Striving yourself much harder than anyone else-why it is so important?-

Mr. Inamori*, mentioned six fundamental attitudes for business leaders to demonstrate for them to live in prosperity and fulfilment. Those are the following:

Especially for the number one, 1 Strive yourself much harder than anyone else, Mr. Inamori put the highest priority on it.

The reasons are as follows;

Let me explain one by one.

1 )Daily hard work

“There is no management know-how that is better than working hard.” ,said Mr. Inamori.

Inamori showed his uncle’s episode.

My uncle completed only the elementary school before the war. My uncle used to sell vegetables every day with a large wheeled cart. Our relatives used to speak about him, he has no education, no skills thus he ended up with just blue color job. Maybe they looked down on my uncle. He was a small guy, and carrying vegetables in a large car, which was much larger than himself even under hot and cold days. In my childhood, I often looked at him. He probably didn’t know anything about management, business, accounting, etc. However, as he worked hard, he eventually managed to run a large grocery store. I personally feel that only working very hard is the key for us to succeed.”

This episode reminded me of my father and made me shed tears. My father was like his uncle. He was a person who worked hard and hard. But I couldn’t respect him while he was alive. I consider myself a very miserable daughter.

2 )To follow the universal rules

In the natural world, we humans are the only ones who, when we make a little money or when our business becomes successful, get lazy and stop making efforts. There is no such creature in nature. All flora and fauna, and other creatures living in nature must survive under the harsh environment. Leaning from other creatures, I think that it is the minimum requirement for us human beings to work hard every day as the nature requires us.

3) Like your work

I thought when I first joined the company, I didn’t like my work. I instinctively felt that this was not good for my life and I decided to like my work. I thought that if I had not liked my job, I couldn’t have devoted myself to study the ceramic production. If I had not decided, and had kept desperate and unhappy, I would have never been an successful entrepreneur. Mr. Inamori reiterated how important it is for us to like our work, so that we can be prepared to devote ourselves into works.

4) Create ingenuity: daily improvements

If you want to work hard and chip out the slight improvement, it will lead you to the ingenuity. Sincerely, seriously, and continuously striving, and not giving up even when you get stuck, when you work hard to solve issues, God probably gives you an idea, inspiration, and some message to you. I interpreted such enlightenment as a reward for your hard work and you got the wonderful ideas and insights that you could not have got without any hard work.

→ Wherever situation like the Olympics or the information released on SNS, people those who are working hard, definitely impress us. I think it’s wonderful to make an effort, because all of us have such desires: working hard is beautiful.

When I was doing the MBA in the United States, I had a hard time communicating in English. I attended the oral communication class. I hired an English teacher for me to get prepared for the class. With that teacher, I made a speech, practiced, and worked hard. For my weekly class, I spent as much time as possible preparing for the speech. One day, I was sitting at a table in the school courtyard working on my computer. An English student from the same class came up, sat at the table and talked to me.

“ Yuko, I know you are working hard, so does everyone in the classroom.” I was very glad to hear that. All of my hard works finally paid off. Even though my English was not sufficient, I felt like I was accepted as a class mate.

5) To be the better person

“If I work hard, I don’t have the time to think about/ complain mean people surrounding me. Just 25 years ago, I started this Seiwa Juku, the workshop for small to middle business leaders. During the time, I developed Kyocera and the current KDDI. I have always shared with you what I learned from my experience. From all of my experience, I want to point out the ultimate philosophy of management. That is just working very hard, which is the essential whether you run a business or want to fulfill your life. Working hard helps you to polish your personality, to be a better person, that’s why you would be able to succeed in your life.

Well, in summary, the reasons for working hard are as follows.

Mr. Inamori is the founder of a large corporation with sales of Kyocera Group of 1.6 trillion yen and KDDI of 5.2 trillion yen, totaling about 8 trillion yen. Mr. Inamori says that there is nothing more important about management than “working hard”. I felt that I was taught more about humanity value rather than strategy and tactics.

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

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