Wan Shui, based on Memory of Kazuo Inamori
Nowadays, it’s not uncommon that many young people complain about their work. They feel they suffer every day and aspire to find the work they like. This sounds very attractive, but how likely they’d find the work they like?
Mr. Kazuo Inamori, a Japanese entrepreneur and the founder of of world 500 company, faced this question when he found his first job in a ceramic manufacturing company. At that time, the company lost competition and was not in a good shape. Many of his colleagues left the company but Mr. Inamori chose to stay. He shared his rationale later in his book Business and Spirituality: if he was to resign from the company simply because of dissatisfaction without justifiable reason, he would soon encounter the same problem wherever he works. Instead of complaining, he made it his mission to research the world’s cutting-edge ceramic materials.
After setting the goal, Mr. Inamori worked very hard. Other people viewed his job as boring and could not bear to live the same lifestyle. For Mr. Inamori, he loved what he was doing and embraced the work with passion and happiness. For everyone to have a fulfilling life, there are only two options: engaged in their favorite work or make themselves like their work. For the first option, it is very rare to find the opportunity to do your favorite work. Even if you get into the company that you expect to find, there is almost no chance of being fortunate to be assigned the job you really want to do, with the managers or colleagues you really want to work with, in an industry that has less competition.
Some people may like the job at the beginning and become dissatisfied after a few years, because of assignments, compensations, company performance, organizational changes, and more. They might choose to leave as a result, and the potentially bright future will only become darker.
In this case, Mr. Inamori suggested to take this “assigned work” as life itself, abandoning the sense of “work is what others force me to do.” As long as we like what we do, we can feel the work is not as boring and difficult. As long as we work hard with our heart and mind, we will naturally be able to learn, gain experience, find breakthrough, achieve your results. With the results, we help the team and company, earn appreciation and feel fulfilled. A virtuous circle begins as we like what you do and consider the work as part of our life in positive way.
