At 8:25 a.m. on August 24, 2022, on that day, an era ended, and that was the era that belonged to Kazuo Inamori. He left this world quietly, in a hut in Kyoto, like an old friend.
At the age of 90, he gracefully completed the last chapter of his life.
His passing makes us deeply saddened, and it also leaves us with endless thoughts and memories.
After all the funeral and funeral arrangements have been made, the relatives release the obituary.
Everything is in order and in order.
In fact, Mr. Kazuo Inamori has been fully prepared for all this for the past thirty years.
Anyone who has read "The Way of Living" knows that his life is divided into three unique stages.
The journey of the first 20 years is full of the germination of life and the joy of growth, from the croaking to the firm step towards independence. What follows is a profound chapter of 40 years, grinding life, working hard, and contributing to the world and society with endless enthusiasm and wisdom.
In the last 20 years, he was preparing for that deepest farewell.
Undoubtedly, this wise old man has passed away peacefully with a better and nobler soul.
Mr. Ji Xianlin commented: "In my seventy or eighty years of life, I have found that it is rare for someone like Kazuo Inamori to have the qualities of an entrepreneur and a philosopher at the same time.
His "Dry Method", "Living Method" and "Heart Method" are still shining brightly, and his unreserved teaching of these concepts is a precious gift to the world. ”
01 Dry method: pay no less than anyone's efforts
In 2001, Fortune magazine held a grand celebration to select the 500 most powerful companies in the world.
However, this year's scene is very different from previous years, because the founder of the two Japanese companies that appear on the list, Kyocera and KDDI, is the same person: Mr. Kazuo Inamori.
This is a historic moment.
In Kazuo Inamori's life picture, every stroke is colorful.
When he was a young worker, he already had epoch-making inventions; He then established Kyocera at the age of 27 with the courage of an entrepreneur, making it a member of the world's top 500; Immediately after that, he founded KDDI with perseverance, and eventually became his nth Fortune 500 company.
In his later years, when he donated all his shares to his employees, he began a spiritual life with a pure heart and few desires. Until he was in his 78s, he was on a mission to return to the center of the commercial scene and save JAL from its collapse.
A year later, JAL will rise from the abyss of bankruptcy and make a magnificent turn from debt to profitability.
From then on, we will bid farewell to the shadow of the past and once again prove our strength with record-breaking high profits!
There's only one secret to all of this success – and that's to put in more effort than anyone else.
Kazuo Inamori said: Counterattack life, only extreme efforts, there is no other way to follow.
When Kyocera was founded, it mainly produced precision ceramic parts required by a major electrical company.
The challenge was that to meet their needs, they needed a very advanced material, the ceramic components used in the picture tubes of television sets.
It was extremely difficult to process this product, but they did not back down.
They are well aware that this requires them to have a higher level of craftsmanship and technical strength.
However, the firing process is similar to that of ordinary ceramic vessels, which requires the raw material powder to be molded and solidified, and then put into the furnace for high-temperature sintering.
It's a strenuous and time-consuming manual job, and the repetition is exhausting.
At that time, Kyocera was in a state of nothingness, with insufficient funds to purchase equipment and no mature business experience. However, there is one thing that they do not perish, and that is their dedication to quality and their commitment to observance.
In this high-pressure environment, employees complain one after another.
However, Kazuo Inamori always appeared on the scene as always, inspiring everyone with his practical actions.
He not only used his industrious wisdom to guide them, but also tried his best to awaken their passion and vitality.
It was through this arduous effort that Kyocera was able to grow from an obscure small company to one of the largest companies in the industry.
Kazuo Inamori once said that if you want to show excellence in a marathon, you must be as dedicated as a brave man who has run 100 meters.
When he first came into contact with JAL, he was fortunate to witness a group of experts who graduated from Oxford, Harvard, and Cambridge complained, but he still stuck to his post and forged ahead.
At that time, Kazuo Inamori was a novice to aviation and had no clue about it.
