Time Is Important

Everybody agrees that time is valuable. People may immediately respond to say that is why efficiency is critical. They try not to waste their time. Since the emergence of personal computer age, making a quick decision, swift actions, and rapid movement became almost virtue of high-tech industry. Making quick decisions, however, may or may not be the right answer to be successful in business.

There were a couple, husband and wife. They were immigrants from Asian countries. They married and worked hard to save money. Early part of 2000, they felt that they have enough money to buy a house. House prices were soaring. Their friends bought their own houses and looked truly satisfied with their decisions.

It was the year 2005 when they looked for houses. They had a saving, which could be mortgage for buying a condo. They thought one-bedroom or two-bedroom were too expensive for their savings. They looked for a studio. Even a studio was expensive that time. The cost of a studio, which they liked, was almost $200,000. They could find a bank they could get their loan. It looked that they could get it with a bank loan for 30 years.

They calculated monthly installment for paying back. It was well over the rent they were paying for two-bedrooms. All their payment will be to pay back interest for first 10 years. Despite they liked the studio, they gave up to buy the studio. They thought it did not make sense.

They continued to work for other 5 years. They saving became more than doubled in comparison to 5 years ago. The market situation was quite different in 2009. There were lots of houses available in affordable price range for this couple. Now they could afford not just to a condo. They could afford to a house with their budget, depending on the area they could move.

They bought a house with three-bedroom. They have a large kitchen and a living room, and three bedrooms, one of which the husband could change to be his office. They have 2 full baths, so that they do not have to wait to take a bath in turn. In 2010, the market is still soft. They are considering buying a condo for rent for their retirement.

Major news media reports that the worst part of foreclosure storm is not over yet. This year records 4 million foreclosures, according to a media. They expect the year 2011 will be worse. Even this couple keeps seeing their neighbors vacate their homes and disappear. Houses with "Foreclosure Sale" signboard is getting more in number as they walk their dog in the neighborhood. They thank God that they were not in this foreclosure storm.

Readers, consider one moment. What would have happened to this couple if they bought the condo in 2005? They might have lost the condo by now. They did a right decision to wait and see how the market goes. Sometimes, it is the right decision to take a long time to make a decision. One can evaluate "time" this way, too, instead of making quick decisions all the time. It would not be procrastinating if it is a part of ones decision. Remember; Haste makes waste.





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Process of Skill Improvement

Let us suppose one starts Karate training. All contents of his training are new and fascinating. His body aches from muscle pains, but his muscle grow bigger and stronger than before. His punches become more powerful than a day before. His kicks get higher and higher day by day. His body is more flexible than the day one when he started his training. His improvement is visible and obvious. He wins against his friends who started training around the same time as him in sparring training. He has a fun going to his dojo for his training.

One day, he finds that he is not improving his skill at all. His punches do not get stronger as before or as he wishes. He has difficulty kicking higher. He cannot win his friends as before. It seems to him everything he does is not improving his skill. He feels that his skill level is aggravating instead of improving. It is depressing. The training are not as interesting as a short time before. He feels his feet heavy in walking to dojo. He fell into a slump.

Quite unfortunately, the curve of one's skill improvement is not smooth up trend. It is rather combination of relatively high straight up, complete flat, and a little bit down. When one continues to train, he experiences all these. It is nothing like climbing steady uphill. One can imagine the trend to be close to walking up steps. It is very close to walking up steps, which has long flat area before reaching the next up step. It is still not exactly like walking up steps.

The closest experience to one's skill improvement is climbing a mountain. Those who has climbed a mountain must have experienced that both ups and downs come in turn in climbing a mountain. Although one is climbing a mountain, the climbing process is not just continuing climbing up. One needs to go up first. After a while, he needs to go down. Then he will up again. He will come across a long and flat road continues for hours. The one will eventually climb to the top after painful walking of ups, downs, and flats.

Slump time is the process of walking down hill or flat road in climbing mountain. The noteworthy is that walking downhill or flat road is an important process of mountain climbing. One cannot reach the summit without walking this downhill or flat areas.

Slump time plays an important role in real improvement. It is the time for preparing next giant leap. When one feels he is in a slump, he should train and exercise more than other times so that he could jump higher than before, when his time comes. If one want to leap higher, he needs to crouch lower.




