Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (6-a): 日本の大企業に就職。グローバルリーダーとしての第一歩！

Chapter #6: BECOMING AN EMPLOYEE OF A LARGE JAPANESE CORPORATION

日本企業の社員としての生活が始まります。さて、入社までの経緯は？

One of the English students I had was my next-door neighbor’s daughter. The father was to top executive in Isuzu Motors Limited. That was one of the major truck manufacturers in the country. It was one of the three oldest automotive companies in the country along with Toyota and Nissan. During and after World War II, Isuzu decided to devote most of its strength in building and marketing trucks instead of passenger cars, which Toyota and Nissan did. All three produced both cars and trucks, but Isuzu put most of its effort into trucks. The truck industry is very cyclical and is affected by economic shifts, and Isuzu suffered greatly during periods of recession. In order to survive, it had to sell off one of its plants (later to become Hino Motors) and affiliated several times with other manufacturers through product cross badging. Nothing seemed to work until in 1971 General Motors (GM) bought 34% of the company.


The family to got me into Isuzu Motors

With the very different corporate cultures and approaches to business between GM and Isuzu, there were always areas of friction and pro-GM/anti-GM camps within Isuzu Motors. The pro-GM camp was basically saying that Isuzu could not survive without GM, and to prosper, Isuzu needed all the help it could get from GM including management support. The anti-GM camp was saying that Isuzu and GM are equal partners with different strengths and GM need not participate within Isuzu’s management at all. Interestingly, I didn’t know it at the time, but the person that brought me into the company was more in the anti-GM camp. His feeling is that he could build Isuzu into an international organization without GM’s help. Anyway, he was my gateway into the company.

グローバルリーダーとしての第一歩を踏み出しました。

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜仕事に疲れたら『武蔵野』でコトリップ（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (5-ｇ): 伴侶と出会う

先週の定例会の二次会。スコッチをすこっちだけ。



さて、この章の最後はRon-sanと奥様の出会いのシーン。

When in graduate school I met my wife Taeko. She was working at the time and had no connection with the school, but I just loved her personality. It was, and still is, very light and happy. She was the perfect match for a serious worrywart like me.

Coming to Japan, studying the language, getting to know the way the Japanese lived and attending graduate school in international business all contributed toward my dream of contributing to the world through working in the international community. A pathway to my goals of global interaction and understanding was starting to become clearer.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜仕事に疲れたら『武蔵野』でコトリップ（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (5-f): 上智大学大学院にて

昨日、Ron-sanと調布で定例会。今回は調布に最近、引っ越してきたLeadership Trainingが専門のR氏が参加。ブログデビューはもう少し後で。

As the school was graduate school, many of the students were well into their careers and worked full-time. Therefore, most of the classes were in the evenings. After our classes we would quite often go out for a couple of beers with one of the professors, Professor Hirono from Seikei University. He even published one of my papers in his school’s economic journal. It was on the development of Malaysia, and I was very proud of that 50-page paper. At the time, I had no idea that I would be traveling to the countries repeatedly once I got into my career.

Other people from those beer parties that I still maintain contact with today are Petra Fujiwara and Wayne Toyomura. Petra eventually went back to Germany, her native country and spent many years working for Canon of Germany as their PR Manager. At the time of this writing she’s working for Fuji-Film in Duesseldorf. She married a Japanese guy who lived a great deal of his life in Germany. Wayne was from Hawaii and eventually moved back there.

Both Petra and Wayne are excellent in Japanese and started learning the language about the way I did, but both of them were more serious about it than I was, particularly on the writing side. They have very great depth in the language. I’m more a talker and negotiator.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜Webで読めるのに何故「本」を買うのか。本ならではの手触り、漫画と思えない装丁、なりより著者へのリスペクト。（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (5-d): Ron、赤羽へ。地味だなぁ！

Graduate school in Tokyo

大学院に進学するために東京に引っ越し。以前悔しい思いをしたバンクオブアメリカの入社条件を満たすべく・・・・・
While in Utsunomiya, I learned of an international graduate business school in English in Tokyo and decided to apply. I think my entrance exam scores were one of the poorest on record, but because they needed students, I was accepted. It was a 3-year MA degree in International Business. So, I was back to school again. If I could get this degree, I will have achieved what was recommended to me in the Bank of America job interview many years earlier to learn a second language and earn a graduate degree to get into international business. I thought that would be my ticket into international business.

