We at MindSeeds, Inc. mainly offer training programs to Japanese managers and business executives. One thing I notice, and I wonder if it is unique to Japan, is that I often meet businesspeople who are smart but lack goals in life.
These people are tricky. While they secretly consider themselves to have abundant knowledge and thus take pride in their lofty views, they also maintain some strange self-preservation or some sort of a defeatist position, saying things like:
“Japan is not going to make it.”
“Japan shall soon wither and die like a flower.”
“This industry will continue to decline, as it should.”
And they throw around these sorts of statements without hesitation. After being so dismissive, they are still confident that they know things very well, and therefore cast a scornful smile at those who take things seriously and make efforts to solve tough problems.
There is no doubt that Japan has been declining economically. It is the only country among the developed nations with a constantly declining population, and its economy has shown no growth for 30 years. Wages have long stagnated, and people are becoming poorer altogether. It is also true that many markets have already matured and can’t expect much growth. However, admitting these facts and accepting them as is, or giving up on them, are two completely different things. Having a clear desire to change business and society is the first step to change our country, and ultimately the world, for the better. From this point of view, I do not hesitate to say that these people are losers before they even start.
In Atsushi Nakajima’s Sangetsuki (The Moon Over the Mountain), the main character Li Zheng is described as having “cowardly pride” and “arrogant shame”:
Fearing that I might not be a jewel, I made no effort to polish myself; but half-believing that I might be a jewel, I could not rest content among the common clay.
Atsushi Nakajima, Sangetsuki (1969) (Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner)
As a result, Li Zheng turns into a beast, a wild tiger, just like the story of Wild Fox Zen.
The story of Wild Fox Zen ➡You think you understand? You might be suffering from the same problem even after 500 reincarnations
In strategic thinking, level-headed judgment and analytical skills (such as internal and external environment analysis) are essential, but strong passion or motivation such as, “How can I contribute to make a better society?” “What change do I want to see in my company?” “What kind of person do I want to be? etc., is an equally indispensable element. A person who lacks passion, emotion, and guts is hardly even human, let alone a good leader, because a good leader is someone who talks to people’s hearts and makes a positive influence. The Song dynasty writer Su Xun writes in his On Guan Zhong that the rise and fall of a nation is determined by the quality of the man who governs it. The same can be said for a company.
In the famous poem “Youth” by Samuel Ullman, there is a line that says youth is not a time of life, but a state of mind:
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
…
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
Samuel Ullman, From the Summit of Years, Four Score (1922)
In the early Meiji Era, Dr. William S. Clark, who taught at the Sapporo Agricultural College, gave the very well-known parting words to his students, “Boys, be ambitious!”:
Boys, be ambitious! Be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement, not for that evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a man ought to be.
Hokkaido university HP
It is said that many developed nations are “Japanifying” these days. This generally refers to a state in which monetary easing policy does not result in any economic stimulation, and the overall society is characterized by a “low desire” population. I, however, feel that it is an “apathetic” society rather than a “low desire” society that we are heading towards. I strongly feel that what is needed in Japan right now, and perhaps in the entire world, is a shared vision or goal for ourselves to grow as human beings, as well as a determination and effort by each individual to take the lead in society to achieve that goal.