Inamori Kazuo: The way of thinking determines the success of life

There is a "success equation" in Kazuo Inamori's philosophy, which is "results of life and work = way of thinking × enthusiasm × ability".

Human "ability" is only one element, and it needs to be multiplied (rather than added) with "way of thinking" and "enthusiasm" to get the final result. In other words, acquired efforts can greatly open up and change life, which is consistent with Kazuo Inamori's "effort no less than anyone else's effort" in the six improvements.

If you have a negative way of thinking, even if you have ability and enthusiasm, the result will become negative. The so-called "negative way of thinking" is another way of saying "evil thoughts". For Inamori Kazuo, "thinking without evil" is the fundamental guiding principle in life.

In Kazuo Inamori’s 88 years of life, there have been several outstanding successes beyond imagination. For example, Kyocera, founded in 1959, became a Fortune 500 company in 1969; Daiichi Denden, founded in 1984, became a Fortune 500 company in 2007; in 2010, JAL was successfully rebuilt.

Lang Xianping once said: "Kazuo Inamori not only founded and led two companies into the Fortune 500, but also taught his management and life philosophy to numerous small and medium-sized enterprises and thousands of individuals. He not only creates economic value, but also creates universal value. He is a global entrepreneur that I admire very much."

In terms of Mr. Kazuo Inamori's outstanding success, even if he only owns it once, he can be famous in history. However, Kazuo Inamori can continue to collect such success. What is the special secret in this?

In 2019, at the 27th Seiwa Juku World Congress held in Yokohama, Japan, Mr. Kazuo Inamori said this: "I think such success is definitely not due to luck or catching up. The trend of the times, the reason why I have achieved such success is because of the power of philosophy.”

So, how did Inamori rely on the power of philosophy to cultivate his thinking step by step. way and achieve success?

Mr. Kazuo Inamori said: "When I was young, I was just a young man who could be seen everywhere on the streets of Japan. There was nothing eye-catching about me."

In 1932, Kazuo Inamori He was born in the expectation of his father Haoichi and his mother Kimi. As the second son at the time, his father, Haoshi, was too busy with work and delayed registering. In terms of concentration on work, Inamori Kazuo is really similar to his father, Toichi.

Inamori Kazuo’s childhood was as interesting and enjoyable as any other child’s. But when he reached the age of going to school, he turned into a troublemaker who could cry for three hours, which once broke the hearts of his family. For a long time, Inamori Kazuo was timid and cowardly outside, clingy and prone to crying at home. In this situation, with the achievements of Kagoshima Township Middle School education and the Spartan education of his mother, Inamori Kazuo became stronger and stronger when he entered the senior grade.

Even so, fate still did not favor this ordinary young man. In 1944, Kazuo Inamori applied for No. 1 Middle School but was not admitted. To make matters worse, at the end of that year, Kazuo Inamori was infected by his uncle Kaneo and contracted tuberculosis.

As a 12-year-old child, after realizing "death" early, his experience of illness also made him think about the impact of mentality on life. Father Haoichi knew that he might be infected, but still took care of his younger brother without hesitation. What a beautiful heart. Faced with the self-sacrifice and dedication of Roshi, the God of Death must also take a detour.

Although Inamori Kazuo is still a child, he suddenly woke up at this moment. This is the mentality that Kazuo Inamori learned from a book "The Reality of Life" given to him by his neighbor's hostess.

In 1945, one year after Kazuo Inamori failed the last entrance exam, Kazuo Inamori took the exam for No. 1 Middle School again during his illness, but he still failed. Fortunately, after learning that Kazuo Inamori had not been admitted to No. 1 Middle School, Teacher Doi firmly persuaded Kazuo Inamori to apply for Luzhong.

This time, Inamori Kazuo passed the exam. For students at that time, the future life path would be completely different if they had an education above the old middle school system and if they graduated from a higher education in primary school. Mr. Kita Conley said in "The Life Philosophy of Kazuo Inamori": "Although his life seemed to be full of ups and downs, he always met the right person every time at the crossroads of fate.

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When he was in the third grade of Kagoshima Junior High School, his father, Toichi, objected to Kazuo Inamori going to high school because of his family's financial difficulties. Later, in his promise that "I will go to work as soon as I graduate from high school." , Inamori Kazuo was able to continue studying in high school.

Because the content taught in high school was almost the same as that in junior high school, students felt that it was the same whether they were in class or not. Therefore, Inamori became addicted to baseball every day after school. . Kimei couldn't stand it, and began to ask Inamori Kazuo to take on some family responsibilities.

