As many of my friends know I've been looking for my my "next big thing" as far back as December 2007.
In March this year, I decided to crowdsource the effort. I'm happy to say that it worked. Little over 1 week after that post I was introduced to a person at a fantastic company by my good friend Danny Choo with whom I have been organized Tokyo CGM Night since the beginning of this year.
Just over 3 months later I'm please to say I'm be joining this company starting today. Until I adjust to the complexities of being back in a corporate environment, I'm not going to mention the company name as part of this blog post, but will just direct you to my LinkedIn profile for details. Needless to say I'm very excited about this new role.
I am in many ways very sad to leave the world of being an independent entrepreneur, but there will be more than enough scope for entrepreneurialism and innovation in this role, and I'll have an amazing team to work with. It's also very much a people facing role, so I expect to continue meeting new and fascinating people every day, helping them solve their business problems, and connecting people and businesses with each other.
Over the last two years, in addition to my work, I helped Tokyo 2.0 grow into a 800+ person community, with a monthly event that on average welcomes 150-200 web professionals and has 8 or so presentations every month. Without doubt the community has played a great role in connecting and inspiring people in the industry in Japan and beyond. We also have a large steering committee and are just about getting enough people to help to take ownership of and drive forward each event. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has helped but we do need more proactive helpers. I will not be able to devote the same amount of time I have done to date running things, but having said that the community has reached a level of maturity and has the potential to move to the next level and achieve so much more catalyzing the international web industry in Japan. I'm hopeful the community can move in that direction over the next year.
Beyond that, there are so many people I have to sincerely thank from the bottom of my heart for so much support, guidance and friendship over the years. It's at times like these that you really get chance to reflect and be grateful. I won't list everyone here, but you know who you are.
For budding entrepreneurs, in fact actually everyone out there, I encourage you to commit to and work towards your dreams. For sure you are not going to get there tomorrow, but you will get there, one ... step .... at a time.
Finally, if you are reading this before Saturday 11th July, drop by www.nettokyo.jp so we can catch up there. Don't forget your Poken (or get one there).
