Question every little thing, but don’t force it towards everyone
Gerald Figueras is a Brazilian living in Japan and founder of Photo My Tokyo. He created this business in 2018 after some 8 years of trying to break the 9 to 5 mold without relying on outlier experiences. Gerald did not want to specifically pursue the magical billionaire route, but to have a sustainable business and way of life. “It drove me crazy to be stuck inside an office even if I had nothing to do. It wouldn’t matter if I work hard to qualify myself to be more effective at what I do, because I’d still had to confirm to rules created during the Industrial Revolution that doesn’t make sense at all nowadays”.
Trouble with Covid
Gerald’s customers are 95% foreigners traveling to a different country. When Covid shut down borders, it immediately halted the business. In the case of Japan, borders closed on March 2020 and are currently scheduled to open on October 11th 2022. So he is still feeling the effects of the pandemic.
Recommended Resources
Like many entrepreneurs, Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Work Week was a catalyst to start Gerald on the path. “Although it’s a little out there, it was perhaps the first literature I read about small and medium entrepreneurs adjusting their work-life balance – instead of the beaten path of reading “what do billionaires do” or something like that”.
Another key book for him was The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch explaining the Pareto Principle with modern, updated cases was great to kickstart things.
It’s not as “sexy” when talking about careers, but learning more about physical health and a good diet was foundational for the productiveness Gerald was looked for. Getting the physical body prepared to use your mind more effectively does a huge difference, so collecting information from all kinds sources and making sense of it all on his own really changed things.
Turning Work On and Off
The ability to have a sound and healthy relationship between his personal and professional times has been a key factor for Gerald. “Turning work on and off for chunks of 8 hours is insane, unproductive, unhealthy. It’s just, well, stupid. Both for the individual and for the enterprise”.
There’s a huge amount of responsibility with that freedom, because it’s all up to you and how far your knowledge and your energy go to make sure that everything works. A lot of people thrive in the corporate world because they don’t have to do that heavy lifting of all the little things. It takes a mental toll to reflect and make decisions for everything. “I find the “burden” of that responsibility liberating. Because it says “you’re on your own”, and there’s no better state of mind than that to stay focused”.
Lessons to Share
Gerald would love for people to be able to study and find their own rhythms, and learn how they can work better. In his case, he is very good at doing mechanical, menial tasks in the late morning. But he is at the top of his intellectual productivity between 3 and 6 PM. “These are not small findings. Optimizing my schedule based on that was what made be achieve in 1 week what I wouldn’t in 1 month. It’s like a superpower. I want people to know that we’re all a bit different, and it’s ok if you are a slob at 7 AM.”
Also, Gerald says there’s a lot of pragmatic stuff that comes from working remotely that cascades well into almost anything. The need to dominate text-based communication, and having to document things more thoroughly because you don’t have people on your constant call. “It seems like a burden at first, but it ends up building a solid, self-functioning machine.”
He lost a lot of time and energy trying to adapt to other’s rhythms of work. Gerald wasted years thinking he should follow the “winners”, waking up at 5 AM, drinking green juices with egg whites, working late at night. “At the same time, I failed to actually engage with like-minded people, to make a stronger effort in networking and expanding my professional relationships. It was a combo of my introspectiveness and me being angry with past failures based on trying to fit the mold.”
Primary URL: www.photomytokyo.com
