— You probably never imagined an era like this would come? "I never imagined it. What's interesting is that when I was a college freshman, the same freshman class included Bill Gates, Apple's Steve Jobs, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy and Bill Joy, Google's current CEO (now Chairman) Eric Schmidt, and from Japan, Kazuhiko Nishi of ASCII." — Wow, all of you were the same generation? "Yes. I started college two years early, so they're slightly older than I am, but that year was a bumper harvest for the IT industry. When we were freshmen, the era of personal microcomputers finally arrived. An era where you could buy chips and CPUs and build your own computer. That was a revolution. In our freshman year our generation saw what's called the 'Black Ships.' Just as the young men of 17 or 18 who saw the Black Ships went on to launch the Meiji Restoration (this refers to Son's idol Sakamoto Ryoma), our generation saw the revolution in the chips of Silicon Valley." (247p)
From Sano Shinichi, translated by Jang Eun-ju, Masayoshi Son — The Hidden Story of the Man Who Keeps Stirring Up the Age (Lux Media)
"Really, I couldn't hold back the tears. Watching him, I didn't get even a hint of 'for work' or 'for money.' What I learned from him is that what's far more important than business success is what you achieved — what you lived all-out to achieve — in the one life you get." Those are Masayoshi Son of SoftBank's words expressing the shock and sadness he felt when he found out, while in midair on a plane, that Steve Jobs had died. Son said he learned from Jobs the importance of 'what you tried to achieve in this one life you get to live.' Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Masayoshi Son, Scott McNealy, Eric Schmidt — all of them, who defined an era and still do — entered college as freshmen in the same year and saw the 'Black Ships' of the new era that appeared then. Of course, living in the same era does not mean everyone witnesses those Black Ships, grasps their significance, and builds their own world. That era's 'Black Ship' — the PC (personal computer) revolution — then led into the internet, mobile, and smart revolutions. Even now, the size may differ, but an 'era's Black Ship' is showing itself in front of us. What is your 'Black Ship' right now?
▶ Ye Byung-il's Economy Notes — Twitter: @yehbyungil / Facebook: www.facebook.com/yehbyungil