渋い赤羽に住む。
I got an apartment in Akabane, which is just on the northern tip of Tokyo. That would give me good access to the school as well as enable me to get to Utsunomiya to teach on the weekends.

銭湯通い。近所のちょっとした有名人に。
I got a 2-room apartment, which had no bath. So, I had to use the local Japanese public bath, the “Sento”. Although in recent years they have become rare, public baths were very common, as some houses had no baths. In the evening, a person would take a wash pot, towel, soap, shampoo, change of clothes and go to the public bath. In those days, it cost about 155 yen (about US$1.00 or so) to enter. There were two baths, one for women and one for men. Between the two baths was a wall about eight feet high and a door between the two with a curtain, so you could not see into the other bath. Whole families would go to the bath at once and grandma and grandpa would bath their grandchildren respectively. The younger kids (up to about 5-6) would run between the two baths. The bath really generated a community spirit, as you could talk to the person washing next to you about how your day went, etc. I became famous in Iwabuchi-machi, Akabane, Tokyo very quickly, being a guy from California who could communicate in Japanese. The locals had a lot of questions about me, and I about them. The bath was open from 3:00 PM in the afternoon until mid-night, and I could easily be spotted with my pot on the way to the bath.

Also, I often would telephone a take-out restaurant a block or so away, and did my laundry at the coin laundry right next to the bathhouse. So, I was very visible in the neighborhood. I was there for three years and built a nice community for myself. It is often said that Tokyo is not a large city. It is simply thousands of small villages all packed together. If fully understood what they were referring to. Everything evolved around the bathhouse, coin laundry and a few restaurants or bars. Also, the summer festivals and portable shine celebrations were wonderful and further added to the spirit of the community.


Festivals in Iwabuchi-machi

I decided to try to maintain the working visa by working for an English teaching company full-time and go to school part-time. Then, I could ease my way into the studies without much stress. The company that I worked for sent me to companies all over the Tokyo area to teach their employees English.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜Webで読めるのに何故「本」を買うのか。本ならではの手触り、漫画と思えない装丁、なりより著者へのリスペクト。（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (5-ｃ): Ron、東京へ！

神風？

An interesting thing I learned after I left Utsunomiya and that English school that I work at was the school’s outcome. The owner of the school was a kamikaze pilot during World War II. He went through all the training required including how to fly and had a first rate pilot’s license. He was lined up to fly on his fateful mission when the war ended. He would always sing his war fight songs at parties we had together. We would all clap and applaud him, but we all thought he was a bit crazy. That included many of the Japanese teachers and general people we met in the city. But, I would guess in a conservative, industrial city like Utsunomiya, there were people who respected him and trusted him.


The Kamikaze employer singing war songs

We all knew the company was not financially healthy, and we were paid in very strange ways. For example, sometimes we were paid two weeks earlier to show costs to creditors, or a week late because of lack of funds. Anyway, after I left the school, it was discovered the owner was borrowing money from banks, which were secured by deeds of property that were forged. I don’t know the finally outcome, only the rumors.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜Webで読めるのに何故「本」を買うのか。本ならではの手触り、漫画と思えない装丁、なりより著者へのリスペクト。（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (5-ｂ): Ron、栃木県宇都宮で生活

先日、新宿歌舞伎町で新年会。10時半頃に解散し新宿駅へと家路を急ぐと逆に歌舞伎町方面に向かう沢山の外国人。

これから繰り出すんですか。外国人観光客受け入れの効果絶大ですね。

さて、Ron-sanの宇都宮での生活、どうだったのでしょうか。和式トイレには困ったようでしたが。

During that first year in Utsunomiya, I had a chance to live with a Japanese family and lived exactly the way they did. That was one of three or four times over the years in Japan that I felt great exhaustion with speaking the language continually all the time. It was so mentally difficult that I had trouble sleeping and walked around in a daze on occasions. Quite frankly, with the language problems back then, with the cold weather, with the living conditions, the income, and the working environment, if all my years in Japan were like that first year in Utsunomiya, I would have left the country eventually.


Early days in Utsunomiya

One thing wonderful about my stay in Utsunomiya was that I found a family that I became very close to, the Iwamoto’s. I taught the wife English, as her daughter was studying music in Denmark and was to marry a Danish man. The wife was a medical doctor, and the husband ran a preschool kindergarten. When I met them, the wife was in her late 60’s, and her husband was in his late 70’s.


The Iwamoto family

The wife enjoyed our English lessons so much that when I moved to Tokyo, I deliberately got a place to stay in the northern part of the city, so I could continue to go to Utsunomiya every week for her lessons. Also, to make it worth my while, she set up several lessons for me in Utsunomiya, so it would be more worth the travel. In those days, it took over an hour and a half to get there.

