Realizing something important after my father’s death

On the evening of December 25th, 2004, I was planning to go back to my parent’s house with my pregnant wife and have a Christmas party with the whole family. For my family, who had lived overseas for a long time, Christmas was a special day.
However, that morning, my sister called me and suddenly told me, “Dad has died.” I hurried back to my parents’ house and found my father lying naked in the changing room. When my mother woke up in the morning and realized that her husband was not in bed next to her, she searched all over the house, and finally, when she looked into the bathroom, despite her doubts, she saw her husband’s face submerged in the bathtub. The cause of death was drowning.
Even though I saw my father lying there naked, it was so sudden that I couldn’t cry. When I realized, I was shouting, “You were so looking forward to holding your grandchild, what are you doing!

That night, as the eldest son, I was thinking about the speech I would give at the funeral, and I was looking back on the days I had spent with my father. I was embarrassed to realize for the first time how much my father had raised me with love and care. And I realized that if I can’t be filial to my parents now, I should at least do the same for my own children as a way of repaying my father for what he did for me.

The part-time worker, being No.1 in sales

Everyone in the Okada family, apart from me, is a graduate of Keio University. I had been playing rugby since I was a child and had always admired the Tiger jersey, but I ended up going to Chuo University because I was so absorbed in rugby that I didn’t study at all (laugh). Everyone in my family had labeled me as a “failure”, and I was so frustrated that I determined that one day, I will show them what I am capable of. I decided to only play rugby at weekends, and to work part-time in a company during the week in order to become an immediately effective worker and succeed when I entered the workforce.
At the time, IT-related venture companies were springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, and I was employed by a company that took orders for custom-made Windows software at low prices and with short delivery times.

After about three months of helping out with sales, the president told me to try sales myself. On the condition that I would receive a commission of 3% of the order amount in addition to my hourly wage, after three months I had become the top salesperson, beating the full-time employees. When it came time to look for a job, I was invited to work for the company, with the promise that “I’ll make you a president in a few years”.I got a bit carried away thinking, “Work is actually pretty easy.”

When my father asked me what I was going to do for work, I told him this story, and he got unusually angry. He had always let me do whatever I wanted, but he told me, ”First of all, you should join a proper, big company and learn the basics of being a person, a member of society, and a businessman.”

Overcoming the company rules and starting my sales activities

After experiencing the workforce as a part-time worker, and after hearing my father’s advice, I thought that it must be right. I had always admired my father being a proper businessman. Therefore, after graduating from university, I got a job at Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. Perhaps because the company president had graduated from Keio University, most of the 400 new employees in my year at the company were from Keio University. I thought to myself, “While these people were enjoying their university life, I was working with working adults and even became the top salesperson. There was no way I could lose.”

At the time, new graduates were not allowed to go out on sales calls until their third year at the company. I wasn’t happy about this, so I went straight to my boss and said, “I’ll do my work perfectly, so please let me go out and do sales in my spare time.” I worked until the last train every day, and even came into the office on my days off, and somehow managed to find 4-5 hours a week that I could use. I was very enthusiastic about this, as I had worked so hard to make the time. However, I had no connections. I visited the Japan Rugby Football Union without an appointment, simply because I had played rugby, but at first I was turned away.

Then one day, I saw Hiroaki Yuzawa, a legend in the rugby world, at the union. He had played for the Waseda University rugby team, captained the Japanese national team, later became the coach of the national team, and then became an executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. I ran up to him and told him I had played for the Toin Gakuen rugby team, and then I asked him if I could have five minutes of his time. I think he could tell how desperate I was, so he said, “OK, you’ve only got five minutes,” and gave me the time I needed.

The 2019 Rugby World Cup was a great success, and rugby has now become a major sport in Japan, but at the time there was almost no media exposure. So, I proposed the launch of a membership organization that would be able to communicate information to rugby fans in Japan. He accepted my proposal and I was given the responsibility to work for the entire project. This was the moment the “JRFU Members Club” was born. I couldn’t help but clench my fist in my heart and think, “I did it!” Our company received orders for the entire project, including the management of the secretariat, the planning and holding of fan club events, and the production of goods and newsletters for members.
This was such a big deal for the company that I, a second-year employee who was not supposed to be out on sales, won the President’s Award.

Everything I did went well

Three years after joining the company, I was able to proudly handle sales for a certain beverage manufacturer. What I really wanted to get was a big campaign job. After patiently continuing to make proposals, I finally received an order in my fifth year, and sales quickly rose into the hundreds of millions of yen, and I also became the youngest person ever to become the head of the union business division. I think that my colleagues also had high expectations for me, saying, “Okada is going to move up the career ladder,” but I was working in a way where I would leave the work to my juniors and only appear in important situations. When I was riding high, just like when I was working part-time, my father passed away.

