Kazuo Inamori’s “Six Refinements”, 6 Golden Rules to Improve Yourself
Mr. Ji Xianlin once commented on Kazuo Inamori: “He is both an entrepreneur and a philosopher. People who hold two positions at the same time are almost rare.”
Kazuo Inamori came from a poor background with mediocre education, but he founded two Fortune 500 companies with bare hands.
At the age of 78, he was ordered to save Japan Airlines, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and was known as the “sage of Japanese management”.
However, when he was asked what he thought of the title, he said:
“I am an ordinary person. I just try to learn their ideas from Chinese sages and sages, and then try my best to practice their ideas. After learning these philosophies, everyone may become a saint of management.”
In the book “Six Refinements”, he generously shared his business philosophy and summed up 6 golden rules for self-improvement.
Every outstanding person dares to break through his cocoon and constantly improve himself.
By practicing these 6 golden rules and actively upgrading yourself, anyone can usher in reborn growth.
1
Action refinement
In 1954, Kazuo Inamori, who graduated from an ordinary university, could not find a decent job for a long time.
With the help of his teacher, he finally entered a ceramics company.
But this company is not doing well and is about to go bankrupt, and it has been in arrears with employees for a long time.
Colleagues are either intriguing and complaining again and again;
Kazuo Inamori didn’t like the job either, but he knew he had no better place to go.
So, he simply put aside distracting thoughts and devoted himself to his work with full enthusiasm.
He worked hard to complete every task, studied technology day and night, and even lived in the workshop with pots and pans.
Soon, he was promoted to technical leadership and led the company out of the woods.
Reminds me of a famous quote from the oil magnate Rockefeller: Action solves everything, without action, nothing happens.
No matter how bad the situation is, it will get better little by little if you start taking action.
In “Six Items of Diligence”, Kazuo Inamori also mentioned his uncle.
When my uncle was young, he had no education and no skills, so he lived a very poor life.
But since he decided to start a vegetable business, no matter whether it is spring, autumn, winter, or summer, he has been hawking along the street with a cart.
Some mean relatives laughed at him for his incompetence, but he always laughed it off and continued to work hard day after day.
After persisting in this way for a few years, my uncle made a fortune and realized the skills of business, from setting up a stall to opening a shop, he made the business bigger and bigger.
It is the courage to do what he said and the perseverance that made him get the favor of fate.
A good life is never something you wait for, but a step-by-step step-by-step.
We cannot control the good or bad of our destiny, but we can control our own actions.
Once you have chosen your target, you rush forward with all your might and put in as much effort as anyone else.
No matter how low the starting point is, if you dare to let go and continue to pay, everything you want will come to you.
2
Inner refinement
In the book, Kazuo Inamori concludes:
Small and medium-sized enterprises that are on the right track are more likely to encounter crises such as business failure and bankruptcy.
Seeing the stable development and profitability of the enterprise, managers usually have the idea of pride and arrogance.
Once people’s eyes are higher than the top, they will start to relax, and they will not be far from bad luck.
When Kyocera was in the small and medium-sized enterprise stage, Kazuo Inamori’s heart also swelled.
But whenever he is full of ambition, his spirit will slack, and there will be mistakes in his work.
After several times in succession, he suddenly realized that being intoxicated with insignificant success would hinder his re-growth.
In repeated self-admonitions, he tried to lower his posture and insisted on being humble and self-confident.
When Kyocera went public, he did not arrogantly sell the stock in his own name but gave back all the funds to the company and his subordinates.
When Kyocera entered the top 500 in the world, the outside world praised him for his good management, and he also smiled and said: “This is not the result of me alone.”
He never takes credit for himself and always listens to others with an open mind.
Kazuo Inamori very much agrees with an old Chinese saying: Blessing comes only when you are humble.
A humble person is often more likely to be favored by fate.
If people think too highly of themselves, they will be dazzled by the sense of superiority, go astray in a daze, and fall into a trap.
If you want to make steady progress on the road of life, you must recognize your own limitations and constantly learn from the past and learn from the new.
Appreciate the strengths of others, repair your own shortcomings, and be humble and peaceful to achieve great things.
