We spend much of our day at work. Even if we take Saturdays and Sundays off, we must spend most of our lives at work. Some people may say that work is work and I find value in my hobbies. However, there is no doubt that there is a big difference in the fulfillment of life between spending a lot of time working at a job that is interesting and working at a job that you hate.
When I was young, I hated my job. I think the reason why I disliked it was because I felt like I was “forced” to work. My first sales job was in the bedding section. After working as a sales representative in the Kyushu region, I was assigned to the bottom section and later transferred to the cut-and-sew section. When I was transferred from the bottom section to the cut-and-sew section, the section manager at the time told me, “With your current sales performance, you will be useless in any section. I was such a “bad salesman” that I convinced myself that he was right.
The cut-and-sew section manager of the last section as a section member was unimaginably strict and absolutely obedient, so my sense of being “forced” to do something grew stronger and stronger, and every day I wondered when I would quit.
However, although the section chief was strict with his subordinates, he had a good business sense and was a top performer in the product department. He would find a project that would sell, and when he decided on it, he would place a large order, thoroughly pursue costs, set a selling price, and sell the product in large quantities all at once. There was no compromise in this series of operations.
I thought that in order to convince the section chief, who was eager to make a profit from a project that would sell well, I should create a project that would sell well and show him that I could make a profit, so I decided to do something new that the current section was not doing.
First, I planned a woven jogging suit at a cut-and-sew factory using fabrics that were in stock, and it sold well. Next, I proposed a total project using the popular pile knit material, including jets, T-shirts, running and jogging shorts, and succeeded in selling to bottom and nightie companies, which had not been the section’s clients before.
I really enjoyed thinking and planning by myself, producing by myself, and selling to the customers I had in mind. Eventually, I decided to make woven pants, which the section did not do. When I suggested it to the section manager, he readily agreed.
Casual pants were booming at the time, and Takihyo was taking the world by storm. I studied Takihyo and went around the Shinichi district of Fukuyama, which was Takihyo’s main production area, bowing to them and asking them to let me do business with them. In retrospect, it was right around that time when Sabrina pants, broken jeans, bleached jeans, stretch pants, and casual pants were all booming among Mrs. Takihyo women.
Work became much busier than before, but the busyness was not painful at all because I was having fun. Every day I thought about quitting, but the day I decided to make things myself, I was transformed into a person who only found work interesting. A few years later, I took advantage of the huge boom in chemical jeans and created Section 59.
When I hated my job, I didn’t take any action on my own, but instead, I assumed that I was “forced” to do things on my own, and all I did was complain about the company and complain about my boss.
I blamed my boss, my clients, and the environment for my lack of success at work, and did not have the courage to face myself head-on. I was just afraid to deny myself at that time.
Make work enjoyable through your own ingenuity, do your own research and strive to do your job well, and always keep a positive attitude in mind. As you gradually start to produce results in this way, you will enjoy your work.
When you enjoy your work, you will be able to overcome even the most difficult tasks. You will never know what is really going on unless you really try, even if the work seems uninteresting. If you really try it and you just can’t like it, you can give up and find what you really love.
This is an excerpt from a book titled “How to Work” by Kazuo Inamori, chairman of Kyocera Corporation and the man who rebuilt Japan Airlines.
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Fall in love with your work.
I fall in love with my work.
That is why I have been able to keep a demanding job for so long.
People are willing to go through any hardship if they love their work. And if you are willing to go through any hardship and keep working hard, you will succeed in most things. In other words, it is no exaggeration to say that your life is determined by this one word: to love your work. ——-
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