Today I had a meeting of conversation circle. In the meeting, the topic shifted to how to say a word differently. For example, the different ways to say "hot" would be boiling, burning, spicy, sexy or ultra-hot (is this the different way to say "hot"?), and the different ways to say "cool" would be icy, chilly or freezing.
Come to think of it, we can use both; "iPhone is hot", and "iPhone is cool". Hot and cool are opposite idea but we can say like these. I concluded the difference between hot and cool as follows.
We can divide value of a product into two things: emotional value and functional value. A product with emotional value might not have differentiated functions but many are inspired by the brand image, for example Coke. A product with functional value might not have the brand image that it inspires people emotionally but have differentiated functions, for example Samsung. I would say the former is hot, and the latter is cool. This is because I think that the situation in which many people see value in the same attribute would be called "hot," and the situation in which each person sees value in a function that he or she personally thinks that it is good for him or her.
Based on this understanding, I tried to connect this to FSL and apply in business. When people are internally directed with their own value, people would use "cool." But when people are externally directed with value commonly shared, people would use "hot." I might be able to conclude that a product with functions that are possible to change people's life would work with reputation of "cool," but since many people are not in FSL with externally directed state, a product with brand that inspires people's mind would also work with reputation of "hot." If we want to become a leader, becoming internally directed is important, but if we want to sell products to people in normal states, we should think they are like that such as externally directed.
Today, I watched the Steve Jobs' legendary speech on commencement at Stanford University in 2005. He is also a legendary leader so analyzing the speech would be helpful for me to understand FSL.
He mentioned four things in the speech. The first thing was about connecting dots. The idea is that we can't connect what we are doing forward, we can do that only backward, and then we realize that all dots were necessary. Therefore believe in your value and what you are doing now. I see this idea as not "result-centered", rather "comfort-centered". It was interesting that Jobs who achieved many things says like this. Or I might be able to say that this is "internally directed."
The second thing was about love and loss. This is a part to say "do what you want to do." This is exactly the same idea as "internally directed."
The third thing was about death. In this part, he was saying "have courage to follow your heart and intuition," which also sounds like "internally directed."
The last thing was to say the word "stay hungry, stay foolish." It might be possible that "stay hungry" and "stay foolish" have a feature of "externally open" but I would rather say these are for "internally directed."
As I analyzed above, the Jobs' legendary speech was almost all about "internally directed." Of course this is in a special setting at commencement, so this doesn't show all his leadership. But the fact that "legendary speech" focused on "internally directed makes me to think the importance of the state of "internally directed."
He mentioned four things in the speech. The first thing was about connecting dots. The idea is that we can't connect what we are doing forward, we can do that only backward, and then we realize that all dots were necessary. Therefore believe in your value and what you are doing now. I see this idea as not "result-centered", rather "comfort-centered". It was interesting that Jobs who achieved many things says like this. Or I might be able to say that this is "internally directed."
The second thing was about love and loss. This is a part to say "do what you want to do." This is exactly the same idea as "internally directed."
The third thing was about death. In this part, he was saying "have courage to follow your heart and intuition," which also sounds like "internally directed."
The last thing was to say the word "stay hungry, stay foolish." It might be possible that "stay hungry" and "stay foolish" have a feature of "externally open" but I would rather say these are for "internally directed."
As I analyzed above, the Jobs' legendary speech was almost all about "internally directed." Of course this is in a special setting at commencement, so this doesn't show all his leadership. But the fact that "legendary speech" focused on "internally directed makes me to think the importance of the state of "internally directed."
Today I finished reading a book written by Professor Karnani in Ross school strategy division. The book was about to reduce the poor in the world, which was so broad for me that it was not so useful for me. But his way of thinking was very interesting.
This book proceeds with a critique to the idea of Professor CK Plaharad who was his senior in the past and had been chosen the most thoughtful professor in this area. There is no wonder if he agreed with Plaharad's idea but he challenged it in his book. I see his way of thinking that he relies on his logicality rather than title or reputation and if needed he is willing to take the opposite position from Plaharad. I guess that for him commonsense or standard has no meaning or he recognizes standard not when we keep it but when we improve it.
This book proceeds with a critique to the idea of Professor CK Plaharad who was his senior in the past and had been chosen the most thoughtful professor in this area. There is no wonder if he agreed with Plaharad's idea but he challenged it in his book. I see his way of thinking that he relies on his logicality rather than title or reputation and if needed he is willing to take the opposite position from Plaharad. I guess that for him commonsense or standard has no meaning or he recognizes standard not when we keep it but when we improve it.
Yesterday was my son's birthday. For a present, I bought a new game of Nintendo DS. At the same time, I bought a game for me to help my study of English. The game is a role playing game named Dragon Quest IX, one of the most famous title in Japan. This was a good choice for the following reasons.
First, the game reminds me of my young days, which make me relaxed. The study of the second language is really hard especially in the case that the first language and the second have totally different styles like Japanese and English. We know that language can't be a main role in business except you are a language teacher. Language is just a measure of communication, not a purpose. Since we know the fact, we would want to improve our English skills with as less stress as possible. The game gives me a relaxed environment for English study.
