What should a Freelancer learn from the Japanese Mentality?

#Japan, #prayforjapan and #helpjapan were the most used terms on Twitter a couple weeks ago.

Worlds, “online “and “offline” were under the domination of Japan related terms. The great cataclysm was a dreadful event which frightened everyone, if not the most courageous people on the planet, the Japanese.

For most human beings, unfamiliar with such big challenges from Mother Nature, the wise reaction of the Japanese was amazing; it is hard to imagine how quickly they started the reconstruction of infrastructural facilities (there was some buzz on Internet when a picture of a highway offered a comparison of following: almost destroyed by the earth quake, initiatives were taken for its reconstruction, which indeed took place, making people consider it a Photoshop manipulation). The Japanese people said that they learned from everything and implementing these considerations in the life of a freelancer could bring serious advantages.

A freelancer has many things to learn from the Japanese mentality and here I present only some of them. It will be a great honor for me if you chose to share with us your opinions.

1. The Culture of Work

The Japanese people have a great devotion to work. It is a normal state to work every day and have only short holidays. A freelancer should understand that only the annoying hours spent in front of the PC can bring great experience; it is the basis of a potential income increase. I don’t know exactly what is really happening, but from the outside, the Japanese seem that they enjoy working and extra hours are a quite normal fact. A freelancer, who is paid only when completing a task, must like what he is working on in order to progress. Another fact which should be learned from the Japanese mentality is the great attention they pay to details. By planning in details and executing conformingly, a skyscraper can resists to major earthquakes. Imagine for example, that your website should resist the same to all the major browsers!

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As everything in life, to turn into a professional freelancer it is required that the respective person really likes his work, else it is only a never ending hell, and the Japanese people are the no.1 example of enjoying what they are doing.

2. The Respect for Clients and High Quality

The Japanese mentality places the clients and the business relationship on a very high position. This is very important because it supports in realizing high quality objectives. Definitely, a freelancer should adopt this concept; all people on this planet must understand that in the actual economical climate, only the providers of high quality services can obtain a serious profit.

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In the language of the freelancers, this means that the preferences of the clients are the priority.  When these aren’t conformed to the laws of beautiful design, the respective client receives the best explanations about these problems. The deadline is a strict term which can’t suffer modifications and a final product is good and deserves fully payment when the customer is content.

3. The Discipline and the Ambition to become better than the Competitors

The income of a freelancer can vary accordingly to the number of clients and there might be sometimes a high amount of dollars in the account but unfortunately there are some periods when the money is not sufficient. Usually when a freelancer has enough money, he quickly neglects the work but the Japanese mentality is based on a strict evidence of the progress. A freelancer must understand that only by having a constant progress, his success is guaranteed. The discipline and ambition seems to be entities “made in Japan” but these are worldwide exported due to the life example of the Japanese people.

Freelancing suppose to have a lot of adjacent activities as keeping the finance, searching for clients, creating a good image and even abilities of explaining to the clients what they don’t comprehend. More pragmatically, a freelancer should be a multi-tasking person and this is impossible without discipline. Also, it is difficult to imagine a successful freelancer who isn’t attentive with his schedule or clients and once again, the discipline is primordial. Personally, I believe that any person is on the good way when he is everyday trying to be more competitive than the previous day. The talent doesn’t matter, only the constant progress is the real basis of a healthy freelancer development.

4. Be your own sensei!

Free isn’t a synonym of lazy and any freelancer must consider this statement. Having no chief lets the freelancer without any restriction in accomplishing his wishes, but he also has no restrain in being productive. Definitely, it is quite knotty to be your own severe chief but it is the way to success. Anyone can apply the example of the Japanese people who don’t need a chief who makes them work hard; they are more responsible than other nationalities and a freelancer, who is by definition, an individual who should be aware that no one will push him back to work.

The schedule of a freelancer should be done in such a way to avoid as many breaks as possible; everything should be focused on efficiency and progress, similar to the sensei who teaches the youngsters the transformation into a wise man.

5. Be Optimistic

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Working again and again, tremendous and constant efforts, forgetting about pauses, and focusing on the next projects are the recipe of a mental shutdown. The pressure is high and any human being’s capacity is limited. In spite of these obvious limitations, the Japanese people find the inner resources to overcome all these obstacles. Unfortunately for them, the disasters both provoked by men or nature seem to hate their optimism. Any freelancer must take the Japanese example and simply enjoy the life and its ups and downs.

The Japanese culture is offering a good source of inspiration for designers and a single post won’t be enough to present these influences but here I emphasized only the most important morale qualities derived from the mentality of the so often challenged nation. I will be very glad to find out other similarities or ideas taken from the Japanese mentality. Also, I don’t want to disrespect other people who have pretty much the same concepts. Definitely, I don’t want to say that the Japanese are the only brave and hard working people in this world.