Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Be courageous to be vulnerable.
矢面に立つ勇気を持とう。

 

“Do exactly as I told you!”

My ex-boss often yelled at our people like this. When they did things exactly as they were told and something wrong happened, the ex-boss said:

“So how would you fix this?”

We can’t behave like this if we live our own life and stand for what really matters to us. Our value, things we do, our words, our craft and people — these are our extension. And we are ultimately responsible for them, as well as the outcome from them.

Don’t run away. Don’t hide. Be in front of everything that matters to you.

 

 

Don’t try to be right, just be better.
正しくあろうとするのではなく、より良くなろう。

 

“Am I wrong? Am I wrong?”

My old friend has an anonymous account on Twitter, and sometimes posts a tweet like this. He seems in the middle of a midlife crisis. I don’t follow his account — I don’t want to see him struggling that way.

Because I was like him for a long time. Even before my middle age. When I asked myself, “Am I wrong?”, I wanted to believe I was right. Sometimes I was, but most of the time, I wasn’t. I guess the same applies to my old friend.

However, the answer to that ‘am I wrong’ question differs depending upon how we define ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. And the definition of these two words slightly (sometimes largely) differs from person to person.

So why asking such a question in the first place? Chances are, there will be someone who thinks we are wrong, even when we believe we are right.

Accept that you cannot be always right even though you work really hard to be. No matter how old you are, admit that you still have a room for growth, improvement and learning new things.

Don’t get hung up on what is right or wrong. Change question.

“Am I getting better than yesterday?”

 

 

 

Keep people busy with thinking.
他の人たちを「考えること」で忙しくさせよう。

 

“That young guy focuses on taking notes. He must be good.”

My ex-boss told me. “He’s probably just busy taking notes because Mr. X keeps talking”, I said. Then he replied, “No you don’t understand. He can be a great assistant of ours.”

Some people think of you as a good, capable and trustworthy person if you work really hard on note taking. That’s probably because they think you respect and carefully listen to what they say.

But the reality is, most of the time, you are just busy taking notes without thinking. You just focus on catching words without deliberating why someone says something. That’s completely a waste of our brain power.

Let us liberate people from mindless note-taking. Ask questions. Encourage people to speak out. Help people’s brain work for you and everyone else.

This is the way to make everyone really good.

 

 

High and low lie side-by-side.
天国と地獄は隣り合わせ。

 

Things you are good at don’t always make you happy.

A quarter-century ago, I was very good at accounting and finance. I thought that handling numbers was second nature to me. It helped me make a six figure salary in my twenties.

But there was a problem.

Early in my thirties, I realized that I don’t like accounting and finance. I gradually disliked them while working really hard on my job. That gave me chronic migraine. I often got sick. I was cheating myself.

We sometimes get trapped by the things that we’re very good at AND that people want us to do. These things give us great opportunities. But if we don’t like doing what we are good at, it can make us sick — and might kill us someday.

If you can’t find a way to love what you are good at, start doing what you love. While things you are good at are making money for you, do whatever you can do to be good at things you love. Find people who want or need what you love doing. Then you can get out of the trap.

’Love what you do’ — this cliche can save your life.