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Finding Services and Products Everybody Is Interested in

Readers who have read my foregoing articles and watched my video must have now realized that the time of blindly following somebody else is finally over. You might have understood that the quality and relevance of services or products you select are more important than the techniques of Internet promotion. Instead of hiding the products or services you are offering, you need to show clearly what you are selling and how much it is. You might have fully comprehended that there is no Internet Magic or Internet Wands. Any product or service that is not attractive or interesting would not be successful no matter what tools you use or how much effort you put into marketing it.

Now we simply need to find the service or product that interests almost everybody. We need to figure out how the service or product or is useful, effective, and beneficial. This information must be highlighted in your website and presentation. In addition, your information must be backed by facts and figures with clear judging criteria.

People are motivated to make purchases based on their "needs." You may call it "Sales by Needs." It is like selling water or food. On the other hand, there are people who are selling "Mineral Water from Mr. Fuji." It sounds tastier than just tap water, does it not? You may call this type of sales "Sales by Advantage." Sales of this type are motivated by attraction and advantage. Furthermore, there are people who buy personal computers because PCs can benefit their businesses. You can call this "Sales by Benefit."

How about savings? Are not we all keeping our eyes on buying out stuff with cheaper prices? Is not "savings" attractive to everybody no matter how rich or poor they are? This concept can be useful to draw everybody's attention to your opinion. The bottom line is that your "saving" must be clear and visible. It must bring real "saving" to the people who you are talking to. I have summarized "saving concept" in my video site. You can visit my company website and you will find the link there. You will find my video explaining how I achieved my own saving of more than $2,000 per year.  For the people who hopes to jump to the video, the link is as shown below:

"Let's Talk about Saving": http://bit.ly/Rkm7wr

This saving came from switching services of Internet Provider, Telephone and Cell Phone Company, Cable or Satellite TV Provider, and Utility Service Sources. In this sense, the saving is real and solid.

It is my business policy to "play all cards open on the table." It is why I am always open to your opinion, questions, and comments. I respect and welcome opinions opposing my own views and concepts presented in a respectful manner. Feel free to comment, post, or write on my Facebook, blog, or video site pages. I promise to respect your opinions but may remove any that may come across as disrespectful or abusive.

Shaw Funami is an owner and chief consultant of "zhen international, inc.", known as a mentor for cross cultural relationship and business consultation called "Fill the Missing Link". You can learn about his profile in Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/shaw.funami. Please feel free to contact him at "hisashi.funami@zhenintl.ws" or visit his Business website. http://zhenintl.com/



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The Name of the Game

Businesspeople who tried to use the Internet for their business activities have had to survive difficult obstacles. One of their struggles was with Internet jargon such as "SEO," "PPC," "keyword marketing," etc. Coming to understand those words was difficult. Making matters worse was the fact that by the time they had understood those terms, the Internet evolved to make them obsolete. Search engines invented new technologies or changed their search rules. Their efforts to master these techniques were often in vain.

Further complicating the issue have been so-called "Magic Wands" giving people the incorrect impression that anything, even a ballpoint pen thrown away on the roadside, could be sold with "Internet Magic."

People have become confused. Despite using Internet tools as they were taught, they have not been able to achieve the results they expected. They worried they were making mistakes in using these tools. For example, take a look at a long-form capture page promoting a product or service. In many cases, one cannot know what the page is promoting without giving out an email address and creating an account. In fact, promoters were being told that they should not tell people what they are promoting until they sign up. This approach is totally wrong. Would one shop in a grocery store without being able to see the products they are selling?

There is no need to struggle with developing an Internet-based business anymore. There are "know-hows" to be successful in Internet-based business that are simple and clear. How can one use Web-based marketing tools effectively? How can one make the right decisions about the services and products you hope to promote? What are the key criteria to judge whether a business opportunity can succeed? Here are three basic points:

1.     The most important factor is understanding that having the right selection of services or products to promote is more important than knowing promotion techniques.
2.     Stop thinking about Internet-based techniques for a while. Think about elements of business, namely, people, product or services, and money. In addition, think about brand and information.
3.     Take initiative in planning and scheduling your business. Determine what will be the best and worst scenario.

Do these sound familiar? They are basics of ordinary business. The bottom line is that Internet-based business is not so different from ordinary business. The name of the game is not the number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, it is the quality of services and products.

