Lessons for elites: Philosophy “ Open your mind.”

This time, Inamori* spoke about the above motto in Kyocera philosophy.

What Inamori said is quoted with “”.

“What I “open mind” is a humble attitude that acknowledges one’s own shortcomings and strives him/her with all efforts. People with special capabilities, strong tempers, and stubborn people often don’t listen to others, and even if they do, they take the opposite positions. However, those who truly develop themselves are the ones who listen carefully to what others advise them with an open mind, look objectively at the status quo and keep changing their attitudes.

When you are open minded, people with similar minds will get together around you, so you hardly get stuck in troubles. You need to have the humility to accept that words that are painful or somehow too straightforward to you to be a better person.”

Mr. Inamori introduced an episode when he gave a speech at a gathering of government officers.

I think Mr. Inamori’s message is as follows.

“When you are in a position of authority, such as a government officer, where you can control laws, systems, and other people, you tend to become arrogant. This leads you to wrong decisions. Therefore, you must be careful not to be arrogant.”

I think the practice to demonstrate the ‘open mind’ that Mr. Inamori is talking about here is particularly the following.

Let me explain one by one.

1 Recognize our inferiority

“ At a meeting of high-level government officials, I talked about the lessons that Buddha said. I thought those elites needed to learn the philosophical approach for them to ethically conduct their missions. An officer who had worked as the vice-minister raised his hand to ask….

(Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic) , he was always humbly telling, `I don’t have any education, I didn’t go to school so I want to listen to others simply because I can learn from them.”

He remained humble for his life. Matsushita learned a lot of things from others and successfully developed Panasonic. We found his humble attitude throughout his life. “

→ “The owl of Minerva takes its flight in the evening.” These are Hegel’s words.

This seems to be interpreted that the truth, wisdom or philosophy can only be recognized when we look back on that phenomenon. When you think about this, I think that a high educational background, brilliant overseas experience, or plenty of knowledge never works for us to proactively manage an entity.

I believe that knowledge, special experience, and intelligence have value only when they are useful to others.

2. Recognize our weaknesses

“ Those who unconsciously find themselves inferior to others tend to act arrogant and try to show off how great they are. Even if others make fun of you simply because you look modest and humble, you may have to remain humble. You can recognize them as such poor people. ”

→Regardless of an entity such as a person, a country, or a regime, those who exhibit an oppressive attitude always have “fear” behind that attitude. They can not even have self-confidence. They desperately keep making blaff because they don’t want their counterpart to know exactly what they exactly look like. I think it would be a waste if we were to spend so much of our time and energy on that kind of blaff.

If you get involved in such bluffing with each other, you may end up dominating others by power. The regime you eventually create by power would naturally be destroyed by another power. As long as humans’ physical strength and capability decline, there is no point in competing for supremacy through force.

It is often said that ‘you win by losing’, and I believe that when we admit defeat, we are able to develop an open mind.

3. Stop seeking one answer

” Myanmar is a military regime close to the dictatorship. Under that system, the people are obedient. Mr. Inamori, are you telling them to become that kind of non-resisting, obedient people? ”

→This person may have been trying to challenge Mr. Inamori. Mr. Inamori spoke his approach based on the philosophy that he established. Since philosophy is so important for that guy to be a better person, Inamori stressed the importance of the mindset. But I am not sure if that guy fully understood Inamori’s intention.

We are educated under the harsh competition of making good scores to acquire knowledge. So, people spontaneously seek an absolute answer. However, seeking answers can also lead us to lose flexibility and to be stubborn and narrow minded. I would like to have flexibility like the flow of water, rather than heading to the extreme.

* Mr. Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera, KDDI (one of the top tele communication companies in Japan) and the top of revitalization project of JAL. As a well-known Japanese entrepreneur, he has been sharing his experiences and management know-how with managements of small to middle companies in Japan.

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

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