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CONTENTS COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PRINCIPLES: BE PRINCIPLED PRINCIPLES: HUMANITY PRINCIPLES: EMPIRE PRINCIPLES: RELATIONSHIPS PRINCIPLES: RATIONALITY GROWING: YOU CAN DO AMAZING THINGS GROWING: FINISH THINGS GROWING: ACHIEVE GROWING: CHANGE ACTIONABLE ACTIONABLE: TRACKING ACTIONABLE: FUNDAMENTALS ACTIONABLE: DEALING WITH SHIT CLOSING IKIGAIBOOK.COM ABOUT THE AUTHOR COPYRIGHT IKIGAI Sebastian Marshall Kindle Edition Copyright 2011 by Sebastian Marshall Published by The One Week Book ALL RIGHTS RESERVED http://theoneweekbook.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The creation of this book was only possible due to guidance, inspiration, and assistance from many people. I am very grateful to everyone for their help, but I would like to thank a few in particular. Many thanks to Aaron Tucker, who shaped the overarching themes of the book and who fearlessly led the team and pushed the boundaries of the book's vision and publication. He was the heart and soul of the book, and this book exists due to his kick ass abilities. Aaron can be found at http://shugyoshayear.wordpress.com/. Many thanks to Kendall Giles for his editing and book production skills. He was a pleasure to work with, in it for the long haul, and executed in time frames that most people would consider impossible. Solid in every way, the book wouldn't have made it to the Kindle without him. Kendall can be found at http://kendallgiles.com. Many thanks to Sachit Gupta for his guidance on marketing and the core ideas of the book. If you heard about this book from anyone other than me, you probably have Sachit to thank. I'd like to thank test readers Louis Eastman and Curtis SerVass. The book wouldn’t be what it is without their feedback. Thank you to Yifei Zhang for the visionary book cover. His mind for aesthetics and art is incredible. Thank you to Matt Mazur, Matt Ramos, and Anna Salamon for letting me use their posts "Nine TimeTracking Tips," "Letting Go of Your Ego Enables You to Live Without Limits," and "Humans are not Automatically Strategic," respectively. They really helped tie key segments of the book together, and gave readers a nice perspective on some important points. Matt can be followed at http://30vanquish.com. Posts like "Humans are Not Automatically Strategic" can be found at http://www.lesswrong.com. Thank you to Brendon Bobzin for allowing me to use his post "Greatness and Humility." It really helped tie together the themes of the book. I understand that outside of their own posts, those who have written guest essays do not necessarily endorse the ideas expressed in this book. Finally, I'd like to thank James Pan for the website layout, design, and implementation. INTRODUCTION A cold urban desert landscape, the sun setting Shall it ever rise again? The nighttime, criss-crossed wires overhead, buzzing faintly with electricity That goes where? That does what? Why is the way not illuminated? What if the sun, then, Would not rise unless we lifted it? Took it upon our hands and backs Our palms and fingertips scorched for the effort Nighttime giving way to sunrise The way illuminated Burnt hands, sunburnt faces, eyes near blind from brilliance Throwing off the false gods with their faint passive buzz The sun was never supposed to set–let us lift it, accept a heroic scalding So all might bask in sunlight, oh too long has it been since the sun rose The Million Dollar Question A mix of confusion and awe as I step off the platform. I must have made a mistake. But maybe a good mistake. Birds caw and cicadas click gently, filling the warm afternoon air with sounds of nature. The train platform is open to the air and on the other side of the tracks is a high fence. Beyond it, a bicycle and walking path leading to a park. Children are running around and playing in the park, but surprisingly quietly. Very Japanese. Where am I? "Su mi ma sen… Kasukabe… doko… wakaru des ka?" The girl looked at the board of times, and pointed the opposite direction I came from. I had taken the wrong train and happened to step off in the middle of a quite rural station. It's early afternoon, but the light is low since it's cloudy. It feels like a sleepy evening and the air is heavy with condensation. The train I'm supposed to take arrives, but I let it pass. I'll sit a while. There's a vending machine. I get a "Georgia Black Iced Coffee" for 120 yen. It's exceptional. People drift back and forth across the foot path. Little kids, families, older people. It's so simple out here. Everyone looks happy. An old woman, maybe 70 years old, passes by on a bicycle. The basket on her handle bars is almost overflowing with something in white plastic bags. Time passes. Another train arrives. Leaves. The old woman is riding back in the other direction, her basket empty. I wonder where she dropped the things off at. Perhaps her daughter's house? Maybe