Principles applied to everything: Philosophy “Be enlightened with truth”

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

What Inamori said is quoted with “”.

“ Only by mastering one thing can we grasp the truth and the essence of things. To master and understand something means to put all your heart and soul into one thing and grasp something that is the core of it. The experience of mastering one thing can be applied to everything else.

No matter how boring the job you are involved looks at the beginning, you must consider the job that you are doing is your vocation and devote yourself wholeheartedly to it. If you dedicate yourself to it and keep trying, you will definitely find the truth. Once you have understood the truth of the job you do, you would be able to freely demonstrate your capability in every field you are involved in. “

To understand the above motto, I think we may have to consider the following three points.

Let me explain one by one.

1 The truth can be achieved via working

“ In other words, training means to ‘devote yourself to one thing.’ For example, when you cook a meal, you must get rid of miscellaneous thoughts and focus only on cooking. If you do that, the path to enlightenment will eventually open up. You won’t be enlightened if you sit in meditation all year round like a Buddhist monk. ”

→Japan and the Western world have different definitions of work. I am not sure if the following can be said of Japanese society nowadays. However, I believe that Japanese people have in their DNA the idea that hard working leads you to the truth of things and to refine your souls.

Once before, when Inamori visited a Kyocera factory in the United States, the factory manager told Inamori, “Don’t go to the site, don’t do the same work as the clerks, because you are the CEO of our group.” Inamori was furious and argued with the factory manager, saying, “How come you can run a company if you don’t actually know what’s going on at the site?”

Looking back over the past few hundred years, it seems that the Western countries or people have been dominating the world. This trend may still be seen in various areas, however, I think that people who cannot find value in their work will not be able to fully understand the essence of things. I think this will become a major trend in the world in the future.

2 Deeper and broader in learning

” Ninomiya Sontoku, a famous government officer in the Edo period, worked hard on the field from quite early in the morning till late evening, with his hoe and plow. He spent a lot of time working on the rice fields, which means farming, at the end his agriculture improvement project was taken up by the local government and at the end, he was promoted to so-called minister of agriculture. In front of the General, Sontoku looked like a well educated officer and discussed various issues with other officers.

The important thing is that if you think, `I don’t want my life to end as is, I want to do something else’, you should love your work and keep improving day by day. It means that we always have to be creative and inventive. It is important to continue doing this for many years. ”

→In order to be creative and ingenious in this way, you must not only gain knowledge and experience about the work you are currently involved in, but also deepen your understanding of the surrounding things. Also, the work we have been involved in has always been changing. In particular, we need to keep looking at how AI will change our work.

As we learn more broadly and deeply, rather than broadly and shallowly, I think we can grasp the core of the things and works. We would be able to summarize the work we have been doing in one phrase. When we achieve that level, we would be able to implement what we learned to other areas.

3 Focus on what the human beings are

“ Honestly, I am not the man who would be able to speak in front of American intellectuals, such as academics and officers, in Washington D.C. However, I have just been working diligently in the ceramics business in the city of Kyoto for over 40 years. However,what I learned there can be applied to the business discussions in Washington, the center of the United States. I strongly believe that if you master one thing, you can master everything. ”

→ When you think about your work, life and career, the concept of “ human” is always involved in some way. Humans are the ones running the business, the customers, staff, and end users. Even when obstacles are caused by nature, humans are involved in some way. So what is human nature? What drives their actions and what motivates them. To solve those questions, we must learn and analyze humans.

Aikido master Yamaguchi says that we cannot move away from the theme of humanity. I believe that the only way for us to pursue both material and spiritual fulfillment as human beings is to study and research human beings. I think what Inamori said made me realize that once again.

* 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

News Letter subscription is here