Yusaku Maezawa : Self-made Japanese Billionaire who Bought SpaceX’s First Ticket to Moon
Though the 9 to 5 jobs are secure and have opportunities for growth, not many resemble the very idea. Despite that, there are only a few who take the step to make their lives different from that. It requires lots of courage to deal with what comes with the risk one takes to get an unusual but better life. One such person who never liked the idea of living the life of a salaryman is the Japanese entrepreneur and founder of Zozotown, Yusaku Maezawa.
Early Life
Yusaku Maezawa was born and brought up in Chiba City near Tokyo in Japan. While growing up, he got the opportunity to study at the Jitsugyo high school; a school affiliated from the prestigious Waseda University. Usually, it took him to reach the school around one and a half hour trough the train. While travelling on the train, Maezawa saw many salaried men around him, and he could never relate to them as well as the idea of 9 to 5 jobs. This was the time when he decided that he would never go for a salaried job but will do something more interesting and maybe something on his own.
While at school, Maezawa got introduced to a punk band named Switch Style, which later, he joined as a guitarist. Soon, he learnt to play other instruments as well and became the main drummer of the band. With the band, he got to travel to different cities and even countries. Once, when he went on a tour to New York with his band, he was quite amused by looking at how the new internet technology was developing there. Maezawa found out that the growth of the internet has also produced many opportunities for the people as well.
Starting Entrepreneurial Journey
When back from the tour, Maezawa realised that even without knowing, he ultimately had caught into a salaried job. But he had no plans to continue. In 1998, to pursue his dream of starting his own business, he alongside his job in the band, started selling music CDs, under the company name Start Today. It was a mail-order business. Influenced by the rise of the internet, in 2000, he took his business online. Soon, Maezawa started stocking up clothes and fashion accessories on the platform. With the rise in demand and to focus entirely on his business, he quit his music career in 2001.
The company was rebranded as Zozotown, which in 2005, became solely a fashion eCommerce website, as Maezawa cut the Music CD selling business free the same year. Within two years, the company grew enough to go public in the Tokyo Mothers Market in 2007.
Interest in Art and Culture
Yusaku Maezawa, apart from being a former musician, has always been interested in art and culture and had dreamt of working in the same regard. So, in 2012, he founded Contemporary Art Foundation; a foundation that entirely focusses on art and promoting young artists through awards and grants. He also had the plans to establish an art museum in Chiba. So for his non-existing museum too, Maezawa was always looking for great art pieces that he now exhibits through his foundation every year.
In 2017, Zozotown integrated an online measurement system, named Zozosuit, and the same year, Zozotown became Zozo.
Maezawa has always had free-thinking and is known for his progressive management style. In fact, he started a 6-hour working day system in June 2012 to make his employees spend more time with their family. His company also offers extra housing allowance to the employees who live far from their homes to work in the company. He is also into charity works.
Accomplishments
In 2017 his estimated worth was 1.5 billion. According to 2018’s Forbe report, Maezawa is the 14th richest person in Japan with a net worth of $2.7 billion. His company has raised to over 2000 employees, and the online platform has got over 3 million registered users. Maezawa holds around 59% of shares in Zozo. Besides art and culture, he is also very interested in travelling, and 60% of his time, he is out of Japan, travelling.
Talking about travelling as his hobby, Maezawa is the first person who will be travelling to the moon with Elon Musk’s BFR rocket in 2023. He will also be inviting a few artists with him to travel. According to him, he has already made a down payment for the ticket for the moon mission to SpaceX.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.