Contemporary people living in the fast-paced life of information explosion are busy living, working and making money every day, day after day, year after year. When you calm down and think about the meaning of life, some people will say that living is to support your family and enjoy the fun of life. Some people are so confused that they don’t know what life is. As a human being, how should you spend your life?

Fortunately, there is such a book, "The Way of Living" written by the famous Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori, which explains this problem. The "life method" he thinks about and practices is a law that improves the mind, tempers the soul, and pursues the right life. Those who follow these rules will achieve success. This law applies to enterprises, societies, countries and even all mankind, because they are all a collection of individuals.

Kazuo Inamori is the founder of two of Japan’s Fortune 500 companies, Kyocera and KDDI. He also served as Chairman of Japan Airlines in 2010. In just one year, he turned the bankrupt and reorganized JAL into a profit and created the highest profit in the history of JAL. He is one of Japan's four business saints and a legend in the Japanese business community. His representative works such as "Living Method", "Thinking Way" and "Kyocera Philosophy" have received rave reviews.

Now let us enter his book "The Way of Living" to understand his mentality and philosophy, and understand the meaning of living.

01

If you don’t even dare to think about it, how can you talk about success?

In today's society, the word "dream" is no longer a standard word for successful people, nor is it a word for successful people. Even if you are just an ordinary person, you still have the qualifications and rights to talk about your dreams.

Jack Ma often said: "You still have to have dreams, what if you realize them?"

That's right, when a person wants to realize his dream or wants to accomplish something When doing something, you must first dare to think. If we don’t even have the courage to think about it, how can we achieve it?

As the saying goes, only what you think can make things happen. Kazuo Inamori mentioned in his book that "the heart will not change the things, but the things will not arrive".

He compared the desire in his heart to a small seed, and poured his energy into this seed every day. It's as if there is a fire burning in my heart. I think about it even when I eat, when I sleep, and when I walk. There will even be a strong voice in my heart: "This must be like this, it must be like this." When you are caught up in this "mania" for wish fulfillment 24 hours a day, you will gain the driving force for success in life or career.

When Kazuo Inamori founded Kyocera, he set a goal to build Kyocera into a new ceramic company that dominates the world. But at the time, he had no detailed strategy or plan. He himself felt that this goal sounded a bit "too big." But he still communicates his vision to employees over and over again in his daily work. Over time, under the subtle influence of the boss, the employees turned the company's dream into their own, and worked together to realize this super big dream.

First inject extraordinary enthusiasm into your desires, and the solution to the problem will appear naturally.

Of course, the "thinking" mentioned by Kazuo Inamori is not a daydream or a simple daze, but a continuous and in-depth thinking about every detail toward the goal, and careful planning, and the goal will be achieved. accomplish.

He told us that when we want to accomplish something, we must first describe its ideal state, and then constantly simulate and rehearse the process of achieving it in our minds. Until you “see” its results. It is not enough to present this result in black and white, it must also appear in "color" that is close to the real result. This is the same as what is called "imagery training" in sports competitions.

For example, WeChat founder Zhang Xiaolong has firmly believed from the beginning that WeChat will not only be a communication tool in the future, but also a way of life. This is the pursuit and dream in his heart. Despite people's doubts, Zhang Xiaolong still concentrated on polishing the product, iterating the system, and adding humanized functions. It turns out that WeChat has now become part of our way of life.

If you want to turn the ideas in your mind into real results, what plans do you need to make?

"Book of Rites" says: "Everything will be successful if it is foreseen, and it will be ruined if it is not foreseen."

Li Tuoyuan, a national senior born in the 1990s, is a master of science at Yale and Harvard. At that time, I was determined to be admitted to Yale University. On the way to his goal, he broke down this big goal into small daily and hourly goals, and strictly implemented them, and was finally admitted to Yale University. Facts have proved that the success of the national senior lies in his having both dreams and careful plans.

So, what should we do if we encounter difficulties that are difficult to overcome on the way forward?

Inamori Kazuo put forward a concept in the book-"Objects" "Ying Xin Ying Ying", simply put, means that the answer is at the scene, and there is a spirit at the scene. The parties concerned must go to the scene to find answers instead of sitting in the office and listening to reports. When looking for answers on the spot, you need to use your heart, eyes, and ears at the same time to find a solution. All three are indispensable. This is just like when Chinese medicine treats patients, they use the methods of looking, smelling, asking, and cutting, so that they can give the patient a comprehensive diagnosis.

Uncle Sam, the founder of the retail giant Wal-Mart, has one of his business philosophy called "on-site guidance and management". He believes that more problems can only be discovered on-site at the store. He also needs to listen to customers' opinions with an open mind and improve service work in a timely manner. Uncle Sam's "on-site guidance and management" is the same as Kazuo Inamori's "the answer lies on-site" business philosophy.

