1. FAST COMPANY FAST b y ELIZABETH SEGRAN may/june 2020 may/june photographs by by photographs 2. CARA ROBBINS 3. 4. Decluttering doyenne MARIE KONDO is poised to build the next lifestyle empire, but will it spark joy? P G. 42 She’s wearing a white bathrobe and standing next to a bouquet of tures any seriousness, making funny faces, constellation of stardom, alongside other goddesses of wellness and pink cherry blossoms. She has asked for soft instrumental music telling jokes, and putting everyone at ease. TWOFER domesticity such as Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Gwyneth to be piped into the room. It appears to calm her on this February It’s partly his personality, but it’s also a stra- “We’re two people, Paltrow. By the end of 2019, she had established an e-commerce site, morning in Los Angeles as a dozen production workers mill about, tegic effort to relax his wife. Kondo has been but working as one,” a blog, and a newsletter. She had also increased the size of her con- capturing footage that will show Kondo’s 2.5 million Instagram fol- in the public eye since 2011, when she pub- Kawahara says of sultant network—people whom Kondo personally instructs in her lowers how to dry brush their faces. Kondo closes her eyes, takes a lished The Life-Changing, Pulsing Magic of himself and Kondo. decluttering method—to 40 countries. deep breath, and starts making small circular motions on her fore- Tidying Up in Japan, but she’s still happiest Now, Kondo is bringing her method to the workplace, backed by head. When she opens her eyes, she has conjured up a euphoric ex- at home, with her daughters, ages 3 and 4. the $12 billion Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten, which pression for the camera. “The time that I spend with my family acquired a majority stake in KonMari Media in August. In April Kawahara isn’t buying it. He taps me on the shoulder to show me sparks joy for me,” she says, in a voice so 2020, Kondo released a new book, coauthored with Rice University his phone, on which he has pulled up the word ticklish in large let- quiet that only her interpreter seems able to business school professor Scott Sonenshein, called Joy at Work: Or- ters on Google Translate. “Doesn’t that brush look ticklish to you?” hear it. (She speaks English but is less com- ganizing Your Professional Life, which opens the door to selling or- he whispers to me, saying the word in English for the first time. He fortable doing so than Kawahara.) “I have to ganizing products and services to business types. “Tidying your proceeds to wiggle as if someone is tickling him, giggling so much be a public figure so I can spread this mes- workplace gives you an opportunity to reflect on how you that his dapper gray fedora threatens to tip over onto his glasses. sage. But it’s much harder for me than for are working and what you like about the job,” she says. “There’s no way I would put that thing on my face.” people who naturally excel at being in front of As she goes after the corporate world, Kondo appears Kawahara, CEO of KonMari Media, which he cofounded with a lot of people. Takumi has really helped me.” to be wrestling with the question of what kind of work his wife in 2015 and which is headquartered in Hollywood, Cali- Over the past year, Kondo has been forced makes her happy. For several years, it seemed like she Takumi Kawahara fornia, is a fixture at Kondo’s photo and video shoots, like the one to negotiate the tension between her intro- was following the playbook of other celebrity entre- today showcasing products sold on the KonMari website. The pro- verted personality and her desire to intro- preneurs. But now she has clearly decided to throw is watching his wife, duction crew often turns to him expectantly, waiting for him to ex- duce her philosophy to larger audiences. that strategy out the window. Apparently, it no longer claim, “Beautiful!” or “Excellent!,” a signal that they have nailed the Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, her Netflix se- sparked joy. Perhaps it never did. shot and can move on to the next one. ries that launched in January 2019, went Marie Kondo, massage He’s also the life of the set. His goofiness is a foil for Kondo’s quiet on to become the global streaming service’s ONDO WAS A 21-YEAR-OLD COLLEGE spirituality, which is central to her mission, something she describes most-watched nonfiction show of the year. student when she first met Kawahara, who was also 21. her face with a brush. to me as “helping others to choose what sparks joy.” Kawahara punc- Suddenly, Kondo was