What is a company actually for?
Monosus began with a simple desire to find the answer to that very question.
There are all kinds of companies in this world.
Some are household names known by everyone. Some spark world-changing innovations. Others are small businesses existing solely to support a founder and their family, while some remain obscure but never stop chasing their dreams. I believe every one of these forms is right in its own way.
Yet, as I looked at the world and asked myself, "Which way of being feels most right to me?" I couldn't find a perfect fit. There were many companies I respected or admired, but back then, I couldn't find a single one where I felt, "This is where I want to belong for a long time."
Ultimately, I believe that humans live to be happy.
If that’s the case, we have to consider what "being happy" actually means. For now, our answer is this: to be able to feel, "This is exactly as it should be." Saying these words sounds simple, but I believe it is actually incredibly difficult.
This phrase can only be uttered by someone who has gone through an endless cycle of trial and error—thinking, practicing, reflecting, and trying again in both their work and life. Through that process, they learn their "true measure" and find the means to satisfy it. Only then can they clearly distinguish and reject those similar-sounding but different thoughts, such as "Is this really okay?" or "I guess this will have to do."
When I realized this and looked around, I saw very few people living their lives truly saying, "This is exactly as it should be." I, of course, was one of them. That’s when I started thinking: what if a company could function as a system to increase the chances of people being able to say those words? Wouldn't that be a truly wonderful thing?
Elephants in the Wild vs. Elephants in the Zoo
It is said that elephants living in the wild live more than twice as long as those in zoos. One might think that zoo elephants—protected from predators, provided with ample food, and given medical care by veterinarians—would live longer, or at least as long as their wild counterparts. But the reality is quite the opposite.
Rather than external factors like the threat of predators or the availability of food, it is internal factors—the ability to decide for oneself where to go, what to eat, and what to do—that dictate the very length of life itself. This teaches us that for any living creature, not just humans, whether or not one holds the power of choice is one of the most critical factors in their sense of happiness. In essence, it all comes down to whether you can decide the things that happen around you.
However, if we simply apply this to ourselves, it might lead to a rather dull conclusion: that only "important people" who have been handed formal decision-making power can be happy.
If we view this power as something that must be "granted by someone else," then such an interpretation might be unavoidable.
But what if that power is something you can grant to yourself?
If that were the case, I believe our sense of affirmation toward ourselves and our surroundings, and our overall happiness in life, would grow far beyond what they are today.
"How can we grant ourselves the power to decide?" This question was the starting point for us at Monosus.
Having Your Own "Monosashi"
"Granting oneself decision-making authority" might sound a bit grand, so let’s rephrase it as "choosing for oneself."
Work. Life. And the very act of living through them. If we can choose these things freely and for ourselves, that would surely make for a wonderful life. And to do that, I believe what we need is not a standard handed to us by others or society, but to have our own "monosashi"—our own ruler.
When you have your own ruler, you are no longer measured by others; you can measure for yourself.
However, if you were suddenly handed a blank ruler with no markings, you would likely be at a loss. That is why we do it together. One by one, we think, we discuss, we experiment, and we decide what those markings should be.
The process of carving each marking into our own rulers, bit by bit—we have decided to call this activity by the verb "monosasu."
A collection of many different rulers, held by people who "monosasu."
That is what Monosus is.
