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| | • | Although most women are attracted to entrepreneurship for positive reasons, the past 20 years have seen a rise in such motives as frustration with work environments, the desire for greater challenges and more flexibility. | | | • | In countries such as Australia, Canada, Thailand and the United States, over 30% of all businesses are now owned or operated by women, with Thailand topping the list at almost 40%. | |
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I was a TV anchor in Japan for four and a half years before I went to business school.
I had just graduated from college, where I had studied economics, and had never thought of working in the media industry until someone suggested that I would be a good anchor and should apply for a job with a TV network. I myself didn’t think so; I had always been nervous about speaking in front of large groups of people and I didn’t like attention too much. However, what drove me to apply for this job was the thought that I should not shy away from things I am not good at. Otherwise, I would never develop. The people who interviewed me knew I didn’t have any experience or training as a presenter, but they must have thought I had potential (at which I thought they must be crazy!) because they hired me…
In Japan, the networks usually want an anchor to be an all around player and to be exposed to different kind of viewers which means that you get moved around different programs. As for me, I did morning shows, baseball news, variety shows, as well as news shows. I even did skits with comedians on the variety shows. There was one show in particular that was similar to Saturday Night Live where they have a regular cast and then bring on guests. One portion of the show was a fake news segment where every week I played my role as the news anchor delivering fake news. It was supposed to be ridiculous because I was a TV anchor in real life too.
When I was first appointed to cover baseball news I knew nothing about baseball; I didn’t know the rules and I didn’t really know the game. Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan so when they gave me a rule book I started going to the baseball fields, watching the players and trying to learn the game. At the same time I felt that my role wasn’t to be an expert on the game of baseball, so instead I would try to focus on bringing out interesting things about the players during my news segments. I would try to get them to show more of themselves on camera. I wanted the viewers to feel close to them as people, so I tried to bring out other aspects of their personalities.
Being in the spotlight as a TV presenter, I sometimes felt constrained from enjoying a private life. In Japan, a woman’s role is still regarded conservatively. As a woman anchor I had to deal with viewers’ expectations that I be a “pure good woman” who would likely to become a good mother and a good wife. I couldn’t imagine going to a nightclub at that time, because I was afraid that kind of demeanor would lead to the type of bad image which I am sure my company would have not liked.
While being a TV anchor was a lot of fun – every day I met different people who were specialists in their own fields, and that was very stimulating – I felt I was deprived of any focus and felt this was not a career I could build upon. Being in the media industry as a young TV anchor was more about popularity than about being an expert in a certain field, and that wasn’t fulfilling for me any longer. I wanted to find my own focus, to find something I was good at, very good at. I wanted to make my own life.
I decided to go back to business school, which was a scary decision to make. I was leaving behind a successful career for something unknown, but at the same time, I was ready for a challenge; I think that’s just a part of my personality. For instance with TV anchoring, at first I didn’t think I could do it, but I was willing to give it a try and it ended up working out well. I believe that any person could succeed, if only they take a risk and put themselves in a certain environment where you cannot give up. You just have to do it because there are people out there who believe in you and you just want to prove them right. Because this was a big step for me, I just had to succeed and make it work so that I could meet my own expectations and the expectations of others.
When I had just graduated from college I had originally planned to go into finance, I never thought I would join the media industry. I thought that finance was something that would help me to understand how the world really works. I know that there are many important things in life and that money isn’t necessarily the most important thing, but at the same time I do believe that economics are really fundamental to how the world works, and I wanted to understand that better.
Going back to school again after working for four years in the media industry was a challenge; when I started business school there was so much I didn’t know. For my first assignment at business school I was asked to put together a Power Point presentation. Well, I didn’t know what Power Point was. I had to ask someone what it was and whether it was on my computer! I did not have to know any computer skills when I was a TV anchor. Being in a business school was so much more of a challenge for me than for the rest of my classmates. But I enjoyed pushing myself, striving to meet my own expectations. And I think I was very lucky to have classmates who were collaborative and supportive to help me with what I did not know.
Now I work at a world’s largest mutual fund as a property analyst. Sometimes it scares me because I realize that billions of dollars move because of each analyst’s recommendation working at a company like this that invests 1% of the world’s GDP. Although a property analyst of Japan is not a job of fame like being a TV anchor, I feel that the impact I have is no smaller than I once had if not bigger. An analyst in my firm takes the total ownership in his or her coverage. I also receive calls from global fund managers in London and Boston as well as Tokyo, asking me on my investment thesis on Japanese real estate companies and REIT. It is really thrilling to be able to persuade people with my own data, analysis and opinion, which I take the sole responsibility of.
Just before joining the firm, I founded a fashion company in LA with a classmate from business school. I am currently an investor as well as a director for that company and leave all the operational side of that business to my best friend in Tokyo who left a big fashion company to be the representative of Japan for us. I’m so grateful that she was willing to do that with me. And since I know that it must have been a big challenge and risk for her too, I feel responsible in making her life happy with this company. I think that the responsibility I have on her is as big as the billions of dollars that moves at my work.
I’m more anonymous now; and who knows whether I will always want to remain that way but I feel very comfortable where I am right now. I feel more like myself. | |  | FLAG THIS STORY FOR REVIEW | |
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