Whether it is the success of Kyocera for half a century or the turnaround of JAL for 600 days, it is only a superficial phenomenon. The profound essence behind it is that under the guidance of kazuo inamori, the whole company constantly recognizes, thinks and practices the proposition "What is right as a person". To put it simply, it is to respect heaven and love others, self-denial, hard work, honesty and kindness. No matter how the outside world interferes, this value is not affected by it. It is not groundless, but the essence of Confucianism, Buddhism, Confucianism and China's ancient classics. Kazuo inamori picked them up and polished them carefully, which became the standard of contemporary management. If we look back at today in the future, the real ancestor of oriental management started with rice.
Work is the Dojo to temper the soul.
Be sure to purify your mind and make your thoughts pure. This is not for others, but for my own life and career.
"Why does business need philosophy? Why are people alive? " This is the most basic problem in enterprise management. Entrepreneurs should establish a correct "way of thinking" and a correct philosophy within the enterprise, and persistently share this "way of thinking" and philosophy with employees. In this way, enterprises will certainly develop and maintain long-term prosperity. At the same time, we should strive to improve our mind. Our life is created by our hearts.
The equation of life and career
I have come up with an equation about the result of life and work since I was a child, that is, "the result of life and work = way of thinking × enthusiasm × ability". Observing the lives of many people, some people are happy and some people are miserable; The same is true of enterprise management. Some people do well, but some people don't get better. Where did such a big difference come from? I have been thinking about this problem since I was a child and came up with the above equation.
It is generally believed that the differences between people depend on individual abilities, including IQ and physical fitness. These innate abilities determine the success or failure of life and career. That was not the case. Ability may account for a large proportion, but the way of thinking, philosophy and thought that can be held actually play a more important role.
I graduated from a local university in Japan, and I'm definitely not a talent. In order to encourage myself to work hard, I don't believe that ability alone can determine the success or failure of life or career. No matter whether your ability is outstanding or not, as long as you try your best to live carefully, live enthusiastically and work as hard as others, you will certainly get good results. I am 79 years old this year. Looking back on the road of life in the past 80 years, I am convinced of this.
Several elements in the formula are not added, but multiplied. Just the multiplication of ability and enthusiasm will produce unimaginable differences. For example, Mr. Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Group, a well-known Japanese electrical appliance manufacturer, has only attended primary school. His life began as an apprentice in the bicycle industry and experienced various hardships. However, whether it is life or management, Mr. Matsushita has given an excellent answer. Compared with ordinary people, his grades are geometrically different. It is precisely because these two elements, enthusiasm and ability, are not added but multiplied that an unimaginable huge gap has arisen.
Crucially, the product of enthusiasm and ability must be multiplied by "way of thinking". The so-called "way of thinking" is philosophy, which can also be called people's outlook on life, judgment standards, thoughts and values. Different "ways of thinking" will lead to completely different results in life and work. Some people may think, "It's okay to have a little negative thoughts." But the fact is that even a little negative thoughts will turn out to be negative. Because of the multiplication of several factors, even if the "way of thinking" is only negative 1, the result will become negative. And the more enthusiastic and capable you are, the more negative results you will have. In addition, if you lead many subordinate leaders or managers, the negative results will not only bring you, but also bring misfortune to people around you.
The way of thinking determines life and management.
I have no outstanding ability. Because of this, I must have a passion beyond ordinary people, and I must work as hard as anyone else. At the same time, master a better "way of thinking" than ordinary people, that is, excellent philosophy, excellent thoughts, noble outlook on life and correct judgment standards. To this end, I studied the philosophy of China's ancient classics such as Confucius, Mencius and Yangming, studied the religious essence taught by the Buddha, and tried to root the philosophy of these sages in my heart.
We need to make various judgments in life and career. At this time, we will judge by our own "way of thinking" and "thought". Whether the "way of thinking" and "thought" as benchmarks are correct or excellent will lead to very different results.
The more intellectuals who live in modern society, the easier it is to ignore the importance of their own "thoughts" and "ways of thinking". However, it is human's "thoughts" that have created modern civilization. People's "ideas" and "thoughts" are so important, but we always despise them in modern society and think that only knowledge and technology are important. This problem is a major issue faced by modern people, whether in life or in running enterprises.
The same is true of enterprise management. The performance and even life span of an enterprise depend on whether it has an excellent "way of thinking". In the operation of Kyocera and KDDI, and in the reconstruction of JAL, I have repeatedly advocated the "way of thinking" and management philosophy called "philosophy". My philosophy is a norm that constrains my behavior, and it is a very self-denying belief. Such as "carrying out perfectionism", "continuing down-to-earth efforts", "pushing yourself into a corner", "keeping your word", "infiltrating the subconscious with a strong and lasting desire", "thinking that the work is over and you will start" and "don't give up until you succeed" all require a strict and self-disciplined attitude towards life.