I developed a video "The Name of the Game," based on my experience of successes and failures. If you are interested, please click the link below:

"Name of the Game": http://bit.ly/WRjBCq

This is a video that follows my prior video entitled "Walk Ahead of Web 2.0." As with my first video, my second one was shot, created, and edited with inexpensive, easily available software. I did not purchase any hardware or software in order to make this motion picture. It would be an honor if this video can be your reference to success in your Internet campaign.

Shaw Funami is an owner and chief consultant of "zhen international, inc.", known as a mentor for cross cultural relationship and business consultation called "Fill the Missing Link". You can learn about his profile in Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/shaw.funami. Please feel free to contact him at "shaw@zhenintl.ws" or visit his Business website. http://zhenintl.com/




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Walk Ahead of Web 2.0

We sometimes use terms such as "Web 1.0" and "Web 2.0" to mark the development of trends in Internet evolution. Web 1.0 marked the stage when people started to search for information, and when Yahoo and Google grew into big businesses. It was a time when people were making use of a new method of information collection, which analysts have referred to as "Find Me." Web 1.0 could therefore be categorized as the "Finding" revolution. By contrast, Web 2.0 is referred to as "Join Me" because of its focus on information-sharing by participation in a service. The flagship businesses that represent this stage of Internet development are Facebook and Twitter.

Because of the way the Internet has changed communication around the world, its development can be considered the third most important revolution after the invention of paper and the Industrial Revolution. Still, businesspeople are struggling to deal effectively with Internet-based business. Are you interested in knowing what is happening in Internet-based businesses? What do you think will be the next stage of Internet development? What will be "Web 3.0"?

Some authorities define Web 3.0 as the "Follow Me" stage. They believe it is the stage of self-propelling information propagation, and that it is already happening. In the most recent services provided on the Internet, we can see examples of this from major service providers. Facebook now has the Facebook Page service. Squidoo provides a service to build your own websites without having to learn HTML. Obtaining a domain name is easy and inexpensive in comparison to what it was 10 years ago. Hosting services are reasonable and reliable. Webpage creation software is now easy to use. It is not difficult or expensive to build your own website however you want.

It used to be that network geeks were proud of possessing web-based business promotion "know-how," using terms such as "SEO," "PPC" and "AdWords," but these trends have been changing. Many of the once-great web-business promotional tools have lost their effectiveness. Long-form capture pages with flashy images and vivid colors are now infamous. Nobody will read them anymore. Visitors will now simply check what the page is promoting and for how much and then close the page.

Instead, what we are seeing now is simple but visual sites with motion picture presentations becoming popular. There may be people who feel headache when they hear motion picture uploaded in the site. However, school kids are shooting videos and uploading them to a video site. Once uploaded, the video can easily be embedded almost anywhere.

It is generally boring to watch an unedited video, so you may need to edit your video. However, video editing and presentation software are both powerful and easy to use, to the point that almost anybody can use them without much of a learning process or expensive investment.

I myself was able to create and upload my video using my video editing and presentation software. It was for my first video presentation site explaining future web trends. If you are interested, please click the image above or link below to watch the movie:

http://t.co/0xHjyqsr

Shaw Funami is an owner and chief consultant of "zhen international, inc.", known as a mentor for cross cultural relationship and business consultation called "Fill the Missing Link". You can learn about his profile in Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/shaw.funami. Please feel free to contact him at "hisashi.funami@zhenintl.ws" or visit his Business website. http://zhenintl.com/




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Mastering Foreign Language

Almost all Japanese people believed that anybody who studied in the US could become a master of English language. Quite recently an advertisement shocked these Japanese people, because it advertised English Studying Materials, which targeted those who studied in the US. It says; If you studied in the US and still you could not be confident about your English, you can use our English Materials for improving your English. It looks that studying in US does not necessarily change a Japanese to be a master of English language.

There are students who learn English fall into the following 4 categories:

1) There are students, who studies in the US, but just hang around with Japanese students like themselves. They are the ones who never make friends with Americans and keep eating in Japanese restaurants with other Japanese. They are in the US for studying with they or their parents spending a lot of money. What a waste it is.

