Oct 5, 2011

Don't decide things by "easiness" but "love"

I just got promoted to a manager in my company at the beginning of this October and I had a chance to talk to my people about how to work.

In Japanese the word "楽 (raku)" has two meanings: easy and enjoyable. I think that it's really important to enjoy your work (仕事を「楽」しむ) but it doesn't mean doing easy work (「楽」な仕事をする). Sometimes you have to make a great effort to enjoy your work, but I want you to try to enjoy your work.

Just before I had suffered from depression, I did easy work but didn't enjoy working at all. At that time I had some staple clients and got certain profits from my projects, so I got a high rating in my company. But I completely lost any interest in my projects and I hated to do them. When I woke up, I thought about how long I had to do such projects and felt a feeling of despair.

And then I suffered from depression and took three months of sick leave. Of course I caused my clients and coworkers a great trouble. I failed as a project manager.

If I really disliked my work, I should have quit these projects. I would lose staple clients and a high rating, but I should have tried to develop new projects that I really loved to do, even if it was hard to do so.

Jun Miura and Tomorowo Taguchi said in their book "Bronson would say so (ブロンソンならこう言うね)" as follows.

Don't decide things by "easiness" but "love".
「楽」で決めるな。「好きで」決めるんだ。

4 comments:

  1. I agree with everything you said, except the part where you said you 'failed'. I don't think you did fail. Depression is an illness, and it's not your fault. :)

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  2. Thank you for your kind comment. Maybe I shouldn't blame myself too much.

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  3. "Failing" is also part of life and of the learning process, so it is not so bad as it seems. I completely agree with you, one should do - or at least try to do - things that one loves to do. Life is so much better like that! Also, congratulations on your promotion!

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  4. Thank you very much.

    I've learned a lot from "depression" and I'll write about it.

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