Why should I emphasize such a strict philosophy in the enterprise? There is a question about how high you want to lead your own business. In other words, if you don't seek great development and think that the scale of the enterprise is "similar", then a relaxed philosophy will do. However, if the goal is to enter the world's outstanding enterprises, then there must be a strict corporate philosophy with self-denial.
When the operator calls on employees to have this concept of strict self-discipline, it may lead to resistance from employees. At this time, the operator should reasonably convince everyone: "I don't want to make our company a mediocre enterprise, but a world-class enterprise worthy of our pride." Therefore, I will implement a serious and self-denial philosophy in the enterprise and practice this philosophy with everyone. "If you don't make such an explanation, I believe it is difficult for employees to accept this concept.
Judge by good and evil, not by gains and losses.
Sakyamuni taught us that the three instincts of desire, anger and delusion are the most difficult to control among all human troubles, which are called "three poisons". If we let our thoughts go unchecked, people's hearts will be full of these "three poisons" and we must work hard, even if there is a little kindness and kindness rooted in our hearts.
Man is the master of "thought", the creator of personality and the designer of his own environment and destiny. Plant beautiful flowers and seeds in your heart and take good care of them, and you will bear rich fruits. On the other hand, if we neglect to take care of it, it will lead to weeds. Therefore, we must clean our hearts and purify our thoughts. This is not for others, but for my own life and career.
Everyone has good and evil hearts. The so-called kindness is to put aside your own affairs and pray for the altruistic happiness and warmth of people around you. The so-called disgusting, that is, as long as you are good, you are selfish. Therefore, we should try our best to restrain this selfish idea of being good to ourselves and let good altruism occupy more hearts. This is self-cultivation and personality shaping. Moreover, doing so can also help us make a correct judgment on things.
Business operators need to make judgments on various things in their daily work. At this time, if you let yourself go, people will not judge by good or evil, but by gains and losses. It is instinct to consider gains and losses, that is, to judge whether to earn or not by calculating gains and losses. Not only that, but also emotional, judging by insult or meaningless vanity. To judge with a kind heart, you must go through strict training, otherwise it is difficult to do it.
In my youth, from the perspective of self-discipline, I often say this to cadres and subordinates:
"When there is a problem and you need to judge something, almost all the ideas that come to mind instantly come from instinct. Therefore, you can't judge things immediately with the ideas that just came out. Wait a minute! Put this judgment on hold for a while, and then think rationally, or measure it with good and evil. Not to see if it is good for you, nor to judge from feelings, but to judge with reason and good and evil. It is very important to put a' buffer' for the time being and make a decision after consideration. "
"Unless you are a real saint and gentleman, the average person can't judge things intuitively at once. Usually, people will judge by intuition. Because of this, when encountering a problem, don't rush to a conclusion, but put aside the initial judgment, turn to understand the essence of the problem, and then measure it with the scale of good and evil, and correct your initial thoughts. Setting the buffer in this way should make an accurate judgment. "
I don't know how many times, I realized that the first judgment in my mind was wrong, so I reconsidered and avoided failure.
As a person, what is right?
There is a saying in my philosophy, "What is right as a person? The right thing should be done correctly. I often throw such questions to myself and make unremitting efforts to maintain the correct judgment benchmark. Therefore, my idea is not only the judgment benchmark of business operation, but also the criterion of my own life.
In business operations, disgraceful events or scandals often occur. There are many people, among whom there will inevitably be people with wrong ideas, and there will also be people who have gone bad because of impulse. In order to prevent these people from going the wrong way, enterprises need to have norms, which is philosophy. Establishing such norms in enterprises has become people's knowledge and can prevent problems before they happen.
A few years ago in China, the dairy giant Sanlu Group went bankrupt because of the melamine tainted milk powder incident, resulting in insolvency. In this case, the reason is that enterprises ignore the norms and rules that must be observed by operating enterprises. The enterprise fraud scandal happened because the enterprise did not clearly establish its own "philosophy", or this "philosophy" did not penetrate into the enterprise.
In most enterprises, no operator will ask employees "What is right as a person?" The so-called "philosophy" I am thinking about is the answer to this question. At the same time, this is also the simplest life principle taught by parents and teachers when I was a child, such as "be honest, don't lie, don't lie" and so on. "Do you still need to talk about this minimum thing in the enterprise?" Some people may be surprised. However, it is precisely because the above-mentioned principle of being a natural person has not been observed that various corporate scandals have emerged. In other words, I don't regard the norms, rules and matters that must be observed according to philosophy as the norms of my daily life and the benchmark of my business judgment. In my opinion, it is precisely because people who lack this simple philosophy have become leaders of large enterprises that scandals of many large enterprises in the world occur frequently today.