2) Even among company employees, who station in the US, based on their companies' business purpose, there are people who do not expose themselves to English. They use English a little more than the above students in the US, because they need to communicate with American staff. Many of them in lunchtime go out with other Japanese employees to eat in Japanese restaurants. They eat dinner and drink just with Japanese staff. When they go back to home and keep speaking in Japanese with their Japanese family. They do not have either lunch or dinner with American staff. They do not invite American people to their parties.

3) Among enthusiastic English students studying in Japan, there are people who study with just textbooks and cassette tapes. They practice their English only with their teachers and friends. They believe that their English is not good enough to communicate with native speakers.

4) There are people, who take an English Learning Material, which claims that students can master English just by listening their tapes. They say students do not need any memorization, practicing, or trying with native speakers.

Talking with fluent English speakers as foreign or second language, one can find that those who belong to the above 4 categories are the English students who will never be able to master English.

Only ones go ahead and use English will improve their language ability. Ones make mistakes in using English will improve his skills. The one who blush by his mistakes will learn the language. The ones who are afraid of using the language will not be able to develop his language ability. Only people, who use the language, make mistakes, and their face blushed by their mistakes, will improve and master a foreign language. The truth is that there is no easier softer way. There is no loyal road to learning. If there is no pain, there is no gain. If there is no effort, there is no result. Trial and error is the only way.




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3 Methods to Overcome Psychological Obstacles

When one decided to start something new, he needs to break psychological barriers telling him negative thinking. Causes of his negative thoughts are not the difficulties he is facing. The real cause of his psychological obstacles is his own fears. It is the fear that tells him that he may not achieve what he wants to accomplish. Suppose one decided to resign his job and start his own business. He worries about what will happen. He worries about his experience, his ability, his luck, and his money. His anxieties are not groundless. It is natural to worry about these when one starts own business. The key is staying so strong that these fears do not stop him doing what he hopes. Remember all these are inside of one's mind. He will never know what happens until he tries. It may be easier than one thinks.

To cope with his first fear, which his mind creates, one could think the conclusion, first. He can conclude that he can be successful because nobody else has tried it, for example. One can find any reason that he can make it happen. He can stay with the reason, with which he is comfortable. When one does something for his first time, he tends to be fearful. He shows that he is not confident. If he felt fearful, he would conclude that he could be well prepared until he became confident. If one wonders if his experience is enough, he would think it is why he could be unique and creative.

His second barrier would be objections from people who are close to him. They are his families and close friends. Breaking this barrier is not so hard once one established him to be determined in his conclusion of success. 70% of objections from one's family and close friends are not because they believe one will fail, but because they feel one's fear. Once they realize he is confident and comfortable, based on his conclusion addressing his first fear, most of them will be silent and sympathetic. Keep in mind one should not pretend to be confident. He needs to feel confident to convince them.

One started own business. He worked hard and stabilized his operation. He was more relaxed than start-up time. Then something awful happens. His partner resigns. He loses his outside financial supporter. Somebody publishes sarcastic comment in evaluation site, in Internet. He now needs to cope with "middle of success obstacle." Since it is difficult to predict when and how this obstacle arises, most of them catches him in surprise. It will shock him. This shock is the largest problem. The most critical to address and overcome this obstacle is not to surprise. Do not panic. If he did not go panic, it is one of regular business problems.

The followings are the points to overcome ones psychological barriers:

1. Conclude and determined that it will go well. Reason whatever comfortable.
2. Be confidant and stay confident in relation with family and close friends.
3. Be prepared for "middle of success obstacle". Be aware it will come. Do not panic.




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Thinking About Honesty

There is no religion in the world, which allows people to be dishonest. Some philosopher talked about dishonesty of human nature. No philosopher, however, affirmed people to be dishonest. Telling a lie has been almost a crime in some cultures. Parents teach their children to be honest in any occasion. George Washington and cherry-tree story have been famous and popular all over the world. Parents pray for God so serious that their children grow to be an honest person.

The most religions and philosophies has no tolerance even to a little white lie. Priests and philosophers believe in all or nothing with respect to honesty. They believe that either a person is honest or dishonest. Even an honest person in his whole life, if he tells a little white lie, he replace himself to be a dishonest person. It is as an Angel becomes a Demon by small but willful misconduct.

