In the midst of being active in the student movement during my student days, I decided to study abroad. I have toured around various countries during that time. I had fun, I have gained knowledge, and it also widened my field of vision. Had I remained in Japan, the values I would think are right would only the ones I have learned from here. At that time, the cost of an airplane is the same as the interest rate of banks in Japan. But the world is different. I have thought that I could make a business out of this. Coming to Japan from overseas costs 300,000 yen and going to abroad from Japan costs 600,000 yen. Anyone will find this difference strange. And so, I asked myself if there's something I could do to help the young Japanese people travel abroad easily.
After returning home, I started my business, but I had no client from the first month. A few will approach me in a week, telling me that my offer is nice and affordable. They said they will come back, but they never will. I tell them that I will give them their tickets at the airport and would ask for payment ahead of time, which is about half the price. Most people would doubt, and they end up not buying from me. This continued for quite some time when I was new in the business. It continued for about half a year. I thought about giving up so many times. I already was running out of money and I had a lot of free time, so whenever my thoughts about eventually not being able to eat consume me, I read a lot of books. I thought to myself that I can learn something good from books. It said things like "Endurance makes you stronger" and "It pays to persevere". At that time, I thought of giving up for about half a year of not getting results, but I realized that enduring this all will make me stronger. I decided to try staying in business for three years, at the least.
Even though my business in H.I.S. is already on the right track, I also participated in various other businesses. Among them, one of the biggest is getting Skymark Airlines in service, and a lot of people told me that I am reckless. It was pretty easy to establish an airline company overseas because there are already aircraft maintenance companies, pilot dispatch companies, and the environment in starting one is already in place. But that's not the case in Japan. If I try to think about it, issues in human resource, regulations issues and the like will make it very difficult. However, if I don’t challenge myself, I would only have few chances to succeed. And creating something new itself is a challenge. The young people and the nation are the same. You will not be able to find what suits in the current generation if you do not get into any challenge. When I ventured in reviving Huis Ten Bosch, where I started managing in 2010, I also received a lot of opposition. It faced deficit for 13 years, and the number of visitors continued to decrease in the 18th year. Many have tried to revive it, but they were not able to make the company profitable again. It was a very difficult project. However, I tingle in excitement whenever I encounter difficulties that I think I'm already sick. I tend to try solving something when it becomes very difficult. Besides, it is something that no one in the country would like to try solving. The feeling that I get when I try to overcome a difficult challenge is the very reason why I reach into a decision. Of course, I also fail a lot of times. But failure is the mother of success. If you quit because you have failed, then it is over. Failure means one opportunity to succeed. It is because you will see that something cannot be done. If you are afraid of failure, you will not succeed, let alone get any results.