Attitude Dictates Everything

Last Saturday I went to a Japanese job fair at Hilton. A lot of stuff happened but I will relate to you what I think are the highlights that provides some good insight. I went into the hotel and was directed to the first floor. There I faced my first problem. I had to register. Ah, no worries. Just stroll in and state your name proud, right? Nope, you needed to know Japanese. I could see swathes of people rejected after they said they had little knowledge of the language. I, unfortunately, am in that camp. I didn’t let that stop me. I would love to work and live in Japan so I would have learnt it if I had to. So, I just walked up and showed my resume. They asked me how much Japanese I knew. I convinced them that I could manage and they let me in.

I believe you do need some amount of ‘fake it till you make it energy’ to get anywhere in life. This would have been antithetical to younger me.

Anyway, I got in and had my interview with the MD of the company. The issue was it was in full Japanese. I blurted out my introduction in Japanese and then relied almost completely on the translator nearby to help me out. After that I was done! I walked out proud and made my way home.

Now I have no delusions about the interview. My resume may have been good but my language was not. I have no idea whether I will hear back from them. My dreams of living in Japan may have been dashed! Some people can say that I have wasted my Saturday. That I went to an event and accomplished nothing. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to just stay at home?

To those people I say, not quite. I never expected anything from the experience. I didn’t expect it to go well. I didn’t expect a job. I went ahead, fully accepting the fact that I may not move my career in any meaningful direction. However, just by going I already won. My only requirement was to go and experience the whole thing. If my criteria for success was just experiencing something new, it is not possible for me to lose!

This shift in perspective is everything. When we reframe our expectations, it drastically changes our mood and behaviour. I am much more likely to go to future job fairs as well since I have nothing to lose. I am just rolling the die till I make it big. I only have to hit once.