example from my own history, when I was a young man and I left my job at the Industrial Bank of Japan to start a business, I did not jump into it right away. I took time to research my next step, ask advice of my mentors, and look for the best opportunity. If I'd succumbed to the pressure to start my new business quickly, I might've chosen an industry other than e‐commerce and internet services. (In fact, I was seriously considering a business in craft beer.) But because I knew better than to rush, I gathered all my information before I made a decision. The trick is to understand the line between good preparation and procrastination.

37 Report, contact, and consult

In Japan, these three words are considered the 1‐2‐3 of doing business. We are very familiar with this recommended cycle of actions. But while we all know the principle, it is much more difficult to act on it all of the time. A huge proportion of business blunders could have been averted just by upholding this principle, yet the failure to observe this principle is apparent everywhere in companies, from new employees to the most senior in the organization. Consider how VW might have handled its issues around emissions testing, or Samsung might have headed off problems with its batteries, if everyone in those companies had been communicating appropriately.

Understanding the communications principles is a key step to success:

• Report refers to communicating results, or “this is what happened.”
• Contact means keeping others informed along the way, or “this is what's happening.”
• Consult refers to looking for advice in advance of taking action, or “I'd like to do this—what do you think?”

This is not to say we must always report, contact, and consult about absolutely everything. Doing that would make us all robots. What companies really need are confident, analytical people who can act based on their own judgment. If you always reported, contacted, and consulted about absolutely everything, you'd undoubtedly be making a nuisance of yourself with your manager.

The key here is your judgment on which items require consultation in advance, which require ongoing contact, and which will be fine with a report on completion. The basic principle should be that the degree of importance of the task will guide your judgment, but, in addition to that, your relationship with your management and your own abilities will also be important factors. So this is something you must think through yourself. You must think carefully about how each task requires reporting, contacting, or consultation—and from the perspective of your management. If you're not thinking soundly and with proper judgment, you'll start to confuse reports, contacts, and consultation and end up making work more difficult. You'll end up being shouted at for not consulting in advance on one task, and then told off for seeking advice about trivial matters on the next one.

The one thing I'd like you to remember is that just about everything will go more smoothly if you continue to report on your work. This becomes even more important as you move up the career ladder and take on a higher level of responsibility. It's crucial at the middle management level when you have responsibility for a team. Perhaps it's also a matter of ego, but this is often when you see reporting being neglected. Senior management are also wary of being seen as demanding when requesting reports from those who are no longer junior employees. This is often the cause of unnecessary questions and concerns.

In today's world, we have a tool that can easily dispel such concerns. It can take just one email to report on “this is what happened.” With that email, you are building a relationship of trust with your management. Anyone would be foolish not to do this. It sounds too simple to be true, but debriefing to build trust could be the most important part of every businessperson's communication strategy.

38 Analyze the situation from all angles

Every time you look at something from a new angle, you may see new problems to solve or great ideas to pursue.

Try taking a look at Rakuten Ichiba from a myriad of different angles. It is comprised of relationships between buyers and sellers but it's also a communication network, and a form of entertainment. Or you can look at it as a membership business. You can look at it as an evolution of the mail order business or as another format for use of the internet. Even if you just look at the relationship between the buyers and sellers, that prompts new questions of “What defines consumption?” and “What does it mean to sell something?”

Even a slight adjustment to the angle of your analysis can reveal a completely new perspective. What you see could be a complex problem, or it could be a game‐changing idea.

Such analysis is a crucial step in advancement from the stage of mastering tasks you've been assigned to by others and reaching the stage of seeking out work for yourself. In a growing company, sooner or later you will be left behind unless you develop this analytical skill. You will only be recognized as a full member of the team when you reach the stage where you can seek out work for yourself.

Not every individual in every company thinks like this. The salaryman, as we call him in Japan, doesn't do this. The salaryman simply thinks his time is a paycheck. He commits units of time to collect a salary without any sense of ownership. In this sense, many executives and bureaucrats also belong to this group. It is a sad way to think and live. It can be a corrosive mindset. Sooner or later, salarymen choose to only view things from perspectives that suit them, and this is a conscious choice. Although fully aware that there are more productive ways of working, they refuse to challenge themselves. They probably think that this would only increase their workload, and they don't feel vested in taking on additional responsibilities.

It's an awful thing to say, but I find it hard to believe that any of us would choose to lead such lives. By reframing how we think about work, we can discover so much more about what we should be doing. With that attitude, we will never experience the joy of having accomplished something worthwhile. They'll reach the end of their lives without truly knowing the deep fulfillment of being energized by work.

Don't succumb to the salaryman mindset. Life is too short. Instead, develop the habit of viewing your workday within a company from multiple angles. Don't view your job from just one mundane perspective, but know it from the vantage of opportunities you can create for yourself and others. If you do, you'll see various points for improvement that you hadn't noticed before, and you'll come up with new ideas. From a salaryman's perspective, you may say this is increasing your workload, but this is an essential step in progressing beyond work as a repetitive routine, to work that you will find truly valuable, meaningful, and rewarding.

