WHAT IS IKIGAI, WHY IKIGAI?
Very often we hear the word IKIGAI in the Startup world. Do you know that Japan is the birthplace of the word “IKIGAI”?
In Japan, IKIGAI is one of the discovering inner self inner concepts. It means to have “a reason to live life” for, or to have a purpose in life. An ikigai is essentially ‘a reason to get up in the morning’, which is the reason why entrepreneurs exists.
People can find this reason or purpose by starting to ask themselves these four questions:
- What do you love?
- What are you good at?
- What does the world need from you?
- What can you get paid for?
Is this Japanese concept the secret to a long, happy, meaningful life?
Is IKIGAI really important?
The business environment is changing rapidly and the future can not be predicted. Hence, IKIGAI is important for entrepreneurs because if entrepreneurs set the basis of business development to external factors, then it won’t be long before their business will stray away.
One of the way to find IKIGAI is through “effectuation”. Effectuation is the decision-making theory for serial entrepreneurs, which give importance to the intrinsic resources of the entrepreneur. In this the expert entrepreneurs first tends to deepen their self-understanding by introspecting on “Who am I” , “What I know” , “Whom I Know”.
Any successful entrepreneurs check their own intentions before starting a business. Their intentions are related to IKIGAI, and hence in general the startups pay attention to IKIGAI and they try to understand the concept of IKIGAI.
RICOH Accelerator, one of open innovation programs by Japanese manufacturing firm, is focusing on supporting startup founder’s “IKIGAI” to accelerate their purpose in life to create a better future.
RICO accelerator 2019 http://ricoh2019.01booster.com/
