I was looking at the night time Tokyo from the train window. I had no money, no connections, no place to stay and no prototype of my product until January 2018. I was suffocating with anxiety.
But at the same time, I had a genuine passion for my product.
This is my story: how I struggled through hardships to challenge modern hologram technology.
I am an ADHDer
My name is Yoshua. I’m from Japan. My country strongly discourages people like me, trying to fulfil their dreams, to create a startup and develop their dream product.
But I’m rather stubborn and don’t give up easily.
I am an ADHD entrepreneur — I have ADHD and want to create a social system where people like me — people different from what is considered normal — can thrive.
I’ve been experiencing all sort of difficulties my whole life. I’d often shift my focus from one thing to the other, abandoning the former. I’d forget to bring my stuff with me, miss an appointment or a deadline. I’d talk too much.
People would often think I’m just lazy. I felt isolated and was convinced there’s something wrong with me.
I don’t want others to feel like this. I want to help people with ADHD to have a more comfortable, better life.
A Hologram Personal Assistant
It all started with a product I made with my friends, Ashlee. It’s a voice assistant like Alexa, but that’s where the similarities end.
Alexa isn’t what I’m looking for. It can follow commands, but it can’t remind me to take my stuff when I go out, or lead me through a complicated task for an ADHDer, like cleaning my room or cooking. It can’t take care of my mental well-being.
Ashlee can do these things, as it was designed by a person with ADHD who knows what we need to have more comfortable lives. It was developed with a psychological approach that other personal assistants lack.
Don’t turn around and give up
I had a rather grand dream: to solve the problem of ADHD, once and for all.
Of course, it wasn’t going to be easy — many obstacles were in my way.
I had no real money, maybe $1500 in my bank account. I had no connections, not even in Japan.
I did have a ticket, though — a ticket to SXSW.
I started to raise the money with a crowdfunding campaign. This taught me that one’s passion could be transmitted to others if it’s genuine and comes from the heart. I managed to raise quite a sum, $6500.
My other problem was, I had no connections — a crucial element of entrepreneurship. But when I went to SXSW, I met Mr Demura and his Kolonel Inc. I told him my dream to help people with ADHD. His booth was half empty. It was because, he explained, the space was designed to display more than 1 product. We don’t need all of it so you could show your product here. Of course, I accepted.
I was so excited and started preparing for the show immediately.
I asked Mr Demura to let me stay at his Airbnb, and he generously accepted. At SWSX, I also met Mr Iguchi of DokiDoki Inc., who taught me how to deliver a presentation that will move people’s hearts.
Of course, my first presentations were horrendous, but I was learning and improving every day. Just like Mr Iguchi, I stopped talking about my product and started to tell my story and share my passion.
The simple truth of emotional connection.
A day before the Trade Show, the prototype broke. My cheap suitcase got damaged, and the prototype along with it.
There was no time to fix it, so I decided to show a mock hologram — a hologram of me. Thus began a race with time — I ran around unfamiliar shops in a foreign country, trying to assemble the parts I needed. All that time, I was fighting down panic.
But the day after, I succeeded in displaying the hologram: me.
The phrase “It’s me” attracted people, and my story helped me connect with them on an emotional level. Some people tweeted about my product; some introduced me to other people; some even went to see a movie with me. All agreed that my project is crazy but encouraged me to keep going. It wasn’t just a personal assistant like Alexa, they said, it could be an answer to the needs of people struggling with ADHD. It could make their lives so much better, so much more accessible.
The challenge of the Next User Interface
As I have mentioned in my previous posts, my smartphone is both a blessing and a curse. It helps me with everyday things that I struggle with, like reminding me of meetings. But it’s also incredibly overstimulating at times, with all sort of notifications going off and off.
The interface of the iPhone is incredible. But also sometimes irritating to use when I need to concentrate.
I want to make myself — and others as well — free from smartphones.
The tricky stuff
Natural User Interface, Gesture UI or VUIs, will be the next user interfaces. But the tricky stuff in VUIs is Wake-up Words, such as “Ok, Google” or “Alexa.”
Humans are passive beings. We can be motivated, however, by love and empathy. Amazon Echo and Google Home are just tools to make our lives more comfortable, no to help us feel loved. There’s nothing worse than the absence of love.
I’ve researched about motivation and how to motivate people. Love drives our passion and spurs us into action. But how can a machine like the Amazon Echo motivate us? Instead, it can render us passive.
During the SXSW Trade Show, I talked with about 250 people a day. 50% of them had a smart speaker, and only 20% of the smart speaker holders used a personal assistant function. They mostly used them to listen to music.
To make life better
Nowadays, Voice UIs are improving exponentially, and we’re getting closer to innovation every day. What is the most crucial driving power is the will to make life better for people. We must not forget it.
We have to understand that we humans are continually evolving and that humankind is magnificently diverse. I want to create a social system in which this diversity can thrive. After all, it is that diversity and all our differences that have been changing the world.
My dream has just barely started
I’m looking down through an airplane window on Austin on the break of sunset.
I still didn’t really have any money, and just a few new connections.
But I always had passion.
George Bernard Shaw said that a life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
If you have a true passion, the impossible will become possible.
HoloAsh, Yoshua Kishi
yoshua@holoash.com