There are reasons to be honest. Honesty will create one's confidence. Honest people tend to be more powerful than dishonest people. A dishonest person is afraid of something or someone find his lies. A lie does harm not only on the other, but also on the people lying. A dishonest person can never be peaceful in his mind.

The human society, however, does not keep favorable environment for human beings to be honest. Society, business, or work environment sometimes drive people not to be honest. One was hiring a web creator for design of his website. The one asked a question to his vendor, if the vendor feels confident about building his site. The vendor needs to be careful about his answer. The vendor lose this customer, if he answers that he is not confident about building the site, even if it is his honest answer. In the same way, one's supervisor will not release him until he answers there is no problem even he sees a lot of issues.

Another iron cold truth in the real world is that sometimes, one is not sure which is truth. One's boss can ask him how is his subordinates are doing. He sees minor problems such as upset customers, lost orders, and unattained sales budget. All of them, however, are not so big as they affect whole business. How one can reply to his boss? Judgment of truth and false are somewhat subjective matter. The same can apply to the above. The web creator could be confident to get the job done, even through difficulties.

There is one point that all need to be aware. It is the fact that not telling something is different from Hiding, Lying, or Cheating. These must be clearly separated. A husband could be kicked out from his home by trying not to be dishonest.

Honesty is not simple issue. It is rather complicated than it appears. There is no black or white. Only rescue for one's mind is if he maintains his faith to be truthful.





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Emperor's Sister-In-Law

Emperor Liu was the first Emperor of Han Dynasty. Han Dynasty was the second dynasty, which formed unified China. It was 2nd and 1st Century BC. Emperor Liu was an ordinary person, who was originally from a peasant family. He was infamous in his young days as a hoodlum in a local city. There is a couple of things notable about him. He always had a lot of friends who could die for him. He was an excellent listener who uses his friends and subordinates opinions.

Liu was a merciful and generous person. He rewarded persons with distinguished services. He tended not to punish people seriously. He forgave his generals, who lost their battles, and gave them a second chance. His policy was merciful to his people and people could work hard for themselves and the Han Imperial. There were lots of talented subordinates supporting the Emperor. They were Zhang Liang for strategy, Han Xing for combat, and Xang He for politics.

Emperor Liu was also kind to his family. His brothers became high level government officers. The Emperor gave positions, jobs, and functions to his family's sons, cousins, and nephews. Liu was extraordinarily generous and merciful ruler. Everybody liked to work for him and worked hard.

This woman's name was buried and lost in history. She was the wife of Emperor Liu's older brother. In his time in China, it was custom for the oldest brother took care of the whole family members. Liu, at that time, was only a young mobster who was hanging in the city. Since his family was farmers, he would have helped farming for his family, but he would not. That was why this wife of Liu's older brother did not like Liu. She hated him.

When this woman married the Emperor's oldest brother, Liu was just a lazy young man who is not helpful for family farming. Instead, he had come back to his home occasionally. He always asked for some foods to eat. Although his brother did not say anything to this problem younger brother, his wife, Liu's aunt in law showed her hatred to Liu candidly. If her husband was not home when Liu came home, she would chase him out saying everybody was busy. She gave Liu dishes and bowls without giving him any food. Because the mother did not like Liu, her sons looked down on him. They cursed and swore Liu.

Liu became the Emperor. He was giving jobs and positions to his farm family. The Emperor's sister-in-law waited for her sons to get some jobs and positions in uncle Liu's government. He did not give any jobs and positions to her sons. She visited Emperor Liu. She asked him to get her sons positions. The Emperor answered to her; "You and your sons treated me badly when I was young. How dear you can expect me to treat your sons nicely?" Her sons had never got any positions. Let us consider again if we are kind enough to the people. Let us think if we have anybody we treated badly.





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Tomorrow Is Another Day

Translators are great profession to bridge the gap between different cultures. My profession is not exactly a translator. As a cross-cultural exchange promoter, however, I use techniques of translation and interpretation. There is an opinion that computer software will be able to translate any language, soon or later. It is remarkable to see rapid growth and development of translation software. However, a machine will never be able to replace human translators. There are 3 barriers for a machine to do translations.

1. It does not take the background of translation into consideration. Therefore, it has no way knowing the purpose of translation.

