Three years on the stone: What 石の上にも三年 means to me

This month marks my three-year anniversary with JCO. When I graduated in Japanese Studies almost 30 years ago, I could not have imagined that one day I would be celebrating a three-year anniversary at a company started by someone who shared that same academic journey.

Life rarely moves in straight lines. It tends to move in circles.

One of the most unexpected gifts of the past three years has been rediscovering a connection with Olivier. We both studied Japanese Studies, graduating around the same time, then followed our own paths through different countries, companies, and life chapters. Like many relationships, ours disappeared into the background noise of busy careers and changing circumstances.

And then, decades later, our paths crossed again.

After living in Japan, I have come to appreciate how often people talk about 縁 (en), the invisible threads that connect people and events. Unlike the more Western idea of networking, 縁 suggests that some encounters are meant to happen, even if we only understand their significance much later.

Looking back, it is tempting to see a certain karma in it all. Not in the sense of destiny as something fixed, but as the accumulation of choices, interests, relationships, and experiences that slowly bring us back to people and places that matter.

Three years ago, joining JCO felt like starting a new chapter. In reality, it was also the continuation of a story that had begun three decades earlier in a university lecture hall filled with students fascinated by Japan.

There is a Japanese proverb, 石の上にも三年, often translated as "three years on a stone."

The image is simple. Sit on a cold stone long enough and eventually it becomes warm. The proverb teaches patience, perseverance, and the value of staying with something long enough to understand its true nature.

Over the years I have heard it used in many contexts: careers, apprenticeships, business relationships. But reaching my own three-year milestone at JCO has made me think about it differently.

Perhaps the stone is not only a company or a role. Perhaps it is also a relationship.

Some connections need time. Some partnerships reveal their value gradually. Some conversations started decades ago are only now finding their most meaningful expression.

The past three years have reminded me that professional life is not simply about projects, clients, or outcomes. It is also about people. It is about discovering that shared experiences from long ago can provide common ground far into the future. It is about finding that the interests that shaped us in our teens and twenties still have the power to shape our lives today.

There is something distinctly Japanese in that realization. A respect for continuity. An understanding that growth is often invisible while it is happening. A trust that persistence creates depth.

As I reach this three-year mark, I find myself less focused on the milestone itself and more grateful for the circle it represents.

There is also something amusing about the image accompanying this post. It illustrates the proverb 石の上にも三年 through three seasons of sitting patiently on a stone until warmth and wisdom appear.

But if I am honest, looking at it, I do not see three years.

I see thirty.

Thirty years since graduating in Japanese Studies. Thirty years of curiosity about Japan. Thirty years of careers, detours, lessons learned, connections lost and rediscovered. Thirty years of life quietly completing a circle.

The three years at JCO matter because they are the visible part of the story. The invisible part began much earlier, when two students sat in the same lectures, fascinated by a country and culture that would continue to shape their lives long after graduation.

So while this anniversary marks three years on the stone, it also feels like the reward for thirty years of persistence, relationships, and accumulated experiences. Or perhaps, in Japanese terms, thirty years of 縁 quietly doing its work in the background.

Stones, after all, do not warm up overnight.

Sometimes it takes three years.

Sometimes it takes thirty.

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