I don’t usually read business books, and I don’t know if this book can be considered a business book or an autobiography, but when I am feeling down, I read this book, “Only One Enthusiast” by Toru Kenzyo
The author, needless to say, is the founder of Gentosha, and the person in charge of the book is the famous editor, Mr. Minowa.
It is fun to listen to the episodes that led to the creation of this book through direct talks between Mr.Kenzyo and Mr. Minowa on YouTube, but reading the book is the best way to directly feel the passion of the author.
Although Mr. Kenzyo is now well known as the founder of Gentosha, I personally have a strong impression of “Wild Age” and “Monthly Kadokawa” published by Kadokawa Shoten. I was part of the generation that was crazy about reading these magazines, and I still have clippings from issues that featured Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yutaka Ozaki.
Mr. Kenzyo was the one who took Kadokawa Monthly, which was not selling well at the time, and turned it into a mega-magazine with sales that quickly doubled.
When I was reading it, I thought it was an interesting magazine, but I did not know Mr. Kenzyo at all, but when I read the aforementioned “Only One Enthusiast,” I understood how that happened, and even after all this time, I still think it was a natural hit.
Today, Gentosha is a general publisher, but at its core is President Kenzyo’s boundless love for the literary arts.
It is a well-known story that when Mr. Kenzyo was editor-in-chief, he not only read the novels of Hiroyuki Itsuki and Shintaro Ishihara, but also memorized all of their writings and recited them in front of them when they asked for manuscripts.
Probably, there was not a single novelist who was not shaken by this. He must have felt overwhelming enthusiasm for Mr. Kenzyo and surely forgiven him. After all, there is nothing more satisfying for a writer.
Reading Mr. Kenzyo’s book, I too feel that I must seriously face my work, not as a reference for starting a business or to supplement my enthusiasm for working, but simply as a writer, and I feel that I must straighten my collar.
That is, if you are a writer, you must write so that you don’t waste a single sentence, and you must get an enthusiastic reader who wants to recite every sentence. That is the minimum spirit of a person who wants to pursue a career in literature.
But, of course, there is always the barrier of talent. There are birds that can sing and those that cannot. It is a cruel reality that some birds can sing and others cannot.
In the face of this reality, we tend to become discouraged. We compromise with poor writing. We tend to think that if we just write it and submit it, it will be good enough (e.g., for application).
However, if the author is not enthusiastic about his or her own work, there is no way to make others enthusiastic. It is because it is difficult to absorb the extract of that enthusiasm that I keep coming back to this book.
The enthusiasm of only one person.
In every field of art, the author is a solitary person. And only he/she knows his/her own work. This book teaches us the importance of creating a whirlpool of enthusiasm that includes you.
And it encourages us to simply keep writing. Of course, I recommend this book not only to creators of literature and art, but also to anyone who is unsure of how to go about working.