Fortunately, because I am concerned about the norms, rules and matters that must be observed in business operations, I just start from "What is right as a person?" This sentence is extended to convince employees. "As a person, carry out the right thing in the right way to the end" is an extremely simple criterion, but it is precisely because of following the conclusions drawn from it that Kyocera has been walking in the right direction since its establishment half a century ago. Later, Kyocera went overseas, and this criterion became a universal philosophy all over the world. I think this philosophy also applies to JAL.
Life is a Dojo to temper the soul.
At Hesheng College, I often say, "If you want to run your company well, it is very important to improve your thinking. Your mind has improved, you have a beautiful heart, and the company will become excellent accordingly. If you have a kind heart as an operator, then the employees of the company will follow suit and their hearts will be purified. Such kind-hearted people unite * * *, and the company will achieve incredible success. "
In the final analysis, it is "improving the mind and expanding management". In order to expand business, the first thing to do is to improve the operators' own minds. Then, while improving their own minds, they also strive to improve the minds of employees around them. The result is self-evident. Not only will we succeed, but this prosperity will last for a long time. I think "improving thinking" is not only important for business operation, but also important for our whole life. Even "cultivating the mind" itself should be "the purpose of life".
Everyone has beautiful ideals when he is young, and if possible, everyone wants to be outstanding. When I was young, my ideal was to be an excellent engineer and an excellent scientist who could win the Nobel Prize. After the establishment of Kyocera, I want to be an excellent operator and make Kyocera an excellent company and a world-class enterprise under the trend of globalization.
But is this really the purpose of life? After careful consideration, I think these are by no means the purpose of my life. I am 79 years old, and death is approaching me. According to my understanding, death only means the destruction of the body. I believe that when I die, it is only the body that dies, not the soul, and the soul is eternal. In this universe, there is a surge of love, care and understanding. This "qi" promotes the development of everything in the world, and we live in this universe full of love. When I was dying, my soul left my body and started to set out. I pray that my soul is beautiful, so I am cared for by the exquisite "qi" flowing in the universe when I travel. The purpose of life is to hone the soul and make it more beautiful before death comes and leaves.
If you think about it carefully, you will understand that our life does not develop according to our own will, and it often has nothing to do with our wishes. It just walks on the road of life where fate and cause and effect are intertwined. In the meantime, there are disasters and luck. In the test of disaster and luck, we should temper our souls and shape our beautiful hearts. I think this is the purpose of life given to us by God.
The so-called tempering the soul or tempering the soul, in other words, is to enhance personality, enrich humanity and shape beautiful humanity. That is to shape a sincere, elegant and caring heart. Our innate soul, washed and tempered by the waves of this world, has become more beautiful. I think this is the meaning of life. When welcoming death, we should have a slightly better soul than when we were born, a caring soul. Otherwise, living in this world is worthless. The so-called life is the "Dojo" to temper the mind and soul.
In order to temper the soul, the first thing you need is hard work. Hard work is the most effective way to temper the soul. From my own personal experience, I firmly believe this article.
I have been working hard for 52 years since I founded Kyocera at the age of 27. The company may go bankrupt, and this sense of crisis forces me. I will never let the company go bankrupt, make employees happy and make the company prosperous. With this in mind, I work tirelessly. I have no leisure to think about superfluous things, no time to hold any other thoughts and delusions, just work hard wholeheartedly. This is the best way to improve your mind. Just as a Zen monk achieves enlightenment through constant practice.
Put aside all distractions and concentrate on your work. For example, carpenters who build magnificent buildings and ceramists who burn exquisite pottery. When we see and hear reports about them on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, we will admire their lofty realm. These people devote their lives to their work. They haven't received a profound education and haven't read widely. They just work hard every day, day after day, without complaining, without complaining.
Every word of these people reveals their noble outlook on life and rich humanity. Their profound words are like enlightened monks. Through their good words, we know that working and living seriously is not only to earn money, but also to temper people's souls and hearts.
I couldn't find a job at first, so I had to join a broken company and study precision ceramics. I'm not focused, and I continue to work as hard as everyone else. After the establishment of the company, I worked hard from morning till night and cherished every minute in order not to let small and medium-sized enterprises like Kyocera go bankrupt. Looking back now, it is this hard-working attitude that shaped my own character. Now I can talk about Kan Kan in front of everyone, which is the result of my hard work.