Motoyasu Yasui, President and CEO of MCJ Co., Ltd.

Young people are full of possibilities. Challenge your limits and discover yourself.

■ Profile

President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of MCJ. After working for a venture company that planned and produced animation, he experienced the listing of MCJ, a manufacturer and distributor of PCs and peripherals, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He then worked as a strategic consultant at the Industrial Growth Platform for nine years before returning to MCJ in March 2016. His books include "Non-Academic Elite" (Asuka Shinsha) and "The Recommendation of Extremes" (Soshisha).

Yasui joined the company as a new graduate, was involved in the company's IPO, then left, then rejoined after 10 years and rose to the position of president in 2017. His overwhelming success was backed by his extraordinary stoicism. In this article, we looked back at Yasui's student days, the origin of his stoicism, and asked him about the meaning of work.

　There are three main things I did during my time at university: part-time jobs, studying, and meeting people.
　Growing up in a single-parent household, I wasn't particularly wealthy, so I worked hard from junior high school onward. I studied English, accounting, and computer-related subjects. I became able to communicate fluently with native speakers of English without ever traveling abroad. I'm the type of person who will see things through to completion, so I studied even while waiting at traffic lights or walking down the street at night. When it came to meeting people, I would meet with people who were older than me and had jobs. Growing up in a single-parent household, I didn't have any working men around me, so I had no idea what it meant to work. After all, you can't work hard without a goal, a vision to aspire to. So I met many people in order to find such role models. Thanks to this, I was able to overcome a period of uncertainty about what I should aim for and find a clear goal: to become a manager.

■Retired and rejoined the same company

　From the beginning, I wanted to join a venture company, so I didn't follow the traditional job hunting path. I even applied through part-time job magazines. I ended up joining Mouse Computer, but I continued job hunting even after I started working there. I worked tirelessly after joining. I even worked 18 hours a day and collapsed, vomiting blood, but at the time, I thought, "Yay!" (laughs). I was really working so hard. I eventually helped with the company's IPO and left. I worked as a strategic consultant, then rejoined the company as a director after about 10 years. The reason I rejoined was because MCJ was the most challenging environment for me at the time. At the time, the company's performance was flat, and I wanted to see it grow from there. From the outside, there was no clear theme or direction for growth, so I joined the company to create one. I focused on that for the first two months, and a year later, I was appointed president. I brought a role that the company didn't have at the time, and I was recognized for fulfilling that role.

■What I want from people I work with

　If you're a new graduate, you're probably a person with a strong sense of curiosity. Curiosity is the source of all actions and efforts. The important thing is to just give it a try, just say it. The most important thing is to remove the shackles from your actions and thoughts and just give it a try. If you don't tell us, we won't know what we don't know. It's okay to make mistakes, so just give it a try.
　Mid-career hires tend to have something special. When a new project is launched and members are being assembled, the skills required for the project are broken down into elements, such as "Let's leave sales to this person" or "Let's leave management to this person," and people are gathered together. If at that point you find yourself thinking, "Huh? What can this person do?", it's all over.
　On the other hand, when I see someone with an edge, someone who has that "this is what I associate with them," I want to meet them again.

■ I always want to have multiple options

　The reason I've been able to work so hard is because I have an inferiority complex. My family wasn't very wealthy, so I didn't have many options when I was younger. This became an inferiority complex for me, so until I was 35, I always tried to act in a way that allowed me to have multiple options. When you narrow your options down to one, it becomes difficult. And when that option falls apart, there's nothing you can do. I think it's very important to have a "Plan B for life."

■ Outlook for the future

　Personally, I want to challenge the limits of my potential, strengthen my influence over those around me, and create clones of myself.
　In terms of work, I want to create a distinctive company. From an industrial perspective, this industry may not be a growth industry. However, I want to create a distinctive company within it. Specifically, I want to do everything from zero to ten in-house and create fans. We currently complete everything in-house, from parts manufacturing and procurement to after-sales support, and I want to continue doing so.

■Message

　I think young people are a mass of potential. How far can they push that potential? It's only when they have the experience of giving 100% to something that they can truly understand themselves. And I think it's precisely because they're young that they can challenge their limits.
　Furthermore, because there are so many possibilities, if you don't clearly define where you should head, you will end up scattering in all directions and not accomplishing anything. I would like you to set one clear goal and put all your energy into it.

Student Newspaper October 2020 Edition by Yoshio Ogawa, 4th year student at Keio University