But in the afternoon, he went to ask the employees for advice, and found that the problems they complained about the executives had already been solved.
Then, in the next three months, he shook hands with the 30,000 employees under him one by one and discussed, getting to the heart of the problem. His advanced age has not stopped him from dedicating himself to his work, which has greatly admired him and all the executives and employees, and has inspired great enthusiasm among the employees.
Ren Zhengfei once used grinding tofu as an example to illustrate how enterprises operate.
Kazuo Inamori implements this philosophy in his work until he grinds delicious tofu.
His extreme efforts and willingness to work hard are exactly what we should learn from.
02 How to live: The more difficult the moment, the more you need to temper your heart.
Kazuo Inamori is not gifted, he is not dressed in colorful clothes and stepping on auspicious clouds like the mythical gods.
In fact, he used to be just an ordinary young man on the streets of Japan, a nobody who barely managed to enter a third-rate university from a small country town.
In 1932, Kazuo Inamori was born in a remote place far from the ** region - Kagoshima, Japan.
When he was a child, his father was a hard-working printer, but the money he earned was not enough to cover the family's expenses.
In order to earn more money, my father had to take on some extra part-time jobs.
It is usually busy until 12 o'clock in the evening.
His parents were too busy to take care of him.
So during the day, he followed his brother around.
At that time, he was still very young, and his courage was very small, and he often cried his nose over a little thing, so everyone called him "Crying Worm".
After failing the high school entrance examination, he suffered a big blow in his life - tuberculosis.
Struggling with the high fever of illness, every breath seemed to be on the verge of life and death, but the neighbor's aunt brought her warmth and care, and gave him a copy of "The True Meaning of Life".
This book was like a ray of sunshine shining into his heart, bringing him a touch of comfort.
Read this passage in the book: Instantly hit his heart like a hammer; Disasters are self-inflicted, because there is a small magnet in the heart that will attract disasters.
If you want to prevent disaster from becoming, you must first remove this magnet instead of nagging people there!
It was then dawned on him that his uncle and aunt had both died of tuberculosis and he was afraid of being infected.
Whenever he passed by the room, he would pinch his nose and run quickly.
However, as a child, he needs to breathe deeply to keep his breathing open.
What is puzzling is that his brother and his father, who takes good care of his seriously ill uncle, are fine, but the person who is most afraid of being infected has not escaped this catastrophe.
Kazuo Inamori suddenly woke up, and whatever you think in your heart, you will be attracted.
He adjusted in his self-grief and survived tuberculosis!
On the way to find a job after graduation, I watched the students around me enter the big factory of my choice, and the unwillingness in my heart was burning.
More than once, he wandered at the door of the social organization, thinking that he would rush in and make a bloody alliance and come to life as a salted fish.
Fortunately, the most important job is "Songfeng Industry", which is a company that is about to go bankrupt, and the payment of wages is often delayed.
When others heard that he was in that company, they just said lightly: "Staying in such a broken company, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find a wife." ”
The employees who joined together during the same period all left the company one after another, and in the end, only Kazuo Inamori was left alone.
Looking at the empty environment around him, a trace of loneliness flashed through his heart.
But soon he figured it out - since there was no better reason to leave here, it was better to put down his distractions and concentrate on his work!
So he didn't hesitate to bring all the pots and pans in the kitchen to the laboratory.
Here, he eats, lives and delves into scientific problems with peace of mind, but he did not expect that this new working environment will greatly improve his work efficiency, and he has gradually grown into a new star in the field of inorganic chemistry in the process!
He found that devoting himself to his work with integrity, seriousness, professionalism and honesty not only calmed his anger, but also gave him no time to complain, and gradually increased his value in his daily hard work.
This is exactly in line with his beloved Yangming Mind: in a difficult situation, it is the best time to temper the soul.
The path of life is drawn by our hearts.
No matter what kind of harsh environment you are in, you should keep hope and confidence in the future in your heart, and not be troubled by pessimistic thoughts.
