Polish your mentality – Create super knife-edged products-

This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto to Seiwajuku workshop members. What Inamori said is quoted with “”.

“ The products we make must be ‘super knife-edged products’. I mean it is a wonderful product that looks and feels sharp and tactile, like a newly issued banknote. The creator’s personality naturally appears in the product. Rough people make rough products and sensitive people make delicate goods and products. If you think about making a lot of products and screening acceptable ones, we will never be able to create products that will satisfy our customers. Under the perfect work process, everyone must concentrate their attention on the work so as not to produce a single defect, and we must aim to create products that are perfect without any deficit. Under baseball, some pitchers throw with irregular forms, but in general, excellent athletes must have beautiful forms. The same pattern we can find in the production processes, good outputs should have the appropriate dignity in their appearance. Kyocera’s semiconductor package business has been successful, as we have pursued the quality until final goods spontaneously demonstrate the ultimate beauty and dignity. We aimed to create something that looks as beautiful as possible, to the point where you would think, `This looks so sharp that I need to touch it with gloves not to cut my fingers.’ So keep in mind that our products demonstrate such dignity described super knife edged.”

In order to enhance the humanity of people who create goods and services, Mr. Inamori talks about those three points.

Let me explain one by one.

1. How to refine our minds

In order to refine the mind, Mr. Inamori suggests the following Six commandments.

1) Donation: The altruistic desire to help others and the world is a part of donating. Small business owners are working hard to protect their employees. I think that it is a form of donation as those top leaders are doing their best for others.

2) Precepts: Suppressing vicious desires and following rules. Control greed, libido, desire for honor, and control anger, envy, while having neither suspicion nor prejudice.

3) Hard working: working hard in your duties, as the effort made by a manager who works hard from early in the morning until late at night is the same as the ascetic practices conducted by a Zen Buddhist monk.

4) Perseverance: to bring the full efforts to survive under recessions to maintain employment and support their families can be a form of such perseverance.

5) Meditation: Once a day, take time to quiet your mind.

6) Wisdom (Enlightenment): If you keep conduct above five principles, you will ultimately come to realize the fundamental principle of the universe that governs all things, that is, enlightenment.

→ I think what Inamori said by referring to the above six commandments implies to realize the reason to be in this world for each of us, as well as to fulfill one’s mission, as I mention in the below point two.

2. Consider the significance of life

Inamori continues, “Since we are ordinary people, it is impossible for us to reach the state of enlightenment that Buddha spoke of. Because each of us is a weak reed, we are greedy, complain, and get easily angry. In other words, how far a person has spent his or her life practicing the aforementioned six commandments, is the personality, character, and the soul that a person finally builds up to the day he or she dies. This is the only thing that can be taken to the other world, in other words, even if the body perishes after death, the sublime soul alone can be taken to the other world. “

3. Maintain dignity and beauty

“Goods and services created by people who have improved their humanity in this way should naturally become beautiful and have dignity,” Inamori said. The important thing here is “dignity”. I think that to acquire dignity, we must hone the hearts of people who create products and services. People tend to be preoccupied with visible things such as finished products or simply materials, but what is important is the souls and spirits of humans that create the goods and services. Industrial products, works of art, food, everything that is created is a mirror of the mind of the person who makes it. Before worrying about the finished product, I think we must keep polishing our inner self.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

News Letter subscription is here