The Untold Story of Masayoshi Son!
Masayoshi “Masa” Son was born in 1957 in Tosu, Japan. He was a third-generation Zainichi Korean and grew up in poverty. On a tiny plot of land belonging to Japan National Railways, his father raised pigs and chickens before starting an illegal sake business. Masa’s energy and eagerness to learn were evident from a young age, and his business career began after meeting Idol Den Fujita, who brought McDonald’s to Japan. Den urged Masa to study English and learn about the rapidly emerging computer industry in America.
At the age of 16, Masa decided to move to California and met his father's friend, who was more circumspect. Masa flew to Oakland, where he attended Holy Names College, a Catholic university with a special program for foreign students to learn English. Masa graduated from Holy Names College and transferred to Berkeley to study economics. Masa took computer science courses and developed over 20 measures of success to guide his thinking. His most important one was that he should fall in love with his business for at least 50 years, so he would stick with it even when times were tough.
Masa founded SoftBank in Japan rather than America, believing that it would become a global success. He believed that being based in Japan would make it easier to win the loyalty of his employees, as Japanese workers put in longer hours and stayed with their employers for decades but lacked…