Once a person begins to vent his frustrations and complaints, he will go around like a lost child, and eventually he will return to the original point, making his situation worse and worse.
And those who are full of justice and truth in their hearts, and who never forget to pursue the light no matter where they are, can truly have all the good things.
What you think will be your destiny.
03 Mental method: accumulate good deeds, think altruism
Kazuo Inamori, whose name is like a poem, is full of scientific rationality, corporate vitality, and philosophical contemplation, but what touches him most is his philanthropic heart.
In the past 20 years, he has moistened the hearts of more than 2,000 poor college students in western China like spring rain, and I have thanked him for this and called him the winner of the 'Sino-Japanese Friendship Envoy' and the 'Contribution Award for Peaceful Development'.
He said that during his investment journey in China, he has witnessed China's development and also seen the gap in economic growth between coastal and inland areas.
In the baptism of war, his home was reduced to ashes, but the fire of knowledge in his heart burned even more vigorously.
Relying on the national scholarship, he has walked through the thorny road of life, and now he wants to become a big tree, providing shade for those who are still groping forward.
In his heart, this seed of selflessness has long taken root and sprouted, waiting for the day when it will blossom and bear fruit.
As one poem says, "It is enough to have a confidant in life", and he is the confidant who can bring hope to poor students.
He used to be the king of children, but he still chose to face it even though he knew that there were many difficulties, just to protect that innocent smiling face.
He was knocked to the ground and did not flinch, and at that time he understood that only if he had no selfishness in his heart could he be open-minded, fearless, invincible, and admired.
This concept of "altruism" not only won him respect and support, but also became the warm sun in his heart.
In the process of developing new ceramics, he always warned himself not to cut corners for the sake of temporary small profits.
Instead, he wants to find the best quality materials, which is his belief and what he expects from Japanese ceramics.
It is this persistence and perseverance that has enabled him to successfully develop new ceramic materials and lead Japanese ceramics to the world.
At the moment when Kyocera's business philosophy shifted from "self-interest" to "altruism", he deeply felt the transformation of his role as a true entrepreneur.
Thirteen years after his retirement, he was willing to take on JAL's tricky situation, in large part because of the company's pivotal position in the Japanese economy and national employment.
His motivation was simple: to do what he could to help the country's economy and increase national employment.
That's what he understands about business, and it's what he considers to be the greatest philanthropy.
Kazuo Inamori has always adhered to the principles of accumulating goodness and altruism, and these seemingly grand words are most concretely reflected in his actions.
He said: "Speaking of altruism, it sounds like a sense of selflessness at first, but it is not.
For example, giving delicious food to children, hoping to see the satisfied smile of his wife, so that his parents who have worked hard all their lives can live a comfortable life, so that giving understanding and care to the people around them is actually the most direct altruistic behavior.
Every little kindness, every subtle act of altruism, like a trickle into the sea, can not only make the mind tranquil and fulfilling, but even make things go more smoothly than expected. ”
List of high-quality authors
Someone once half-jokingly said that Kazuo Inamori was an unlucky guy when he was a teenager, a middle-aged workaholic, and an expert who came to make chicken soup all the time.
Of course, we understand that it is not necessary to deify him into a superman, he is also an ordinary person with seven emotions and six desires.
However, in his career, this ordinary person has left a strong mark on the history of the world with his incomparable efforts and dedication.
The chicken soup he made is a heart-to-heart experience that he shared with the world after his personal experience and in-depth practice.
Every word he says is full of wisdom and insight, which is very beneficial.
In this world, there are always some people who shine like pearls, and their wisdom is unmatched, which makes you both envy and yearn.
And some people, their talents are like stars, and people can't help but feel jealous.
However, there is a kind of person who does not need to show their light, it is enough to just be there.
How lucky they are to be born in such a time of wonder.
There is no doubt that Kazuo Inamori is one of them.
Author: Jennifer.