I would go up late on Friday nights and give several lessons that evening. I would spend the night and give a few more lessons on Saturday morning. In those days, trains leaving Tokyo in the evening on Friday nights were quite often filled with drunks that want to speak to a foreigner. I made it a habit to simply act like I can’t understand a word they are saying, and they would eventually leave me alone.

このご家族とはまだお付き合いがあるとのこと。また、上記の幼稚園は英語も教える幼稚園として我が町調布にも事業展開。不思議なご縁ですね。

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。正月明けくらいからぼちぼち。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜新しい仕事が始まり、ストレスたっぷり状態！気分転換に漫画『武蔵野』を読んだ。安倍公房の小説『砂の女』『燃え尽きた地図』の読後感のような不思議な気分。大人の漫画だ（『武蔵野』リイド社、斎藤潤一郎著）＞

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-ｈ): 日本語学習そして米国東海岸の旅

ニクソン大統領の中国電撃訪問以降、中国語学習は人気に。一方、日本語は・・・・

Who says education is expensive! If you want the knowledge, and not the degree, it can be very close to free. In those days, the popular language was Chinese, as President Nixon just opened diplomatic relations with China. The Chinese classes were packed while the Japanese classes couldn’t gather 10 students. Even though I was not even enrolled in the school, the teachers allowed me to sit in the class as I mentioned, do the drills in class and use the language lab anytime I liked! They were very kind to me. It was all free, was a very productive time in my life and gave me what was to be one of the most powerful skills I have used throughout my career, speaking and using Japanese every day. When I hit Japan, I was off and running.

One month before coming to Japan, I decided to stop studying Japanese and to travel the East Coast of the US, starting in Boston where my aunt lived. Boston is an extremely historic city, and I very much enjoyed seeing the city. Unfortunately, that was in February, so I felt cold temperatures that I had never experienced before. From Boston, I went by bus all the way to Miami where another aunt lived. Those two aunts I had only seen once or twice my whole life with the distance between California and the East Coast. Days after I returned to San Francisco I sold my car, gave my golf clubs away and took off for Japan.

この続き（いよいよ日本上陸）は、来年！！

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜新しい仕事が始まり、ストレスたっぷり状態！気分転換に漫画『武蔵野』を読んだ。阿部公房の小説『砂の女』『燃え尽きた地図』の読後感のような不思議な気分。大人の漫画だ＞

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-g): 突然レイオフされてしまうが・・・・・

Ron-sanが日本の映画を見に行っていたNIHON MACHI。

我々駐在員はジャパンタウンと呼び日本領事館を尋ねていくこともありました。

懐かしい。日本料理店や都ホテルもありましたね。

さて、そのRon-san、レイオフされていまいますが。・・・・・・・



Then, one day the boss came to me and said I was laid off! I know the company was not that healthy, and the competition was far superior in just about every way. It was simply living on old customers that the original company founder, Mr. Goss had built up over the years before he died.

So, I was out of a job and started living on unemployment insurance (which was only for six months) and the money I received from the Army Reserves.

For my Army Reserve duties, I had to report to one of their facilities on a weekend (Saturday and Sunday) once a month. Also, every summer, I had to report to a large military base for additional training. In order to visit my mother in Sacramento more regularly, I changed Army Reserve units in San Jose to one in Sacramento. Then, I would go to Sacramento once a month to attend the weekend meetings. On one occasion my mother introduced me to a man who just came back from Japan. He was on a 1-year English teaching assignment and was looking for a replacement, but the job would not be available for six months. That was perfect, as my 6-year term in Army Reserves was to end about at that time. So, there was my chance to get to Japan. I took the assignment and decided to devote all of my time to study Japanese while I was receiving unemployment insurance money.

Being laid off was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I got full unemployment insurance and studied full time. As I was learning for personal growth only, I decided to go to the nearest university with a Japanese class and simply sit in the class. I paid nothing to sit in the class as the school administration didn’t know I existed, and the teachers didn’t care if I sat in the classes.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



＜新しい仕事が始まり、ストレスたっぷり状態！気分転換に漫画『武蔵野』を読んだ。阿部公房の小説『砂の女』『燃え尽きた地図』の読後感のような不思議な気分。大人の漫画だ＞

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-f): サンフランシスコとジャパン・タウン

I enjoyed working in that factory, as my mind was free to study right on the job while I produced the products in the factory. I also loved living in San Francisco. It is such a beautiful city. To go to work every day, I decided to stop driving and start taking the bus. It took far longer and made many stops before getting to my destination, but just going through the city, up and down the hills in the city was always enjoyable to me. At the top of many of those hills you could see both the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, as well much of the San Francisco Bay.

