Look Inside of a Box

It was a while ago people were talking about "think outside of the box." It recommended changing the way of thinking, and thinking in the ways others would never think. Though I agree with the importance of thinking outside of the box, there is one other theory as important as it. It is "look inside of a box."

When we are working in an office environment, information is supplied in various forms. Some comes with e-mail. Some others come as a formal letter. Handwritten memos can be good information. You can also look for the information you need on the Internet, today. Facebook and any other Social Networks can be good informational sources. Although a beautiful new envelop or a neatly packaged letters tends to draw our attention, we may need to pay attention and be aware of the information contained in the package or decoration.

Hiroshi was working for a Japanese electronics company. One day, he received a letter in a brown, cheap envelope placed on his inbox tray. The envelope was dirty with fingerprints and other stains. It looked as it was sent not by airmail, but instead by sea. He did not feel like touching it at first glance. When Hiroshi took it in order to open the envelope, his boss called, and he did not open it. The envelope was sitting on his desk for another week, untouched.

He went to his office one weekend to working. He picked up the letter and opened it. The 2-page letter was inside of the envelope. The paper used for the letter was thin, and some parts were torn. He was finally reading the letter. The letter was an invitation to a tender offer for electronics components used for the next government project from a third-world country.

The project cost $200 million. The contents of electronics components were mostly those that his company could supply. Surprised, Hiroshi turned to the offer deadline, the tender closing date expired two days ago. He faxed a hasty note asking if he could still offer. He received their reply the following Monday stating that the tender was closed. Hiroshi lost his opportunity on the $200 million-dollar project.

I remember that the handwritten, almost illegible memo was on a torn off piece of paper from the president of my former company. It did not even have a package. We should not be too influenced by the decoration of the package. We must keep our eyes on the information contained within and try not to make the same mistake Hiroshi did.




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Three Mirrors to Check Ourselves In

Buddha once said that there are three mirrors to watch and check ourselves in as listed below:

1. Mirrors we own
2. Mirrors others own
3. Mirrors of a Higher Power

The first one is how we view ourselves; we all have our own self-image. The problem is that sometimes our view is subjective and may be different from what others see. A Japanese story states that once upon a time, the queen of the ocean asked a fish what color the crystal ball she had was. A fluke answered it was brown. A snapper said it was red. A blue fish said it was blue. The queen told them that the crystal was transparent. It did not have any color. They saw the crystal ball as being the same color as their own.

Our own image is quite subjective reflecting his own color on the transparent crystal. When we look into the mirror from a distance, we may think we look okay. When we take a closer look, we may have a beard growing, have small scars on the skin, or eyes that are not clear. As long as we are using just our own judgment, we in the mirror might be the illusion we created.

The second is how others view us. We need to be careful on this second mirror. When an ancient Chinese general became an emperor, he was congratulated by the crowd who shouted out the name of the new emperor in great delight. When a close subject praised him, the new emperor told him that the people's voice could not be trusted. Once he lost a war, they shouted to kill him. He knew their nature. Others love us because they have reasons to love us. If we do not have a reason to be loved, they do not love us, anymore. It is selfish, subjective, and changeable.

The third one is the spiritual mirror. The Buddhism doctrine teaches people that they need to train themselves that they can reach and use this mirror by a higher power. Buddha told his principles that Buddhism itself is a mirror to reflect the truth.

Our own image could be distorted due to our subjective nature. How others view us could be variable and changeable based on who and what we are. Since we recognized the subjective nature of the first two mirrors, it would be worthwhile to keep trying to reach and use the third mirror of spiritual being or of Higher Power. It would take us some time and training to become able to reach and use this spiritual mirror, but it is worth trying to reach in order to learn the truth.



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Set Your Expertise and Build Confidence Around It

Many people dream of becoming independent by starting their own businesses. In the current economy, even large, established companies cannot be relied upon as safe and stable sources of income. They may downsize to reduce costs or even close down. Being employed by a large, established company once was a status symbol. It meant safe and stable earnings and the ability to make a living. In contrast, starting a small business was regarded as risky and unstable. This no longer appears to be the case. Being employed by any company right now seems as dangerous as running one's own business. If the risk factors are the same, I would rather be self-employed.

Upon realizing this, however, most people become fearful and back off the idea of self-employment. I have listened to people say they did not have the right level of expertise or the necessary skills, abilities, qualifications, or licenses. They were not confident about running a business. They seemed to force themselves to draw negative conclusions. They would list all the reasons they could not, in their minds, run a business.

From the ages of three to eight, Hitoshi was always terribly weak and sick. He had a high fever about every five days. When he had dinner away from home, he was always sick to his stomach the next day. He could not do any physical education in school. In running competitions, he always came in last.

