Masami Sato is interviewed for the leading Australian women's magazine Honestly Woman about her passion, Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1) and her business jouney.

Tell us the beginnings of the Buy1GIVE1 story.

Having travelled a lot in my earlier life and seeing people living in absolute poverty, and children living on the streets, I never thought my life was just about doing things for my own or my direct family’s benefit. I felt connected to all the people I met on the journey as if we were all part of the same family.

When we thought of starting our first enterprise, Bouncing Olive, I was quite clear that I wanted to be in touch with people’s everyday life. I had a strong career background in the food industry and had a passion for healthy eating and alternative health. My business partner’s strength was in IT. So, combining the knowledge, skills and passion, we started a unique food business.

We began as a healthy gourmet food home delivery service and eventually became a healthy convenient frozen food producer. However, the journey was full of challenges and very tough learning. The more we expanded, the more expenses we had; the more staff to train; the more logistics to work out.

Making the massive contribution we envisioned through a single food business on its own seemed to be a very limited path. Having developed a distribution network to nearly 150 stores in three states, we were still struggling to meet our everyday commitments. We had no time to ourselves. We realised that most small to medium size enterprises had the same challenge.

Then one day, we realised that if we waited for success to come before making ‘great contributions’, we would not do anything. But if we made it into small transaction-based giving, we all could do something instantly. And this simple realisation gave us a great opening to the new possibilities. That was the origin of Buy1GIVE1 idea also known as B1G1.

What is B1G1 today?

After selling the food business in Australia, we launched Buy1GIVE1 as an independent social enterprise to share the powerful giving concept with many other companies. We moved to Singapore about a year ago to really focus on the international development of this concept.

While this is still a very new idea in the world, we feel we have achieved a lot in the last 12 months. We now have many businesses from different countries and industries applying the idea and making a difference. Each one of them is giving to a different cause they resonate with. Seeing ‘the joy of giving’ being shared among business owners and their staff and customers is the biggest joy for us. After all, giving is the most rewarding thing we can do in life but in a busy life, we tend to forget that. Bringing the heart back into enterprise and modern society is really the key part B1G1 plays. The amazing results created by business’s contributions are simply a bonus gift to us all.

Why have you chosen to live in Singapore?

We have always been very flexible with our lifestyle. We are simply willing to be wherever we need to be to create the best leverage. At the time of the launch of Buy1GIVE1, we considered several options and chose Singapore as a home base. Singapore is an international business hub now and everything works smoothly and efficiently here. This year’s international ranking for the efficiency of running business shows Singapore as number one in the world. Secondly, having a global brand and dealing with business in different countries, we have the best access to all those countries from here. And of course, the great climate!

What is your motivation to do what you do?

I am not really ‘motivated’ to do things these days. I do not have much desire to have things in my life. I know I already have everything I’ll ever need. My journey is to keep expressing gratitude for the blessing of being here with others and everything I see is an opportunity to play with and be grateful for. I like seeing people who are feeling the sense of purpose, inspiration, connection and value in life.

I do believe all of us deserve to live life fully everyday. And it is not about the external condition which determines how much we are living. For us at Buy1GIVE1, it is not about changing the world to eliminate problems through our activities or to create the world without issues. It is more about reminding every person we meet to be grateful and to love ourselves and life totally.

How old were you when you first realized that you could help change the world?

I always felt the sense of connection to the world and to all living things when I was very little. I felt totally connected to plants, small insects, animals and all other beings. But when I started to communicate in the human world through language, I could not find the way to connect with others in the same way. I did not understand why people were so upset with each other, communicating with harsh expressions and creating barriers. I grew up being very quiet and timid in my earlier life, constantly trying not to upset others because I was so afraid.

Things started to open up for me when I lost my words when I was 20. I went to Canada to learn English after completing my college study in Japan. At that time, I simply did not want to be in Japan any more. As I did not speak English at all, I became speechless once again and communicating with others through a different sense of connection made me go back to the time I was connected with all beings around me. I travelled around the world for many years regaining the sense of total connection to life. That is how my second journey started. When I speak in front of a large audience these days, I know how to connect with people. Nothing is scary for me now. I learned that a true power of connection can transform anything in our life. And I now only have gratitude for all the things I experienced through my earlier life. After all, every challenge was a great gift for me.

Do you have business mentors/partners/ alliances, and in what capacity?

I have some amazing partners in business and in life. Without these people, Buy1GIVE1 would not be here today and I would not be here today. Those are the people who supported me as a human being to get where I am now. We have a great and unshakable trust and integrity in our team and that is what truly matters to me. Being with the ones I love and working together as a team. There is no greater gift than that.

What are your personal strengths?

The ability to see things through a different perspective. I am not attached to things much and that is a simple yet quite unique value I can share with others.

What are your weaknesses? How do you help counter them?

Lack of focus! I jump from one thing to the other very quickly. I keep coming up with more and more ideas and others could find it a bit too much. So, these days, I ask others to slow me down when I am unfocused. It is a wonderful gift for me that I am working with the team who sees the value in my quality and who work on leveraging the creation.

What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

I have done so many unusual things in life, so I am not sure which one. I do not tend to think something is a risk as I know that no matter what outcome I have, it will also bring a great gift to me. People think I am extremely optimistic as I made many choices in life which could be a huge risk. Maybe in the future, I can share some of those stories that may shock some people…

What hurdles have you overcome and how?

Just by accepting and trusting and loving each challenge and obstacle, we ended up coming up with a better way. When we do not have something we need, often we try to get it. My approach was always to give it. I am sure there is so much more we could have done and done better. But I feel that starting from nothing and being here to share our ideas with others at global level is a great achievement. Because of that, I never had to get angry with anyone or blame anyone for my own challenge. That itself is a great achievement for me.

Who have been the greatest influences on the way you think?

I am not sure if any one person has influenced me but I have always responded to the way Buddha expressed the way to live. I am not sure if I developed the way I think from the learning or if it was already inside of me by nature. But I think each learning and inspiration we attract is just about tapping into what we already have and know inside. I guess all the people in severe living conditions in developing countries who were still positive, loving and giving influenced me more than any great philosopher did.

What are your grand dreams?

To continue living my life every day feeling totally grateful: to live my life that way without fail until the day I end this ‘game’ is the biggest vision I could ever see. All other things will entertain me and continue surprising me in a joyful way as long as I can keep the promise each and every day. I must admit there were some days in the past when I forgot to be totally grateful. But now I know the rule of this game. So, I cannot have any excuse for ending a day without a sense of connection and gratitude.

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