In this article, I’ll be introducing myself – I’m YASU.
[Student life]
I was born in the countryside of Japan. I was good at sports and did well in school, even though I didn’t study much. At 18, I moved to Tokyo and enrolled at one of Japan’s top universities, Sophia University. Later, I earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.
[As an Office worker]
After graduating, I started working as a systems engineer at NTT Data, Japan’s largest IT company. It’s a prestigious company, and many Japanese people aspire to work there. I stayed with the company for 8 years, working overtime almost every day. I often stayed in the office until midnight or even into the next morning, and sometimes worked on weekends. I was a typical Japanese workaholic, fully dedicated to the company. As a result, I barely had any free time to enjoy my life.
The salary was decent, but not as high as that of successful entrepreneurs. There’s a limit to how much employees can earn. Although I had many respected and skilled bosses and colleagues, and I learned a lot from them, for which I’m very grateful, I also had to work with incompetent bosses and frustrating coworkers. Building relationships with them was difficult for me. Overall, working as an employee was incredibly challenging and stressful. I couldn’t do what I truly enjoyed in the company. I love technology, especially IT, but I wasn’t satisfied with my work. I craved freedom and wanted to pursue what I was passionate about. Even though people saw me as an elite, I wasn’t happy at all. I also worried that I would get sick from overworking. At that time, I was working an average of 14 hours a day and sleeping only 5 hours. I was completely exhausted.
[As an affiliate marketer]
Some of my friends were working as freelancers, doing digital marketing, and they genuinely enjoyed their work. I was so envious of them, and they influenced me a lot. Eventually, I quit my job and started my own business as a freelancer. At first, I chose affiliate marketing because it seemed like an easy way to earn money. I started a blog and used Twitter to promote my favorite products. After three months, I was already earning $3,000 a month with minimal effort.
As I continued learning more about digital marketing and improving my business skills, my income grew. A year and a half after leaving the company, I was making $10,000 a month. Honestly, it was much easier to earn money this way than working as an engineer. I typically worked less than four hours a day, completely stress-free. I could decide what I did, when I worked, where I worked, and who I worked with.
With that freedom, I started traveling around the world. I’ve visited over 20 countries while working from my laptop. I didn’t have to work for money anymore, and I could avoid stressful tasks because I had built up passive income through digital marketing. But despite this freedom, I started to feel a sense of emptiness. I was bored and had nothing to do. I wanted friends who also had the time and money to travel anytime, just like me. That’s when I began thinking about sharing my skills and experiences with others so we could enjoy this lifestyle together.
[As a digital marketing consultant]
In 2016, I started my own company and began offering digital marketing consulting services. I’ve taught digital marketing to my clients, who are mostly individuals but sometimes corporations as well. Many of them achieved financial success, and hearing their satisfaction made me truly happy. Since I enjoy taking on challenges, I decided to expand my business globally. It seemed difficult, but I found it exciting. To prepare, I started learning English and lived in New York for six months in 2018. Afterward, I spent time in Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Croatia, Montenegro, South Korea, and various cities in Japan. I was a digital nomad until the spring of 2020.
After the pandemic hit, I stayed in Japan and started an English vlog to improve my language skills. Now, my YouTube channel (YASU Business Channel) has over 58,000 subscribers, TikTok has 350,000 followers, and Instagram has 170,000 followers, even though my English isn’t perfect. My goal is to share my knowledge and experience in digital marketing with people all over the world.
