I Failed Many Times in Global Business | 20 Years of Lessons from a Japanese Exporter

When people see a company that has been in international business for more than 20 years, they may imagine a long history of successful transactions.

But that is only part of the story.

I have made mistakes. I have faced difficult situations. Some decisions did not produce the result I expected. Sometimes communication could have been better. Sometimes I learned only after taking action.

Those experiences have been some of my most important teachers.

I am Yuichiro Watabe, President and CEO of EVERY TRADING Co., Ltd. We started our business in Japan in 2006 and have since worked with customers in more than 100 countries.

Looking back, I do not believe our experience comes only from what went well. It also comes from the problems we faced, the lessons we learned, and the improvements we made afterward.

Failure Is Part of International Business

Global business involves many factors that one company cannot completely control.

Markets change. Exchange rates move. Shipping schedules change. Regulations change. Customer expectations differ from country to country.

When you work across borders, differences in language, culture, business practices, infrastructure, and communication can also create challenges.

After more than 20 years, I have learned that experience does not mean avoiding every problem.

Experience means recognizing risks earlier, asking better questions, communicating more clearly, and responding better when something unexpected happens.

Lesson 1: Never Assume You Fully Understand the Customer

One lesson I have learned repeatedly is the danger of making assumptions.

A customer may ask for a Japanese used truck, but that does not tell us enough.

What will the truck carry? What roads will it use? What body type is required? Which engines can local mechanics maintain? What are the country's current import requirements?

The same applies to Japanese used buses, farm tractors, machinery, and passenger vehicles.

A vehicle that is suitable for one customer may be completely wrong for another.

This is why communication needs to come before recommendation.

Today, when we help a customer search for a vehicle, I want our team to understand the purpose behind the request—not only the model name.

Customers searching for commercial vehicles can compare our current Japanese Used Trucks for Sale, but the stock list should be the beginning of the selection process, not the end.

Lesson 2: Cheap Price Does Not Solve the Wrong Problem

In vehicle trading, price is always important.

But one of the lessons experience teaches you is that the lowest purchase price does not automatically create the best result.

A cheaper vehicle can become expensive if the specification is wrong, important repairs are required, parts are difficult to obtain locally, or the vehicle is unsuitable for the customer's business.

The opposite is also true.

An expensive vehicle is not automatically better.

The real question is whether the vehicle creates the right value for that customer.

This changed the way I think about selling.

Instead of focusing only on completing a transaction, we need to think about whether the purchase will still make sense after the vehicle reaches its destination and begins working.

Lesson 3: Check Before You Promise

Speed matters in international business.

Customers need answers. Vehicle availability changes quickly. Auction opportunities can disappear. Shipping schedules move.

But speed without checking can create another problem.

Over time, I have learned that a fast answer is valuable only when the information behind it is reliable.

If we do not know something, we should check.

If vehicle information is unclear, we should confirm it.

If an import requirement may have changed, it should be verified with the appropriate authority.

It is better to say, “Let me confirm that,” than to give a confident answer that later proves incorrect.

For me, professionalism is not pretending to know everything. It is knowing what needs to be checked.

Lesson 4: Problems Require Communication, Not Silence

Some of the most important moments in business happen when things do not go according to plan.

A shipping schedule may change. A document may require additional confirmation. A vehicle may need another check. An unexpected situation may occur somewhere in the process.

Silence makes uncertainty worse.

When there is a problem, customers need information.

What happened?

What is being checked?

What happens next?

When can they expect another update?

I have learned that we cannot always control the problem, but we can control how we communicate and how quickly we take action.

That response is part of trust.

Lesson 5: The Sale Is Not Finished When We Receive Payment

For an exporter, receiving payment may feel like an important milestone.

For the customer, however, there is still a long way to go.

The vehicle needs to be prepared for export, shipping needs to be arranged, documents need to be issued, and the customer needs information before the vehicle arrives.

This taught me to look at the transaction from the customer's side.

If you have paid a company in another country, you naturally want to know what is happening with your money and your vehicle.

That is why communication after payment is so important.

Customers buying from Japan for the first time can review our How to Buy from Japan guide to understand the basic purchasing and export process.

Lesson 6: Different Countries Require Different Thinking

Working with customers in more than 100 countries has taught me not to copy one market's solution into another market without checking.

Import rules differ. Roads differ. Shipping routes differ. Available spare parts differ. Customer budgets and business requirements differ.

Even the definition of a “good vehicle” can change depending on where it will work.

This is particularly important for commercial vehicles and equipment.

A truck, bus, tractor, or machine is often an investment that needs to produce value for a business.

Understanding the destination is therefore part of understanding the vehicle.

Lesson 7: Mistakes Have Value Only When We Change Something

I do not think making mistakes automatically makes someone experienced.

The important part is what happens afterward.

Why did it happen?

What information did we miss?

Was communication unclear?

Could we have checked something earlier?

What should we change so that the same problem is less likely to happen again?

This process—action, review, improvement, and action again—is something I consider very important.

A company does not become better simply because another year passes.

It becomes better when experience changes the way people work.

Lesson 8: Technology Helps Us Improve Faster

Today, we have tools that did not exist when we started in 2006.

Customers can search Japanese vehicles online, communicate instantly, share images and videos, translate information, and compare options from anywhere in the world.

AI is creating another major change.

I believe these technologies can help us analyze information faster, improve communication, find opportunities, and reduce repetitive work.

But technology does not remove responsibility.

People still need to check important information. People need to understand the customer. People need to make decisions. And people need to act when a problem occurs.

For me, the goal is not to replace experience with technology.

It is to use technology so that our experience can create better and faster service.

Lesson 9: Trust Is Tested When Things Are Difficult

It is easy to provide good service when everything is going well.

The real test often comes when something becomes difficult.

Do we answer?

Do we explain the situation honestly?

Do we take responsibility for what we can control?

Do we keep taking action?

Over the years, I have come to believe that these moments reveal more about a company than a perfect transaction does.

Trust is not built by saying, “Trust us.”

It is built through repeated actions.

I Would Not Remove the Failures from Our History

If I could go back to 2006 with everything I know today, of course there are decisions I would make differently.

But I would not remove every difficult experience.

Those experiences taught me to listen more carefully, check more thoroughly, communicate faster, and think beyond one transaction.

They also taught me that international business is fundamentally about relationships between people.

Vehicles may be the products we trade, but trust is what allows the relationship to continue.

Right Vehicle. Right Value. Right Support.

Many of the lessons we learned through both success and failure now come back to three simple ideas:

Right Vehicle. Right Value. Right Support.

The Right Vehicle means understanding what the customer actually needs and where the vehicle will work.

The Right Value means looking beyond the lowest price and considering condition, specification, operating environment, and long-term usefulness.

The Right Support means checking carefully, communicating clearly, acting quickly, and continuing to support the transaction when something becomes difficult.

Twenty years in global business has not taught me how to avoid every failure.

It has taught me something more useful: how important it is to learn, improve, and keep taking responsible action.

That is the experience we want to use for every customer we support today—and every customer we will meet in the future.

Yuichiro Watabe
President & CEO
EVERY TRADING Co., Ltd.