Years later, I took my jogging group to San Francisco, and we walked around in the city. Not too many people know this, but the movie “Towering Inferno” with Paul Newman was filmed in San Francisco. The scenes of the opening ceremonies and going into the building was in front of the Bank of America building where my father worked. Also, the elevators in the Hyatt Regency Hotel are the design of the ones used in the movies.

After work, Olin and I would often go to a restaurant owned by a Greek couple (above) who had only been living in the United States for five years or so. We had wonderful talks over dinner.

Life at that time was doing my factory work, studying Japanese in the evenings, going to Japanese movies in Nihon Machi at least once a week and going to my Army Reserve meetings.



Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-e): 恨み言を言ってもしょうがない！！

As I was only getting income from that part-time work and the Army Reserves, my bank account was shrinking, and I needed more income, so I took a factory job over in San Francisco working in a putty and caulking compound manufacturer, called Goss & Goss (below). There were only four employees, an 80-year-old lady who owned the company who did the accounting, a general manager and two factory workers, of which I was one factory worker.



The other factory worker, Olin Cossairt, was in his early 60s and about to retire. We were together during the workday, and he was like a father figure to me. I’d been in contact with him ever since that time, and he even attended my wedding in Sacramento many years latter.

Olin and I would always have lunch together, and he said something to me that changed my thinking about life. In those days, I was not particularly happy with the way my life was going, and I was always complaining about my father leaving us when I was a very, very young child. Olin said to me that him leaving might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. My father being at home might have been much worse. The more I thought about that, the more I think he was right, as I probably wouldn’t be that much more happy living with my father.

Also, after further thought about it, the more I realized that my father was not all that bad. He never shamed us, beat us or was abusive to us. Other children had gone through far worse situations than I did. Therefore, I stopped complaining and started appreciating the health, opportunities and good fortune that I did have. That concept really helped me when I started giving sales seminars, as sales people are often complaining about one thing or another. This prevents them seeing the good fortune and opportunities that they do have.





Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-d): ロンさん、ローン返済完了！！

学費の高いアメリカの大学。ローンを組んで学費を賄う学生も多く、卒業時には借金が1000万円を超える人も珍しくはないそうです。

ロンさんの学生時代、学費は今よりも安かったとはいえ、親からのサポートを期待できなかったため、やはりローンを組んでいたそうです。

それをバイトで早々に返済。スッキリ！ウールワースや軍隊での仕事などなど様々な経験がその後のキャリア形成に大いに役立ったようです。

As Japanese is not an easy language, people really appreciated my effort, particularly the Japanese people who were poor English speakers. They regularly gave me encouragement while my average American friends and my own family thought I was crazy.

With working at Woolworth’s 48 hours a week, the Army Reserves and Japanese, I found it all a bit much. Importantly though, I wiped out all the college debts and was single at the time, so I decided to quit working for Woolworth’s and moved up to Oakland.

Sam Fisk, whom I lived with in the Roger Williams house in San Jose while at San Jose State, was living in Oakland and going to school in San Francisco. His house there had a spare room I could rent. So, off I went. Interesting, Sam was going to graduate school at San Francisco State University, and just when he graduated, he went to Hawaii to work. That was 1-2 years before I moved to Japan. The year after I moved to Japan, my mother visited me in Japan, and on the way back to California, she stayed with Sam in Hawaii for several months. After that, she bought her own condominium in Hawaii and stayed there for 13 years before moving back to California. I visited Sam in Hawaii many times over the years while seeing my mother.

In Oakland, I set up my language classes over in San Francisco and worked part-time for another person who lived in the house. He had his own business selling computer data input services. Basically, it was asking companies if they needed help getting various data into their computers. He hired ladies to punch in the data and took a commission on the services he could sell to companies. I did that direct selling for him too. I learned I enjoyed outside selling even though I did it for only around four-months. I only brought in one account, Macy Department Store in San Francisco. That experience would help me years later when I had to write a sales training program.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-ｃ): 日本語学習を開始

1970年代前半、やはり日本は目立つ存在だったのでしょう。

After boot camp, I returned to my reserve unit as a company clerk, which angered the commander. So, I was assigned to drill sergeant school for two years. Believe it or not, by going through drill sergeant school and being a drill sergeant for about two and a half years, I learned how to teach. I didn’t like the subject-matter, and I was not a very good drill sergeant, but I did learn some things, particularly how to stand up in front of a group and teach as I mentioned.

