To Bring Joy to Friends — How My Name Became My Life

My name is Tomoki. My parents chose characters that mean "to bring joy to friends."

As a boy in Shimonoseki, a port town in western Japan, I simply could not study. Reading without understanding, failing at arithmetic — all I had was sports. When my junior high school had no soccer club, I switched to basketball, practiced relentlessly, and made the prefectural select team.

What I learned was this: when the environment changes, don't sulk — aim for the top wherever you are. And one more thing: I never got anywhere alone. Around a boy who couldn't study, there were always, somehow, friends.

My parents' wish worked in reverse, too. Before I could bring joy to friends, friends kept saving me. That pattern would repeat for the rest of my life — in Canada at eighteen, in business, to this day.

Years later, I can state my management philosophy in one line: cherish the companions who rejoice together. It is not a theory. It is simply my name, lived out.

A name may be the first blueprint we receive from our parents. It took me forty-five years to realize I had been following mine all along.

What does your name mean? And — what do you work for?