Who can get God’s help? Part1

This time, Mr. Inamori talked about “Why did JAL’s miraculous regeneration succeed?” Inamori says he is confident that he certainly got God’s help.

In addition, I recently read a book by Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, who was involved in medical activities in Afghanistan. Dr. Nakamura created land for cultivation by drawing water through irrigation projects into the wild land of Afghanistan, which became almost deserts due to a severe drought. This is another interesting example of what led to the challenging business success, even though the locals said it was impossible. Dr. Nakamura also said they could achieve their goals simply as God had been with them.

The qualities of a leader whom the God wants to help are:

Let me explain one by one.

1 Pure (no ambition)

“As for the reason why, I finally agreed to take charge of JAL reconstruction, first of all, I feel to save the remaining JAL employees, secondly to revitalize the Japanese economy, and thirdly to benefit Japanese. ”

Mr. Inamori was not thinking about himself. He had no ambition such as bringing the best position as his career as a top leader. Mr. Inamori demonstrated the episode of JAL’s alliance. After several stages, JAL finally chose American Airlines, however, that American itself went bankrupt after JAL’s recovery.

Inamori said, “As you can see, the management is full of turmoil. A friend who helped me yesterday goes bankrupt today. Our lives also look like this. I have no idea what will happen in our future. Since both of the business management and our life have such harsh aspects, we must have a wonderful philosophy in our mind, confront those difficulties with wonderful humanity, and inspire our team members. Your attitudes and mindset as a leader would allow your team members to spontaneously follow the philosophy that you demonstrated. As a leader, I inspired and changed not only employees but also all the people around the company. Management must demonstrate humanity values, as your attitudes lead your staff. Then, it is the truth of the world that what you do for others will eventually return to yourself.”

Tetsu Nakamura is a Christian. In the chaos coming from wars and conflicts in  Afghanistan, he said to his staff that even if they were shot by others, they never resisted with firearms.

As Mr. Inamori often says, there are words from Indian philosophers. “The fulfillment of a great plan simply depends on how pure a mind the leader has in conducting the plan.”

The bigger the plan is, the purer the mind the leader has. The leader should not be filled with greed and selfishness.

2 Hard working

Mr.Inamori said, “As I have been telling everyone, “Purify your souls, and you would be able to complete a wonderful life.” I am about to enter my  80’s, but still have been purifying my soul. (Under JAL recovery), I never asked for any reward, including salary.  However, I have been working hard on the difficult reconstruction of Japan Airlines.  Given all those conditions, I think that God or Heaven have supported us taking into account my attitudes and hard working.  In other words, I have come to think that the reconstruction of Japan Airlines was not something that I did, but did “something great” in the world.”

Let’s look at the situation in Afghanistan.  The United Nations and other countries were sending relief supplies, approaching local influential people, and trying to exploit the resources there. Dr. Nakamura looked at the disasters coming from the serious drought and dug a well with volunteer staff.

Only the volunteer group run by Dr. Nakamura had a deep relation with the local people.  A local in Afghanistan told Dr. Nakamura that there are only two types of people in the world who work for their own benefit and those who work for others.

I think that volunteering, world peace, international cooperation, all of them should be carried out on the premise of such a pure heart.

3 Religious: believing in something great

Dr. Nakamura’s activities spread from digging wells in Afghanistan to major irrigation projects. As this business progresses, they have faced various crises. He said that it was the help of heaven that was able to prevent the flooding of the river even in the heavy  rain.

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

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