So Inamori Kazuo started selling paper bags after school, and later started "wholesale" and achieved great success. The success of Inamori became the starting point of Kazuo Inamori's career.

It was also at that time that Kazuo Inamori hired a child who had just graduated from elementary school. He began to have the awareness of "employing people." He said: "It was from that period that I began to realize how to employ people. ”

When he was about to graduate from high school, Inamori Kazuo was actually ready to give up going to college. It was his class teacher, Mr. Shinjima, who believed that Inamori’s grades were excellent and persuaded his father, Toichi. However, Naichi put forward a condition: at least go to Kyushu University.

As expected, Inamori Kazuo still failed to pass the exam. Fortunately, Inamori Kazuo successfully passed the second batch of admission. Department of Engineering at Kagoshima Prefectural University. This time, his father, Kazuo Inamori, did not object to Kazuo Inamori entering university. He worked extremely hard, even in the cold winter. Wearing sportswear and clogs, he goes to the library to study, looking forward to realizing his life dreams when he chooses a career after graduation.

The days go on like this, and Kazuo Inamori enjoys his free youth and is full of hope for the future. However, he soon learned the cruelty of reality - he wanted to work hard but had no way to find a job.

Professor Takeshita extended a helping hand to Inamori and wanted to recommend Inamori. Kazuo went to work for Songfeng Industry, an insulating porcelain bottle company in Jingdong.

However, Songfeng Industry was looking to recruit students majoring in inorganic chemistry, preferably those who had studied ceramic technology. , Kazuo Inamori’s graduation thesis must be related to ceramics. At that time, there was only about half a year left to prepare for the graduation thesis defense. Since Kazuo Inamori had never been exposed to inorganic chemistry, he had to start from scratch. For Kazuo Inamori, it was a very severe test.

Fortunately, after all the hardships, Kazuo Inamori finally completed his graduation thesis entitled "Basic Research on Incoming Clay". And successfully joined Shofu Industrial.

When Kazuo Inamori entered Shofu Industrial, this originally well-known company was already crumbling and had long lost its former glory.

In the depressed environment. In the environment, Inamori Kazuo repeated monotonous and boring work every day. The internal situation of Matsukaze Industry was indeed worse than imagined. Delayed and installment payment of wages became the norm before long, at the same time as Inamori Kazuo. The five college students who joined the company resigned one after another, and in the end only Kazuo Inamori was left.

Originally, Mr. Kazuo Inamori also wanted to leave, but his brother Toshiori firmly opposed sending him a copy of his household registration. , leaving him with no way out. In this situation, Kazuo Inamori made up his mind: "There is no other way but to change my mentality, go all out, and focus on the research and development work at hand. ”

Once, Inamori Kazuo saw a senior sitting in the raw material cleaning room, diligently cleaning the ball mill with a brush. Occasionally, the grinding ball would be a little worn, and those worn uneven areas would be stained with dirt. Put some powder left over from the previous experiment. The senior carefully scraped the powder out with a scraper, and then used a brush to clean the grinding ball.

"A man who graduated from college is actually doing such trivial things. Trivial work..." Kazuo Inamori thought while looking at it casually. Later, when he couldn't get the desired results in the experiment, the figure of that senior appeared in his mind.

The back view of his predecessors taught Kazuo Inamori the importance of on-site practice. "Experience is far more important than knowledge." This attitude became an important part of Kazuo Inamori's subsequent "philosophy".

This attitude prompted Kazuo Inamori to successfully synthesize a practical-level forsterite ceramic material at the age of 24, which was the first time in Japan.

Later, Kazuo Inamori worked all night long on how to improve the precision of the product as soon as possible. At this time, he realized that he wanted to become the "center of the whirlpool." Kazuo Inamori said this: "You must take the initiative and actively look for and take on work, so that people around you will naturally come to help you. You can work in the center of the whirlpool."

Inamori This is what Kazuo demands of himself. In November 1956, Kazuo Inamori and others established the Special Magnetic Department. Although Kazuo Inamori did not become the section chief, he became a young leader fully responsible for the work of the Special Magnetic Department.

Inamori Kazuo became the "center of the whirlpool", constantly faced challenges, and began to accept very important jobs. However, the new Minister of Technology blindly wanted to seize his own research and development rights, which was unacceptable to Inamori Kazuo.

Especially when the new director of the technology department said: "It seems that you are not going to be able to do it. Our company has many technical personnel who graduated from Kyoto University. Let them do it."

