A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ
TOKYO, THANK YOU.
This past week I was able to spend some time in Japan with my family. My daughter has wanted to visit the country for some time and I have begun my path to run all six major marathons, one of which takes place in Tokyo. So we took the 11 hour flight across the Pacific to see what lessons we could learn together. I have put together just seven lessons I leave the country with. Of course these are not all of the lessons - and perhaps not even the biggest of them. But they are the ones that can fit in a short blog post.
Lesson 1: Follow Some Rules
I was surprised to see so many people standing on the corners waiting for the traffic signals to deliver permission for them to walk across. I suppose I expected the rule following from the older generation, but was surprised to see 16, 19, 21, 25, and 30 year olds all reaching the corner and waiting until they were signalled to cross the street. I am a New Yorker. I was raised in an environment that takes traffic signals as suggestions at best. At first I was surprised, maybe even frustrated, that there were groups of people waiting on the corner when there was absolutely no traffic in sight. They were willing to wait and follow the rule, purely because it was a rule. I realized the benefits of a culture that followed rules. There weren’t people rushing across the street, racing to beat traffic. This simple pedestrian traffic rule caused people to slow down, to take regular moments of pause, and to be in the moment. Where most would look to be more efficient, to cut corners, and to look for the fast way, they were willing to find the benefit in the rule. It was there for a reason and it delivered results. As someone that doesn’t love to follow all the rules, it caused me to pause and ask myself which rules I was breaking that I would be better served to obey.
Lesson 2: Identify Purpose In What You Do Always
I was profoundly struck by how purposeful everyone viewed their job. Whether it was the woman serving tea, or the man printing out the train ticket, or the taxi driver, or the volunteer handing out water during the marathon, everyone approached what they did with incredible purpose. That purpose caused them to attach real meaning in the activity. That meaning then translated into a service level I had never experienced before almost everywhere I went. Yes, I believe they are trained in customer service at a higher level. But it isn’t just training. It is the belief that what they are doing matters. It is the belief that the work they are doing contributes to society or to a greater purpose. When we find the purpose in the work, the attention and commitment we approach it with is next level. What would the world look like if everyone identified and found the real purpose in what they did.
Lesson 3: Execute Seamlessly
Just 18 hours before the race, you would never know that one of the largest marathons in the world would take place and run through the heart of Tokyo- weaving through multiple neighborhoods. As I walked through the park on Saturday afternoon to get my bearings of where I would need to be the very next morning, there was no sign that the next day was marathon Sunday. In every other race I have run, the city prepared days in advance - putting up banners, blocking off streets, setting up the course, etc. The city of Tokyo executed a near flawless marathon in a feat of engineering with just hours of setup. More than that, just two hours after I ran through parts of the city, that same afternoon I was walking with my family as tourists on the streets that I had run on just hours prior. Outside of the occasional runner with a medal around their neck, there wasn’t a sign that 40,000 runners had come through there. They had broken down the entire race, cleaned up every street, and had car and pedestrian traffic back on schedule. I had never seen an event executed so seamlessly. It caused me to reflect on where in my business am I executing in a less than perfect way, and where could I level up my operational excellence?
Lesson 4: Question Your Life Choices
At mile 21 of every marathon I’ve ever run, a question seems to pop into my mind. I begin to ask myself, “why?” Why am I doing this? Why do I care so much? Why do I put myself through this? The first 14-18 miles for me are usually enjoyable. I run slightly ahead of my pace goal. I enjoy the city, the architecture, and the feeling of accomplishing something. It is fun, smooth, and almost easy. And then the hard begins to set in, the pain begins to make itself noticeable, and the questions creep in. I begin to question my life choice of signing up for yet another marathon and recount how my life choices led me here. By asking myself openly about my life choices, it forces me to go in one of three directions. The question will either cause me to find meaning in the choice, cause me to remember the meaning in the choice, or cause me to realize there is no meaning in the choice. Any of those outcomes allow me to make sure that the choice I made matters to me and has meaning to me. That meaning is what drives me through the next phase of the decision - which is usually the hard part - until I get to the phase of accomplishment.