He worried about his health and became depressed. His doctor sent him to get some fresh air in the seaside village for one month.

Because he was born in downtown Tokyo, Hitoshi's experience in the village was something totally new. He enjoyed swimming with local boys and could not have time to be sick. Occasionally he had a fever due to too much playing, but he gradually regained his strength. He loved swimming with his new friends in the village. By the time his stay was over, he could swim as well as his local friends could.

He came back to school. His physical conditions were still not as good as those of others. He had changed, however. He no longer took days off. He went to school every day and took part in physical training. One summer, he was selected to be a representative for his class on a swimming team, competing against other classes. On the day of the competition, Hitoshi surprised his classmates with his fast swimming. Thank to Hitoshi, his class won first place. He successfully built his confidence around swimming.

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How Does an Airplane Keep the Sense of Direction?

Why does an airplane reach its destination? When we drive, we all have references. These references include a sign for the road name, building, restaurant, park, or trees. In the air, however, there is no such reference. There is nothing but blue sky and clouds. No matter how long it flies, the scenery does not change. In comparison with the wide-open, huge sky, the destination airport, or even the city, is exceedingly small. So, how does a plane reach its desired destination?

There are some intelligent devices. Compass is the classic one. There is computer-aided direction equipment with a map reference in the screen. We have heard of automatic cruising control system. Are they enough? This was a question that had puzzled me for a long time.

One day, a friend of mine told me that she had a conversation with a pilot of an airplane at an airport. The pilot told my friend what flying an airplane was like --- constant correction of the flight direction of the airplane, because an airplane continuously gets out of the correct course. Since there is no visual direction reference, an airplane constantly digresses out of the right route. Thus, pilots need to regularly correct the deviation of the flight route and fly their airplane to the destination. They use compass, devices, and screens equipped in modern airplanes. However, the most influential correction comes from communication with ground crews. Pilots communicate with ground crews continuously throughout the entire flight to avoid any major deviation from the flight course.

The pilot said that despite all the advanced modern equipments, the most valuable information is the fact that pilots are aware that flight route will be deviated, and they need to correct it constantly with ground crew support.

This story relates to our lives.

Our lives are full of mistakes like the flight of an airplane. It appears there is no way to avoid mistakes. Mistakes play a vital role in the learning process. It is not so critical to make a mistake in our lives, but it is essential that we continuously correct our mistakes. In this way, we will be able to reach our destination as an airplane that never misses its destination airport. It appears that making mistakes is not a big deal as long as we have a correction mechanism. We should not be afraid of making mistakes. But if we do, it is important to correct them so that we will be able to reach our destination.





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Think Again Before Becoming Emotional

Managing our emotions may be our lifetime work. Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, said people become free from vacillation when they turn 40. Considering this advice when I look at myself, I regret that I am still resentful, fearful, and remorseful. I need to admit that my mental situation is far from free of vacillation. Some older friends tell me are even more resentful, fearful, and remorseful now. How we can manage our emotions?

Although it is not simple or easy to manage our negative emotions, as one gets older, he starts to learn some methods to repress public displays of emotion. He may have to drink to curtail his emotions in public. I found that the ways we all hide our real emotions contain some common practices. The man who needs to control his emotions follows these steps:

1. He accepts he is emotional.
2. He gets himself some time to control his emotions (at least for a while).
3. He thinks about why he becomes emotional.

Following these steps allows the man the opportunity to become calm. The first step can be the process of detaching himself from the emotional state, separating himself into two halves, the emotional half and the calm half. Then at least half of him would be able to remain calm.

The second step is not easy. Some people slowly count to five in their heads, while others go to 10. My friend said he repeats, "I am emotional. Do not show it," in his mind at least five times. This is a hard process.

I see real value in the third process. It would bridge the gap between pretending to be calm and real calm. In this step, you must consider why the other person became emotional. Why is your wife so angry? Did you tell say something that is rubbing her the wrong way? Did your boss upset you?

It helps to imagine you were involved in the process. If someone felt cheated, deceived, or mistreated, he would consider whether he played a role in your counterpart acting like that. Your wife would be angry because you made her upset. Your boss was upset because you did not do a good job.

Think again. Think about whether you are causing their upset emotions. If you understand your own involvement in making others emotional, you can see it might be reasonable for your counterpart to be upset. In this way, you calm yourself down.





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Do Not Underestimate the Power of Childhood Dreams

Do you enjoy reading? I like reading, but I try not to devote too much of my time to reading since I have a tendency to not stop reading until I finish an interesting book. Reading is excellent in many ways. It is entertaining. It is inspiring. Reading gives us knowledge, wisdom, hints for solving problems, and advice on how to live. My wife and I like the library in San Mateo, because it has a Chinese and Japanese foreign book collection. There is a Japanese book that inspired me quite recently called "Story to Steal a Castle." The story was entertaining and interesting. I spent all night reading and finished the book. However, it was not the story which inspired me. The author mentioned the reason why the hero wanted to "steal a castle". He said it was his dream.

