It’s been three years since a huge M7 earth quake devastated Kumamoto, the southern part of Japan in 2016. Kumamoto has been hit by heavy stormy rain quite recently as well. This reminded me of this story.

This is the story of a local company president who suffered and survived a series of passions.  I call him Job in Kumamoto. His name was Mr. Kuwahara, the president of local sea food restaurant and an antique style banquet hall, Mokkoku. http://mokkokutei.com/gallery.html

Q: Who is Job and what did he do?

A: From the Old Testament, Job was a good and honest guy but had to be tested by Satan if his virtuous spirits would never change or not, even under terribly harsh environment.

He had had a series of misfortunes: losing his possessions including children, losing his wife, and suffered from a terrible disease. From my interpretation, he never complained God and had always been patient. At the end, God was pleased with Job’s patience and blessed him.

Q: What had happened to Mr. Kuwahara?

A: Various misfortunes, for instance

1) Just after the start up, his first restaurant passed a very difficult time and was about to bankrupt due to the shortage of work in capital.

>>> The chief chef of his restaurant arranged finance backed his own residence as a corrateral.

This was a great help of his business growth and Kuwahara’s company recorded a dramatic earning growth, profit margin grew from 1.2% to 13.2% over 6 years.

2) New start up bridal business went underperformance.

>>> Competitor offered a favorable M&A of this department. Kuwahara made that spin-off  without any bleeding. His company recovered in terms of financial status, got far healthier than it was before.

3) Kumamoto earthquake 2016

Kuwahara’s restaurant and dining facilities were in the community next to the epicenter. His company was totally damaged and recorded loss of more than 300 mil JPY.

>> He released retained earnings that he was encouraged to accumulate by Mr. Inamori.

4) Delayed recovery after the earthquake

There were a few building engineers who could do the repair and maintenance work of Japanese architecture. Kuwahara, together with his restaurant cheffs, had been repairing by themselves the roof tops.

>>> Skillful carpenters among his network heard Kuwahara’s situation and kindly provided a maximum support. Restaurant void period was reduced to as short as possible.

5) Tumor was found in Kuwahara’s body, he had to take long lasting operation.

>>> Fortunately, the operation went well and he can stand and walk with his own feet. No recurrence has been found so far.

Q: What was the key for Mr. Kuwahara to survive and perceiver all the difficulties?

A: Remaining good, honest and sincere person. He never complained his fate. At first he thought how come such terrible thing happened to me…, as a human nature, he thought like that. Soon he could change his mind and believed in the recovery. “All right, we can cope with this as we have done so far…”

The same as Job did, he never complained God, never cursed his destiny.

Q: What are the lessons learned from this story?

A: The most important thing in your business operation as well as in your life is being a person like him. “ Think always positive, and pursue your dream honestly with open-mind ”

For those who are interested in this guy, please try to come to Japan, visit Kumamoto and stay there at Mokkoku. That would be the best support for him.

Should you have queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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