A refusal five years ago, and a strange connection with SoftBank

Five years ago, I passed the interviews and received an offer to join SoftBank in Vietnam. I still remember how overwhelming that day felt. I had lived, worked and met major partners in Japan for years, yet I have to admit that SoftBank's Vietnam office was, at the time, one of the most polished and professional workplaces I had ever walked into. In front of me was a clear career ladder inside a global technology group.

In the end, I chose to smile and decline.

A decision that was not easy

It was a genuinely painful decision. SoftBank's founder is one of the strongest sources of inspiration I have had on my entrepreneurial path. Turning down an offer from the organization of someone you admire is not an impulsive act, and it is certainly not arrogance. I understood that IT solutions create enormous value for businesses. I had worked in that field for years and believed in its worth.

But I was still surrounded by an emptiness I could not quite name. I realized that optimizing a software system until it runs smoothly is not enough if the people who operate it are depleted, physically and mentally. Technology can make work faster, but it cannot by itself answer the question of how the people behind it are living.

Looking for my own Ikigai

I decided to step out of that glamorous tower, to slow down and look for my own Ikigai. I asked myself a question bigger than a job: what core value can I build and give back to society?

Only after I found my answer to the problem of health at its root, a wish to care for people from body to mind, did HOPE CORP truly come into being. I do not see it as a career change. It was a return to the question I had carried throughout my years in technology: what is technology for, and whom does it serve?

For a while, I believed my path and SoftBank's had turned into two parallel lines from that day onward. Until recently.

An unexpected resonance

Watching SoftBank's larger moves, I smiled quietly at a strange sense of resonance.

Its Vision Fund is no longer focused only on semiconductors or robotics. It is putting substantial resources into a new front: healthcare. It has taken a stake in the pharmaceutical group Roche, formed the SB Tempus joint venture to analyze medical data with technology, and invested in digital health systems.

Back then, I turned down a technology group to work in health. Today, that same group is putting billions of dollars into the health market. I do not take this as luck. I take it as a signal that the direction I chose is not a lonely one.

What stands out is that SoftBank is not building drug factories. It is betting on precision medicine, where technology, including AI and data, meets user experience to create personalized care for each individual. The value lies not in the product itself, but in how well you understand people and walk alongside them.

Conviction in the chosen path

Looking at how the world's leading organizations shape the future, I feel more strongly that leaving that comfort behind was worth it.

Today's market no longer needs people who simply sell a standalone box of product. Customers need to be understood, and they need solutions that reach body, mind and intellect in a systematic way. Proactive health care, in my view, begins with understanding each person: their habits, their rhythm of life and their individual needs.

I am not yet ready to share much about our next strategic moves. But one thing is certain: HOPE CORP is changing quietly and decisively. We keep our philosophy of living in harmony with nature, while building solid foundations to personalize the experience of each user. IKI is a dietary supplement, and we are always clear about that. When process, data and a real understanding of each person weave together, I believe lasting value follows.

What I take from it

Some refusals in the past open a space of freedom in the present. Although SoftBank and I never became colleagues, today we meet at a large intersection: the future of health must begin with understanding people from the root.

Business is like life. Sometimes you have to dare to let go of something very good in order to reach for something greater. I do not know exactly what lies ahead, but I know I am walking the direction I chose.

Perhaps one day I will shake hands with SoftBank's founder, not as the job seeker of years ago, but as partners who share a vision for human health care.