Asuka Ishibashi
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While in Chicago I met with Asuka Ishibashi (石橋 明日香石橋明佳) who is the Suzy Orman of Japan. She started out as a day trader after working for an investment bank made a lot of money trading and then went on to write a ton of books on investing, especially investment guides for women in Japan and now she serves on an a government economic committee, appears on TV regularly and has her own hedge fund. Amazing amazing person.
Without a doubt Asuka has had to overcome a lot of challenges to get to her position in society in Japan, but I didn’t ask her about that. I’m not really sure why. But I heard some guy compliment her on being able to achieve so much in such a male dominated society. She responded with an awkward grin. It reminded me of when people would congratulate me on accomplishing so much as a minority in America or having grown up in poverty. I had that same awkward grin.
There are rules to success in any society. If we learn those rules I think almost anyone can succeed. Learning the rules does not mean following them. It just means understanding them. For Asuka I assume she made a lot of money day trading (I read somewhere she made $1M in one year), was there a rule that said women can’t day trade in Japan? Was there a rule that said minorities can’t work in computer security? So do we really need to be congratulated for doing something we always had the right and freedom to do?
