The other day, I had a conversation with a CEO who shared an interesting perspective.
"I often participate in panel discussions and interviews, but I never bother to check the footage or articles afterwards. What’s done is done, and I always move forward without looking back."
This CEO was full of energy and charisma, inspiring those around her. With a tightly packed schedule and a rapid pace, her approach of not dwelling on past events seems crucial for maintaining her momentum.
However, during our conversation, I couldn't help but think of Zeami's famous saying, "Shoshin wasuru bekarazu" (初心忘るべからず), which translates to "Never forget the beginner's mind."
Zeami (1363 - 1443), whom I mentioned in a previous post “Flowers are found in secrecy”, was a Noh actor and playwright who greatly contributed to the development and establishment of Noh theatre.
This phrase is widely known among Japanese people and is often interpreted as "Never forget the humble spirit and fresh mindset you had as a beginner." However, Zeami's ”Shoshin wasuru bekarazu," had a different nuance. His idea was to deal with new situations and challenges by capitalizing on all the “first experiences” you have had so far in your life.
In his book, “Fūshikaden", Zeami elaborates:
"To forget the art style you have practiced up until now, even for a moment, is to lose the seeds of your flowers definitively. The flowers that bloom without seeds are like flowers on a fallen broken branch. They shall never bloom again. As long as you keep the seeds, you will see flowers blooming every year, all year long.”
Zeami’s “shoshin” emphasizes the importance of not discarding the skills and experiences we’ve naturally acquired over time. These experiences are the seeds that ensure continued growth. They bloom throughout different stages of our lives.
Of course, these ideas come from a time when people were often dedicating their entire life onto a unique art or topic, rarely straying away in quest for the new. We live in different times, but that ancient wisdom could be beneficial, I think, because we tend nowadays to ceaselessly jump from one idea or information stream to the other, forgetting to keep seeds most of the time.
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