I came to the GSB by mistake. When I applied, I was working for a bank in Japan. Nothing glamorous; I was a back office guy who worked a lot with IT systems people.
Editor’s Note
In this ongoing Stanford Business series, we ask Stanford GSB alumni to reflect on how their worldviews have changed in the years since they earned their degrees.
Naotake Murayama is currently working on a startup in the life sciences space. He is also on the board of an AI SaaS startup and a member of the founding team of a frontier tech hub in Croatia. He lives in San Francisco.
That experience, however, got me interested in the world of information technology and its potential to transform the banking industry. So when I decided to get an MBA in the U.S., I naively applied to Stanford because it’s “in Silicon Valley.”
If I reread my admissions essay now, I’d turn red. I wish I could’ve written “software will eat the financial industry,” but this was 1994 and my English writing wasn’t that good. Instead I laid out my innocent view of the tech industry and added a stock phrase about “contributing to Japan’s global success with my MBA.”
Unsurprisingly, once I started at the GSB, I felt really out of place. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “admissions mistake” used in a self-deprecating way by new admits finding themselves among highly talented, accomplished, and authentic classmates.
Fast-forward 30 years: I’m long gone from the banking industry. The Silicon Valley startup bug bit me at the GSB, and I eventually became a startup guy who worked with multiple companies in fields ranging from Saas and AI to biotech.
And I didn’t return to Japan. I remained in the Bay Area and worked in purely American environments where being Japanese meant nothing. I had to learn an entirely new set of skills once I started working here — including becoming professionally bilingual.
Upon graduating from the GSB, I knew that what mattered to me was to earn my chops as a Silicon Valley professional, run a tech startup someday, and do some impactful work beyond my ethnocultural background.
So I pursued that and got more or less what I wanted — albeit in unplanned and unexpected ways. I thought I had a shot at being a startup chief financial officer but ended up being a different kind of CFO — the “Chief of Figuring It Out.” What got me there? Stubborn perseverance, a bit of luck, and lots of help from my GSB friends.
So what matters to me now?
When I get Stanford Business in the mail, this is the first column I read after Class Notes. The conviction behind every alum’s life story is always inspiring. My story is at best a work-in-progress and I confess I don’t know what I’ll be doing next. And I’m OK with that.
I hope that every GSB class will welcome “admissions mistakes” to the program to maximize diversity and provide a transformational experience to others who, like me, find themselves on a lifelong path of exploration and reinvention.
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