I Graduated from the University of Tokyo Law School
An employee of Yamaichi Securities, the now-defunct Japanese brokerage firm, once called the head of human resources at a foreign securities company, hoping to find a new job.
“I work for Yamaichi Securities. I’d like to apply for a position at your company.”
“What can you do?”
“I graduated from the University of Tokyo.”
“I’m not asking where you went to school. I’m asking what kind of work you’ve done and what you are capable of doing for us.”
“I graduated from the University of Tokyo Law School.”
“That’s not what matters. Are you confident in your English conversation skills?”
“No, I don’t speak English well. But I graduated from the University of Tokyo Law School.”
“Let’s leave the University of Tokyo out of this conversation.”
The applicant fell silent for a while, then hung up the phone.
The story appears in Kim Ji-ryong’s I Find Japanese Culture Fascinating.
Graduating from a prestigious university is certainly a valuable asset. But what matters far more is what you are able to do today with what you learned there.
The same is true of life.
People often talk about what they have accumulated along the way—what school they attended, what title or position they held, whom they know, or how many years they have worked.
But there is a question that matters more than all of these:
“So, what can you do?”
Reflection of the Day
★ A person’s true worth lies not in what they possess, but in what they are capable of doing. ★
[Go back to Korean version] 한국어
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