Do hard things

Fifteen years ago, I landed in Japan with a laptop, a bass guitar, and no plan. Today, I've built and run a company, speak to thousands in a second language, and have mastered skills I once thought impossible. At the core of everything I have achieved lies a simple principle: do hard things.

This has taught me something powerful about potential—both my own and what's possible for anyone willing to push beyond their comfort zone.

Whenever I look forward to make plans for the future, I always look back at what I've achieved. To reflect on the choices I've made before, but also to give me confidence in what I'm about to do next. Over the past 15 years, I can confidently say I've done many hard things—things that many people doubted I could do, things that seemed unfeasible, unachievable, where the risk of failure seemed almost inevitable. Lately I've been preparing myself for a new challenge—another "hard thing"—which has me reflecting again.

Through this reflection, I've realized I've achieved everything I've wholeheartedly committed to. Here are some of the hard things I've done:

Moving to Japan
In 2010 I moved to Japan, with no plan, resources, or connections to leverage. I simply had the goal of building a career and life in Japan. Without ever having done something like this, the difficulty and potential for failure was high. But I went all in, armed with nothing but a laptop and a bass guitar. Fifteen years ago I wouldn't believe where I would be today.

Building a career in design
Along with that move, I built a career in design from scratch. I never planned to become a designer, but once I got a taste of creating products, I knew this was my path—even without knowing how to get there. Fifteen years later, I've built expertise that not only keeps me competitive in today's industry but positions me for whatever comes next.

Learning a new language
Of all the hard things I've done, learning Japanese to fluency stands out as the hardest. Japanese is notoriously one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers, yet I taught myself to read, write, and speak fluently—all while working full-time and building a career in a foreign country. I eventually passed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT N1), competed alongside native speakers in all-Japanese work environments, and delivered numerous public speeches at events with hundreds of attendees in Japanese. Once again, I had exceeded my own expectations.

Learning to code
As if building a life in a foreign country, launching a design career, and mastering Japanese wasn't enough, I decided I should learn to code. Most people start sensibly—JavaScript in the browser, Python because it's "easy." But I've always ignored difficulty in favor of goals. I wanted to bring my app designs to life, so I dove straight into coding iOS apps in Objective-C.

I had no computer science background, didn't understand basic concepts like pointers or manual memory management. But I figured it out. I built and shipped countless iOS apps—not because I wanted to learn programming, but because I had ideas demanding implementation. From there: native Mac apps, Android apps in Java, web frontend, and eventually full-stack. When I started, I would have been satisfied just to create a simple app. Now I'm confident I can build in any language, framework, or platform I choose.

Creating a company
Somewhere along my journey, I began to acclimate to these self-imposed challenges and decided I needed to reset the difficulty level. So I quit my job and dove into freelance design work full-time, with savings from a single project as my only runway.

Within months, I had already matched my previous salary in revenue, taken on a partner, and properly incorporated. For those unfamiliar with Japan, just navigating the paperwork and administrative duties of running a corporation as a non-native is its own hard thing. Starting from scratch yet again, I spent four years building a solid network and body of work. In the end, I more than quadrupled my previous salary in yearly revenue.

This wasn't easy, but by tackling another hard thing, I achieved more than I had imagined possible. It also led directly to landing my current role—my dream job.

Public Speaking
Many people who've met me recently think I'm a natural at public speaking—that I love it, never get nervous, or have always had some innate talent. In my current role, I regularly speak to live audiences in the hundreds and have presented on stream to tens of thousands. But the truth is, developing this skill was another hard thing.

I am, and have always been, an introvert. I used to be terrified of public speaking—in some ways, I still am. In school, I dreaded being called on because I'd stumble over my words. I could never have imagined voluntarily stepping on stage to speak, let alone doing it in a second language.

What changed? I realized I had ideas worth sharing. The more I shared them, the more positive feedback I received. I discovered that the things occupying my thoughts all day were actually valuable to others—they inspired people. I tackled the hard thing of learning to speak publicly because my excitement about what I could potentially achieve outweighed my fear of failure.

I'm still far from becoming a truly great speaker, but I've somehow managed to inspire people around the world through my talks—far more than I ever dreamed possible.

Writing
While public speaking helped my ideas reach audiences, I felt I needed another medium to bring them to even more people. So I started writing.

Last year, in the midst of one of the busiest and most challenging periods of my career, I began writing what would become an 80+ page thesis on building design-driven culture and democratizing design. Having never tackled anything like this, I didn't know if I could produce something coherent, let alone inspiring in written form.

Halfway through the nth revision, mentally exhausted with nothing left to give, I broke down in tears and almost quit—swearing I'd never attempt long-form writing again (yet here I am!). But then I remembered: even though I might not be good at writing yet, I was good at doing hard things. And that would eventually get me where I wanted to go.

That work spawned an article, an ebook, and multiple speaking opportunities.

Becoming unstoppable
People often ask where my unshakeable confidence comes from. They don't believe me when I say I'm confident I can become competent at whatever I focus on.

Where does it come from? It comes from doing hard things. Doing things I thought were impossible. Things I thought I would probably fail at, but instead emerging stronger, more confident, and more successful than before.

I'm confident because I've pushed myself through fears to my limits—multiple times, alone, to the point of tears, mental and physical exhaustion, convinced I had failed—only to eventually succeed.

Hard things are still hard, but they get easier the more you do them. They get easier in hindsight because you know the steps it took to get there. But they also get easier because of the confidence gained through overcoming them. Knowing you're capable of doing hard things is a powerful mindset that sets you up to tackle increasingly difficult challenges.

Doing hard things is like moving a fully loaded train—the initial movement requires immense effort, but eventually that movement transforms into an unstoppable force.

Doing hard things makes you unstoppable.

What's next?
That's the power of doing hard things. Even after accomplishing so much, instead of resting on my laurels, I keep signing myself up for more. Not because I enjoy the struggle, but because I know what lies beyond it—and I'm excited to get there. Hard things are walls to climb, and I'm confident in my ability to scale them.

I'm not writing this to showcase my achievements or position myself as exceptionally smart or important. On the contrary, I'm writing this for everyone currently doing or considering hard things—to tell you that you can do them too.

Unlike me, you don't have to do it alone.

Over the years, I've mentored and coached others through hard things in their careers and lives. If you're currently tackling hard challenges or even just thinking about getting started, let's talk.