3
Personality refinement
Kazuo Inamori mentioned in the book that he went to Sweden to participate in activities in the early days of his business.
There are many business seniors in the company, including Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor.
Kazuo Inamori heard that Soichiro Honda, who made his fortune in a car repair shop, was quite irritable when he was young.
If the buddy is a little lazy, he will implement an “iron fist education”, and even throw a wrench at the buddy directly.
However, after Kazuo Inamori had close contact with him, he found that he was not as difficult to get along with as the rumors said.
He is gentle and modest, he does not pretend to be a senior and treats everyone with a gentle attitude.
He is considerate and thoughtful, takes care of Kazuo Inamori everywhere, and generously shares his business experience with him.
Although he was young, he caused a lot of controversy because of his inattentive words and deeds.
But with the increasing responsibility, he began to reflect on himself, improve his self-cultivation, and gradually become mature and stable.
Socrates once said: An unexamined life is not worth living.
Introspection is a process of continuous repair and self-transcendence.
Get rid of the cancerous tumors of the soul, and erase the stains of virtue, and those who are diligent in self-examination are more likely to succeed.
Kazuo Inamori also has the habit of “reflecting from time to time”.
Every morning, he would stand in front of the mirror and review what he thought and did:
“Are you offending others? Are you being kind? Are you speaking arrogantly? Are you speaking or doing something selfish?”
Once something is wrong, he will blurt out “God, I’m sorry” and urge himself to correct it immediately.
He wrote in “The Six Diligences”:
If you don’t plant beautiful flowers and plants in the garden of your mind, weeds will grow there. That said, if you don’t reflect, your heart will be full of weeds.
A garden requires regular plowing of the soil and trimming of weeds before it can bloom like a brocade.
The same is true for people. Only by constantly examining words and deeds and repairing the heart can we progress through reflection and improve through change.
A true wise man does not never make mistakes but knows how to turn irreparable mistakes into nutrients for upward growth.
4
Relational refinement
In the book, Kazuo Inamori expressed emotion:
“It was impossible for someone like me to succeed, but in the end, I succeeded. It all stems from two words-thank you.”
When he was young, he once asked an eminent monk about the way of life.
The eminent monk warned him: “From now on, you must say ‘Naman Nanman’ every day.”
In Zen language, “Nanman Nanman” means “thank you”.
He didn’t understand it at the time, but he did it for many years, often saying “thank you”.
And the “thank you” made him gain a good reputation and meet more and more noble people.
At the age of 27, Kazuo Inamori founded Kyocera Corporation.
At that time, he had no business experience and little knowledge of the company’s core technology.
There were only 8 people in the company at the beginning, and they were all technical experts except him. One of them, Inoue, was an industry expert.
Kazuo Inamori was very grateful that Inoue was willing to stay in this small company even though he could find another job.
For this reason, he did not put on airs as a boss at all and gave up his car and office to Inoue.
He also sincerely said to Inoue: “I want to thank you for following me. I am just a person who makes a dream for Kyocera’s future, and you are the real dreamer. Dreaming does not require too much space, but dreaming requires it!”
Inoue was moved by his sincerity and dedication and led the team to work hard day and night.
With their help, Kyocera gradually entered the right track and later grew into a world-renowned listed company.
Mr. Jin Weichun wrote in “There is only one thing in Life”: “The heart of gratitude” is the most powerful energy in life, and it is accompanied by happiness.
Being grateful to those around you is actually being kind to yourself.
Most of the success in the world cannot be achieved by yourself, you need someone to push you from behind.
And all reliable contacts often start with a heartfelt thank you.
Always be grateful, say “thank you” to the noble people in your life; say “cherish” to those around you who treat us well.
The love and warmth you give will in turn nourish your own life sooner or later.
5
Mentality refinement
In “Six Items of Diligence”, Kazuo Inamori mentioned an unforgettable experience.
In the 1980s, Kyocera developed artificial hip joints using ceramic materials, which helped many patients.
Medical experts were full of praise for the product and asked Kyocera to continue to develop artificial knee joints to solve more medical problems.
