The Harada Tool

by Jordan Nutter

Shohei Ohtani is the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and hitter, a four-time MVP with World Series titles in 2024 and 2025. At sixteen, in high school in Japan, he filled out a 9×9 grid: one ambition in the middle, eight things that had to be true for it, and eight daily habits under each of those. You can see his grid here, all eighty-one cells. Harvard Business School teaches the method now: Crush your goals the Ohtani way.

Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude. Either one works, and the free version is fine.
Answer its questions honestly. It will ask you ten, one at a time, before it builds anything, then hand you a link to your finished grid. It is only as good as what you tell it.

Pro tip Use the dictation button instead of typing. Both apps have one. Talking is far faster than thumbing out a long answer, and you will say more than you would have written, which is the whole point.

I want to build a Harada grid, the 9x9 chart Shohei Ohtani filled out at sixteen. I am a real estate agent.

Keep the three levels distinct, because that is the whole point of the method:

- The centre is a multi-year ambition, three to five years out. Not this year's number.
- The eight cells around it are what I concentrate on THIS year to move that ambition.
- Under each of those eight sit eight things I actually do. Some are habits, some are qualities to hold. Ohtani's own chart mixes both, so do not force all sixty-four into measurable weekly actions.

Interview me first. Ask ONE question at a time and wait for my answer. Do not build anything, or summarise anything, until you have asked all ten. If an answer is vague or too thin to use, push back once, and only once, then take what I give you and move on.

Ask these, in this order:

1. Forget this year. Where do you want to be in three to five years? Not a number for this year, a picture of the business and the life you are trying to build.
2. What actually changes for you if that happens?
3. How many homes did you close last year, and where did each one come from?
4. Which part of this job are you worst at, or quietly avoid?
5. What broke down last year? Deals that died, people who went cold, things you kept meaning to do.
6. What does a normal week actually look like? When you work, when you are useless, and what else you are responsible for.
7. What is going on outside of work right now: sleep, health, money, anything you are carrying?
8. What do people say about you now, and what do you want them saying in five years?
9. What do you do when nobody is watching, or when there is nothing in it for you?
10. What have you tried before that did not stick, and why do you think it did not?

Once I have answered all ten, work in this order.

First, propose the eight support goals and stop. Follow the shape of Ohtani's chart: about four should be craft, taken from where I told you I am weak, and the rest should cover my body, my mind, my character, and how I treat people when there is nothing in it for me. Name each in a few words and give one line on why you picked it from what I told you. Then ask whether I want to swap any. Wait for my answer before going on.

Second, once I have approved the eight, fill in the sixty-four. Keep every cell short, a few words, the way his are: "pick up trash", "read books", "gratitude". Ground them in the week I described rather than an ideal one. Do not prescribe anything I told you I have already failed at unless you say plainly why this time would be different.

Third, tell me which three of the sixty-four to start this week, and why those three and not the others.

Then give me a link to see it.

Write the whole grid as a single line of text in this shape:

MY AMBITION|SUPPORT ONE~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell|SUPPORT TWO~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell~cell|and so on for all eight

That is nine sections separated by | characters: my ambition first, then the eight support goals, each followed by its own eight cells separated by ~ characters. Never use a | or a ~ inside a cell.

Then give me that line on the end of this address, with %20 in place of every space:

https://homebuyertools.com/grid/#THE-LINE-GOES-HERE

Show it as a tappable link labelled "Open my grid". The page will draw the grid and give me a button to save it as an image. Nothing in that link is sent to a server, so my answers stay on my own phone.

Underneath the link, print the same plain line again on its own, so I can paste it by hand if the link gets broken when it is copied.

Write plainly throughout. Do not congratulate me, and do not pad anything.

Jordan Nutter

Mortgage Loan Officer at NFM Lending, and host of The Agent Edge, a weekly newsletter for Atlanta-area realtors. NMLS #1884801.

Email: jnutter@nfmlending.com
Phone: 678.900.9272
Website: anutterhomeloan.com
Licensed in: CAFLGAILINTNTXVA

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