ANCIENT WISDOM FOR THE PERFECT BUSINESS!

THE SECRETS OF IKIGAI

As many of you know, if you’ve been a member of the Value Syndicate or loyal listener for any period of time, is that much of my life philosophy, much of my business philosophy and practice, any discipline I may have in me, and much of my outlook on things in general has been heavily influenced by eastern culture. By eastern culture, I’m referring primarily to Japanese culture, which, of course was heavily influenced by Chinese and Korean culture as well. I grew up with a martial arts black belt for a father, I was introduced to martial arts as a young kid, I became slightly obsessed with Bruce Lee when I was young, and I just generally liked what I was learning in that regard. Not only was it interesting to me, it was different from everything my friends were doing or interested in, and I liked that. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was learning a very valuable life and business philosophy, or at least being influenced via osmosis on this particular life and business philosophy without knowing it. I’ve spoken about this particular philosophy in past episodes, but I’ve never done any extensive discussion about it, and I think it deserves some time. The concept we’re talking about today is a Japanese concept called, Ikigai. Ikigai has a variety of translations, depending on how one interprets the Japanese Kanji or Hiragana (Japanese writing systems). The loose translations are something close to ‘a life’s purpose’, or ‘a life well lived’. The concept comes from primarily from an eastern take on health and wellness, where the mind and body are viewed as two integrated parts of the same whole. In Western culture, we tend to separate the mind and the body and view them as two different systems. If you’re not feeling well, you go to a doctor. If you’re not thinking well, or struggling with something above the shoulders, you go to a therapist, a psychiatrist, or a psychologist. In many eastern cultures, it’s not that they don’t also have those different disciplines, it’s just that you tend to grow up with a more holistic sense of the body and the mind being part of the same system. The body moves the mind, and the mind moves the body. Make a change to one, and you will undoubtedly affect the other for better or for worse. If you’re eating poorly and not exercising, your mental health is going to be affected. If your thinking is negative, your physical health is going to affected. Instead of taking a pill first, try to make a positive change to either thinking or your physicality and see what happens. Again, this is a way of thinking, not medical advice, nor is it meant to diminish the need for some to take medicines for various things. It’s just a more holistic approach to the mind, the body, and life in general. 

So, what is Ikigai and how is it beneficial to life and business? If you can first imagine 4 circles, you’ve gotten a good start. Imagine the 4 circles inside of a box. There isn’t really a box, but if you can imagine how you would stuff 4 circles inside of a box, you’ll get a mental image of a circle on top of another circle, and then 2 of the circles right next to each other, and right below the top circle, right above the bottom circle. Now, take those four circles and smoosh them together a bit so that all four overlap each other in the center. In the center of all of the overlapping parts is where Ikigai lives. This ‘life well lived’, or ‘reason for being’, is right there in the center of all of it. Of course, to make sense of this imagery, you’ve got to know what each of the circles represents. By the way, when you’re done listening to this episode, just google Ikigai and you’ll see the diagram and have a better sense of the way I’ve describe this concept, which will always fall short on a bunch of levels. You just can’t verbally describe this concept without failing to adequately paint a decent picture, so please look it up and relieve me of the responsibility to convey all the nuance that’s packed into this idea. And there is a bunch of nuance, I assure you! 

Each ball or circle has within it 4 important concepts. One of those 4 concepts in each circle is shared with every other circle, and that’s the center of it all, Ikigai. From there, every circle then shares a concept with the circle to its left, and then another, different concept with the circle to its right. Each of these shared concepts is contained within the portion of each circle where they overlap with each neighboring circle. I’ll tell you first the primary purpose of each circle, and then we can delve a bit deeper into the overlapping areas of each and what this means for your life and business. The four circles represent what you love to do, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid to do. The top circle is what you love doing, the right most circle is what the world needs, the bottom circle is what you can be paid for, and the left most circle is what you’re good at. With all four circles being smooshed together, you can imagine that it’s not just the center of each circle that overlaps, that’s not how circles work. The more you smoosh them together, the more of each side of each circle starts to intersect with and overlap the circle next to it. It’s as if you were trying to smoosh all four circles into one circle but stopped short. Each circle now has four distinct quadrants: it’s main idea, two new ideas in each overlapping section, and then Ikigai in the middle.

I know this is confusing to listen to, and I promise I’ll get to the point. Trying to verbally describe an idea that is so dependent on seeing the graphic representation is not easy. This is as much an exercise for me to try to adequately articulate a complicated image as it is for you to exercise your ability to imagine it all in your mind’s eye. Obviously, if you’ve already searched out the image on the interwebs, you’ll know exactly what I’m describing. The parts that I believe are some of the most important from the Ikigai concept is that it has an emphasis on action. There is a bias for doing, as opposed to the trite, and often misleading idea that you can just follow your bliss, do what you love, and the money will follow. There are a whole heck of a lot of people out there who love to play video games. Good luck doing what you love and waiting for the money to roll in. There are a lot of people, like me, who love to ski, surf, play sports, watch sports, eat food, workout, read, learn, and so on. Can you make money doing something in each of those arenas? Of course, but it would take following the rest of the implied suggestions in the other 3 Ikigai circles to make that happen. For those of you who just love to get into your fuzzy pants and curl up on the couch with a good book, yes, that’s taking some kind of action, but it doesn’t include the other 3 Ikigai circles so it’s unlikely you’ll find success in that thing. This is why I really love the concept of Ikigai, because it’s something of a framework, maybe a filter and a set of questions, as well, to help guide you on the all-important search for life’s meaning, or at least one of its meanings, as well as a way to make a good living. 

