This was the question put to the panel I spoke at on Saturday at the Gaijin Pot Expo 2023 jobs fair in Akihabara. I’d put my best (only) dress shirt on, straightened out a presentable pair of jeans and dusted off my lucky Rolling Stones tie and stood waiting for my turn to answer the scores of nervous-looking job-seekers in their Sunday best.
I had hoped to give this self-serving schtick stump speech, but on the day, there was no place for me to display my books, lay out my business cards or any time to do much more than state my name, rank and serial number.
My memory of what the other three folk on the panel said is a bit cloudy, but the advice they offered was pretty standard, as I recall, along the lines of learn Japanese, get a mentor, improve your skills, keep your fingernails clean, wash behind your ears, yada yada yada.
Here’s what I said, at least, according to my memory:
I wish you all the best of luck finding a job today, and I hope you are successful and all your dreams come true. But if you’re not successful, if things don’t work out how you’d hoped, I just want to plant this one seed in your mind: You don’t need a job — you can work for yourself, and you may even be happier doing that.
I’m going to be contrary: forget about learning Japanese. After all, nobody is going to pay me money for my Japanese ability… or my fashion sense. They might pay me money for my English ability and my ability to teach it. So my advice is: focus on what you can do that others can’t. If you need someone to speak Japanese, hire them, there are plenty of people in Japan who can. There are not so many who can do what you can do.
Then the question came, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give to people on how to be a success in their career? I said:
Don’t wait for permission. Don’t think I can’t do it until I have that piece of paper. Stop seeking permission, just start doing it. Want to publish a book? Put one up on Amazon. Want to start a business? Put a notice in the window saying “English lessons available here” and get started. You can figure out the details later.
And that was that. A couple of people spoke to me afterwards and one even told me that what I had said was inspiring.
So, thank you, I’ll chalk that up as a success.
I’ll write again next week, and you can see me on Friday (now that the Staffroom podcast is videoed).
All the best,
Patrick Sherriff