From a foundational standpoint, capital is necessary to do anything. This capital is not limited to money alone. Technology is a capital, and information is typically the source of technology; to gain information, basic education is necessary as well.

The success or failure of a new business is an extremely important and decisive matter, but, if possible, I recommend entrepreneurs to work on what they like. It is best for people to succeed doing what they like—it is rare that people succeed doing what they don’t like—so, they should choose the path that they do enjoy. It will be considered a success if an entrepreneur chooses the path of their liking, puts effort into it, makes a living out of it and achieves a sense of happiness.

Thus, the first thing that they should ask themselves is this: “Do you truly enjoy what you are doing?” When trying to start something, they should always ask themselves, “Do you actually like it?” “Can you imagine it being something that you would spend the rest of your life on?” If the answer is no, then they should not begin, but if it is yes, then there is a potential of success there.

No one can beat someone at something that they love. It is a mystery to other people how someone can be so passionate about a topic that they like. The only explanation is that they love it. “Liking” something is a talent on its own.

First and foremost, it is important to understand “what” the person likes—whether they like something or not. This will become their motivation.

From there, they need capital to go down the path that they chose. They do need financial capital, but they also need studies, or some intellectual accumulation; therefore, if the thing is something that they truly want to do, they must understand that they need to spend time studying the topic as well.

The key point is that they do something that they like and create some proper capital beforehand. In short, create capital and do what you like doing.

People Unaware of Technical Management Problems Will Lose

There are possibilities of failure, so unsurprisingly, there are risks. However, in many cases, people who never give up will eventually be able to turn the tide. Thus, people without ambition are out of the question.

In the end, the value of a person is determined by their ambition. How much ambition a person has is all that matters. People without ambition are a lost cause. Ambition must come first. People will head towards their ambition if they at least have one.

Rohan Koda, a Japanese author in the Meiji period, said, “If you plan for 100 and achieve 10, that’s pretty good.” “If you plan for 10, you typically only achieve 5,” “Planning for 100 will get you around 10,” he said, and this comes from someone who achieved a surprising level of success. Apparently, “If you plan for 100, you will only get to 10. If you plan for 10, you will only get to 5,” so if your ambitions are small, it is extremely hard to surpass them. I want you to know this.

Furthermore, there is also the topic of business management, which is a specialized and technical field, so expertise is necessary here as well. They must study management. This is a technical field. Management is technical knowledge, and similar things happen to most companies. The same events recur, so people without knowledge will be defeated. Those who do not know how to fight will always lose.

Understand that a similar event has already occurred in the past. Even if the company is new, similar patterns will surface in the management realm, so there is learning that needs to be done here.

For instance, they can study the many stories out there of the experiences and biographies of executives. In addition, there are countless management-related books, so these can be studied as well.

Endure the Constant Pain of Outgrowing Your Former Self

If you don’t constantly outgrow yourself, then your new companies will not grow. At every turn, you must be like a snake and shed off your skin. It is said that snakes who do not shed off their skins die, and I completely agree with this. If they do not shed off their skins, snakes cannot grow larger.

This is true for companies as well. At each step, they need to exuviate. Similar to when snakes shed off their skin, a company will incur pain every time it outgrows itself—every time it grows larger.

If companies don’t like this, then they must stop growing. When companies grow, pain will always follow. It will hurt somewhere. In various fields, the thoughts that were held until now must be thrown away.

There are many consequences: you might take on more burden; your relationship with your family, coworkers or perhaps other colleagues who started the company with you might fall apart because of new pressures; your partner may leave you. Many things will happen. Ambition determines whether you can still continue or not.

Therefore, you will never go past your ambitions. Rohan Koda says, “If you imagine 100, then 10 will happen.” This comes from a person with substantial ability, so it might fit a normal person better if he had said, “Imagine 100, and realize 3 or 5.” Now, it’s a question of whether the young entrepreneur is still willing to try, knowing this. I want you to tell these things to the young people.