IKIGAI – Green Tech Explorer

You might wonder why I have decided to title this article with an unfamiliar Japanese-like naming? Here is the story behind.

Start-up is not only rewarding and satisfying, but also a stressful and an uncomfortable situation where you will have to deal with many uncertainties and face many challenges.

Entrepreneurship is a life learning experience and during this first week, I was lucky enough to meet Matthieu Levivier, CEO and founder of Citymagine. Matthieu is the kind of persons that speaks very frankly and the meeting was very emotional.

Without any filter, Matthieu presented his start-up experience. After many start-up trials, he found himself on a dead end in both private life and financial situation.
And guess what Matthieu did?
Yes… He created a new business venture!

I admire his tenacity and his mindset that pushed him forward even in the worst setting. When I asked Matthieu what made him happy and successful, he told me to find my IKIGAI.

Very surprised by the answer, Matthieu kindly explained to me the concept and I found interesting to share it with you.

As it sounds, Ikigai is a Japanese concept that was born in the island of Okinawa. The idea behind is to try to understand some key life-questions and define a reason of your existence in both professional and personal perspectives.

Sometimes you look at your life and might think: Why the hell am I doing this? What’s my contribution? What motivates me to wake up or to stay alive?

According to Ikigai, it’s all about the passion and talent we have that gives meaning to our days and drives us to share the best of ourselves with the World. Ikigai can also be defined as happiness of always being busy, both in our professional life and everyday life.

Ikigai is an attitude towards life, a way of finding our optimal activities in life, and a set of characteristics that can create meaning and happiness in life.

Ikigai is found at the intersection passion, mission, vocation, and profession. For instance, you might summarize your professional Ikigai in four criteria:

• The things you love
• The things you are good at
• What the world needs?
• How you can earn your living?

To find you own ikigai you might start by finding a goal that really believe in. It could be to fight against poverty or revolutionize FinTech. Then you want to start trying to work on it rather than procrastinating. And to believe in it, you will motivate yourself by connecting to people that share the same ambition and goals. Last but not least, as entrepreneur life is never an easy path, you have to be prepared to acknowledge failures as something normal to happen.

Some complementary tips for your daily Ikigai:

• Stay healthy: Exercise regularly, Eat healthy
• Do not stress and stay optimistic
• Enjoy each moment and maintain your social life
• Try to Smile and laugh as much as you can
• Enjoy outdoor activities and fresh air
• Be resilient and accept imperfection

Final hints: Okinawa had the largest population of centenarians in the world… Maybe a reason to start to practice 😉

You can have more information on ways to find you IKIGAI on https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrismyers/2018/02/23/how-to-find-your-ikigai-and-transform-your-outlook-on-life-and-business/#61dbbb12ed44

Michel Noujaim – Green Tech Explorer