Eric Siu goes on vacation and decides to make the best Japan travel vlog, delivering some amazing travel tips around Japan, where to visit in Tokyo and sharing his insights into how business works in Japan. Follow Eric's Tokyo business vacation vlog to hear Eric's marketing advice from Japan, the insights he learned about Japanese efficiency and how to make international business deals. Even when on vacation, there's always opportunities to learn and grow.
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Full Transcript of The Video
We are here at the Prince Gallery Hotel. I had a 12:00 AM flight. The plane that I got on was a BB-8, literally it was an [inaudible 00:00:18] plane, basically wrapped in a Star Wars BB-8, well, wrap. So basically, we flew over in a droid. So, I want to show you this hotel, 'cause I think this is one of the best hotels I've been in this year, so far. So, let's do a quick tour, really quick.
So here's the shower. Right look, it's see through. Right. Everyone likes see through. If you get emo, you can also sit in the chair over there, and then you can also get in the tub, too. And then, this is my favorite. Oh, look at that. Look at that, see, "Come poop in me," that's what it's saying. We can do room controls from here, too. So, let's try this out. So let's try ... What would happen if I pressed this? Oh. Lo and behold, look at this. Look at this tea set over here. This looks too good to be, like, not touching it. Yeah, maybe I will make some hot tea tomorrow. There's more. Look at this. See, this is overdoing it. Like, who's gonna use this?
Well, that's a nice shot. Look at that. So, yeah. I'm excited, and I'm gonna go out and explore.
Elevator voice: [inaudible 00:01:22] 36th floor.
Eric Siu: So you noticed that? I want to talk about Japanese efficiency today. That one girl wearing the face mask? That's just an example , right? Like, today in the morning, maybe like 50% of people were wearing face masks, and that's because everybody's sick. And so, it's not efficient or effective to get sick, right? They make sure that they take some preventative measures so they don't get other people sick, or they don't get sick, too. So, I think that's beautiful.
During rush hour, the subways are worse than anything I've ever seen. Like, much worse than New York. It's just funny how people squeeze in. Anyway, I'll get some examples of it, but I just love so far how efficient the city is. It's good for me. I love it.
I have no idea where the fuck I am.
I'm gonna give you another example of efficiency. It's a smoking area. That's how efficient they are. Instead of people throwing cigarettes everywhere. But you don't see a lot of trash on the ground.
See the cop behind me? Traffic guy? That's efficiency.
I have no idea where I am, but this looks nice.
So, I'm in this garden right now in the Meiji Shrine, and I thought I'd tell you a little story. So I'm in this group called Entrepreneurs' Organization, and it's worldwide. And I met up with two Japanese people yesterday. They've both been running their companies for a long time, we're talking one guy for like 23 years. Another guy for like 24 years or so? Yeah, one guy's like 52, the other guy's like 46, or so. One guy's company, he's got 400 employees, a company that's public. Other guy is doing really well, too. And they're just really well put together.
So, what I learned that's different from Americans, is that Americans tend to sell their businesses pretty quickly. They're looking for a quick exit, right? And I'm just talking about in general. But these guys just, I was like, "Why do you stick with this?" It's 'cause, one of the guys said, you know, "Japanese people, they don't really have, it's not easy for them to sell companies, so they just kind of stick with it." And it just gets bigger and bigger and starts to snowball.
What I also learned is, the older you get, the less sleep they get. We're talking like four hours. Used to sleep like seven, eight hours, now they're only sleeping four hours 'cause that's just how they are.
And, final thing I'll mention, so A, it's consistency, and then number two, when they're talking about their employees, they call them Japanese soldiers, 'cause they work really, really hard. I was like, "So, how often do your employees, I mean, what's the timetable for them?" And, "They work from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, right?" And he says, "The ones that are out from promotion, if they can't hang afterwards, like they'll go work, and they'll go drink afterwards. If they can't hang, they're not going to be up for the promotion, right?" And he's kind of like half joking, but you can tell he's kind of half serious, too.
So anyway, I think, you know, I talk about consistency all the time with podcasts, things like that. But running the same business for 20 plus years, that's pretty admirable, and just shows that, you stay consistent, you can make really big things then. Again, this guy has 400-plus employees, like 14-plus offices, and it's a publicly-traded company in Japan. So, yeah.