2. It does not assess emotional factors of expression given in a different language.

3. It is difficult to go over and bridge cultural difference of expression.

What software can do for translation is take a word, an expression, or a sentence and replace it with another language. It is, in this sense, a process of coding and encoding. This method is not enough for proper translation. For example, if one uses translation software for English words "execute this agreement", he would get Japanese meaning "give death sentence to this agreement". His translation software does not provide Japanese words meaning "put this agreement in effect". This is an example of the above item 1.

Let us examine item 2. A translator mentioned that she needed to read the entire book in original language to translate the contents effectively. She explained that she could make a serious mistake, if she did not understand the whole story. She could not understand the meaning of each sentence, otherwise. This translator said that she needed to be emotionally synchronized with the author on the author's opinion, emotion, and intention of his writing. It will take a long time for a device to be able to do it even if it will, some day.

3rd item is the issue of cultural difference. Japanese language put emphasis on processes, while English tends to go straight to the conclusion. Usually, an English proverb "Haste makes waste" has its Japanese version. The fact is, however, that the Japanese version is "Detour when you are in a hurry". Another example is "Tomorrow is another day." The literal translation version of this saying in Japanese is "Tomorrow another wind will blow." English likes direct expression, while Japanese tends to be indirect. There is another example of culture affecting languages. When a Japanese says it is hard, it means either it is impossible or he cannot do for a reason. When native English speaker says it is hard. He does not refer to its feasibility or his desire to do.

These are factors a machine with today's technology level cannot overcome. Human beings must wait until cybernetics or artificial intelligence is born to enable machines to do proper translation. Until then, PC software will continue to be a useful tool for translators to get their job done.




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Managers, Be Aware

People are anxious to get a managerial position. Is it so good to be a manager as people think? One day my colleague shared his own story, however. He said that he had been glad when he had become the department manager. His company is big. There are more than 300 employees working in the region. Being a department head is a status position. About half a year had passed. He did not like to be the department manager any more. He needed to travel all over the world. He could not have enough time to spend with his family. He was responsible for 25 people working with him. It was extremely difficult for him to keep his eyes on what his people are doing. Still, he was responsible for the mistakes his people had made.

He could not have his own time and could not think enough even on his work. He could not stand it any more. He thought he had enough. He resigned. He got a new job as a lower position staff. He is happy now because he can have his own schedule and time. He can manage his own schedule to share time with his family or friends. It is not easy to be in a high position, at the same time, having own personal life. Sometimes, a manager must make a priority decision, which comes first, his job or his family.

There is one factor making management position difficult. He needs to work as the leader of his team. As above, it is not easy to know what is happening with his team. Another difficulty is how the leader keeps his eyes on his team members. Even the manager understood 100% of what is happening in his team, he would not be able to understand how his team members would think and feel. Some might be happy. Another ones might not be satisfied. Others might not be thrilled, but they would do whatever their supervisor tell them to do.

When a manager was busy and do not know what is going on, he should be aware that his team members were busier and more confused than he was. His supervisor might give him a lot of works to do. He might be busy enough to do his own. When confusion was dominant, team members would be unhappy. The manager would not be able to supervise his people, simply because the manager himself was busy. All of his team member would be unhappy.

If members were unhappy, their works would not go well. He would need to take own time to consider how he should fix his team. He should ask himself if he had given the team members works, which he, himself, would not be happy to do. If a manager asks his member to do works, which made them unhappy, his team would go nowhere. A manager would consider if he asked his team too much of unhappy works. If more than 50% of his business order were unfavorable to his members, the manager should give the second thought how to distribute works among his team members, no matter how busy he is.





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City Life and Nature

Tokyo is always compared to New York. There are some similarities between Tokyo and New York. They are always crowded, days and nights. People walk real fast. People are walking staring a point 10 feet front and ground. They always keep serious faces. They do not seem to be friendly. Interesting is that they all keep almost identical appearance in walking in downtown. They all are frowned. They look they worry something. They appear as they believe smiling is a crime. If they found someone smiling, they wondered what they were happy about. People speak unusually fast. They talk fast both in the street talking, office talking, or over a phone. 20 - 30% of people are using cell phone walking so fast.

