I want to study for certifications, investing, and other things to prepare for my future and improve my skills. How would men feel if I told my papa (a male supporter) that I’d like to ask about and learn from his area of expertise?

I’m Dai, a male member. It gets boring when every conversation is about qualifications or managing your investments. But if that’s all you have to talk about, I suppose it can’t be helped.

Maezawa from the CEO’s office here. If you want things to continue going well with a woman, how would you feel if she asked you about romance, the topic you were discussing, or an area you’re knowledgeable about, saying she’d like you to teach her? Thinking about it that way may help you understand how men feel. Basically, I think many men would be happy to teach you, but more specific, focused questions may be easier to answer. Also, some men may prefer to keep things lively with more fun conversation, so I think timing matters too.

I’m Aya, a female member. As you can tell from the men’s answers, in the end, it really comes down to you. There may be too big a gap in experience between you and the papas for the conversation to go anywhere. I’ve also asked my papas and men I met through clubs and lounges all kinds of questions about investing, but I never had just one person teach me everything step by step. I think I learned by studying and figuring things out for myself through trial and error, based on what I heard from the papas. I’d ask different people about something I’d learned from someone else and compare their answers, or ask things like, “This book says this, but what do you actually think?” In the end, though, I believe I grew because I processed and made sense of it all for myself. These days, I talk about investing every night with one of my papas, and I’ve gotten good enough at it that he even compliments my instincts. So even if you’re going to ask questions, I think it’s best to do at least some studying beforehand.

I’m Osaka, a male member. I’ll talk about what I do for a living, and if you want to hear about my challenges in business, I’ll talk about those too. But for asset management or tax savings, I’d rather you ask someone who specializes in those areas. The same goes for qualifications—you’re better off asking someone who actually puts them to use. That said, whether you can apply what you hear or find it useful depends on your situation, lol. There are plenty of success stories and cautionary tales in bookstores and libraries, and there are just as many predictions and analyses about the future—but nobody really knows what’s going to happen. With that in mind, it comes down to what you ask. If all you can ask is, “Tell me how,” then the answers will be shallow too. But if you can come up with follow-up questions, the answers can go deeper and cover more ground. I don’t mind answering people’s questions. What really doesn’t work, though, are questions from people who only want a shortcut. This is a world you can’t get through knowing nothing but shortcuts. Wanting only success or wanting to get rich means you just want the results without being able to create the process. In that case, you might as well go looking for Doraemon. There’s no way to answer questions like that. Depending on the situation, you might end up having to listen forever to some old guy’s stories about his past exploits or hardships, lol. That’s genuinely painful—and people generally don’t want to listen to other people’s stories. They’re only interested in themselves and their own stories. Consider yourself warned, lol.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I’d be happy to explain the basics. That said, I think everyone should dig deeper into the subjects they’re personally interested in, so I believe you should study what interests you. I’m not a teacher or anything, so I’m put off when someone asks me to teach them everything from scratch just because it’s an area I know about. I think people should study on their own. I’m happy to offer advice on what to learn and how to go about learning it, though. Also, when someone asks me for an allowance on top of that, I get annoyed because it feels like they’re taking the world for granted.