I myself am a struggling sea turtle too I guess in the sense that I started business in Cambodia and now that our business is spreading into Asia and the world mainly in developing countries, by providing various services of AGRIBUDDY. Most importantly, Mr. Kato has been a great supporter in our business providing us manpower, goods and capital, and I must mention his presence through some of the factors written in this book.

Although I can’t write much in detail that reveals the content of the book, the first part of the book starts where Mr. Kato started a business with his seniors during his university years, they had great success but right after he graduated from university, the rules in that business sector changed dramatically and their company went bankrupt, this is a true episode of “entrepreneurship equals risk”, and he talks about the troubles he went through after that. A normal guy may have given up there, regret his decisions to start a company and wondered if things would have changed if he had found employment like a normal person.
Most people in the world believe that it is impossible to restart if they failed in business, and after failure a life with lower standards is waiting. However, that may be a total misunderstanding.

Thankfully, I have had many opportunities to interact with these people who experienced “student entrepreneurship, then bankruptcy” along with Mr. Kato, but every one of them are now a president or an executive of a listed company or running their own successful business, they are a group of talented people who have all succeeded in what they are doing. I always wonder if their revival is because “they were all a group of talented people that started business together at the right time and place or is it because they experienced such failure at an earlier stage?”, I have also asked some of them this question directly but I am pretty confident that the answer probably is the latter. There isn’t a professional boxer who has never had a punch in the gut, a professional skier who has never fallen to the ground or a professional driver who has never been in an accident . Business may be the same thing. And the younger you are, the wound is shallower and will heal faster. This is probably the greatest purpose for Mr. Kato to actively interact with young people.
I have had a lot of opportunities to visit investors with Mr. Kato for the fundraising of AGRIBUDDY, but he always ends up with a terribly tight schedule. Actually, it’s so tight that the two of us had to run through the station to catch the next train on several occasions. Well, I had no choice but to run because Mr. Kato was running, but if I were as famous as he was, I would probably make the opponent wait. While this honesty is also one of Mr. Kato’s charms, I noticed him meeting strangers who had contacted him online in a tiny slot of time he had to spare giving them serious lifetime advice.
Perhaps many of you know, but Mr. Kato is a frequent poster on Twitter and Facebook. And in between all those posts, he is meeting someone all the time. Nevertheless, I get replies from him almost instantly. When he doesn’t reply instantly, he is probably up in the sky in a flight and can’t reply even if he wanted to. (lol)
It is not once or twice that he stayed up very late with me talking about our business plan. Even though he is such a busy man, he still finds the time to meet young strangers and talk to them. Actually, I am also one of the “former” strangers who got in contact with him through Twitter. I wasn’t young though… And that triggered him to invest in our business and overcame so many obstacles with us, he gave us the opportunity to realize the idea of AGRIBUDDY, eventually he gave us so many suggestions to commercialize the concept of AGRIBUDDY, and here we are.
Mr. Kato is a busy man and my comments may drive him mad, but I urge young people to get in touch with him. You should first read his book, and if that moves you, take a chance and try and meet him. Try and create an opportunity to meet him in person and talk to him one on one. You will never find anyone so funny, foolishly honest and someone who works hard to motivate young people.