It was this trigger that made Kazuo Inamori decide to resign. After going through some twists and turns from resigning to having the idea of ????starting a business, Aoyama introduced Kazue Nishida, the senior director of Miyagi Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to Inamori Kazuo. In the end, Kazuo Inamori's burning passion and unwavering faith finally moved Nishiki and the others.

On April 1, 1959, a ceremony to commemorate the founding of the company was held in the office on the second floor of the rented office building at No. 1112, Nishinokyoharacho, Nakakyo-ku, Kyoto. At the celebration banquet that night, Inamori made a speech: "We must become number one in Japan, and then number one in the world!"

Strong desire began to drive reality, and it was at this stage that Inamori Sheng Hefu gradually improved the core of the corporate culture: "employee first", customer orientation as the goal, pricing as management, pursuit of both material and spiritual happiness of all employees, "altruistic" heart, and amoeba management.

On October 1, 1971, Kyocera was successfully listed on the Second Section of the Osaka Stock Exchange and the Kyoto Stock Exchange. Capital at the time was 560 million yen. This year is the 13th year since Kyocera was founded, and it also happens to be the fifth year that Kazuo Inamori took office as president.

When Kazuo Inamori inspected the San Diego factory before, he was shocked to learn that the phone bill in the United States was only one-ninth of that in Japan.

At that time, Japan's electrical communications industry was monopolized by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT Corporation), which was fully funded by the Japanese government. Because of the monopoly, user fees remain high, which places a great burden on the national economy.

At that time, Kazuo Inamori had deeply realized that the key to career success lies in whether he can listen to the voice of the market with a "pure heart" and do the right thing with a selfless attitude.

After about half a year of repeated thinking, Inamori Kazuo made a decision. In July 1983, Kyocera held an interim board of directors meeting, and challenging Daiichi Denden was raised as an issue.

"Kyocera has accumulated 150 billion yen in internal capital reserves since its founding, and I hope to use 100 billion of them." Kazuo Inamori made the final decision and decided to enter the electrical communications industry.

Fortunately, Inamori Kazuo met Senbon, the head of the technical investigation department of the Kinki Electric Communications Bureau of the former Denden Corporation. Daidenden's subsequent success was inseparable from this person. Senbon sees great possibilities in the future of the electrical communications industry as he describes it.

After the new company was established, it faced the problem of being unable to lay communication lines. If this problem cannot be solved, the plan will fail. Fortunately, at this time, President Mato of Denden Corporation directly gave the green light for Daidenden to use the line.

In this process, Inamori listened to the voice of the market and promoted the positive development of Japan's communications industry. In 2007, KDDI became a Fortune 500 company.

On February 1, 2010, 78-year-old Kazuo Inamori arrived at JAL.

The challenge of rebuilding JAL is very severe. Kazuo Inamori is no longer young. He is even mentally prepared to face it at the risk of losing his life.

However, in April 2010, just two months after Inamori Kazuo took office, a shocking book "The Lie of JAL Reconstruction" was released. The author happens to be Taro Yayama. He is famous for his strong foresight in promoting the split and privatization of the national railway during the second interim commission.

Inamori Kazuo valued this and invited him to become a member of the ministry committee of the third reform trial. But it was he who launched a fierce criticism of JAL's reconstruction.

This book's description of the facts is almost entirely correct and contains a lot of foresight. However, "ideas" and "ways of thinking" are different.

The difference between Inamori Kazuo and Taro Yakayama is that he has the employees of JAL in his heart. On the other hand, Taro Yayama also underestimated Inamori Kazuo's business strength.

In the process of rebuilding JAL, Inamori Kazuo did not adopt a so-called "elite" posture, but conducted dialogue focusing on "what is right as a human being" to judge things and "implement on-the-spotism" The spirit of JAL’s philosophy is to “judge and act with a sense of urgency.”

In the end, JAL achieved a miraculous V-shaped recovery. In November 2010, JAL’s profit reached 140 billion yen.

Inamori Kazuo’s success seems to him to be a very simple matter. Taking "what is right as a human being" as the first criterion for judgment, having an "altruistic" heart, and living "extremely seriously" wholeheartedly will lead to success.

It is this original intention, the belief that the "altruistic" heart continues, and the absence of even a trace of evil thoughts, has made Inamori Kazuo successful.

With the right way of thinking and continuous hard work, you can also reap a fruitful life. As Mr. Kazuo Inamori said: "Live your life with all your strength, and your dreams will surely come true!"