Hector Garcia

Many of us know Hector Garcia as one of the writers of the books - Ikigai, The Ikigai Journey and Ichigo Ichie; collaborated with Hector Garcia. Born on 1st November 1991. He is known for his bestselling books on health and spirituality. Someone who's so famous now, had started with so many different paths in life.

When he was just a young boy, he enjoyed reading sci-fi novels and dreamed of creating a better future for humanity. He usually used to draw a "smart watch" , which was something he had only imagined then. When he turned thirteen, he got his first video game console which he enjoyed playing a lot. So he decided he wanted to be a video game programmer one day. For years he chased that dream with the help of books. At eighteen, he went to college to study information tech.

When he graduated, he ch0se a different path and accepted a research scholarship at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland. After that, he continued to research in a laboratory in Japan. After a few years there, he realized that this was not something he wanted to devote his life to.

At the age of 25, he decided to return to his first ikigai, working in a video game industry. He had shut himself for several weeks, creating a video game with Nintendo characters. He went for his first job interview at Nintendo's Tokyo Offices where went to show them his game. They liked it so much that they called him for a second interview. Everything was going fine until a few days after that second interview, when he got a rejection letter.

So far, he was a programmer, software engineer, even the head of technology at several start-ups, but all (but one) went out of business. He was the first Twitter programmer who created the international version of Twitter in 2007.

Eventually, he decided to write everyday about what he learnt about Japanese culture. At the age of 27, he wrote his first book : A Geek in Japan. It sold very well, but Hector was not convinced with his writing ability. However, he continued writing until he got an illness, which me him very tired. He decided to give up writing.

One day, he met a traveller whose nickname was Sherpa, but his real name was Francesc Miralles, who arranged to have a dinner with Hector. Both of them spent wonderful time together, that they decided to meet again to go for a walk. When they went, Francesc complimented Hector, telling him how good he was at collecting weird information and summarizing whatever he learns. Hearing this, Hector started to believe that writing could be his ikigai. From then on, he made his life plan to continue to write more and more. Till now, he has published 10 books, with Ichigo Ichie being the latest book.

Sometimes, you need someone else in your life to confirm whether the path you have chosen is right or not, especially after taking so many paths.