In those days, my life was managing the store at FW Woolworth’s and going to Army Reserve meetings. I noticed at that time I still had a great desire to get into international business in any way I could. I always found myself in the stockroom reading the origins of the merchandise Woolworth’s was bringing in from Asia, particularly Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Business with China had not started in those days. That came years later. I was continuing to read business magazines and what the United States was importing and exporting worldwide. With the huge figures of products imported from Japan particularly to California, I decided to start studying Japanese. I was around 26 years old at that time.

I signed up for an adult education Japanese class right in San Jose. That was an interesting experience, because here I was in a class mostly of third and fourth generation Americans of Japanese descent who wanted (or were pressured by their direct parents) to learn the language to be able to talk to relatives back in Japan. They all kind of wondered why I was putting myself through so much pain to learn that extremely difficult language. In those days, I too found the language extremely difficult.

But a Chinese guy, Kwang Peng (above) encouraged me very much. He told me to just sit in the class and try to follow the lessons as best you can. He originally came from mainland China and then Taiwan. He comes from a highly educated family. I met him long after he had finished graduate school in advanced engineering. As I was not doing it for anyone except myself, I decided to flunk myself two times in the entry level Japanese class. I finally got an understanding of the material after the third time around in the beginning class. Classes after that became much easier for me.



Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話、特に何故日本に来る決断をしたのか、などを聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-b): グローバルリーダーに求められるモノは。

Although I was not particularly close to him my father, having worked for Bank of America for many years, set up appointments for job interviews throughout the bank in San Francisco. In one of those interviews the interviewer was so mean to me. He kept repeating that I do not nearly have the background to qualify for the type of position I was looking for. He said I would at least need a masters’ degree and a second language or specialty in a given country or region to even be slightly considered. So, I was destroyed by that interview, but it motivated me, and now I have both a master’s degree and a second language. I went back to San Jose to my rooming house completely dejected.

After some deliberation, I decided to take the first management job I could find as business management was my major at San Jose State, and for the time being I had to forget about all this international stuff and pay off student debt.

In San Jose, F.W. Woolworth’s needed store managers, and I was employed as a store manager trainee.

I started out in the stockroom checking in merchandise and putting them into stock or taking them to the showroom floor. I learned how to receive goods, compare them with purchase orders, and stock them in the most ideal location and how to monitor inventory control.

From there, I moved to the store sales floor. At that time, I was promoted to assistant store manager, and I managed half the store sales floor and another assistant manager had the other half. I learned on the sales floor how to keep the merchandise out on display and meet customers.

Several things I learned at Woolworth’s. One is that I enjoyed working with the public and interacting with a lot of different people. I also learned I had a knack with managing people particularly women for some reason. I guess it is because I grew up with women, my mother and sister. The more I learned, the better manager I became and the more respect I commanded in the store, in some cases more than the store manager himself. The store manager was not particularly easy to work for, so the assistant managers who covered the other half of the store kept quitting. Therefore, for most of my time there, I had to manage both the front and rear of the store. I had over 30 people I had to manage. That was very exhausting from me.

During those years, I was still in the Army Reserves. Therefore, I was not only learning management skills at Woolworth’s, I was learning how to teach and train people in front of a group in the Reserves as well. Right in boot camp the management and motivational techniques I learned in the US military were powerful. Their management was connected to competition among Army squads and building group pride. My company had three platoons with four squads each. One squad had about seven people, and I was a squad leader. I learned that a leader has to participate just as much as the rest of the quad, he cannot sit back and let everyone else do all the work, as respect will be lost. That is something that has held true in every company I managed in. Our squads would continually compete against each other in a wide range of very detailed activities and each platoon generated its own pride. With those techniques, we were all highly motivated even though none of us wanted to be there! About 90% of that company was reservist trying to stay out of the Vietnam War and just go home.



Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話なども聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



<ご興味のある地域を選んでいただた上で、出張報告をさせていただきます＞

UPDATED - Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-a): ヨーロッパ旅行から帰国して。日本へと向かう心。

Ron-sanが第4章を更新しましたので、改めて第4章の頭から掲載します。

ヨーロッパから帰国したロンさん、心の中にあの映画と歌が・・・・・

Coming back from Europe I knew I wanted to get into the international business community in some capacity.
I sent out resumes to every American multinational corporation I could think of from international carriers to corporations with investments and partners worldwide.

