“Please Understand”

I still remember that time in the middle of the Gamecube Life Span, when the then current president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was announcing his retirement. My sister, along to the rest of the internet was speculating on his successor been the still famous Shigeru Miyamoto, but I was thinking differently; it has to be someone else. It turn out to be a guy called Satoru Iwata. That was the first time I read his name in my life.

I have been a Nintendo Fan for, I think, 25 years. And I’m 30 years old. But, still, that was the first time I read his name. I’m natural Spanish, and I didn’t have enough grasp of English around that time, less Japanese (And I still don’t). So, any information about him was just that. He was the new CEO of Nintendo. Good for him.

The Wii came along some years after that and it blow up everything. Like, everything. I wasn’t paying attention on the E3 around that time and I got to knew because someone told me. That never happened. Ever. Time after that I discovered the Iwata Asks. And I got to knew him.

Ok, not really. I have never meet him. Not ever, in my entire life. But the parts of his life he shared were pure joy. You can see when someone is calculating or trying to fake it. Iwata wasn’t faking it. He couldn’t. Every Time I was looking him in the Nintendo Directs or reading the Iwata Asks it was this goofy entity trying very hard to avoid exclaiming to the winds how awesome his job was and how cool was to make games. I guess it help to be a prodigious developer who can rework the disastrous code of 3 years in around 3 weeks, but…

I had a quick chat with my mom about it and she told me “But he was only since the Wii”.

During college I did a quick report on leadership and trust, and I used Hiroshi Yamauchi’s mentorship of Satoru Iwata as an example. Yamauchi was a ruthless businessman. He worked during one of the worst times in Japan, and that cannot be different. He apparently didn’t have passion. Or charisma. But he was wise. He hired Miyamoto on the spot despite not having anything for him to do at the time. He bailed out Hal Laboratory and forced Iwata to do the accounting books, if my investigation was half correct.

Yamauchi knew what he lacked. And It seems to me that he choose Iwata that first day he must had met him during the 80s. If you think about it, he chose the exactly opposite of him: While Yamauchi looked sometimes with contempt at his costumers, Iwata said he was one of them, and we will believe him. He was this giant teddy bear of a persona. A person wise and thoughtful, but so passionate that he wanted to share. And share he did.

Yeah, sure, my mom is right. But, at the same time, wrong. He was there, since the beginning for a lot of us, but we got to knew him just recently. His passion resonated with us, even if most disagreed with his plans.

But that’s for me. There’s other people for which he was always there. They really got to knew Nintendo around his tenure. Iwata for them is not the Passionate Nintendo CEO but THE Nintendo CEO. For them, Nintendo was this guy who did his hardest to fit into the stiff Japanese Executive Persona and failed every single time. And he knew it.

For me, he was Yamauchi’s better version. For other people, he was the only version. He shared, he laughed, he did sacrificies. But he touched many hearts. And we’re mourning him today.

Some people got trending “We Understand” in response of his trademark “Please Understand” everytime Nintendo have to explain something. I tried to understand every single time. But, quite frankly, today I don’t. 13 years were too little to know you, Nintendo Directs and Iwata Asks too small of a sample and 55 years old too young for this.

Delays are easy to understand. Cancelations are a bit harder, but still easier. This is not.

But I have it easy. I’m just some random life spaning Nintendo Fan in a random country in Latin America. Some people not only lost that presence of passion and wisdom they read about and watched using the internet, but a great leader and partner. So, dear Iwata-san, if you hear this, Please Understand that we will shed a tear today, but, tomorrow, we will try to make a better world and give many smiles.

And Please Understand me and other people will need time to fully understand. That the downside of sharing this much.

From my heart: Thanks you.