Kazuo Inamori
Pure motive, no self-interest
Six months of asking before he started
His own account of founding DDI; his talks on the Japan Airlines rescue
Before entering telecoms he interrogated himself for half a year. What that self-examination was actually guarding against.
What actually happened?
Japanese telecoms opened in 1984 and Inamori wanted to take on the giant NTT with the strength of Kyocera. He did not move. Every night before sleep he put two questions to himself: is my motive pure, is there any self-interest in it? Is this really about lowering the country's phone bills, or about being told that Inamori is remarkable? He asked for six months, and only once he was sure of a motive wholly good, with no private interest left in it did he found DDI. Twenty-six years later he took the bankrupt Japan Airlines through the same gate.
The motive check guards against deforming later
A venture with private interest mixed into it shows no problem at the start, because self-interest and the common good often travel the same road. The fork comes in the hard moments. What was done for glory gets dropped when the glory goes; what was done for vanity bends.
A project taken on to prove yourself jams on the day you must ask a rival for help. Bowing serves the business and insults the proof.
Six months, because self-interest wears a disguise
Ask once whether you have a private motive and the answer is always no; self-interest's first skill is finding a public-spirited account of itself. He asked for half a year to see what was still standing after each wave of feeling had gone out.
Set a cooling period before a large decision and put the same question into it repeatedly. Week one's answer was written by excitement. Week six's was written by you.
A pure motive is a mobilisation order, not a talisman
A leader with nothing to gain borrows strength nobody else can: staff worked for a salaryless man of seventy-eight because what is he in it for had no answer, and the airline was profitable within the year. But he never said motive replaces management.
A founder who takes no pay and gives away shares earns real trust. If the numbers are still wrong, that trust only makes everyone pull harder into the iceberg.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: a large opportunity has you excited and you are about to move on it today.
Ask first: take being praised and proving myself entirely out of the returns — would I still do it? How many times have I asked, and across how long?
Where it goes wrong: using a pure motive as a substitute for competence. Or running endless self-examination until every action dies of it — six months was his ceiling, not his routine.
Lines to keep
Is my motive pure? Is there any self-interest in it?
If the motive is good, the thing tends to go well.
Same situation, other people are asking
If this is wrong, is there a way back?It starts on Monday and I'm bracing myself. Is that the problem?I think I know them well enough. Do I know my own side?There is no undo on this one. How long should I stand at the edge?A decision I can't undo · all 11 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.