I think that was the time when I started thinking about coming to Japan seriously.
Although my main reason from coming to Japan was to try to do business between Japan and the United States,
I was interested in Asia in general and Japan in particular when I was in high school.
That was the first time I start to learn how to use chop sticks. Also, I learned how to use an abacus around that time.

In my early years in high school, I saw the movie “Sayonara” with Marlon Brando on television.
It came out at movie theaters in 1957, but I saw it several years later. That movie made a great impact on me.

Also, the song “Sukiyaki” by Kyu Sakamoto was a big hit globally.
That was 1963, when I was a freshman in high school. I still love that song today.
I was shocked of his death in a plane crash my first year in Japan.

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話なども聴いてみたいですね。コロナも収束間近。是非、マスクなしで開催したいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



<ご興味のある地域を選んでいただた上で、出張報告をさせていただきます＞

Ron McFarlandの Personal Journey (4-c): いろいろチャレンジすれば運はむいてくる！！

ようやく最近になってマスコミが、日本と海外との賃金格差の問題を取り上げるようになり、一昨日も「日本人の出稼ぎ」のニュースが放送されていた。海外でたくさん稼いで、円安の日本へ送金。日本で働くよりも貯金ができる。

でも、問題は、逆に日本に出稼ぎに来なくなること。

例えば、フィリピンの人々。もともと英語が堪能なので英語で仕事ができ賃金の高いカナダやイギリスに行ってしまう。しかもドル高で本国への送金金額も増える。実際、もうこの現象は起きている。日本の介護、看護、ITの現場は、今以上に人手不足になる。・・・・・・・

ボヤキはこのくらいにして、Ron-sanのライフストーリーに戻ります。

収入を増やすべく、工場勤めを始めるRon-san。ここから思わぬ展開が。

As I was only getting income from that part-time work and the Army Reserves, my bank account was steadily going down, and I needed more income, so I took a factory job over in San Francisco working in a putty and caulking compound manufacturer, called Goss & Goss. There were only four employees, an 80-year-old lady who owned the company and did the accounting, a general manager and two factory workers, of which I was one.

The other factory worker, Olin Cossairt, was in his early 60’s and about to retire. We were together during the work day, and he was a father figure to me. I’d been in contact with him ever since that time, and he even attended my wedding in Sacramento many years later.

I enjoyed working in that factory, as my mind was free to study right on the job while I produced the products in the factory.

Life at that time was going to my factory work, studying Japanese in the evenings at least twice a week, going to Japanese movies in Japan Town and going to my reserve meetings.

Then, one day the boss came to me and said I was laid off! I know the company was not that healthy, and the competition was far superior in just about every way possible. It was simply living on old customers the original founder, Mr. Goss had built up over the years before he died. At the time, being laid off was painful, but it turned out to be extremely good for me. I was out of a job and living on unemployment insurance and a little Army Reserve money.

On one occasion going to Sacramento to attend my Army Reserve meetings, my mother introduced me to a man who just came back from Japan. He was on a 1-year English teaching assignment and was looking for a replacement, but the job would not be available for six months. That was perfect, as my 6-year term in Army Reserve was to end about at that time. So, there was my chance to get to Japan. I took the assignment and decided to devote all of my time to study Japanese while on unemployment insurance.

Being laid off was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I got full unemployment insurance and studied full time. As I was learning for personal growth only, I decided to go to the nearest University with a Japanese class and simply sit in the class.

Who says education is expensive! If you want the knowledge, and not the degree, it can be very close to free. In those days, the popular language was Chinese, as President Nixon just opened diplomatic relations with China (around 1976). The Chinese classes were packed while the Japanese classes couldn’t gather even 10 students. Even though I was not even enrolled in the school, the teachers allowed me to sit in the class, do the drills in class and use the language lab anytime I liked! It was all free, was a very productive time in my life and gave me what was to be one of the most powerful skills I have used throughout my career. When I hit Japan, I was off and running with skills to learn the Japanese language.

Those years were early in my development for my life’s purpose. They were small steps toward interacting within the international community.

チャレンジして自ら人生を切り開いていくことの重要性が分かりますね。

Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話なども聴いてみたいですね。コロナも収束間近。是非、マスクなしで開催したいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。

皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。

ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。

もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。



<ご興味のある地域を選んでいただた上で、出張報告をさせていただきます＞