In San Francisco, New York, and Beijing, inside of cities is not so different from Tokyo. In Beijing or San Francisco, people look more relaxed, however. There are more smiling faces and happy looking people on corners in these cities. People in these cities are less tensed than Tokyo or New York. All the cities are full of concrete and steel. They are all built in the same way, but Tokyo is the worst. Tokyo is the worst among cities, because it has less nature than others. It has parks. These parks look artificial. The concrete buildings are surrounding these parks. One cannot feel the nature in parks, in Tokyo. To feel a bit of nature, one needs to travel, either by train or car, for more than 2 hours from downtown, Tokyo. It is the worst part.

There is great nature in Japan. Mountains cover 60% of Japanese land. Many of them are beautiful. Mount Fuji is the most beautiful one. It is an island country. Oceans surround Japan Island. There are so many beaches and seacoasts providing stunning views to the people visiting. The problem is it takes more than 2 hours to reach these natures. If one takes his family to these natures, he and his family need to keep standing in a stuffed train for at least 2 hours. If they decide to drive, it will take them for more than 3 hours to reach their destination in a traffic jam.

If one drives from downtown New York to the forest in North Jersey, the drive will be less than one hour. Someone living in San Francisco is close to coast side of San Francisco Bay. Either in New York or San Francisco, squirrels are everywhere. If one drives 20 - 30 minutes to West, he will reach Pacific Ocean side, whereas there is a long trail for people to enjoy walking, jogging, bicycle riding. He may meet a family deer's in walking on the trail. At night, people would see raccoons and skunks are walking across the road. One can experience these nature's wonder lands without giving up convenient and exciting city life.

In downtown Tokyo, or at least in the area of 2 hours from the center of it, one will never be able to experience the nature. This is the reason why living in San Francisco Bay Area is lovely.





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About Japanese Women

Japan is famous for male chauvinistic society. Men will go out, work, make money, and support their family. Therefore, they are primary in society and family. Women will stay home, give birth to their babies, and sustain their family. So they are secondary. When a woman became an executive, everybody was shocked. Some men were upset. Those were the days not so long time ago.

Japanese men are strong, aggressive, and outgoing. Japanese women are obedient, quiet, and holding. These were the Japanese typical stereotype. Only Japanese men should not be blamed for this tendency. Until quite recently, it was not so usual to meet a woman who was seriously seeking a business career. Even women became executives in their company, they changed their mind, married, had a baby, and became housewife and mother.

This traumatic Japanese mind-set initially came from "Bushido", Samurai Spirits. Especially the textbook of "Bushido" categorizes people in social groups, age groups, and genders. The textbook gave detail definitions of "dos and don'ts" to the people in certain social group, age group, and gender. For example, Samurai families' sons, by age 13, must be trained for martial arts and educated for ethics. They must be self-propelled and motivated to fight and protect their families. Another example is that Samurai's daughter, age 20 - 25 should be highly skilled on household affairs, such as cooking, cleaning, and baby-sitting. They should not go out with young men without engagement for marriage. They should marry by 26.

Please wait a minute, here. Although this textbook of Samurai spirits is the foundation of Japanese male chauvinism, Japanese history has not just been dominated by Samurai doctrines. It was 1192 when the first Samurai government started ruling. It lasted until 1868 when the last Shogun stepped down from its position of power. Its history of governance is less than half of Japanese history.

The very first ruler of Japan appeared in history was the queen Himiko (175 - 248). Himiko was a female shaman and spirit medium, who could convey messages and orders from God to people. She was powerful queen who established diplomatic relationship with China as equal partners. She also appears in an ancient Chinese history book.

After Himiko, in Japanese history between the Sixty Century and the Eighth Century, there were eight Empresses regnant. They were six female emperors including two ruled twice. There were two more female imperial reigned in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Ten Empresses regnant in its history is noteworthy, comparing to the Chinese history having only one ruling empress in three thousand years of their history.

Women in Japan had played crucial roles in history. They played an important role in transition and hard times. There was a female writer who wrote; "In the early period of history, women were Sun in Japan" in 1910's. Today, facing evolution of social values, the role for women is also changing. As they sensed the change, there appears so many women entrepreneur in Japanese society, carrying different messages and different business styles from conventional types of business. Hopefully, they regain the energy of "Sun". They survive, grow, and bring in new development of Japanese society and economy. Japanese men and society should not define them using old social value of chauvinism. Japanese men should protect them and grow with them.


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