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The Success as a Human
The following is the excerpt from the introduction chapter of the book, The Success as a
Human, by Konosuke Matsushita (PHP Press; translated from Japanese by myself). Mr.
Matsushita is the founder of Matsushita Electric. also known as Panasonic, etc. Living in
a busy world, many of us may not have time to spare time to think through such a broad
and deep subject. But, if so, would we consider our life as successful when the time comes
to leave this world?
Translation is made somewhat reflecting my taste and to suit for Western readers. Some
sentences are skipped mainly to eliminate the redundancy. Subheadings are my addition.
Hope you get something meaningful!
Good luck, Kio Suzaki
What is success?
We are educated from our young age to establish a good respectful position in the society.
Also, not understanding fully, we may think we should succeed no matter what. We, then,
call those people as successful, who have high position in the society, have fame or earned
large amount of money. Seeing them treated as respectful in various ways, we may think
that such situation represents success….
Certainly, such situation may represent a form of success. …Yet, I begun to see that such
situation does not necessarily represent “the success.” Rather than judging by such narrow
yardstick based on social status, fame or money, I feel that the meaning of success has
much broader and deeper meaning.
This is because, each of us is given a unique talent. Even if we have so many billions of
people on earth, I see each is born and raised differently. Whether personality or talent,
everyone is different and unique.
For each to have a different potentiality mean that each individual is to live differently and
work differently reflecting his or her situation. Mr. A may be suited to be a politician,
whereas Ms. B may be suited as a businessperson or a scientist, etc. So, each can have a
different mission on earth corresponding to one’s talent.
Utilizing the talent
I think success means for each to utilize the (Godgiven) talent to the fullest. Such is the
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right way of living. It will make each person happy, and at the same time, make others
happy as a result of what one can contribute. Then, we can call such success as “The
success as a human” the true meaning of success.
The nature of success will differ for each person. Some may be successful by becoming a
politician. Others may be happy to be a tailor to make customers happy. In this way,
instead of using the measure of social status, fame or accumulation of money, the measure
of success become whether we can live to achieve the mission using the (Godgiven) talent.
Further, by being able to utilize the (Godgiven) talent, are we not be able to appreciate the
taste of true happiness and the meaning of life? If instead, we think that attaining the social
status or fame or accumulating assets is the only measure of success, we may end up with
straining ourselves too much beyond the means, abusing the talent, or being oblivious to
our unique characteristics. Also, if certain goal cannot be achieved, we may be very much
disappointed or feel inferior, thereby losing the joy of living our life.
Obviously, no matter how much we make effort, it is impossible for every person to
become the President or Prime Minister of the nation, or champion of world tennis match.
Yet, every person can do finding happiness by utilizing the unique talent. Thus, by each
person expressing the potential according to his or her unique talent, we may find our
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Success, happiness and utilizing our talent
Those who are working in the job where their talent is fully utilized will find full of
happiness and liveliness, and be able to live their life by finding the meaning in what they
do. In that sense, it is important to spend life in whatever they do best….
This is to say that even though one person may have succeeded in doing certain thing, if we
imitate, we may not succeed. Rather, we may more likely fail. Since each of us is unique,
each has his or her way of living. Of course, there may be a point where the same idea may
be shared. But, if we were to be precise, it is natural that each person’s case should be
different. So, forgetting this and developing a fix notion from one (or few) reference
point(s) can be quite dangerous.
After all, we need to know who we are. And, based on that, we may take suggestions and
internalize it to meet our own specific situation. Otherwise, we may fail. Whether books,
people, or any other teachings, we should not blindly take someone else’s idea. We should
take these as precious references and make the best use of them (to suit to our specific
situation). Always, we need to think on our own and act accordingly, this, I think, is
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critically important.
How to find our talent?
Now, we have discussed so far that the true success is in utilizing our own (Godgiven)
talent, and that our happiness is to be found in doing so. The next question is “How can we
find this (Godgiven) talent?” If we cannot identify it, there is no way of utilizing it. So, it
is important to make effort in knowing our own talent, characteristics and uniqueness
(hidden) in each of us.
What is interesting, however, is that finding our talent or uniqueness is not easy… This
may sound unreasonable. Yet, here exists the interesting, or refreshingly amazing point of
living our life. If we can find this so easily, is it not so interesting, don’t you think? In
spite of the difficulty to discover this, we still make effort to search for it. In such a
process, I think there is indescribable nature of life that we can experience and appreciate.