To recap the circles, the top one is what you love to do. However, the one to the right is ‘what the world needs’, which is where the video game playing falls apart. It’s where the hobbies thing falls apart. You may love to do something, but Ikigai is a calling to identify what the world needs, something you’re good at, and something you can make money at. In essence, Ikigai is all about four things, but not necessarily the four things at the top of each circle. The four secondary ideas are about passion, mission, profession, and vocation. Passion is the part about what you love to do. And, by the way, it’s important to recognize that passion is a complex word and not everybody will be able to find their passion, or what they’re passionate about. It’s a whole other podcast to talk about passion in life and business. The sad truth is that most people will go to their grave never really knowing how to figure that part out. I will also say that, to some degree, finding your passion in life is a tad overrated. I’m a huge advocate of finding your passion, but not if it’s causing you an inordinate amount of angst, anxiety, and paralysis to do so. It’s ok to just be happy with what you’re doing while also in pursuit of what you like doing a little more. Finding your passion, at least as it relates to work, is an incremental process of doing less and less of the shit you don’t like to do, which, in itself, gets you closer and closer to doing what you like to do. I realized in my 45th or 46th year on this earth that finding what you have some fire in your belly for is more about building a list of things you don’t enjoy or have no interest in than it is trying to find that one thing. I have several things I have some passion for and every year it’s a push to get closer and closer to doing more and more of those things, and less of the things we may not enjoy or be good at. Ikigai asks us to weigh what it is we love to do with what the world needs, and that gets labeled our mission. Of course, very few people are working in, on, or toward their mission because they don’t know what that is. Make it a priority to figure out what you don’t like to do first to get some clarity on what it is you do enjoy doing. 

Between what the world needs and what you can be paid for is what we call your vocation. The word vocation isn’t often used in common language these days. If we hear that word, we tend to just equate it with job or career. But vocation, although it also has some religious connotations, tends to also be equated with something somebody does more for the benefit it brings to oneself and to humanity. Profession is the chosen work or area of work somebody does based on their education, skills, sometimes their desires and passion, but more for the income and skills, and less for the benefits to humanity. Where doing what you love intersects with what the world needs lives a mission. Where what the world needs intersects with what you can be paid for lives a vocation. As we make our way from the bottom circle of what we can be paid for over to the left circle, which is what we’re good at, where those two intersect is where a profession lives. And it makes sense! When you combine what you’re good at doing with what you can be paid for, you have a profession. I would say this is where most people live. They figure out what they do reasonably well and then go find people and companies who will pay you for that. The greater the need for that skill, relative to the number of people who do it well, typically the greater the pay. If you combine that with something the world really needs, typically the pay goes even higher. Not always, but typically. As we close out the Ikigai diagram and make our way all the way back around to the top circle, where the left circle of what you’re good at intersects with the top circle of what you love to do lives your passion. 

Take some time over the next few weeks to search out the Ikigai diagram and really study it. I’ve been looking at this diagram for many years now and am still learning lessons from it. I used to just look at the center, what I figured was the target, where all four circles intersect and make a new, fifth shape, and then I’d just stop thinking about it. But the concept has lots of nuance built within it and it demands that we study it if we want greater insight, not just into ourselves, but into the hearts and minds of other humans. Although Ikigai has something of a personal meaning for those who start to understand it, it absolutely has a message for those of us in business. The message is deep and nuanced as well, but the main message is to pair what you’re good at with what you enjoy doing with what the world needs and you have the answer to what people will pay for. Use Ikigai to test your own mission, your own business, and your own goals. Are you doing what you’re really good at? Is it something you really enjoy doing? Is it something the world needs? Are you getting paid commensurately for that thing? If you answer no to any one of those questions, the concept of Ikigai simply implores you to ask deeper questions on that thing. If it’s not something you enjoy doing, why not? Could it be done differently so that you could enjoy it? If you’re not good at it, why are you doing it? Could you get better at it? Does the rest of the world agree that you’re good at it? Have you ever asked them? Is it something the world needs? Does the world need what it is you’re offering? Do they need it the same way as everybody else delivers it? Would they appreciate and pay more for it done in a different way? Would that different way be more enjoyable for you? 

Do you see how Ikigai becomes a series of introspective questions and tests of whether or not we’re on the right path? Do you see how it becomes a filter of sorts for your business and what the market needs? If not, listen to this episode again, and again, and again. Until next week, my friends, I’m out…