Have you found your Ikigai (生き甲斐)?
The other day I was watching an oldie but goodie Ted talk titled How to live to be 100+ by Dan Buettner when I stumbled upon a Japanese concept: Ikigai (生き甲斐).
For those of us who don’t speak Japanese I looked up its meaning and according to Google Translate Ikigai is the ‘Salt of life’. Well, that got me intrigued! Further googling landed me on a Wikipedia article about Ikigai. According to Wikipedia Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being”. To quote the Wikipedia Entry:
Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one’s ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life.
On that Wikipedia entry there it was, one of the most beautiful Venn diagrams I have ever seen
Being an entrepreneur, a startup enthusiast, and someone who is always searching for a deeper meaning of life this resonated with me on so many levels.
Ikigai and Startups
I believe that for a startup to be successful the startup, and its founders, need to find their Ikigai. It’s that holy combination of loving something, being good at it, and that thing being something that the world needs, and will pay for. Land anywhere outside of the Ikigai zone and you are most likely to fail. If not in the short term, then in the long term.
I believe that many first time entrepreneurs (myself included) tend to get either into the ‘passion’ or ‘mission’ zone. In both of these zones you don’t get paid. You fail! Note that when we are talking about failure here we are not talking about absolute failure. It is your failure to build a sustainable and profitable business venture. The ‘mission’ zone is great for philanthropic ventures, and ‘passion’ can lead to many interesting hobbies and discoveries.
On the other hand, some get into the startup game for the money and end up in the ‘vocation’ zone or the ‘profession’ zone. Those entrepreneurs will make money, maybe lots of it, but they will not be satisfied in the long run.
An interesting mapping exercise: One of the interesting exercises that I am thinking of as I’m writing this is to map all existing unicorns, mid-sized, as well as early stage startups to see the relationship between Ikigai and long term success. (If anyone is interested in taking this over or collaborating on it, get in touch)
Ikigai and You
I have also been thinking about this same exact problem for a while now and talking to people about it (except that I didn’t know that my problem had a name: ‘Ikigai’ of course!). Some people don’t believe that Ikigai exists and instead they have their jobs (professions and vocations) and their side hobbies and causes (passions and missions). They seem to be living a pretty good life. Others (like me) feel that there is something wrong or missing and feel the need to align it all together in one big comprehensive super-mission.
Ikigai is not binary or singular
I’m not exactly the top Ikigai expert in the world but I believe that Ikigai not only exists but that it’s neither binary nor singular. It’s not that you have it or you don’t. Instead, I believe that you may have multiple Ikigais and with varying degrees and that these will change over time.
If you think about it, you are probably good at many things with varying degrees, you also like different things with varying degrees, people in this world pay a little or a lot depending on what they need and now bad they need it. You will also like new things and develop expertise as the time passes.
How to live to be 100+
In his talk, Dan was basically describing the difference between an American’s adult life and one that of an Okinawan (One of the regions with the highest number of centenarians on the planet). In America, we divided our adult life into 2 parts; The part of our life when we work and are productive and then the part where we retire and go to play golf. In Okinawa apparently there is no word for retirement. There is one word for your entire life… Ikigai .. The reason for which you wake up in the morning
Dan says:
For this 102 year old karate master…his ikigai was carrying fourth his martial arts
For this 100 year old fisherman it was continuing to catch fish for his family 3 times a week…..
… They instantly new why they woke up in the morning….
So have you found your Ikigai?