Second, I like the idea that people do multiple tasks simultaneously, the idea so-called Nagara-Sagyo in Japanese. I believe Nagara-Sagyo helps us improve our efficiency. I remember that during business trip by using bullet train, I did three things simultaneously: moving, reading a magazine and playing a game. As far as I remember, this was the most effective time in my life. I sometimes read two books simultaneously. It is mandate for me to do something different when I search something through the internet by using a few seconds of searching time.
Studying and relaxing simultaneously was an appealing idea for me and so far it would be working.
First, the game reminds me of my young days, which make me relaxed. The study of the second language is really hard especially in the case that the first language and the second have totally different styles like Japanese and English. We know that language can't be a main role in business except you are a language teacher. Language is just a measure of communication, not a purpose. Since we know the fact, we would want to improve our English skills with as less stress as possible. The game gives me a relaxed environment for English study.
Second, I like the idea that people do multiple tasks simultaneously, the idea so-called Nagara-Sagyo in Japanese. I believe Nagara-Sagyo helps us improve our efficiency. I remember that during business trip by using bullet train, I did three things simultaneously: moving, reading a magazine and playing a game. As far as I remember, this was the most effective time in my life. I sometimes read two books simultaneously. It is mandate for me to do something different when I search something through the internet by using a few seconds of searching time.
Studying and relaxing simultaneously was an appealing idea for me and so far it would be working.
Today's journal is about the leader of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. He made twitter as simple as possible and he said that the idea is coming from an idea in Japan, Wabi-Sabi. Wabi originally means plain and poor. Then the meaning was switched to frugality and finally switched to an idea that even if the surface is rough inside should be careful. Sabi is an idea close to the word "antique." The same part between Sabi and antique is that they both value time. The difference is that Sabi value change although antique value history that usually doesn't mean change.
Therefore, Wabi-Sabi is the idea that people value intrinsic change from inside. It is not a change of outside that people can easily change for example by using clothes or cosmetics. It is also not a change that people can easily acquire as time passes. I thought that from the concepts of Wabi-Sabi that values basis, internal matters rather than external, and change, Wabi-Sabi includes some important aspects of FSL.
Therefore, Wabi-Sabi is the idea that people value intrinsic change from inside. It is not a change of outside that people can easily change for example by using clothes or cosmetics. It is also not a change that people can easily acquire as time passes. I thought that from the concepts of Wabi-Sabi that values basis, internal matters rather than external, and change, Wabi-Sabi includes some important aspects of FSL.
Since I was totally exhausted by my hard working days and have finished my Winter B term, today I took long sleeping. Last night I slept for 11 hours and today I took a nap for 3 hours. This way to spend time is actually a challenge for me who have some kind of obsession that I should work hard otherwise I lose time and chances to grow. But this long sleeping was quite good for me because I'm now feeling much better on my shoulders that was very stiff these days. I believe that only slow life will prevent from achieving what we want to do. But I'm now somewhat realizing that slow life is needed for people, which ends up keeping high productivity. The matter would be "how to mix them" and "how long each span should be." I assume and prefer that incorporating slow life part in everyday life for about one hour would work best, but I need to test by trial and error.
Today I bought a game named Dragon Quest IX, the title that was my favorite in my childhood. When I browsed in a gaming shop for looking for a birthday present for my son, I happened to find the newest one of the title. I decided to buy that for my English. Since that is a RPG, I thought that it is a good source for studying English with less stress. Actually it worked very well. To keep to make effort, we need motivation. To keep motivation, do something with pleasure is an important part because we can be internally driven.
Today, I had dinner with the members in the other conversation circle. We ate Korean food and had a good time, enjoying conversation. It was from 6pm and finished about 7:30pm. I had a nearly one hour until the next meeting, so I told them "I'm going to go to Starbucks." Then the circle leader said "I'll join you." There we kept conversation and I turned out that he had an interest in enrolling MBA and living in Japan in the future. I taught him a basic ideas about marketing that we can learn in an MBA education and talked about Fuji-mountain that is tallest mountain in Japan. He is normally my mentor in the conversation circle, but I realized that if we change an occasion, then I can be a mentor for him. This was an interesting situation for me because I haven't think that two people can play both roles. But if we can do that, then we might be able to be closer than people in a normal relationship as a mentor and a mentee.
Today's conversation circle was quite interesting. First, I was the only person who attended so that was a person to person conversation. And more interestingly, the leader prepared a topic that is about politics. Thus, I explained about politics in Japan person to person. It was very tough task because I'm totally into business and less aware of politics. Thinking contents of what I will talk about and translating it in English simultaneously is very tough. But actually, this was the most useful conversation meeting I've ever attended. I believe if I can continue this activity, I can improve my English skills.
Today I had a meeting for Japan Business Association in Ross. I am a VP of Corporate Relations in JBA. The purpose of the meeting was just to report each VP's recent activities. I made some mistake when reporting. When I reported a visit to two important persons VPs of Corporate Relations, I forgot the name of one of the person. Also, When I reported about one activity that is to invite guest speakers in Asian Business Conference, I got a question from the other VP. The question was to ask background of the guest speakers but I couldn't answer well because the other VP of Corporate Relations who was absent today mainly did this job and I didn't fully understand about guest speakers. I believe that these kinds of incomplete and vague information deteriorate my trust from the others. I'm not sure what state of leadership I was lucking but I learned that correct and precise information can create trust and vice versa.