vaulted into a new They were in Tokyo, waiting for an elevator. Kondo re- 44 FASTCOMPANY.COM Prop stylist: Meghan Czerwinski; hair and makeup: Megumi Asai Greyl Leonor and Glossier using MAY/JUNE 2020 members that Kawahara was wearing a suit From then on, their relationship and with a little badge on it featuring the Japa- careers were intertwined. “We both love nese symbol for the word dream. “When I to work,” Kawahara says. “We’re always saw that, I thought, What a passionate per- talking about work, even in our private son!” she says. “Even though Takumi’s more moments. The division of labor in their rela- extroverted and I’m much more introspec- tionship was clear. “She was an author who tive, we’re the same on the inside.” was very good at transmitting a message The life-changing influence of a humble Japanese tidying consultant and her personal philosophy Kondo had dreams of her own. She had to the world,” Kawahara says. “I was good already decided to turn her lifelong passion at creating businesses and establishing for tidying into a career. At the elevator, she networks.” They married in 2014, the year gave Kawahara a newly minted business of her book’s U.S. debut, and in 2016 they card with a small butterfly on it. (Kawahara moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. “I’ve didn’t need her help: “Fortunately, I’m al- 3. 2. 10. 8. always responded to a call to action,” says ready an organized person,” he says.) They Kondo. “I came to the United States because decided to stay in touch. it had the strongest reaction to my book.” Kondo had become fascinated with home organization as a 5-year-old, flipping through her mother’s home decor maga- 1. 4. 9. 7. THAT KONDO’S PHILOSOPHY zines. As she got older, she began to see caught on anywhere outside of Japan still tidying as a manifestation of something baffles Kondo and Kawahara. “In Japan, ev- deeper. She felt a spiritual connection to cer- erybody lives in small houses, so you can tain objects that spurred tokimeku, a Japa- understand that people were having diffi- nese word that refers to the flutter you feel 5. 6. 12. 11. culties tidying,” says Kawahara. “But our im- in your body when something delights you. age of the U.S. is that everybody lives in such This idea became the foundation of her tidy- big houses.” Within a year of its U.S. release, ing approach, now known as the KonMari The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up sold method: keeping belongings that inspire 2 million copies. (The word pulsing was that feeling and shedding ones that do not. dropped in the English translation.) “The At 18, Kondo felt drawn to the Shinto tra- sheer volume of readers was just shocking,” 1. San Jose 7. Tokyo 8. Stockholm dition, and she applied to become a shrine In 2015, Kondo The Life-Changing, Margareta Magnus- Kawahara says. maiden, performing sacred rituals at Shinto partners with Pulsing Magic of son is dubbed “the There was also an inevitable backlash. altars. “I think the shrine was a natural eBay on a back- Tidying Up is pub- next Kondo” with her Some critics lumped her philosophy into a to-school lished in January 2018 book, The Gen- match for me because the foundation of decluttering 2011, selling 1.25 mil- tle Art of Swedish broader critique of minimalism, deeming Shinto expresses gratitude toward inani- guide—including lion copies in just Death Cleaning, de- her approach classist because poor people mate objects,” she says. In college, Kondo downloadable over a year. signed to “spark joy” don’t have the luxury of only owning things flash cards—for in recipients of studied sociology and then went to work for parents and kids. 3. Menlo Park, passed-down items. that “spark joy.” Others accused her of push- a Tokyo staffing agency, but she hustled ev- California ing an anti-capitalist agenda that could ery night and weekend to build a business On December 31, cripple the economy. Then there were the 2018, 710 people fol- 9. Berlin helping people clean their homes of accu- 2. Brooklyn low Kondo on Insta- In 2013, Germany is one of the bibliophiles who were downright livid that mulated goods. As demand for her services Lindsay Knaak-Stuart, a veteran gram. Her Netflix first Western countries to trans- she seemed to encourage people to get rid of grew, one client suggested that she write a cosmetics executive, launches show debuts the next late Kondo’s book. Magic Clean- books. “When it comes to the criticism that Meant in 2017, a bath-goods line day, and by January ing becomes a best seller and book so that people could do it on their own.