It can be seen from this that if a person or a company wants to realize their dreams, they must first dare to think. As the saying goes, only dreams can come true. Secondly, careful planning and careful preparation are also essential. Finally, we need to unite knowledge with action and go to the scene to overcome problems. In this way, if you go all out in the process of moving towards your dreams, the final result can only be success!

02

Your way of thinking determines the direction of your life. Think about problems from simple principles and achieve success

Once you have a dream, you also start to take actions to implement it. If you plan, then in the process of moving forward, many people will be interfered by external temptations, such as favors and interests. When encountering such problems, what principles should we use to guide our actions?

Kazuo Inamori believes that no matter in life or work, we must use a "simple" state of mind to find the root of the problem, and a simple mind is the principle of life we ??learned in kindergarten, such as: Be honest, don’t lie, don’t be greedy, don’t cause trouble for others, be kind to others, be fraternal, etc. When solving problems or disputes, if you adopt this way of thinking to judge and act, you can quickly simplify complex problems, find the crux of the problem and solve it, and then you can achieve success in life.

Later, he extended this thinking and established a simple "life equation" to explain:

Life. Work results = way of thinking, enthusiasm, and ability.

In this formula, Inamori Kazuo believes that the most important thing is the way of thinking, because it has good or bad directionality. If a person has a good way of thinking, you will have inner strength and your career will not go astray.

Once upon a time, when many companies in Japan took out loans from banks and invested crazily in real estate, hoping to make quick money, Kazuo Inamori remained calm and did not follow the trend. He believes that this speculative way of making money, which only transfers land from the left hand to the right hand, is ill-gotten wealth. Once the real estate bubble bursts, it will lead to heavy debts. At that time, he had only one simple belief: only the money earned through his own efforts was the real profit. Therefore, when Japan’s real estate bubble burst, Kyocera remained “unscathed.”

It is not easy to maintain this "simple" state of mind throughout one's life. We need to cultivate our hearts and temper our souls every day.

Once, someone asked Inamori Kazuo a question: "What is the meaning of life?"

Inamori Kazuo replied: "The meaning of life is to continuously improve the mind and temper the soul. , so that when you die, your soul will be purer than when you were alive."

In short, it is diligence. Live every day very seriously and examine yourself three times a day. And this kind of cultivation does not mean that you must live in the mountains, isolate yourself from the world, and meditate every day. Rather, life and work are the dojo. In this process, you can experience the ups and downs, get rid of your greed, and purify your soul. To this end, Inamori Kazuo also summarized the "six principles of improvement" from his own experience.

What do these "six advancements" include? The first is to put in as much effort as anyone else. Next, we need to be humble and guard against arrogance, reflect every day, be grateful, accumulate good deeds for others, and avoid emotional worries. Only by doing this can we lead to the path to enlightenment.

Qian Mu, a master of Chinese traditional culture, said: "Those who have achieved great success throughout the ages have no other secret than that they are capable people who are willing to work hard."

I heard a story when I was a child. There are two bamboos in the woods, one is made into a flute, and the other is made into a clothes pole.

The clothes drying pole asked Dizi unconvincedly: We are all bamboos on the same mountain. Why am I exposed to the sun and rain every day and not worth a penny? And you are worth this thousand gold?

Dizi replied: "Because you only received one knife, but I experienced thousands of cuts and was carefully carved."

After listening, the clothes drying pole fell silent. .

The same is true in life. You need to be able to withstand polishing, endure loneliness, study hard in your own field, and make progress every day, so that you can advance in life. When you see others succeed, don’t feel unconvinced, because Others pay more than you.

As "Cai Gen Tan" said: "Everyone takes pleasure in good times, but a gentleman takes pleasure in adversity."

So, for a company, how to choose And what about promoting talents? Is it enough to only enable those elites?

In this regard, Kazuo Inamori also has his own philosophy of life. He proposed to recruit talents with both ability and political integrity, and even required moral character to be more important than talent. If the personality is twisted or evil, no matter how strong the ability and high the enthusiasm, the result will only be that people fall into the abyss and have nothing.

He believes that it was Japan’s ruling class that had a militaristic way of thinking that launched the war of aggression, which ended in defeat and brought the lives of the country’s people into a quagmire. All this was because of the rule of Japan. consequences of the person's misconduct. If Japan continues to adopt this profit-seeking philosophy in the future, it will inevitably lead Japan into an abyss or even destruction.

In addition, Inamori Kazuo also proposed that morality-based personality education should also be added to Japanese education. Maintaining humility and altruism are the most basic human ethics. Today's schools place too much emphasis on "personality education," while no one pays attention to the basic quality education of how to behave. Just imagine that when these children grow up, they will be deeply confused about how they should live as human beings.

Looking back at our education, the evaluation of students cannot just look at their grades alone. Students with high scores can receive attention or preferential treatment from teachers, while students who are well-educated in dealing with others are always ignored by teachers. If this continues, it will distort young people's values.

