I met Masato Izumi after a two hour “Money Cultivation” seminar at the Financial Academy.  The woman I sat next to at the seminar explained to me that he owned fifteen buildings in Tokyo and was a multimillionaire.  As she explained this, I noticed how relaxed he was.  (Is he relaxed because he is rich or is he rich because he’s relaxed?)  He seemed like a nice guy and like I mentioned in my previous post, he encouraged me to read his book as a way of learning Japanese.

I’ve ditched the other Japanese book I read and am having a good time so far with this one.  It’s slow going.  This time I’m using my Japanese apps to look up vocabulary along the way.  (Until it’s not fun any more.)

What I like is his story.  (or what I understand of it.)  Izumi describes himself as a bad student during his high school days.   Against his family’s desire that he study to enter a good university,  Izumi-san decided that he wanted to be a hair stylist.  In Japan, apparently becoming a hair stylist is a long process.   After graduating from beauty school, prospective hairstylists start by a long period of sweeping up around the shop, then moving on to shampooing hair, etc.

Izumi-san barely scraped by on his salary of $1,300 a month.  In Tokyo, that amount doesn’t go far and he describes how economized by keeping the bathroom door open instead of buying another light bulb and spending more on electricity.

However, his life was changed by meeting the owner of the shop, a fashionable and friendly man who schooled Izumi san on the importance of learning about money, the economy, and investing in your self.

Like I’ve said before, it’s slow but fun going so let’s take a quick peek at the selected items of the table of contents to see where this puppy is going:

• Hoshisan (his hairdressing mentor) talks about the importance of developing curiousity
• If you don’t change your self, you can’t change anything
• Find your path!
• Begin with what you can do
• The two steps to sales
• Think of the reasons you CAN do it
• Think, “I want to change the areas where I lack knowledge of money”
• Listen to the stories of successful people
• the difference between “Return” and “Risk” oriented people
• How to save for investments
• First, invest in your self
• Thinking in terms of Return On Investment (ROI)
• Let’s learn from your job (or make learning your job)?
• Look for reasons you can do it!
• How to be prepared to take advantage of chances
• Leverage your wisdom, time, and money
• Know the risks
• Control your feelings and your money

Am I any richer in the week since I received this book?   Well, I have probably logged in eight or nine hours “studying” the book and learning Japanese without being bored out of my friggin’ Samurai mind.  Just trying to leverage my knowledge, time and money.  Pretty good Return on Investment for a $20 course.  Know what I mean, Vern?