Guide
Kazuo Inamori's success need not be repeated, but his miraculous management ability alone is a textbook example. But in addition to his management ability, his character is even more worthy of our admiration.
As an ordinary person, he knows how to give back to society; as an employee, he has the courage to challenge adversity and never complains; as a manager, he always has an altruistic heart.
His success was not accidental, it was due to his character.
01
Do your best for society and the world in life
We humans possess extraordinary wisdom. Therefore, we have used our clever minds to develop modern science and build a brilliant civilized society. Humanity is at the apex of all living things because of its wisdom, eating all the creatures on earth to survive and prosper.
From another point of view, ordinary animals and plants give their lives to help other creatures survive, while we humans deprive animals and plants of life in order to prolong our own lives and maintain prosperity.
With this in mind, an idea arises.
While human beings have extraordinary wisdom, they should also have extraordinary reason and conscience. Should we, then, consider what to do with reason and conscience to other creatures, rather than just living by depriving them of their lives?
How difficult it is for man to be born into this world, and should we also do our best for society and for the world in our limited lives, not just for ourselves?
It is okay to do your best, and doing your best for society and the world should be the most important way of life as a human being. I think the meaning of life in the world is also reflected in this.
Why do we live? I believe that the primary purpose of life in the world is to do even a small part of the world for the sake of society and the world.
02
The origin of altruism is gratitude
There may be quite a few people who believe in Buddhism. Shakyamuni admonishes us that the most important thing in life is altruism. The essence of Buddhism is compassion. The compassionate heart of empathy is the heart of the Buddha.
Compassion is the heart that provides even a little help to others, the mind that thinks about others. Living in the world with such a heart is the purpose of life. In short, I think that taking altruistic behavior is the most important thing for people.
The opposite of altruism is self-interest, i.e., self-interest.
Abandoning self-interest and thinking of others with altruism, and living our lives in this way is the purpose of our lives. However, this is actually not as simple as it is said.
With an altruistic heart, with a good understanding heart to associate with others, if we want to spend our lives in this way, then we must first be grateful for our lives in the world.
When gratitude sprouts, our hearts naturally feel happy no matter what circumstances we are in.
Someone might say, "No, I'm not happy." My life is very unfortunate. "But looking at the world, there are countless people who are even more unfortunate than you. At this thought, gratitude will come to our hearts: Isn't it also a kind of happiness to be with our parents and brothers?
In short, no matter what situation we are in, as long as we have a good attitude, we can feel happy. To get this feeling, we must first be grateful that the fact that we are now alive in the world is itself blissful.
If we begin to feel happy living in this world, then the next step is naturally to be empathetic and willing to be kind to others.
This kind of empathy is bound to arise.
Therefore, in order to have an altruistic heart, we must first be grateful for the fact that we are living in the world.
03
Thinking of good things and doing good deeds can turn fate around
We are each born into this world with different destinies, and we have no way of knowing what kind of fate we will embark on, but can only start our own lives under the guidance of fate.
In the journey of life, we will think a lot of things and do a lot of things.
The most important thing in this process is that thinking of good things and doing good things will bring good results to our lives, and thinking about bad things and doing bad things will make our lives turn to bad directions.
Fate is not an immutable fate, it changes with our thoughts and actions we take.
I believe that this law of karma exists in this world.
04
Stop complaining and overcome adversity
My life began to improve
I have experienced this first-hand.
I have been very unfortunate to go into society from an early age until I graduated from college. When I was in the third grade of elementary school, the war broke out, and at the end of the war I was in the first grade of junior high school. My hometown of Kagoshima was burned into the wilderness by air raids, and my family of eight was crammed into a makeshift hut and living in poverty.
I grew up in adversity since I was a teenager, and I had a hard time going into society, thinking that I could easily get by, but I entered a broken company that was about to collapse. I feel really helpless about this, and I am always full of complaints.
There were 5 college graduates who joined the company at the same time, and we gathered in one place every lunchtime to complain. I complained, "It's not okay to keep working in this broken company, so I should quit my job sooner." "But I couldn't find a job, the company hired me, and I had nowhere to quit and leave."
Around the autumn, except for me, the other 4 people resigned from the company, leaving me alone. I had nowhere to go, complaining and thinking: I must find a way to survive in this company.
At that time, for the future development of the company, the company was planning to carry out research and development of new precision ceramics, and this important research and development work was handed over to me, a recent graduate.
I think that every day I was always grumbling and complaining that the company could not pay the day it was paid, so I began my research work intently in a simple research room that did not even have decent research equipment, as if I had forgotten all the sorrows of the world.
I took pots and pans from my dormitory, ate and lived in the research room, and devoted myself to research work. Later, I began to feel that the research work was getting more and more interesting.
Because it felt interesting, the research work went well, and the results were praised after publication and praised in the company. So I focused more on my research and successfully developed a new type of ceramic material that no one in Japan has been able to develop so far.
At this point, I received a lot of praise from my boss, and I was very happy myself.
When I immersed myself in research, the research work went very smoothly, and the results were praised by others, so I felt the value of the job. I had been complaining, but now I was like a reborn, positive and cheerful, and began to concentrate on research.
This further fueled my research efforts, which led to better products, and eventually my research developed into a cause that brought companies on the brink of bankruptcy back to life.
A few years later, for other reasons, I resigned from the company. With the support of others, I started a company based on my research and technology. This is the predecessor of Kyocera.
Ever since I immersed myself in research, stopped complaining, and devoted myself to my work with a positive and cheerful attitude, my life has obviously begun to improve.