The Success as a Human
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 (God-given) talent to the fullest. Such is the 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 (God-given) talent.
Further, by being able to utilize the (God-given) 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 society like thousands of different flowers blooming and expressing their best at the same time.
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 critically important.
How to find our talent?
Now, we have discussed so far that the true success is in utilizing our own (God-given) talent, and that our happiness is to be found in doing so. The next question is “How can we find this (God-given) 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 (God-given) 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 self-centered), 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 over-confident 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 individuals can succeed and find the way for happiness. Also, when each can perform his role completely, and not to over-extend/over-burden 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.
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