The impact of SoftBank Career LIVE 2019

Although one and half month passed, I still have the passion which was given by Son-san at SoftBank Career LIVE 2019. I would like to write its event which led me to start this blog.

It was an advertisement at Facebook which made me to join this event. I had never clicked ads at Facebook until that time, but it’s Facebook’s power. It seems they already seized my interests.

I applied through business person section since I worked, but considering the people who attended the day, it seems this event was mainly for hiring new graduates. I needed to write simple my career history when applying, so maybe these new graduate people wrote personal PR or something?

Anyway, I received an email which said, you’ve made it and together with QR code. I felt the job hunting situation keeps changing since I didn’t use QR code when I did it.

According to the announcement, we could enter the hall from 13:30. So I arrived at 10 minutes earlier, but there was already a long line, I wish I could hear presentation in the first line, but there was always someone better.

As a result, I could secure a seat at 5th line behind the 1st and killed about 1.5 hours, then finally!!!

Son-san came to the stage and presentation was started. I think this was a very precious opportunity to listen Son-san’s talk in person, so I would like to join in next year too, if there is. This time’s presentation might be familiar with the people who often check IR but please allow me to summarize the points which impressed me a lot.

1) Decide which mountains to climb, focus on what you feel enthusiasm.

The presentation was started from the Son-san’s experience. He was impressed by seeing a computer chip and decided to bet his life on it. It’s a story which often wrote by some media but he foresaw the future and founded SoftBank. He told it’s a critical point that he could find what he could bet his life on it at such an early life. Steve Jobs also told the similar thing in his speech at Stanford University.

 In any case, it’s no doubt that you are standing on better place than the others, if you can find what you can keep thinking about it = decide which mountains to climb. This story made me consider how is my current situation.

2) AI defines ALL the industries again.                            

 This is the point which Son-san often tells in many occasions. He explained how he thinks behind this word, the current situation of industry, why SoftBank bought Arm etc... For example, a drastic change from carriage to automobile was happened on the beginning of 1900. Now is the time for such a change.

Of course, he used famous companies like Uber as an example, but he also told us about Gurdant or Plenty which were not so familiar with general people. Such companies show how AI started to change the industries not only retail or advertisement which GAFA changed the world but also medical or agriculture. Son-san told us CPU, memory and data transmission would be key points for future. Since SoftBank secures the 2 points out of 3 important factors, their presence would be quite strong for upcoming bright future.

3) No.1 cluster strategy.

 This might be also familiar with the people who often listen to Son-san’s speech. In the event, he showed us a video which was 20-year ago. In that video, he told us the exact same thing. I was so surprised that he has been thinking about it and doing actions based on this concept since SoftBank was not so famous period.

 He emphasized that if you have any visions and set a concrete deadline, then you can figure it out what is necessary for achieving it. This is quite true for me. I have a target sales figure every year and because its figure is too big for me to imagine, I need to break into smaller one which I can plan real actions.

 So the point is, a big vision can NOT be come up with by addition calculation. Usually, someone shows a kind of future and then, we consider what should be done to realize that future. It’s a kind of way I usually take but he envisioned it.

 At the beginning of presentation, Son-san told us that it’s quite rare opportunity for a normal person like me to spend 2hours with Son-san. I think I could make the most of the 2hours because it changed me a lot. I learned if a great leader shares his vision with passion, there is always a person who is affected by it and the leader can change the audience to followers. More attractive the vision is, the more motivation followers have and the team keeps rolling automatically. I hope I can be a leader like him.