Society is made up of all walks of life. No matter what profession you are engaged in, as long as you support yourself and work with all your strength, you are worthy of respect. Establishing a correct view of labor is also the mission of education. Morality-based character education is urgent.

Inamori Kazuo’s idea of ??“putting virtue first” is similar to the ideas of ancient sages.

Confucius said in "The Analects": "Ji is not praised for its power, but its virtue."

Confucius believed that a thousand-mile horse is not to be praised for its strength, but to be praised for its strength. Praise its virtues. The same is true for a person. Virtue is the embodiment of a person's cultivation and the basis of all behaviors.

When you uphold the principle of "the most simple way and have kind thoughts in your heart", insist on daily efforts, and maintain the determination to go all out towards the goal, success is not far away from you, and Wealth or fame, those are just the by-products that come with it.

As a well-known scholar said: "What you do in March and April will have the answer in August and September."

03

Those who are content will be rich. When you are a person or a business owner, you must have altruistic ideas and give back to the society.

When a person or a company succeeds and makes money, If you are famous, do you just keep fame and fortune in your arms, inflate yourself, and don't know how to go in the future?

In Kazuo Inamori’s view, altruism is the origin of an enterprise.

The wealth and profits earned by enterprises are just the temporary storage of social wealth by entrepreneurs. Ultimately, they must be given back to the society to help more people and other companies grow faster and allow more people to grow. More people enjoy the beauty of the world. Therefore, when running a business, you must not only make profits for your own company, but also consider the interests of customers, consumers, shareholders, and communities, and create a win-win or even win-win situation.

Soon after Kyocera started his business, Inamori Kazuo encouraged all employees to practice altruistic spirit and donate part of their salary, and the company would donate the same amount of funds to those who could not afford rice cakes during the New Year. poor. This kind act was recognized and supported by employees, and the charity continues to this day.

With the rapid development of Kyocera's business, the company's profits are also increasing. Kazuo Inamori is grateful and repays the society, creating the "Kyoto Award". It is used to reward those who have made outstanding achievements and outstanding contributions in the fields of science and technology and art.

These acts of kindness are the practical implementation of Kazuo Inamori’s altruistic philosophy. As philanthropy gradually gained popularity, Inamori won the "Carnegie Philanthropy Award" awarded by the Carnegie Institute in 2003.

Today, with the rapid development of society and technology, human living conditions have taken on a completely new aspect. We should be grateful for the life we ??have now, and learn to be content with what we have.

"The survival mode of contentment exists in nature." Kazuo Inamori tells everyone in the book. Animals in nature do not destroy the natural environment. They have a cyclic food chain.

For example, if herbivores are greedy and eat up all the plants, not only will they starve to death, but other organisms in the biological chain will also face the risk of extinction. A lion will not catch prey after it is full. This is the instinct of animals and the "contentment" way of survival given by nature.

However, human beings are never satisfied, and even develop the economy at the cost of destroying the natural environment. They never understand what "moderation" is and become more and more arrogant. Human beings should no longer pursue more than they need. If you always feel dissatisfied with the things around you and keep pursuing them, will you be satisfied once you get them?

Absolutely not.

Lao Tzu said, "He who is content is rich." This means that the pursuit of selfish desires should be moderate. When the state of satisfaction is reached, the remaining part should be shared with others. If you have this kind of tolerance and kindness, you will also gain spiritual wealth and pleasure.

Of course, the contentment mentioned here does not refer to a life attitude of being content with the status quo, sticking to the rules, and not wanting to make progress. Rather, they should “remain eager” for new things at any time and have a sense of innovation.

Steve Jobs has a famous saying: "Be hungry for knowledge, and be ignorant like a fool." It is to let people avoid passive contentment and be brave in making progress in the age of competition.

Glass King Cao Dewang has a firm determination to innovate the Chinese automobile glass. Through 18 years of continuous exploration, scientific research, analysis, iteration, experimentation and innovation , step by step, finally completely changed the situation in which China's automotive glass relied on imports, and built Fuyao Glass Factory into the world's second largest automotive glass manufacturer.

Contentment, enterprising, humility, and altruism are the basic qualities that determine how much material and spiritual wealth a person or a company can obtain, and how far it can go.

Written at the end

In the book "Living Method", Kazuo Inamori expresses profound thoughts in simple language and speaks in vernacular. He told us that the meaning of human life is a journey of constantly improving oneself and sharpening one's soul. By practicing a positive way of thinking, individuals, families, and businesses can move in the right direction and achieve fruitful results.

This is a book that explains the principles of life, a book that guides companies on how to achieve success, and it is also a philosophy book. The author explains to us how to live by narrating his own way of being a person and doing business. If we practice Kazuo Inamori’s philosophy, we will eventually have a sparkling life and career.

As Ji Xianlin, a master of traditional Chinese culture, said: "According to my observations over the past seventy or eighty years, people who are both entrepreneurs and philosophers are as rare as a rare person, and they are rare since Mr. Kazuo Inamori." beginning.

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