The author stated that people should not underestimate their childhood dream. He analyzed that the people who accomplished great works in human history were the ones who did not lose their childhood dreams. He continued to say that they were the ones who devoted their lives to seeking their dreams.

We all have dreams in our childhood. There are innocent ones, such as "I want to be like my mother or father", or "I want to be a policeman and protect good people from bad people." Some of them are big dreams, such as "I hope to be like Julius Caesar." Grownups do not deny children's dreams. Almost all adults do not deny children's dreams and tell them that their dream would come true some day.

However, after growing up, people started to be negative to other's dreams. They started to think negatively about dreams in general. People often do not want to discuss others' dreams. "You must be dreaming," they say, "You are daydreaming." If I say, "I want to unite the world like Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa unified Japan," you may not talk seriously with me the next day. I just listed three people who unified Japan in the 17th century. Oda was a small, local lord in central Japan. Toyotomi was the son of a farmer family. Tokugawa was a hostage in his enemy country. If they did not dream of unifying Japan, they would not have been the people who did so. The 20th century's great scientists, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Albert Einstein, were driven by their dreams, not by their calculations.

When I think of myself in the past, the real reason why I wanted to stay in San Francisco, despite of my Japanese nationality, was not because I had a good job opportunity, or for family reasons, but because I had grown up watching American TV programs, such as "The Combat," "The Mission Impossible," "Time Tunnel," and "Twilight Zone." My vague childhood dream was to one day live in the United States. It seemed to be my driving force to obtain an international job and station myself in the United States. We should cherish and respect our childhood dreams.









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Mid-Life Crisis Slapstick Stage

It was Confucius who advocated the concept of growing older, rather than getting older. The idea was that as one gets older, he should become much more experienced than younger people. The elders must have more wisdom and control over their lives. In accordance with his own personal history and development, Confucius suggested that one should set the focus of his life by age 15. He said that when he was 15, he decided to devote his life to an academic field. He said he could stand on his own feet by age 30. He was no longer suspicious of or unclear about his activities by 40. He became aware of the mission given to him from the Higher Power by 50.

Everybody wishes things would happen the way Confucius set milestones based on ages. However, in reality, as one got older, things become more out of control. A person may become more emotional and resentful. English has an expression: "mid-life crisis." Having a crisis in the middle of one's life has become a universal truth.

When his company gave him a business order to become stationed in San Francisco, Satoshi was glad. He thought his company finally recognized his English proficiency and business skills. He arrived in the United States in October of 1997. The world economy was rapidly growing as IT business had grown. Additionally, his business had grown. He had been promoted.

By the end of the year 2000, Satoshi received a business order from Tokyo to come back to Japan. Going back to Japan did not excite him at all. Japan's economy was stagnating. There were few opportunities for promotion. The entire country had forgotten about dreaming about the future.
In addition, he had problems with his wife. She did not like living in a foreign country and never joined him in San Francisco. Now she wanted a divorce. Satoshi decided to become independent and take this opportunity to live in the U.S. He decided to resign from his company and stay in San Francisco.

He had to face a lot of problems. He lost his job and income. His wife wanted a divorce. His stay permit in the U.S. expired when he lost his job, as the company was his sponsor for staying in the U.S. He could not stay in the U.S. any longer. He did not know how to begin dealing with his problems. He believed, however, that he would be able to deal with the problems he was facing. The next 10 years of Satoshi's life was a roller coaster ride. He started his own business and changed his visa status to Green Card base. He got divorced, then remarried, and continued to live in San Francisco.

Satoshi's story is encouraging. He proved that one can successfully overcome mid-life difficulties if one does not stop addressing their problems, however hard they appear to be.









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Analyze the Mechanism of Business

Browsing the Internet or checking emails daily shows many so-called business opportunities. Many of these opportunities advertise, "No experience, no skills, and no knowledge is necessary." However, I have not found one that states, "No time, no effort, and no brains are required." One day, some advertisements might start saying that. Unfortunately, I do not think any opportunity can bring in money without doing any work.

People's behavior consists of complex patterns. Their buying patterns seem relatively simple and can be categorized based on the following three reasons:

1. People buy things because of necessity (Need).

2. People buy things to provide better advantages (Advantage).

3. People buy things to get help (Help).

All legitimate businesses, both Internet-based firms and the legacy types, have developed the mechanism needed to meet these buying behaviors. Many opportunities do not show participants the mechanism for making money. In fact, they do not show participants the entire business picture, although they may explain how a participant can make money. A participant needs to look at all of the elements of the opportunity and analyze how the host makes money. If the host does not make money, there is no reason for the host to provide the opportunity.