An analytic mindset can benefit you anytime and anywhere. This is true at any stage of one's career. I remember when I was a young employee at IBJ. My work in the currency department was sometimes not very challenging—there were many rote tasks to accomplish. But when I took an alternative perspective, I could see opportunities. Instead of looking at my job from my own perspective, I opted to view it from the point of view of the work group that had to process my orders. This was a group of women in a largely clerical team. Viewing my own job from their perspective, I was able to make changes in my own paperwork processing so that it made their jobs easier and more efficient. This made them happy with me and I felt a sense of accomplishment—I had made a rote experience one that could actually bring value to the company. I continue to use this process today. We are expanding our offices in Silicon Valley. I could give the instructions as to what I think the office space needs, to fit my own needs. But I am also trying to see the space from the point of view of my employees—what could we do that would improve their abilities to be more productive and happy at work?

Work isn't about solving problems given to you by others, like in an exam when you were at school. Work is about identifying problems and solving them. Solve those problems. Repeat. This is not only the essence of work, but also where you can find true joy in your work.

39 Know who and what works, even in tight spots

When a once‐successful work team stumbles and results decline, it can be so easy to throw in the towel. You may start to think your team and even your company is a lost cause. But never overreact. Your dismay may be premature, and giving in to it is a self‐fulfilling prophecy. No matter how bad things get, you can always find an encouraging indicator—one that might suggest a new direction in which to pivot. Let these indicators be the impetus for change and renewal.

Trust me, I know this from experience. As I've often repeated, when Rakuten Ichiba was founded, total sales in our first month amounted to ¥320,000 (about US$2,700). Of this, my own purchases amounted to ¥180,000 (US$1,500) so, in actual fact, our 13‐store shopping mall had actually only generated sales of ¥140,000 (US$1,200). This wasn't just a tough spot; some thought we were finished when we'd hardly even started. But that's not how I was thinking. From my point of view, the glass was half full, not half empty. We had achieved sales of ¥140,000 in a short period of time and I saw many indicators that we could duplicate those results over and over.

I was choosing to look at the positive indicator. Most in Japan at that time believed consumers would never shop via the internet. But ¥140,000 was an indicator that physical stores were vulnerable to disruption. I opted to look in that direction.

Did we sell fourteen ¥10,000 items? Or 1,400 items at ¥100 each? What kind of customers bought from us? What did they buy, and why? You couldn't tell just by looking at the ¥140,000 sales figure. If I'd not analyzed this data, I could have just shrugged in disappointment at the total figure. But I knew there had to be reasons why people spent ¥140,000 on our platform. We needed to drill deeper to see what was actually happening.

No matter how many times you multiply zero, the answer is zero. But our results were not zero. Our results were ¥140,000. My thinking was that if we could find out why people had made those purchases, we could work to build on that ¥140,000, perhaps even a hundred times.

It was this can‐do attitude amplified by everyone's hard work that made Rakuten what it is today. We didn't stop at magnifying that number a hundred times. We kept pushing forward, looking for the new indicators every day. Twenty years after that first month, our total annual gross merchandise sales in domestic e‐commerce hit over 3 trillion Japanese yen (around US$30 billion).

Some companies are successful even in the worst recession. Some people and departments are successful no matter how poorly their companies are performing. Just as Hope was left behind in Pandora's Box, there's always a seed of hope somewhere. Seek it out.

It is the people and departments who are successful in the worst of times who hold the key to future success. While others may succumb to the feeling of defeat, they are the ones who are always looking for the opportunities for success.

40 Be courageous

Every startup is an adventure and a challenge. Embrace the adventure you are on. If you lose the inspiration to take on new challenges, you will also lose most of the joy in your work. And no matter how much success you achieve, eventually someone will beat you. History shows the proof of this. For startups like Rakuten in particular, if we forget this spirit, our very reason for existence in society will be lost.

Being a startup is about forging a path through the wilderness and conquering unclimbed peaks. It's about challenging the unknown and bringing new value into the world, and about that new value contributing to the happiness of the world at large. This is the very core of our work.

Creating new value isn't easy. Huge difficulties always lie in the way. But these difficulties fuel growth. Startups are successful precisely because they overcome those difficulties. There's no true success in a world where difficulties don't exist. Of course, there's no guarantee of success. We are striving to solve problems that have yet to be solved. The problems that already have answers can be left to others. A startup is about taking on the challenges that others can't, or addressing the issues that only you can. This is something I always take into account when I look at the growth potential of a startup. When I first heard from the founders of Lyft why they had started their ridesharing business, I knew that they had a compelling mission—to improve our lives by changing the way we all interact with transportation—and a promising future.

Nothing in this world is impossible. Believe in yourself, believe in those around you. Think with all your wisdom and ability, and work with all your might to make the impossible possible. Think as you forge ahead, and forge ahead in order to think. Succeed at what others have not yet succeeded at. This is the startup spirit that gives you the courage to take on challenges. No matter how much growth you achieve or how successful you are, this spirit must never be forgotten.