The following year, when I was 29, my eldest daughter was born. My father was really looking forward to the birth of his grandchild, and I still remember how excited he was, saying things like, “I’m going to build a treehouse in the garden.” The moment I held my newborn daughter in my arms, I was so touched, and tears welled up for no reason. I wondered if my father had felt the same way when I was born, and I thought to myself, “I can’t go on like this.”
But I didn’t know what to do. While I was wondering what to do, I received a phone call from the then-manager of the Prudential Life Insurance sales office. When the manager asked me, “Do you have a dream?” I replied, “I want to do everything for my children what my father did for me when he was alive,” and he responded with the sharp question, “Can you do that, Mr. Okada, at your current company? When I was at a loss for an answer, he said, “There is a possibility that we can make your dream come true at our company. Why don’t you come and hear our explanation? I felt that this was a good opportunity.

Challenge yourself for your own dreams.

What really struck me was the sales manager’s words: “In some cases, when the family’s breadwinner dies, the family is unable to protect themselves because they have taken out a life insurance policy that doesn’t provide true protection. Our job is to spread true protection, true life insurance, and to improve the world.”
I was feeling sentimental about my family at the time, so this story really touched me, and I decided to change jobs and join Prudential Life Insurance. At my previous job, I was given a lot of responsibility and was very satisfied with the work I was doing, but after a few months of selling life insurance, I thought, “There’s no job more worthwhile or enjoyable than this.”

And the more I worked, the more I felt the importance of life insurance. During a sales meeting with a couple, I told the wife about what the husband shared with me before the meeting: “Even if something happens to me, I want my wife to be able to live without any problems. I want to show my gratitude to her in some way.” When I told her this, she was so moved that she burst into tears, and I felt very warm inside. Thinking about life insurance makes you realize how important family is. Everyone has feelings for their family. Unless we can draw out those feelings from our customers, we cannot provide true protection. Once I realized this, my sales really took off.

I also gained more control over my time. As a result, I was able to spend more time with my family, which is what my father had done for me.

The true purpose of life: to make your dreams and those of your loved ones come true

As the sales manager, I invite talented salespeople to work with me, and they all find their place and purpose in their organizations, work hard and are active. I think it is one of my roles to ask such people to stop for a moment and take a fresh look at their lives. At our company, there are many people who have graduated from top universities such as Tokyo University and Hitotsubashi University and who have worked at major companies such as Dentsu, Mitsui & Co., and Morgan Stanley. Normally, no one would quit a company that everyone would envy to become an insurance salesperson. However, our work is so rewarding.

What if changing the products you handle could make your dreams come true? What if the more products you sell, the happier your customers are, and the more you contribute to society? If you are confident in your sales ability, then there is definitely great value in taking on this challenging job.
What is your dream? Do you know your wife’s or your child’s dreams? I think that fulfilling those dreams is the true purpose of life. In order to make the dreams of myself, my family, the members I have hired, and our customers come true, I myself must continue to grow. My training will continue from here on out.

There are various training programs in the world, but it is said that the most effective training is to teach others. In this interview with DK Sugiyama, I was able to recall my original intentions by being able to comfortably talk about “why I am at my current company” and “what I am working hard for.”
I have met many business owners, and I feel that those who have a clear philosophy and are running their business based on that are the ones who are succeeding. I also want to take a fresh look at my own life philosophy and work hard every day to help expand the potential of as many people as possible.

Senior Consulting Life Planner, Goichi Okada

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Mr.Goichi Okada is a big guy, and he is my reliable Life Planner.
I learned about Prudential Life Insurance through a business case study at Keio Business School, which I attended after graduating from university, and I became aware of the company’s existence. When I got married at the age of 22, I took out a Prudential insurance policy, and even now, 18 years later, when I have a family of six with four children, I continue to receive appropriate advice from Mr. Goichi Okada, that always looks ahead. Since 2007, when I established Interliteracy Inc. (the company name was changed to ILI Inc. in 2020), I have also been very grateful for the corporate insurance services. When cash flow is tight, the Prudential Life service brings great relief for business owners since it lets you borrow money immediately.
With the concept of “if you are prepared, there is no need to prepare,” I will continue to steadily advance in both my work and private life.
This interview took place at the Roppongi Hills Club on the 51st floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. Mr.Goichi Okada, whose name reflects his birthdate of May 1st (“Go” meaning five and “Ichi” meaning one in Japanese), is a passionate individual you should definitely meet. It will surely be a memorable encounter for you.

DK Sugiyama, Editor-in-Chief of “My Philosophy”

October 2018, Roppongi Hills Club, Private Forum “The Study”
Interview and editing: DK Sugiyama, Text: Miho Asahina, Photography: Hiroki Hieda