Recently, I’ve been hearing the question “What is your life goal?” from various places. Maybe because it’s a time when everyone has many concerns, or maybe just because it’s spring.

As I’ve answered this question several times, I found myself not just simply stating my goals but explaining how I’m trying to respond to the many uncertainties I’ve faced or will face while moving toward those goals.

It might sound cliché because it’s so obvious, but I hope this kind of story is received not as “follow this” but in the context of “as an individual human being, this is all I can do.” Also, you might feel like I’m being somewhat forceful, but it’s also because I’m speaking to myself more strongly.

1. Questions Are Most Important

Albert Einstein said this:

Q: If there’s a problem that will destroy the world if not solved, and you’re given only 1 hour to solve it, what would you do? A: I’d spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes actually solving it.

He emphasized the importance of questions. I feel the same way these days. When having conversations or solving problems together, sometimes things click perfectly, and sometimes I feel like something is going wrong. Sometimes I just feel bad, and sometimes things just don’t register.

The strategy I’ve been taking lately in such cases is to think about “questions.” More problems than you’d think go in strange directions because there’s no question or the question is set wrong. Moreover, even questions that were right at the time sometimes become completely wrong answers due to certain insights.

So it’s very important to continuously ask yourself. One of the important factors that separates experts from non-experts is said to be whether they do “Reflection In Action”—reflecting while acting. What was I originally trying to do? What happens if I continue like this?

2. Take It Easy, But Smartly.

When talking about these things, I use the expression “buried.” It literally means being trapped somewhere and unable to think more broadly. It’s a very dangerous situation, but refusing to focus to avoid this is like burning down the house to catch bedbugs. Focus is an indispensable element to achieve something.

So it’s important to take it easy. Even forcibly. Haven’t you had the experience of suddenly coming up with a solution to something that wasn’t working? It’s because the brain switched from focused mode to diffuse mode and connected knowledge from a wider range.

In other words, giving the brain slack to solve problems can actually be a trigger for more efficient thinking results. Give your brain time to digest. I try to stop and look back every 30 minutes, or exercise every day. Physical strength is the most important factor to consciously stop something. It becomes slack in itself too.

3. Be Kind

Some people accept cynicism as a kind of weapon or positive element of life. Or they view it as a yardstick for “rational indicators.” I tend to refute this topic with several reasons.

1. Humans are not econs (rational agents).

First of all, it’s hard for people to be rational. I think the gap between traditional economics and actual economic results may have started with introducing this “econ.” Though I don’t know much about it.

I see people making irrational choices because of sunk costs, and people who want to spend a lot of money on useless things. I make such choices myself. Since I’m someone who spends a lot of money on new experiences, this experience-first approach isn’t always made with rational choices. Because most experiences are hard to convert into money.

2. Being cynical is easy, and easy things aren’t that valuable in a capitalist world.

Being cynical is easy. Too easy. Just turn off all your nerves and blurt it out. Conversely, it’s hard to genuinely care about people, worry about them, focus on them and have conversations. But too many people tend to ignore this value.

And since people basically tend to want to create social relationships, this kindness and thoughtfulness creates an effect of attracting other people. That can lead to more diverse relationships and experiences.

4. Avoid Failure by Making Mistakes

I firmly believe that the world we live in is the wild. And failure in the wild would be death. But we learn from mistakes and failures.

So how can we avoid failure? It’s possible by creating an environment where you can make mistakes at low cost. By failing in various ways at low cost, you prune in advance. Questions like “Do people actually like it?” are essential, but we don’t try to ask our target audience such things as much as we’d think.

To achieve this goal, I ask myself questions like these:

1. How can I fail within 30 minutes?
2. What problems will make people who want to buy this feel FOMO?
3. What point exactly did we feel the problem at? What’s the single question to confirm whether others feel it too?

As I have such conversations, the simplest experiment comes to mind. Then I just execute it.

5. Just Do It

I hear “I’m not ready yet” a lot. Especially when challenging an unfamiliar field. It’s such a good reason that it lets us procrastinate without feeling guilty.

But you have to think like this. Especially when trying a new field, you need to put in your head that “I don’t know what I need to prepare to the point that I don’t even know.” Then the choices you can take narrow down to one. “Just face it and experience it.”

That way, you can gradually recognize yourself progressing. I’m making a kind of report service, and while I’ve had the idea for 2 years, I only started properly trying a month or two ago, and the experience gained in that month or two has allowed me to attempt better improvements. Much more than the achievements of the past 2 years.

The promise I made to myself to get this far was to commit at least once a day no matter how hard it was. After two months, it became a pretty decent product. Nothing solves problems as well as actually executing.

This seems similar to Sam Altman’s How to be successful, so if you’re interested, I recommend reading it.