Due to time constraints, Kazuo Inamori did not bother to report to the relevant departments, and directly invested in the research and development and production of this product.
As a result, as soon as the product was launched, some media exposed the matter and accused him of violating regulations and disregarding his conscience for making money.
For a while, he was pushed to the forefront of public opinion.
He went to relevant departments many times to explain, and publicly apologized and repented to the public.
Medical experts also stood up to speak for him and presented successful cases of clinical trials.
With the support of professionals, the turmoil gradually subsided, and the outside world also forgave him.
But he still broods over the damage to his reputation and regards himself as a “sinner” of Kyocera.
He even began to doubt his ability, staying at home all day long, not interested in continuing to run the company.
When he was in the most pain, he went to the Zen master in the temple to confide his distress.
The other party said: “I don’t know what kind of sins you have accumulated in the past, but when you have received punishment, those sins will be written off.”
Yes, the matter has come to an end, why use the mistakes that have already occurred to torture myself endlessly?
After he figured it out, he turned the page, regrouped, and returned to his post in a more positive state.
The world is complicated, and walking in it, everyone will inevitably encounter bad things:
Unhappy life, mistakes at work, inexplicable disputes, irreparable regrets…
As the writer Tsuneko Nakamura puts it:
Everyone will have troubles, no matter how beautiful they look, regardless of age or gender, everyone will be trapped by troubles at times.
If you chew bitterness carefully and entangle repeatedly, you will only be trapped in the past like a prisoner forever.
In fact, many so-called bad things are not as bad as we imagined.
If you magnify it intentionally, it becomes a sea that cannot be crossed; if you look away indifferently, it becomes a light wind.
Learn to let go, let go of the past, and when you look back, you will find that the pain of the past is just a stepping stone to growth.
6
Pattern refinement
Kazuo Inamori once said: All success comes down to altruism.
He firmly believes that as long as people have altruism and do altruistic things, their fate will improve.
In the early days of Kyocera’s establishment, the operating income was not high, and he still owed a lot of loans.
Under such circumstances, more than a dozen employees complained about the poor treatment and jointly signed a letter asking for a raise.
He did not blame the employees for not thinking about the company, but took out the ledger and carefully calculated the cost.
In the end, he squeezed out part of the funds and re-enacted the salary regulations to protect the rights and interests of employees.
It is his generosity to keep the technical talents and avoid the disintegration of Kyocera.
“Six Efforts,” says: Approaching life with an altruistic mind can enhance people’s sense of accomplishment and happiness, and the rewards will return to them in the end, which is also beneficial to them.
Walking in the world, all altruism is actually the ultimate self-interest.
In 1979, two large communication companies in Japan were not doing well and were about to go bankrupt.
They sought investment everywhere to no avail and finally found Kyocera Corporation.
It stands to reason that the communications industry has nothing to do with ceramics, and Kazuo Inamori could have directly refused.
But after much deliberation, he decided to lend a helping hand and provided them with a lot of money.
The two companies successfully resolved the crisis and became industry giants.
A few years later, the era of computer communication came, and other ceramic companies were helpless in the face of high-precision communication equipment.
However, Kyocera has opened up the gap with its peers due to its early layout of the communication industry and has become a leader in the industry.
As the saying goes, those who are always kind to others must be kind to others.
Well-intentioned motives often lead to unexpected opportunities.
The road of life is long, and the road is difficult and difficult. If we are not careful, we will step into a pit and encounter a hurdle.
A truly well-organized person knows how to form good karma, help others once more in trouble, and help others more.
As long as you continue to give goodwill, no matter when you fall to the bottom, someone will be willing to support you.
▽
There is an impressive sentence in “Six Efforts”:
Every day, we pay sincere efforts, unremitting work, solid actions, and sincere cultivation. In this way, we are worthy of this life.
In this world, no one is born perfect and can achieve things easily.
Throughout our lives, we must work hard to cultivate our souls, minds, and personalities, and continue to improve ourselves during the day and night.
Today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow is better than today, a small step forward every day, and your life will take a big step forward.
Treating ourselves as jade and polishing it inch by inch, we will eventually achieve a counterattack with a lot of accumulation.
