See the whole thing.
全てを見よう。
Fake leaders pretend they are a big thinker. “Give me the big picture — I don’t care about details.”
Mediocre leaders gather information to protect themselves. “Tell me everything that matters to me — I don’t want surprises.”
Good leaders see the whole to understand how things work and make them better. “Tell me everything — If something is not working well, we’ll work together to fix it.”
Have peace of mind.
平静を保とう。
Never let your resentment control you, no matter what happens.
Even if you haven’t experienced the feeling of resentment yet, the above aphorism is still worth remembering – because no one knows what happens in the future. And at some point in our life, we almost always experience adversity that tests our faith and perseverance.
For example, evil intent of others can bother us in many ways. Someone would direct a vicious personal attack on you even when you do nothing wrong. People would work against your efforts to make things better — so as to make themselves look good. You might be familiar with such incidents if you’re sick and tired of any kind of company politics.
Here’s the challenge: no matter how badly people treat you, stay calm. Take a deep breath, and make a rational argument in a non-emotional manner. People wouldn’t listen to you after all, but you win — not the small battle with narrow-minded people, but the fight to live with your faith.
Help (old) friends.
（昔からの）友達を助けよう。
I don’t have many friends. When it comes to my close friends, I have only a few.
When any of my close friends asks me for help, I’ll do whatever I can do for them. If they don’t ask me for help – even when they get in serious trouble – I try not to bother them. Sometimes it helps them more than doing something for them. I know this because I know them very well – maybe more than what they know about themselves.
Just be on someone’s side is not easy to do. We tend to get involved in no matter what – even when it’s not appropriate. We need to know what our friends want from us, not what we want to do for them.
Watch your life story.
自分の人生物語を観てみよう。
If your whole past were a movie, would you like to watch it from beginning to end?
I definitely don’t want to. Because it was full of self-deception, self-destructive thoughts and behavior, and distrust of humanity.
But because of that, I can say that my whole past was an invaluable source of life lessons. As Napoleon Hill said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” I wouldn’t say that I come to know that this is a true statement; thinking this way is the only way to make my whole past something meaningful.
And I finally find the way to turn around my dark history into a positive life lesson — through this daily doodling. I’ve decided to do whatever I can do to make this world a better place for all of us. And that will be the latter part of my life story. I hope that — maybe decades later — my whole life story would be worth watching from beginning to end.
Explore your potential.
可能性を求めよう。
In business, we need to get permission for our work from our customers so as to get paid for it. If our work doesn’t meet their expectation, we’ll get in trouble.
But it doesn’t mean that we always need to ask our customers for permission. If we did, we most likely wouldn’t be able to “wow” our customers with our innovative and creative work. And if our customers just want us to follow their instructions, they don’t see us as a professional; what they are looking for is just an operator, someone who always do what he or she is told to do.
The same applies to our life. Our life is not a reflection of someone’s permission or expectation — unless we choose to live our life as someone’s substitute. If we choose to live our own life, it is our responsibility to develop ourselves and become capable of “wowing” others with our work. It’s definitely NOT easier than asking others for permission; but it is the only way to discover our true potential.
No one knows your true potential yet. Even you don’t recognize what you will be capable of, no matter how old you are now. Don’t limit yourself to permission or expectation of others — as well as your own one. Our life is to explore possibilities and new ways of being our true self — until the very last minute.