Understanding the difficulty, let us address how we may approach this. Above all, we need
to have sincere desire to discover the (Godgiven) talent. ((Matsushita often talked about
similarity of our talent like a raw diamond stone. We need to discover this and polish it to
appreciate and make the most of it.)) This sincere wish has to be with us all the time. If
we are approaching this way, there may be a time to be able to listen to the voice from
within (as if from the heart). Or, we may discover the talent in us based on some inspiring
event. Perhaps, some one may give us an idea as well. If we are ready, then we can
“intuitively” grasp it.
Sunao Mind*
On the other hand, if our wish is weak (or we are selfcentered), then, any “good” advice
may be of no use. It is therefore critical that we have a earnest wish to want to discover our
talent. For this, we need to have the “Sunao”* mind (Jp. Roughly translated as meek,
unconditioned mind) at all times. If we do not have this Sunao mind, we may become
overconfident of our ability, or to make wrong judgment to other person’s advice, and
move in the direction that is quite unwise. So, I think it important to have 1) strong earnest
desire, and 2) Sunao mind. (almost like faith)
Then, as we have these wishes, we may also teach kids from their young age the
importance of this way (of living life), and create the environment that helps identify the
talent on their own.** At home, at school, and further at a society as a whole, we need to
move in this direction. Even society has to exhibit interest in discovering the talent as well
as for it to create the environment that fosters such discovery. In such a way, by each
individual to discover the talent on his own and to make effort to realize his potentiality, all
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individuals can succeed and find the way for happiness. Also, when each can perform his
role completely, and not to overextend/overburden himself nor indulge in useless
competition, society as a whole become an organic entity to bring out its vitality to prosper
from one day to the next.
This viewpoint of our success may have been discussed many times in the past. There may
be nothing new. Still, regardless of whether or not it was discussed in the past, for us to
realize success (i.e., our better life and better cooperative living with each other), I believe
that we need to have such a notion of success. Finally, I sincerely wish that we make
efforts in succeeding as a human, and hence, extend and realize our talent in a “sunao”
(meek, straight forward, unbiased) manner.
((* Sunao mind: This is a critical subject. Sunao or meek, unconditioned mind is an open
mind that sees what it is as it is without bias as if to bring out the wisdom. It is
experiencing the experience directly without artificial interpretation of it. Meditative mind,
mindfulness, etc. correspond to this. This may be also described as a quiet center in us to
realize what is going on without delusion. If we are sunao, we are aware of our mind’s
movement and ready (from the Samadhi/sunao state) to bring out the insight/wisdom. The
whole discussion and files on Zen, etc. at my home page correspond to this very point.))
((** Creating the environment that helps identify the talents and best utilize them: I
believe that the idea of minicompany and glass wall management, as explained in Results
from the Heart and The New Shop Floor Management are the ideas corresponding to these
points applied in our work environment. Application in our life situation was also
addressed in the book, Results from the Heart. Also, Dogen points out the notion of
Zenkigen: full activation of talent/Buddha nature. Kegon philosophy is tied to this as
pointed out elsewhere, e.g., Daisetz Suzuki, “Love and Power”))
Note: The book, “The Success as a Human,” (PHP Institute) covers more specific contents
in such areas as life worthwhile living, new views on human, collecting wisdom, each
one’s responsibility, daytoday advancement, enriched mind, Sunao mind, etc. As I
searched amazon.com to see if this book is translated into English, to my surprise, I found
virtually no books of Matsushita are available in English, except the book by John Kotter
about Matsushita’s leadership, which has a three star customer rating out of maximum of
five. Compared to this, some of his books are sold millions of copies in Japan, e.g.,
Opening up the Way (Michi o hiraku) (over 35million). This, I think is quite unfortunate.
It is as if Matsushita’s views of success are not readily shared or received by many in the
U.S. Having read his 30 or so books available in Japanese, I was very much intrigued from
his insight. Within what appear as common sense, I feel his wisdom backed up by
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extensive experiences and insight he gained during his life. While my attempt here may be
limited, I am hopeful that we benefit from his wisdom.
Wishing the good luck, good day, good life! Kio Suzaki (6/7/03)
* Back to my home page: www.suzaki.has.it
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