Momofuku Ando

Part of The Trailblazers Series

Instant noodles have taken the world by storm since its introduction in 1958.

You might've enjoyed a bowl or a cup of hot instant noodles at some point. Maybe it was a time-saving meal when you were rushing to meet a deadline. Or perhaps it floated you in college or when you were too tired to cook.

The man behind this sensational food was Momofuku Ando.

In this story, we'll journey through how Ando stumbled upon the idea for instant noodles, the challenges he faced making this category-defining food, and nine life lessons from his experiences that we can apply to our lives and businesses.

Grab some coffee or instant ramen, and let's start with:

Ando's life before instant noodles

Momofuku Ando had a knack for business from an early age. At age 22, when he arrived in Osaka to study economics at Ritsumeikan University, he ventured into a side business opportunity — a textile store.

Having seen his grandparents run a textile business, this was both an inspiration and his natural progression into the business world.

Between his university days and his pivotal moment in inventing instant noodles, Ando tried his hand at various businesses and jobs. He made slide projectors, produced charcoal and salt, founded a school, and even served as a director for a credit union.

Years of diversified business experience sharpened his business skills, instilled resilience against failures and primed his mind for his magnum opus: instant noodles.

It took 48 years of my life for me to come up with the idea of instant noodles. Each and every event in the past is connected to the present by invisible threads.

It's true that what many people classify as “overnight success” is often the culmination of years, if not decades, of perseverance and hard work.

But Ando didn't arrive at the idea of instant ramen through corporate brainstorming and sticky notes sessions.

It was:

A chance encounter

After World War II, Japan was in a dire situation. Two of its cities were decimated by nuclear force, and people were pushed to starvation.

The country was experiencing a food shortage, and the Japanese government suggested that people consume meals made from wheat flour that they were already sourcing from the United States. This included foods like bread and biscuits, which were foreign to the locals.

Ando noticed this dissatisfaction of the Japanese people with Western foods firsthand.

One day, while walking by a market in Osaka during the post-war period, he saw people lining up in the cold weather, often an hour, to grab a bowl of hot ramen noodles from a nearby makeshift ramen stall. They were hungry, shivering, and waiting for a portion of food that felt more at home.

He wondered why noodles, which could be made from the same wheat flour, weren't produced more to satisfy the needs of the masses. The natives loved noodles more, as evidenced by the long queue in front of a small ramen store.

Ando saw this as an opportunity.

There was already a massive demand for ramen noodles, but the current market left gaps to be filled. However, since he was already engaged in his other businesses, he put this idea aside and moved on with his life.

Years later, in 1957, the credit union where he served as director went bankrupt, shaking things up in Ando's life. He lost all his properties and was only left with a rented house. He had to start from scratch.