Mar. 2026 The New Yoshida Times "What it means to do what you love as a job"

Good morning/evening everyone. This is Yoshida from milestone .

Last time, I spoke passionately about the appeal of 100 miles in trail running. If you haven't seen the previous blog yet, I hope you will warm yourself by reading my passionate thoughts on 100 miles by clicking on the image below .

Not just trail running, but people who participate in mountain-related activities are often wonderful people who truly have a spirit of altruism.

I am currently working at Milestone, surrounded by such business partners and colleagues, and in this article I would like to write about how I came to work here.

After graduating from university, I loved clothes so much that I joined a children's clothing brand as a new graduate. The reason I joined was because "even though I only graduated from the Faculty of Economics, there was an opportunity for me to plan products."

However, the opportunity never came, and after being transferred from department store sales to brand merchandising to logistics, I was assigned to the overseas business department, even though I couldn't speak English at all. The head of the human resources department at the time was even more surprised than I was when he found out after handing me my appointment that I couldn't speak English at all. Come on, I should have looked into it beforehand, haha.

This is when my first period of immersion in studying began. I decided to immerse myself in English, so I left American news programs on all the time at home (even while I was sleeping), wrote emails in English at work, prepared export documents in English, and actively used Skype and other methods to call people from Europe and Asia who are not native English speakers and who speak English relatively slowly, creating opportunities to speak English.

The media was amused by my struggles, and I was invited to appear on NHK's "English Talk Night" program, and I was also featured in employment magazines, often featuring my clumsy efforts to move forward despite my poor English at the time.

I ended up being part of the Overseas Business Division for over six years, and not only did I go on annual business trips to New York, but I also had the opportunity to experience many places and meet people in Europe and Asia, which really helped me develop a strong sense of being Japanese.

During this time, I realized that in order to explain myself to others and to get to know people from different cultures better, I needed to study history, which was a prerequisite, so I read a lot of historical novels, including the books of everyone's favorite author, Ryotaro Shiba, and Shiono Nanami.I call myself a book lover, but I started reading books late, and it was around this time that I got into it.

I'm ashamed to say that I read dozens of what are considered classic business and logical thinking books during this time, and looking back, I realize that it was during this period that I laid the foundation for the way I think about my work today.

My English skills eventually improved to the point where I was able to directly sell the brand's sales floor to the CEO of a large, long-established American department store (in English) and explain products to the sales staff on the floor. Just as I decided to live my life as an international citizen, a second turning point came.

I never expected to be transferred to the Product Planning Department, which was what I had hoped for when I joined the company.

As you can imagine, this is where my second period of immersion in learning began. I learned all the things I had always wanted to know about thread, fabric, sewing, etc. from my superiors in the product planning department, pattern makers, fabric manufacturers, sewing factories, and so on.

However, this is something I have always wanted to do, and something I have loved since I was a child, so I was able to immerse myself in it without any difficulty, forgetting to eat or sleep. I was also able to achieve something that seemed like a dream come true - dressing my children, who had just been born, in clothes that I had designed, and it was a truly happy experience.

A few years after I was transferred to the Product Planning Department, I was given full responsibility for brand planning, and just as I made the strong decision to make a living creating products, a third turning point came (again!).

I was asked to go back into sales, this time as a shop manager at a department store, and then I was put in charge of expanding e-commerce (online sales), which was becoming increasingly popular at the time.
That's where e-commerce malls like ZOZOTOWN came in as a new sales channel. In particular, I had the opportunity to interact directly with the former president of ZOZO, Mr. Maezawa, and the current president, Mr. Sawada, as they were both actively working on-site at the time, and looking back, it was an incredibly valuable experience.

Actually, at that time, many of my e-commerce mall clients were concentrated in Tokyo, so I was making monthly business trips to Tokyo, and there was a group running event that I always participated in on the nights of my business trips.

Many people who do trail running in the Kanto region will be familiar with Atsugi University. Yes, I used to attend the group run every month, which has now grown to the point of hosting large-scale trail running competitions involving the local community, and the drinking parties that followed.

This explanation of my career history is quite long haha. I've finally come to a topic that is close to my current activities, so I'll stop writing for this month and next month I'll give you a quick rundown of my career up to now.

We would be extremely grateful if you could send us any messages you have, such as your thoughts, opinions, or topics you would like us to cover.
See you next month, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.