I'm a Yozawa Believer

I’m a Yozawa believer.

Writing that may sound a bit shady at first glance. But hands down, when asked whom I respect, I’ve consistently named him.

・・・・

Back when Tsubasa Yozawa was hyped in the media as “earning 100 million yen per second,” I gave his name as someone I respect — and got nothing but cold looks.

But I first knew Tsubasa Yozawa from a little earlier than that — when he was running an apparel company.

At the time, he wrote his CEO blog on Ameblo.

I was captivated by his writing, and as I looked into him, I learned he was a senior at Waseda University, an alum of an entrepreneur training course.

That gave me a real sense of affinity, and I quietly followed his every move from then on.

Then he got into selling information products and stirred up controversy — but since I knew how genuinely substance-driven he was, none of it felt off to me.

He was advocating for the “free agent” lifestyle back then; now I’m a kind of free agent too, and the world is trending in that direction. The era of earning as an individual really has arrived.

After that, he wound down his IT company and moved to Singapore. To live as an investor.

And indeed, as an individual investor he succeeded in FX, stocks, and crypto trading, and amassed a fortune.

Some people still find that shady, but having been in his investing salon at the time, I’d say that take misses the essence.

In the salon, he produced massive amounts of content single-handedly, gave generous support, and showed members a superhuman level of effort. He broadcast real-time trades many times and shared his results to members. Despite having a short investment track record himself, he was getting results through unbelievable amounts of work.

During the information-product era, he gained huge influence in Japan through strategic performance. But the cost was real — accusations of having someone behind him, fraud, etc. He really did get said all sorts of awful things.

After he emigrated and became an individual investor, he ran a diet challenge on Twitter, and that’s when the world seemed to do a 180 and start acknowledging him as the real deal. Get results, and people will believe.

・・・・

From a young age, he’s been more of a hard worker than anyone, profoundly substance-oriented, smart, and stoic in execution.

He was a delinquent who only finished middle school, but passed the high school equivalency test and got into Waseda in a year — no small feat.

With his parents being teachers, he’s also good at teaching. He’s a skilled speaker too, which gathers believers and gives him a kind of guru-like presence.

Even during the “100 million per second” era when the world got swept up, his inner circle knew it was strategic.

If you judge only the surface, you won’t get there. The essence of him, in my view, is exactly that: substance and effort.

There’s so much to learn from someone who embodies the essence of success.

The note entry I wrote recently — “life success principles learned from the markets” — is also influenced by him.

And now Yozawa-san has put out a new book. It keeps selling out, and even on Mercari it’s not going below list price.

I instantly preordered it and read it. The table of contents alone is compelling, so for reference, here it is.

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Chapter 1: Fundamental Principles

”The Grand Principle Underlying Everything”

1. Sell your soul to one thing and break through. 2. Deliver overwhelming results in the shortest time, at the fastest pace. 3. Acknowledge the fact that your happiness rests on “money.” 4. Grab the center pin. Then go all-in for 3 weeks. 5. If you want to succeed, don’t listen to others — push forward stoically.

Have you ever pursued something so stoically that you’d say “I sold my soul” to it? In everything, deliver overwhelming results in the shortest time, at the fastest pace. That’s what I’ve always been about. From today, sell your soul to one thing and break through.

Chapter 2: Business Principles

”Don’t herd. Don’t team up with anyone. Sprint solo!”

6. End the way of life that depends on a company. 7. Always aim for “two birds with one stone or more” and enrich your life. 8. Don’t be a “grasshopper in a basket”! The trap of elites in a rat race. 9. Don’t herd. To succeed, keep the team to a minimum. 10. Don’t seek empathy — deliver results overwhelmingly above everyone’s expectations. 11. To keep breaking through, don’t aim for one big comeback. Think “scalability.” 12. Human ability itself doesn’t differ. What divides winners from losers is “how many seeds you keep planting and how much failure you accumulate.”

I don’t herd. I don’t team up with anyone. By sprinting solo, I gained freedom. In exchange, I took on all the effort and responsibility. The way of life that depends on a company or a stronger force is old. If you want to change your now, keep planting seeds. Use failure as fuel and stack successes.

Chapter 3: Investment Success Principles

”The match starts before the chance arrives”

13. Find what excites you, and keep your heart and capital ready so you can move whenever. The match starts before the chance arrives. 14. “Persistence” and “acceleration.” The moment you feel progress while moving forward, slam the accelerator. 15. Are you investing with an eye on 10 years from now? In 10 years, anyone can become anyone. 16. Read the fundamentals and the wind. That’s the center pin of investing. 17. Be willing to go down with it. Find something you can truly believe in with that level of resolve. 18. Without taking risk, there’s no return. Become someone who can joyfully invest in barren land. 19. Don’t be a fool who buys investment products on someone else’s words. 20. Investing is sharing fate. “Continuation” beats “luck.” 21. Life is a series of investments. Failures become fuel. Don’t spread yourself thin — concentrate and invest deeply.

Investing opportunities aren’t that common. Without daily preparation, when a chance does come, you can’t immediately ride it. Only those who take risks can have returns. The match starts before the chance arrives.

Chapter 4: Health Principles

”Give your all to each day. The accumulation leads to big results”

22. Lost 22 kg in 2 months. The reasons it worked were “strong motivation” and “ideal environment.” 23. Don’t slack on the initial push. Don’t throw time down the drain. Pursue dieting at the shortest, fastest pace too. 24. Control your blood sugar and escape the obesity vicious cycle. The center pin of dieting is “don’t eat and move like crazy.” 25. Being fat itself is unhealthy. There’s no such thing as a healthy way for an obese person to slim down. Ignore criticism and counterargument from others, and stick to your conviction. 26. Business and dieting alike — every day is a serious match. Give your all each day. The accumulation leads to big results. 27. Don’t blindly believe folk theories. Don’t be swayed by experts’ advice either. Eliminate complexity and find the simplest approach that’s best for you. 28. The essence of weight loss is a revolution in lifestyle habits. Depending on habits, a person can become a tycoon or a wreck.

Aren’t you believing folk theories about dieting? Aren’t you accepting experts’ advice at face value? I eliminate any advice — from anyone — that doesn’t make sense. That’s how I succeeded in losing 22 kg in 2 months.

Chapter 5: Information-Gathering Principles

”Information gathering, also 3 weeks. Repeat ‘self-tsukkomi’ and grab the center pin!”

29. Information gathering and analysis to grab the center pin should be 3 weeks. First, to grasp the whole, get a handle on the “characters.” 30. Repeat “self-tsukkomi” and defeat counterarguments, criticism, and rival pieces against your own view.

What does “being smart” mean in society? I think it means being able to “grasp the essence of things.” For that, you need to repeat “self-tsukkomi” and accurately catch the “center pin.” And when gathering and analyzing info, use “3 weeks” as the rough yardstick.

Chapter 6: Future-Prediction Principles

”Predict what’s going to happen in the world ahead, and act now in reverse from there!”

31. Fully read the big “tides of the era.” If you don’t ride the wave of the era, your growth stops there. 32. Exercise creativity and become someone the people around you respect. 33. Depending on one country is a risk. Become someone who can transact with the world. 34. Know your own “user manual.” That’s the shortest way to live without loss and maximize performance. 35. Don’t kill yourself. Whoever reads the air too much loses.

One last thing I’d like to convey. Read the “tides of the era” and treasure your true self. Nails that stick out get hammered down, but nails that stick out too far don’t. The moment you finish this book, take action to “break through” in your own life.

Definitely pick it up. With the Kindle edition, you can start reading immediately.