I am Yoshida, president of Yamada Shusei Ltd., a professional apparel clothing repair company in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture.
July 7, the NHK TV program "Chico Will Scold You!" introduced the beginning of World Heritage, but I was thinking about something else while watching the program.
World Heritage sites are registered under the UNESCO Convention to protect the precious cultural and natural heritage common to all mankind. There are currently 1,157 registered sites, the beginning of which was in Egypt in the 1960s.
At the time, Egypt was constructing the Aswan High Dam, which threatened to submerge ancient Egyptian monuments along the Nile River. One of the most famous of these is the Abu Simbel Temple, a huge rock temple built by Ramses II.
In response to this situation, UNESCO called on countries to help, and with assistance from 60 countries around the world, a plan was implemented to relocate the ruins to a safer location. As a result, the Abu Simbel Temple was cut into more than 1,000 blocks and relocated to its current location over a period of four years.
This unprecedented rescue operation created momentum to "protect the common heritage of mankind" and led to the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention) in 1972.
This case is an example of how countries can recognize, share, and preserve cultural and natural values by working together. However, while watching this topic on TV, I was thinking about something else entirely.
That is, "Even one's strengths can become one's weaknesses when they go too far.
I could not accept the wonderful example of how the world came together, and I was pessimistic, thinking, "It's a wonderful example, but it's not that easy when it comes to my own surroundings.
I am also aware that my strengths include "being careful and paying attention to what could go wrong," which sometimes switches to weaknesses such as "getting distracted by details that are not the main point, being pessimistic because I see risks, taking time to start and accelerate actions, and freezing up when I can't handle the situation. I am also aware of the fact that I can switch from one to the other.
While being aware of this, I would like to maintain an attitude of "assume the worst, prepare for the best, and deal with the situation optimistically" in management.
