How Colto’s CTO Pursued his Passion for Learning Japanese

Starting over with Internal Motivation

Taking things back 3 years ago, Davide had problems.

He was overwhelmed by fears and anxiety: getting nervous throughout his days with no apparent reason, constant thoughts of not being good enough, not achieving enough, being left behind by other people. His emotional and mental health was declining quickly. Davide was truly unhappy.

He decided that something needed to change. He was already successful being the Head of Technology for Colto and he loves his job as a developer, but a piece was still missing.

Learning Japanese and exploring the culture of Japan was that missing piece. The language, the culture, the people of Japan, all of it intrigues Davide. He was an Italian with no Japanese surroundings growing up but somehow, it has always been a dream of Davide to be able to work and live in Japan.

So, days in and days out, Davide balanced between the busy day of building a business with the passion of learning Japanese. He would spend all of his mornings and afternoons working as the CTO, in his evenings perfecting his coding skills and late nights practicing Japanese.

He learned Japanese all by himself with zero vocabulary, zero understanding of grammar. Starting from scratch entirely. But he thoroughly enjoyed this process. And he was willing to put in the work.

Davide commented that learning Japanese was the intrinsic motivation that has constantly pushed him to always change and improve himself, essentially kickstarting his personal development journey.

Through learning Japanese, he cultivated discipline and determination. And through researching how to practice Japanese more effectively, he discovered The Power of Habits and started building his daily routines. 

Reflecting on this process, Davide realized that he has grown more confident in his ability to deal with stress, to manage a project and pursue his passion. Anxiety and fear were gradually replaced by enthusiasm and calmness.

Never Stop Learning

He realized that the sweet spot of personal development was constantly reaching the limit of one’s capacity. Going beyond our capacity too much would lead to burned-out and taking the fun out of the process.

Davide shared that one of the principles that guided him through this journey was: Never stop learning.

My grandfather passed it onto me: Never stop learning.

In the past 3 years, Davide encountered many problems and obstacles. He aimed too high and didn’t make much progress in Japanese in the first 6 months. He realized that passing the N3 goal right away was not going to work. So he got back to the basic and slowly moved his way up.

Most people would let view those setbacks as failures and lose their motivation. But Davide always considered them as a learning opportunity. He would analyze and review his progress every month, constantly adjust the learning routine and expand his understanding of personal development.

To Davide, we can achieve a lot more than we think of ourselves if we learn how to manage our projects better. Everything can be divided into smaller, more manageable pieces. And with patience, we will gradually move up the levels completing the smaller work.

The Achievements

Davide has passed N3 he plans to take N2 soon. Living in Japan is no longer a faraway dream with Davide now.

To Davide, it’s satisfying to complete the small daily actions just as the same as achieving a big goal. The journey and destination both give Davide his sense of Life Mastery.

We hope that Davide’s story inspires you to start taking action towards your goals. A part of my job is to talk with Habitify’s long-time users and share their awesomeness around.

What’re your thoughts on Davide’s “Never stop learning” motto?