From Management’s Point of View ~When you think it’s time to give up, the real work begins.~

August 26, 2025

There are many times, not just at work but also in other situations, such as exam preparation or sports competitions, when people think that they just can’t go on any longer. I count a number of well-known business leaders among my friends and acquaintances, and very nearly all of them have overcome conditions in which ordinary people would have given up. We discussed this at a recent Beer Bash event, and based on that, I decided to post about how I’ve responded and acted in circumstances when I thought I just couldn’t keep going.

• Separate the mind from the heart

  When we encounter trials and tribulations, negative emotions arise in the heart; thoughts like, “I hate this,” “I don’t want to deal with this,” or “why me?” The oncoming of these sorts of negative emotions is a cause of stress. The thing to do is to avoid worrying about the negativity, take up the problem as an assignment to solve, and focus on using the mind to consider what to do about it. While repeated training in consciously separating the mind from the heart will accustom one to that exercise, being prepared with the right attitude at those times is also essential. My summary below will address this more fully.

• Deep digging

  Our company’s philosophy, TOPC Axis, includes this, which is intended to help think through issues from perspectives such as means and objectives, quality and quantity, cost and benefit, and what can be done versus what cannot be done, serving to clarify the proper course of action. By definitively undertaking the things that can in fact be done, and accumulating small successes, the entire team will gradually become more confident.

Technically speaking, these are the two basic halves. But in actuality, most people in the world give up on overcoming significant obstacles. Looking at business startups, over 80% of new enterprises fail in the first ten years of operation. That means that even among people with the will to become business leaders, over 80% are unable to conquer the hurdles they encounter. As to why people find themselves unable to succeed in the face of the very real difficulties that they encounter, this is more about their mindsets than about technical capacities.

For example, no matter how deeply one might dig while managing an organization, oftentimes, there is no guarantee of success. In the case of a regular company employee who is assigned a task at work for which they lack the confidence to accomplish, they might protest to their supervisor, saying, “This is impossible. There’s no way I can do this.” Someone without the courage to confront their boss might vent to colleagues over drinks, complaining, “I’ve got this completely unfair assignment at work.” When I see that kind of thing, I think to myself how fortunate those people are. A leader has nobody to complain to. Comparing this to mountaineering, it’s as if you’re at the head of a group climbing a steep, foggy trail where you can’t see ahead of yourself. You’re staring at a map and a compass, believing in the ability of your team, and encouraging and leading them onward up the mountain, despite any complaints and doubts they may raise. If your estimation is poor, you could all fall off the edge of a cliff, and the company could go bankrupt. In fact, that is precisely what happens to many organizations.

In this analogy, the map represents the business plan or project planning document, which directly relates to the operations being undertaken. These plans are formulated considering the very edges of the domain that are currently executable, and estimating what will become possible in the future. By digging deeper together with the team, the accuracy of these assessments can be refined.

Meanwhile, the compass serves as a guiding principle for the leader's heart and spirit, as well as for the organization's. In our company, this consists of the guiding principles, collectively known as TOPC Axis. Once you have a set of coordinate axes in your heart, you cannot stray too far in the wrong direction. The reason that we call them coordinate axes and not just action guidelines is that they are rooted in our philosophy. Whether a company has a set of coordinate axes and whether these are shared throughout the organization, such that everyone is moving in the same direction, is extremely important. If efforts are aligned in the right direction, the greater those efforts are, the better the results that will accompany them. On the other hand, if people act randomly, their efforts will be misoriented, and the desired results cannot be achieved. That is why it is so essential for the company to be equipped with both a map and a compass.

All of this is no doubt understandable, but even among business leaders, over 80% are ultimately unable to disseminate their corporate philosophy or coordinate axes within their companies, and they fail. There are two main factors involved. The first is that it requires an unbelievable amount of effort; and the second is that there is no way to know when the dissemination will take hold or to what degree its effects will be materialized. When people set their mind on something, they can typically continue working on it for one or two months. But very few can continue their efforts for one or two years when absolutely no results are forthcoming. It is in this manner that so many business leaders are weeded out.

Before TOPC Axis became a fixture of our company, I clung to two particular sayings in the process of creating and incorporating it. They were words of wisdom that I had learned from the late Dr. Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera. He used to ask himself, “Is my motive virtuous or selfish?”  The other was a wisdom of Ninomiya Sontoku, a prominent Japanese agricultural leader, philosopher, and economist during the late Edo period, which Dr. Inamori often quoted: “Where there is a feeling of utmost sincerity, the Universe will be moved for it.”  I was constantly questioning whether my thinking was actually sound, whether my thoughts were for the growth and development of those around me, and whether I was selfishly satisfying my own desires. I believed that if my heart was definitely in the right place, then, no matter how poor a communicator I might be, the day would eventually come when the message would get through. And so, I continued working on it. I felt that even if there were no direct advantage to myself, if my concern was with the people around me, then I would have no regrets even if I failed.

It is often the case in management that results do not appear in the short term. In the absence of results, many managers lose their bearings and abandon the quest. But an outstanding business leader believes in the compass of their heart and continues pushing forward relentlessly when most others would consider giving up. For individuals who can persevere with complete determination, not just for themselves but also for the growth of those around them, their way of life itself will ultimately become the corporate culture, even when there are no immediate results to be seen. And one day, it will become apparent that the other people working there have changed. A business manager doesn’t have a boss in the conventional sense, but the divine is always above. The thing to do in times of doubt, rather than following one’s own desires, is to turn to the divine and ask; the path will be made clear. When I thought I just couldn’t go on, rather than risking my employees losing their sense of direction for their efforts, I worked on the TOPC Axis approach and tried to infuse it into our company. That is because I believed it was the right path, and the way that our company should be. Going forward, I am committed to striving earnestly and completely so as not to deviate from that path.