My son recently finished his entrance examinations. In the end, he passed. But he had to pass all of them. Failure is absolutely unforgivable. He seemed to have driven himself into a corner with such thoughts, and fell into a slump in the early stages of the exam. I realized that it is just fine to be lucky to get into one of the many schools I wanted to apply to, even if I didn't make it. Like Ichiro's thoughts on hitting, relaxing a little more will increase the distance of your ball. Otherwise, I cannot tolerate the slightest mistake, and impatience will rule, making it difficult to make the calm decisions I was able to make in my usual practice sessions.
 
If you start something new ten times, nine times it will fail.
President Yanai of UNIQLO
 
I have seen the word "infallibility" in the title used several times in newspapers and magazines to describe the nature of conservative organizations such as government offices. Failure is impossible, so they persistently follow methods that have been successful in the past. Failure is impossible when planning, so there is no need for a contingency plan in case of failure. This is a very unfortunate way of thinking, blindly believing in winning patterns as if they were gods, even though circumstances have changed and these patterns are no longer appropriate for the current situation.
 
The Nikkei Stock Average recently reached its highest level for the first time in 34 years. While stock prices in major countries have ballooned several times in that time, this is the first step out of 34 years of stagnation. It appears to be the result of a growing momentum to shift from a safety net of earnestly storing up as a result of reflection on the bursting of the bubble economy to value creation . It is the outcome of the acceptance of the risk of failure. If you say you are infallible, you will be buried without any change. Like the repeated troubles in the banking system and the nuclear power plant accident. That is impossible, and that kind of thinking leads to big mistakes.
 
I once put myself in an environment where "I don't understand what you mean" was used as a common phrase. There is a rail of correctness laid out, and if I strayed even slightly from it, I would always be bombarded with "I don't understand what you mean". I can't say anything inappropriate. There is zero psychological safety. Therefore, I had no choice but to be passive and say very little.
 
Increased macro risks due to obsession with micro-correctness
 
Recently, there have been many news reports of scandals related to Toyota Motor Corporation, which is arguably the most successful company in Japan. I will not focus on particular incidents, but overall, the organizational culture is one in which the subordinates are forced to follow decisions made by superiors and subordinates are forced to commit fraud to protect the decisions made by superiors. There is a pervasive sense of resignation that it is useless to talk to the superiors. Even Toyota... I was shocked by this unfortunate situation.