Lesson 5: Be Willing To Do Hard Things
Too many of us in our industry made some choices - years ago or maybe even recently. Then things got hard and we began to question why we made those decisions. We regret the decision, we go back on the decision, we opt out of the decision. We come up with all sorts of reasons as to why the decisions don’t matter to us anymore, we tell ourselves we don’t enjoy it anymore, and look for the exit plan or find a way to walk out. We just need to realize this is the hard phase. You are at mile 21 to 24. They aren’t the fun miles. But they get you to the finish or the next beginning or to the goal. Don’t question it just because it was hard. Leaders will also opt to do hard things to set the example for those that they lead. Having an above average life will require doing hard things. Having my daughters meet me at 3 places on the marathon course meant so much to me. Yes, it’s nice to see them and pick them out of the crowd. But more than that, it reminded me that I am doing this hard thing to set an example for them that it takes doing hard things in life to do anything of meaning. Standing up for what you believe is hard. Delivering value to other humans is hard. Reaching goals is hard. Having strong relationships is hard. Demonstrating that you can do hard things is important for anyone important in your life. It caused me to ask myself, what am I doing that is hard right now? What am I avoiding that is hard right now?
Lesson 6: Nothing Is Ever Perfect. Stop Making Excuses.
I need to learn this lesson. I have always found reasons why I didn’t have a good run. I remember the run when I was bleeding. I remember the run I had covid. I remember how cold it was in Tokyo and how I had the flu. None of that matters and no one cares. The fact is, every runner in that race was running in the same freezing temperature. Some ran it in 2 hours, others in 3, and others in 4 or 5 or 6. I can almost guarantee one of the Elite runners that finished in about 2 hours had the flu - in fact, I probably gave it to them. So why was I using that as an excuse for why I didn’t perform as well as I had wished? Stop looking for the problems, the challenges, the issues, the things that are less than perfect. Race day will never be perfect. I need to stop believing that I am an 8 minute mile runner on a good day if I’m not an 8 minute mile runner on a less than perfect day. I am who I show up as every day. If I’m falling back on an excuse, I’m just being a baby. It caused me to ask myself, where in my life am I looking for perfection that will never be there? And where am I allowing myself to perform below expectation based on excuses that I have converted into reasons.
Lesson 7: Play Stupid Games
Naval Ravikant in a tweet some years back wrote “Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.” The idea is that if we find ourselves chasing after unimportant things, we will reap unimportant rewards. In business, we at times find ourselves playing stupid games, only to realize we won the stupid prize. I see that often when people play the chasing revenue game or the chasing growth game instead of the chasing profit game. The best illustration of that fact in my mind has always been the claw machine. I can remember back to the few times I went to an arcade as a kid, and put quarter after quarter into the claw machine with the hopes of winning, well the stupid prize that seemed so great in my eyes at the time.
So imagine my dismay when we walked by a shop in Tokyo with literally hundreds of claw machines. Of course my daughter ran in and found the largest claw machine with the largest stuffed animal prize I may have ever seen in a claw machine. I could hardly think of anything but the quote “Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.” Before I could say anything, my wife had handed her 100 yen to take a shot. That first shot ended in failure. Against my better judgement perhaps, but because it was so sad to see her not win the toy, I told her I’d give her another 100 yen for her to try one more time, and then we’d go. Well from the screaming, laughing, and sheer jumping up and down that came from our row, I’m pretty sure the entire store knew she had beat the claw machine and won a stuffed “Cinnamoroll” - almost as large as she was. The store manager couldn’t believe she had won…after paying only $1.33 USD, and seemed to mutter in frustration. I couldn’t stop laughing at the sheer irony of the situation and to see my daughter so happy about her winnings. The lesson? Sometimes it’s ok to just go out and play stupid games. In other words, at times we just need to take a break from logic and strategy and overthinking, and just have some fun. Take a risk. Do something you normally wouldn’t do. Don’t take yourself so seriously.
There are many reasons to travel, to do new and hard things, and to seek out new experiences. At the top of the list of those reasons is the sheer learning that happens, the lessons you stumble upon, and the fuel to your curiosity that occurs along the way.
Tokyo, for the time that we were there, you were definitely our favorite place.
Chris Suarez