it was some food and vegetables, and she dropped it off at her daughter's a kilometer away, tussled one of her grandkids' hair, and then bicycled back to her home. A family passes. Father, mother, pre-teen daughter, six-year old son. The father is a little goofy in a likable way. He swings his arms broadly as he walks and his son is giggling. Dad stops swinging his arms, takes out a cigarette, lights it, takes a drag. Starts swinging his arms again, cigarette in hand. Then they're gone. Another train comes, leaves. I'm still here. A big group of kids, all with full bags of gear. Tennis? Camping? I can't tell. Some athletics or outdoor recreation type stuff. There's like 15 kids, maybe 9 boys and 6 girls. They wind along the path and are gone. The cawing bird has stopped and gone away, but now a little tiny bird is chirping. The cicadas keep rubbing their wings together. A second iced coffee. Another train arrives. Leaves. I'm still here. A pretty girl, maybe 23 years old. She's not beautiful, but she could be: she's a just little bit too self-conscious. She's wearing a summer dress that's a size too big, her hair is a little messy. But she's pretty and she's smiling and seems like a nice person. Without knowing anything at all about her, I guess she'll get married sometime in the next two years and be a very good wife for someone. Apparently this area is a major rest stop for train conductors. I see many of them walking around, getting on and off the train periodically. Or some sort of officials, anyways, with hats and white gloves. Probably train-related, I guess. Maybe a lot of them live out here. It does seem like a nice area to live. I think, this is what I'm giving up. I don't get to have this. It's nice to have it right in front of me, fully on display. This is idyllic suburban life. The people who live here commute to their jobs in Chiba or Tokyo and come home to this at night. Parks, trails, birds, cicadas. People here can broadly understand each other. Everyone's a little different, but most people aren't that different. The people who live here probably have broadly shared values, their kids get educated in broadly the same way, they eat broadly the same sorts of food, and do broadly the same sorts of things. They put in long hours at work, but have lots of stability. The jobs tend to be repetitive after the initial learning curve, and the days blend into each other. Wake early, walk through the clean country air to the station, ride to work, work blends together into long hours, come home and have a late dinner with the wife. Play with the kids if they're still awake, check in on them in their bedroom if they're asleep. Do picnics or go to a family restaurant or go to the movies on the weekend. Go to Tokyo Disney once a year. Everyone here probably has 95% of their life make perfect sense to their neighbors. An eccentric hobby would be making your own fruit jam or woodcarving or having a home gym. And those aren't so eccentric … even the things that are unique about people here, their neighbors can understand. And they get along well and are happy and at peace. Another train arrives. Leaves. I'm going to stay here for a while and think. I'll get a third coffee in a little bit. Last night I was working with a friend of mine on a campaign to get him $1,000/hour rates in his profession, about 10x what he's making now. He's the most talented guy I know in his field, incredibly knowledgeable, empathetic, good at his job. We're looking at people who his work would have a major leveraged impact on and at the kind of people currently making those $1,000/hour rates, how they market and what credentials they have, and how my friend can systematically build those credentials and marketing channels. I quit video games a while back. I try to build things now, that's my video game. I like trying to make money for other people. Scratch that, I don't like the trying, I like the doing of it. I like making other people money … I think I enjoy it even more than making myself money, because I can stay distant from it. Buddhism encourages the center path–neither wanting nor aversion. Most people think Buddhism is about no desires, but they're kind of mistaken. It's about being very neutral about getting, but also about staying away from. It's easy for me to walk the center path with other people's objectives, very calm. Neither wanting nor aversion. Everyone I meet and get along with, I try to make their lives a bit better somehow. Money tends to help, if a person is already running a business I can probably figure out a way for them to increase their volume or margins. I've got quite a bit of experience at it at this point. Established businesspeople tend to take my counsel. I get paid pretty well. But I also try to do it for free all the time. I want everyone who connects with me to be better off. You know what's strange?
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