The host of an opportunity requires a participant to pay for joining. People need to stop and think at this point. This type of host wants a participant to work as part of his or her sales team. If it was a legacy business, the host would need to pay to recruit a salesperson.

If you were hired to send 100 emails a day, you would not pay to send them, the host would.

Many opportunities require people to pay a fee to join. The host makes money by charging this participation fee. He earns money from you if you buy a product or a service from him. He also earns money on any sales that you make. The host's income is usually more than three times what you make. If a participant does not make money and quits, the host is not affected at all. He will simply find a replacement. When you come across a business opportunity, the best approach is to examine the following three points:

1. Who will make the most money?

2. What is the mechanism for creating business profits?

3. What is the whole business picture?

Are there opportunities to earn real money? Yes, there are. Some programs enable participants to grow and eventually host their own businesses. They may provide the only chance for some people to run their own businesses. The best way to build a profitable business is not to join another person's program, but to build one's own.






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What Is Reverse Thinking?

Many unpleasant things happen in our lives. They include human relationships, health issues, making money, or working conditions. For example, you may love someone who does not love you. You are not happy with your job or salary. You have a difficult boss at work. The list goes on. The question is, are they all bad? You may say that of course they are bad; they make you feel depressed, sad, fearful, resentful, or embarrassed.

There are two categories of people. The first category consists of those who are depressed by their problems. The others are those who gain energy in adverse situations and turn them around to favorable situations that work for them. The latter are like a coiled spring that shrinks once pressured, and they take advantage of the reverse force.

Hiroshi had a problem keeping a relationship with his girlfriend when he was a student. He loved many girls. None of them returned his love. He studied boys who were loved by girls. He saw handsome boys who were loved and cheered by girls without doing anything. Hiroshi also found that there were boys who were not so attractive but who were still loved by girls. He studied them. He found that they might not be good-looking, but they had something positive, something that appealed and said something about them.

In contrast, he was shy and not positive or active. He needed to admit that he would not choose himself as a friend if he met someone like him. His conclusion was that he needed to develop his own personality and expertise that nobody else could follow.

Although his appearance did not change much, he now has his own skills, personality, and his own story to tell. He stopped holding. He became positive and active. He discovered that he had developed many friendships with both girls and boys.

After graduating from college, he started his own consultation firm for boys who have problems with girls. Although making money was not his goal, his business became quite successful as he helped clients. Thinking in the ordinary way would have led to a downward trend in Hiroshi's case. He could have become weary, depressed, and desperate. Reserved thinking is the way to face negativity and replace it with positivity.

When you are weary, remorseful, or depressed about things happening in your life, do not let these negative emotions take control of your life. There is a way to change these negatives into positives. If negative things are occurring in the present, take the opportunity to turn these negatives to your advantage.



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A Magic Cap That Allows One to Observe Himself Objectively

Last summer I visited my friend in Japan. My friend had become independent by starting his own business about one year ago. When I walked into his house, he was sitting in his living room looking at several caps and hats that were lined up in front of him. It was a Saturday morning and he was preparing to go to his office, trying to select a hat to wear to work. We decided to go to his office together. Oddly, he did not end up wearing the cap he had selected to wear. Instead, he was carrying the cap in his hand. I asked him why he did not wear the cap he had selected, and he answered that the cap had some special meaning for his business.

We went into his office where several of his partners were waiting for him. They began to discuss business. Since the company had first started it had not been financially stable enough to justify large spending, therefore the discussion was intense. After an hour or so, my friend told his partners to take a break. He stood up from his chair and put on the cap he had selected at home. He then walked out of the meeting room. Ten minutes later he came back, still wearing his cap, and announced that the meeting would resume. In the previous session of the meeting, he had been stubborn and adhered strongly to his opinions. After coming back, however, he was more flexible and willing to listen to his colleagues' opinions.

In contrast to the first session, the meeting ended amicably due to his flexibility. Collectively, they agreed on a productive conclusion why the company's spending had shown a significant limitation.

After observing his behavior during the meeting, I was curious about the meaning of the cap. When I asked him about his actions after the meeting, he laughed at my curiosity. He explained to me he needed to create a different persona who could observe himself objectively from a different perspective. He had tried to do a self-critique before without the cap technique, but was not able to be objective judging his own opinion, attitude and behavior.

During a weekend meeting with his partners, one of them attended wearing a baseball cap. This person sat next to my friend and put his cap on the conference table. My friend, without thinking, grabbed the cap and put it on. To his surprise, he was able to observe himself objectively while wearing that cap. Since then, he continued to buy caps and hats to become a different persona in order to objectively observe himself.





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