There’s one thing I promised myself to do after getting my first full-time job after college: Don’t do half-ass job; Give it all I’ve got.

I definitely don’t regret that decision. Every time I look back on the things I worked on, I realized that I know I could do a lot better than I used to, but I am very satisfied with what I did back then because I gave everything that I’ve got at that time. What also makes me happy is that by looking what I did back then, I can see that I’ve made great improvements since then.

I don’t want to regret the work I did in the past. I want to be able to say “I gave it my best and don’t regret any of it.” I hope to keep doing that for years to come.

There are times that results aren’t as good as I thought it would be even when I tried my best. I hate that. One thing I was a little bit worried about is age. I know as I get older, I won’t be able to absorb as much information as I used to, and be able to perform as fast, which could lead to unsatisfactory results. However, my father taught me to “keep learning to your fullest until you become 30 and if you do, you’ll have all the foundation you need to adapt afterwards and do well in your career.”

The funny thing is that recently, my father told me “I told you to do that few years ago, but I don’t believe in that at all. I only told you that because I wanted you to stop slacking off and keep improving” and continued “I’m already 60 and I still need to study to keep up with the new things that always keep coming up. I’ve always believed that age is just a number. What’s most important is to keep having the mentality that you can keep learning. I mean look at me, I still have a job and keep up with the people with PhD and masters!”

Coming from someone who has supported me until I got my first full-time job, I think I can confidently believe in his words.

Disclaimer: These words were indirectly told to me by mother on the phone, as I know that my father wouldn’t really talk to me about these things directly, but he’s always been someone that I can look up to… even though I act like I don’t respect him at all in front of him (haha).

I’ve always liked this quote by Michael Jordan:

“I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.”

This quote turned out quite true for me. I know that if I don’t put enough work into the work, it’ll come back and haunt me down. I don’t want any of that. I want it so that even if someone comes back to me with complaints, I want to be able to hold my chin high and say why I did things in a certain way. My policy is to be as genuine as possible and if I could not put in enough effort to a project for whatever reason, I will not be ashamed to say so and will apologize for it. I do not want to become an adult whose specialty is “bullshitting“. That’s not me.

I want to keep giving all I’ve got throughout my career. In social life, I’m sure there are parts that I can slack off (especially to the people I don’t care for), and I don’t really mind doing that, because sometimes, it’s not really worth it. But in terms of my career, I don’t want look back and regret what I’ve done.

Not really.

For me, it seems like if I’m able to keep myself disciplined, I will make time for the extra tasks that I want to do.

I currently:

• work full-time
• take 2 classes at UCLA
• work out at Sony gym twice a week after work.
• work on a side-project
• able to  socialize with my friends

I went to the Sony gym today (Friday night!) to work out simply because I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, and I didn’t want to break twice-a-week workout routine. I felt like if I break that routine, everything else will fall apart. I am now working out 6 months+ straight, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m proud of it.

I used to be the guy who told everyone “I will do _____” and didn’t last more than 3 days. There’s actually a term for that in Japan and it’s called 「三日坊主」or “Mikkabouzu” which means exactly that. I always made excuses to skip work, but after getting my first full-time job after college in Buffalo, I realized that I can’t keep doing that because if I gave up, there’s no one else to pay my bills.

I don’t really like to say this to the public, but I do have health problems (post liver-transplant patient and very atopic), and they tend to get in the way quite a bit when I’m working. Although sometimes pretty obvious, I did not want to mention that to my co-workers because I didn’t want them to think that I’m weak, handicapped or the person who takes many sick days. I just sucked it up for what I am and kept going to work. That actually made me stronger and very disciplined.

Putting myself in a situation where I can’t run away usually worked for me. If you’re having problems keeping your goals, I suggest you do so.

Running away is the last thing you want to do; Man up and do what you want/HAVE to do.

I’ve also told myself that I’d actually come up with ideas and execute them for years. I came up with ideas, but never did anything to them.

I feel like that’s how I’ve been for the past 4+ years (since graduating college) …when I’m not at work. When I’m at work, I have deadlines and expectations to meet and I do/did try my hardest to meet them. Surprisingly, I’d like to think that I did pretty well in that regard. I’ve also noticed that there is a significant difference in my skill level between when I started my current job 3 years ago and where I am now. I am quite happy with the improvements that I’ve made thus far.

As I mentioned earlier, I had ideas but never took the next step. It’s very disappointing to see people doing really well from actually executing the ideas that I had thought of before them. But in the end, people who put in the most effort win. It’s like claiming that “I’m smart if I try” and never try. If you don’t try, then you’re not smart, period. I’ve made a presentation about an “iPhone” around a year and half before the actual iPhone was released in one of the marketing classes that I took in college, but that means nothing.

There is one thing that I want to change within the next 6 months, and that is to actually execute an idea and release it to the public.

I have found a great partner to work with and he has a similar mindset as I do. I’m very happy about this.

One thing I told him that we have to do to actually get this idea done is to break the project into phases (set smaller goals) and set deadlines to them.

We both agreed that we work much better under pressure, and by setting smaller goals and deadlines, we’ll know that we’re actually making progress to the project.

I don’t care about this project failing; I’m ready to fail. What’s most important to me (and us) is that we actually execute an idea and get it out to public. We don’t care if we make money from it, and if we do, that’s just icing on the cake. I feel like if I can get one big project done, I’ll know the process to get things done and how to get them done. I just want to take that first step and open up a path for me. Of course, I’d like to succeed eventually.

Hopefully, this works out.