Sleep well and wake up early.
Naoki Yamada grew up in Japan and went to college in Los Angeles, California. After graduation, he started working for company in Japan as a system engineer. Naoki loves to watch and play sports and travels a lot to know the diversity of every culture.
Where did the idea for Any Door come from?
Many of my colleague need a translation for their jobs and I was sure that there is a big demand for affordable translation.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I usually think a lot about the future of our product. I use morning time which I can concentrate on for thinking.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Talk about the ideas to people a lot.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Internet of Things.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Listen to music with headphones to shut out the noise.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
Before starting up the company, I worked for logistic company as a part-timer and that starts midnight till morning. I learned that night time sleep is the most important thing for the productivity.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I’ll hire more people faster to accelerate the speed of growing.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Sleep well and wake up early.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
Not focusing on the daily chores, but on the big picture.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Again, I couldn’t hire employees for the first 3 years and that was the biggest failure I had.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Good business ideas always pop up when you feel pain. I’d like to make an app that automatically update a calendar when you schedule a meeting via on Facebook or LinkedIn message.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
I can play piano.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
I use to get latest news. The greatest part of this app is that someone read latest news for you.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Founder’s dilemma.
You can know most of the dilemma you’ll face as an entrepreneur from this book.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Paul Graham (Founder of Y combinator): http://paulgraham.com/
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.