The challenge I am currently taking on as "Taisho" is "America × Frozen Foods × New Business Development."

Please call me "Taisho"!! I am announcing this again because I thought that some people who read this article wouldn't know why my friends call me " Taisho."

First, Taisho means Sushi master in Japanese, and I have been enthusiastic about Sushi?? since I was a child in Japan. So, my hobby was making and eating sushi with all my friends worldwide since I quit the president position of a prior tech startup founder.

Thanks to my hobby, I could access the food industry from the tech industry and the US market from the Japanese market. As I wrote down in this article's title, I entered the US frozen food market.

Second, Did you watch "Shogun"? The title is an American historical drama television series. If you have not watched the title, let's try to watch it! "Taisho" means a great Shogun. In the future, I pray that I can become a person suitable for being called by the nickname...

I started working on September 2, 2024. The photo at the beginning of this blog was taken on my first day after arriving in Ontario, California. It's been three years since I set the goal of "working in America," and while I have been steadily tackling the tasks in front of me, I’m grateful to everyone who has supported and encouraged me that I’ve just barely been able to make it this far.

Going forward, I will continue to pursue my life's purpose of "demonstrating that anything is possible with the right mindset and approach," while enjoying the process with my team and steadily building day by day. I want to live each day by interpreting the act of solving and overcoming challenges as an enjoyable game.

Through this article, I hope to reflect on the journey so far and introduce the current situation (as of 2024) as I organize my thoughts on the path ahead.

The journey so far

M&A, company integration, and an MBA in the U.S. — I have accomplished all of these with the support of many people and alongside my team.

(1) Sold an HR tech startup to a publicly listed company. A year dedicated to completing the M&A.

(2) A year dedicated to company integration and completing the PMI process.

(3) A year dedicated to completing my MBA in the U.S.

After gaining those valuable experiences, I am now working on the West Coast of the United States, in California.

The path I have chosen with intention: the challenge of "America × Frozen Foods × New Business Development."

Conclusion: I have consciously chosen the path of "America × Frozen Foods × New Business Development." My mission is to develop new businesses in the frozen food sector in the U.S. I am fortunate to be working here with specific, measurable goals and deadlines already set.

Regardless of the results, there is no room for excuses, because I made this choice of my own free will. However, if I can leave even a small mark through tangible, fact-based achievements in this role, I am confident that it will lead to further opportunities for challenges. To draw a comparison, whether it's like bunting in baseball or taking a shot with my face in soccer—whatever it takes—I want to focus on making it to first base and leaving a lasting impression based on facts (without being too attached to my original ways of thinking or doing things).

In the past, when I started something new, I often wondered if I could really do it. But by steadily confronting the facts and building upon them, opportunities eventually opened up. I believe that keeping your focus on what you can do and consistently accumulating small actions each day is key.

As for whether the path I’ve chosen this time is the right one, honestly, I don’t know. Looking back, I can't even be sure if founding and selling my company was the best move in that business area or at that time. And I don't know how much value I can bring in America either.

After all, we cannot choose when we are born, and we can’t live the life of the paths we didn’t choose. Everyone's characteristics are different. And work is not the only thing in life—there are hobbies, friends, family, and various other elements. Finding the right balance in the game of life might be more difficult than we realize. But perhaps it's the search for that balance that is one of life’s true pleasures. Running a business is often the same: creating a true win-win structure is difficult, but the process of envisioning and taking action to make that structure a reality is quite similar. If you can design the overall structure of your life well, maybe business and management will go more smoothly as well.

You cannot change the facts of the past. However, you can change how you interpret those facts. And the only thing that can change the facts is this very moment and the future to come.

With this premise in mind, if you've consciously chosen a path, it's your one life to live. If that’s the case, why not have the determination to make your chosen path the right one? If you start out thinking you can’t do something, you won’t accomplish anything. The key is to optimistically envision how you can achieve it, and then build a realistic plan from that point. From my own limited challenges, this is what I’ve come to believe.

I want to work on the daily challenges with my team in this way. I think about this often. The daily challenges give life richness and meaning. Things that I couldn't do before, I can start to do little by little, and some challenges (not all) can be resolved. The existence of challenges means you have goals, and that there is a reality to work towards. People without goals do not have challenges.

I hope to enjoy my daily training in America so that I can live the way I’ve described in this blog.

We are sharing what I've learned from our challenges in America.

I am posting weekly on YouTube about what I have learned and noticed in America, at a pace of one video per week.

If you'd like to appear on my YouTube channel or are interested in working with me on frozen food-related businesses in America, please feel free to contact me via a direct message on Twitter!