Book Notes: From Zero to Kyocera

Book: From Zero to Kyocera
Author: Kazuo Inamori

Summary

Old man looking back on a well lived life. A genre I really like, especially the East Asian kind. Hits all the check boxes: be kind, think of your people, and have an insane work ethic. Do the right thing and the money will follow. I can take a swig of this, yeah. No hideous self-pity like those from the Anglo-sphere, no horrible bosses or discussions of bad marriages and personal failings. Just a life of spiritual commitment. John Wooden would love it. Kazuo Inamori founded Kyocera when he was 27, rode the semiconductor wave thanks to an early relationship with Fairchild Semiconductors and now has a mythic status in Japan for turning around Japan Airlines after it went bankrupt, founding the telecommunication giant DDI, setting up the Kyoto Prize, and being a trained Zen monk. I want to listen to him.

Notes

• It's important for both companies and individuals to project their abilities into the future. Goals should always be set at a level that exceeds current capabilities. From the outset, establish a goal that seems impossibly high and decide to achieve it at some point in the future. Then, figure out ways to improve your capabilities to the point where that high goal can be met.
• Fierce willpower and passion are needed to turn dreams into reality. One must have a deep desire for self-fulfillment that gushes out from the inner recesses of the soul. To do something truly creative, one must overcome all difficulties with an iron will that wells up from deep within the body and will not rest until the task is successfully accomplished.
• When attempting something truly creative, the most important thing is to believe in yourself, which means having confidence. Without a solid, internal standard for making decisions, a standard you can believe in and put into action, you will lose your way as you grope through creativity's uncharted territory.
• I say this because I'm confident that I have striven to achieve a perfect life on a daily basis. Only after dedicating each and every day to perfection can we set our own course with confidence.
  • To reach perfection, we must resist the temptation to cut corners, refuse to make excuses, and always maintain an attitude of staunch rigor. This is not an easy-going attitude that calls for concentration only in the moment when it's necessary. Rather, it requires a habitually serious engagement with all things, and an involvement with daily work that is filled with tense awareness. If this heightened mentality becomes habitual, it can generate correct decisions even in creative fields that have never before been experienced.
• The Result of Life or Work = Attitude × Effort × Ability
  • People who are cynical and envious and refuse to live decently are negative by nature and are assigned a negative value on the attitude scale. To the extent that they are talented and enthusiastic, such people are doomed to suffer tragic ends in their lives or work. People's lives can be utterly transformed depending on whether or not they have an excellent philosophy.
  • The industrial titans Konosuke Matsushita (who founded Panasonic Corporation.) and Soichiro Honda (founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.) did not have advanced educations. Both entered apprenticeships right out of school, so they had neither advanced academic experience nor specialized knowledge. However, both had supreme enthusiasm burning in their hearts and worked with unrivaled intensity. They also had the noble desire to make a positive contribution to the lives of their employees and to many people in society at large.
  • Effort can also be defined as enthusiasm.
    • Throughout my life, I have striven to maximize the element of effort in my formula. From the time at my first job, when I was researching new ceramics at Shofu Industrial, through the founding of Kyocera with my colleagues, and all the way up to the present day, I have put many times more effort into my work than most people do just to reach a point I considered to be average. I put all of my body and soul into it, to the point where people around me repeatedly predicted that I would someday collapse from exhaustion.
• I got my start in the working world as an engineer and have been involved in R&D for many years. If I were to characterize my own approach to research, I would liken it to a tribe of hunters in pursuit of prey. Bearing a single spear, I track my quarry in tireless pursuit, neither sleeping nor resting until I have brought it down. The strong desire to be the person I want to be, the sense of responsibility to make sure I complete what I set out to do no matter what, and the determined refusal to whine or complain all compel me to complete the task.
• The Kyoto Prize Philosophy encapsulates my personal view of life: that we have no higher calling than to serve the greater good of humankind and society. I wanted to repay the debt of gratitude I owed to people who had nurtured me, to human society, and to the world.
• This "grit" to which I refer can also be called "fighting spirit." Managers must have the fierce spirit never to lose in the face of battle.
  • A person without these qualities should not be a manager; doing so will make him miserable and will lead to misfortune for employees and everyone involved with the company. A person who wants to live a fun and easy-going life should not become the manager of a company.
  • It is extremely hard to constantly think about work from morning to night. But that's what is required of a manager. Without it, the company will not thrive in the face of increasingly severe business conditions year upon year. On the other hand, if one does possess this kind of fervent desire and keeps working harder than anyone, success will certainly be achieved no matter how the business environment changes.
  • The more a manager burns with fighting spirit and desires to improve his company by any means, the more important it is for him to learn the philosophy of doing what is right as a human being. In this way, he can admonish himself when he begins to lose his way (as he is likely to do), and keep working with intense desire and a strong will. Not only will he be bound for success, but that success will certainly continue over an extended period of time.

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