Kazuo Inamori: How to love work?

died at the age of 90. Kazuo Inamori is one of the "Four Sages of Management" in Japan, along with Konosuke Matsushita of Panasonic, Soichiro Honda, and Akio Morita of Sony. Together with Kazuo Inamori, they are the representatives of entrepreneurs who created the economic miracle of Japan after World War II. However, among the "Four Sages of Management", Kazuo Inamori is the most special one.

First, while the other three devoted their lives to one company, Kazuo Inamori was a serial entrepreneur. At the age of 27, he founded Kyocera, a precision ceramics company, which went public 10 years later and later became one of the world's top 500 companies. 52 years old, Kazuo Inamori founded KDDI, Japan's second telecommunications company, which is also one of the world's top 500 companies. 78 years old, Kazuo Inamori had already retired from the business and was asked to take over Japan Airlines, which had gone bankrupt and rebuilt because of severe losses. The next year, he turned JAL from a loss to a profit, and two years later, JAL was listed again. You can see that Kazuo Inamori, as a serial entrepreneur who has "never failed", is a miracle in itself.

More importantly, while the other three of the "Four Sages of Management" were only entrepreneurs, Kazuo Inamori was also a management scientist in addition to being an entrepreneur. He published dozens of books during his lifetime, including the well-known "The Way of Life", "The Way of Doing Things", "Amoeba Management", and so on. His management philosophy is one of the most important management concepts exported from Japan, alongside the Toyota Model. Kazuo Inamori's influence has long gone beyond the companies he founded and has profoundly influenced a generation of entrepreneurs in the East Asian cultural circle.

You see, the highest standard by which the ancient Chinese measured their achievements in life was "establishing virtue, merit, and speech," that is, creating a system, achieving merit, and writing a book, and the only one of the "Four Sages of Management" who did all three was Kazuo Inamori.

My own experience of reading Kazuo Inamori's works is that he emphasizes the "Tao" and the power of spirit more than the "art" of specific management methods. It is like a fight between masters, the fight is not about one move, but about who has a stronger will and stronger desire to win.

In the book "The Way", Kazuo Inamori mentioned an incident that had a deep impact on him. When he was young, he once went to a lecture, and the speaker was Konosuke Matsushita, and the topic of the lecture was "reservoir management concept". This means that in times of economic prosperity, companies should try to make good reserves, "build high walls and accumulate food", just like reservoirs to store water, so that when the economy is in recession, the floodgates can be opened and water can be released to tide over the difficulties.

There were many entrepreneurs present at the lecture, and someone raised his hand and asked, "Mr. Matsushita, we all understand what you said, but the question is, how can we build a "reservoir" with surplus management? Is it not a waste of time to just think about it without concrete methods? Hearing this question, Konosuke Matsushita was silent for a while and then said, seemingly to himself, "No, you can't do it if you don't want to."

While this answer disappointed the entire audience, Kazuo Inamori said that the words gave him a great shock, as if he had been struck by an electric current. At that moment, he understood the meaning of Mr. Matsushita: to build a corporate "reservoir", the method varies from person to person and cannot be taught specifically, but as long as one dares to think, has the determination to do it, and has the will to never give up until the goal is achieved, one can find a way to achieve it.

Speaking of which, I remember another story. Someone asked Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "What should I do if I don't love my wife anymore?" Covey replied, "Then you love her. The man froze for a moment and said, "Teacher, you didn't understand, I asked what should I do if I don't love my wife anymore. Covey said, "It's not that I didn't understand, it's that you didn't understand. I mean, if you don't love her anymore, then you go love her.

It sounds like Covey's answer is very nonsensical, but he is saying that it is not a matter of method, but a matter of faith. Likewise, if you ask Kazuo Inamori, what if I don't love my job? Kazuo Inamori would answer: Then you should love your job.

In Kazuo Inamori's opinion, it is a very small probability that a person will start doing a job that he or she loves from the very beginning. First of all, many people do not know what is the work they are interested in; secondly, even if you apply for the company and position you are interested in, you are likely to find that the actual work content is very different from what you originally imagined; thirdly, any work contains repetitive parts, and the work you are interested in may become boring after the initial novelty has passed.

This means that it's almost impossible to get addicted to working because you love it. What can be done? Kazuo Inamori said, "You have to think about it the other way around: "Addicted to work because you love it" is something that can't be found; "Addicted to work because you love it" is something that will happen.

The reason is very simple, as we all understand, is the principle of positive feedback. Whether you like it or not, first put it into it. Single-mindedly putting your head to work will naturally make results; with results, it will naturally be affirmed and praised; with affirmation and praise, it will naturally be more motivated and confident to put into work, thus forming a positive feedback loop. Over time, you will love the job, even if it is a mediocre job.

In other words, it is much more important to be able to get continuous positive feedback through your efforts than whether the content of the job is interesting or not. This is why Kazuo Inamori said, "A vocation does not happen by chance, but is made by oneself."

Well, having solved the problem of "loving work", let's ask further: why do people work? The answer we can usually think of is that work is to make money and satisfy the need for self-fulfillment. But Kazuo Inamori has a different answer. He said that work is to make people nobler.

In his opinion, life is a dojo built for cultivating the heart, and as long as we have a more noble soul at the time of death than at the time of birth, life has achieved its purpose. So, how to make the soul noble? There is no need to live in the mountains, meditation, and enlightenment, and work is the best sharpening stone to sharpen the heart. If you put all your effort, tirelessness, and excellence into your daily work, and if you persist in this way for decades, you will naturally have a strong personality and a noble soul, and you will realize the fundamental purpose of life.

That is why Kazuo Inamori said that among all human activities, "work is the most honorable, important, and valuable act".