日経ビジネスニューヨーク支局の水野様より、クレイトン・クリステンセン教授に「被災で苦しんでいる日本のためにメッセージを」というご依頼がありました。
先生は、執筆にあたり、日本の皆さんを元気付けられるように、そして傷つけないようにととても気を使っておりましたが、とても愛のあるメッセージとしてすばらしくまとまっています。
英語になりますが、ぜひ皆さんに「生の声」を見て頂きたいと重い、教授の許可を頂いて、英語の原文をこちらに公開させて頂きます。（日本語版は日経をどうぞ）
日本のために、本人も大変な状況の中で執筆してくださったクリステンセン教授、および、このような企画をして頂いた日経の水野様にお礼を申し上げます。
28 May 2011
I wish to express my sincerest condolences to the people of Japan who are suffering, physically, emotionally, or economically, as a consequence of the recent natural disasters and the ensuing problems with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. While much of the world's attention has moved to other events, I know that the personal loss that many people have experienced as a consequence of these tragedies goes on. Many of us around the world have been deeply saddened to see what the people of Japan are going through, and wish to lend our support in whatever ways possible.
As a business and administrative issue, there are many questions regarding what steps Japan should take to respond to this crisis. What should be rebuilt? How long will it take? What should the rest of the country do to prepare for the possibility of similar natural disasters? Can Japan safely rely on its nuclear power energy infrastructure? These are difficult, complicated questions, which will take great work from the government, businesses, and individuals to solve.
However, much like you, I was happily living my life, and then events occurred which drastically changed things for the worse, through no fault of my own. I would like to offer some personal advice. One of the most challenging parts of this tragedy is its seemingly arbitrary nature: people who were happily going about their business one day found that their lives had changed drastically for the worse the next day, all through no fault of their own.
In the last three years, I have experienced a variety of health challenges that presented significant obstacles, both on a personal level, as well as to my family. About three years ago, I suffered a sudden, completely unexpected heart attack. I had recently had a visit with my doctor where I was given a thorough physical examination, and there were no signs that indicated that I was at risk of a heart attack. In fact, the typical indications of heart attack risks were all lower than average. And yet, when I had the heart attack, the physicians found that I had a 100% blockage of a major artery in my heart, a type of heart attack that is often fatal. Fortunately, in the hospital the doctors acted quickly and were able to remove the blockage and insert a stent before much serious damage occurred.
Two years later at about the same time of year, my doctors discovered that I had an unusual form of cancer, called follicular lymphoma. This cancer had been unusually aggressive, and by the time it was discovered, I had several large tumors in my body, including one about the size of an American football in my abdomen. My doctors attacked the cancer aggressively, treating me with chemotherapy. Thanks to the skill and attention of these doctors, and the power of the medication that they gave me, I was able to overcome the cancer, which seems to have gone into remission.
Shortly after I finished with my chemotherapy treatments while I was in the process of trying to recover, I suffered a stroke while at a Sunday morning church meeting. I was very close to Massachusetts General Hospital when it happened, and was able to receive medical care quickly, which reduced the amount of damage to my brain. In spite of the speed with which the doctors were able to act, they weren't able to prevent me from having some complications. The part of my brain that was affected by the stroke is the part that controls my ability to communicate. So, while I still have full control over my motor function, it is almost as if someone shuffled my vocabulary around, so that occasionally when I am looking for a word, I simply cannot find it. Though I haven't done so yet, I am optimistic that I will make a full recovery.
I share all these personal details because I suppose that on a much smaller scale, after all my health travails, I felt some of the same emotions that may be familiar to many of you. I have done my best to live a healthy life, to eat well and get exercise. I visited with my doctors regularly. And yet all my best efforts seem not to have made any difference in my health outcomes, which has been very frustrating.
Though I recovered fairly quickly from the heart attack, cancer was a more difficult disease to face. The stroke I experienced was the most difficult: As a professor, everything I do is about communicating with my students, or writing and publishing research. My stroke specifically affected the part of my brain most critical to those tasks.
As I struggled to recover my ability to communicate, my frustration caused me to turn inwards, and focus on myself. Why, I wondered, did I have to go through this? What did I do to deserve such challenges? As I focused more on myself, on my problems, and the seemingly slow pace of progress that I was making, I became more frustrated, more desperate, and even struggled with depression - something that I hadn't felt my entire life.
Then, I had an epiphany.
As I turned my focus more and more on myself and the problems that I was facing, I had spent less time thinking about others, and how I could be of service to them. Rather than spending time thinking about how I could improve other people's lives, I was focused on my problems, my wants, and what I thought I needed. After great personal reflection, I realized that this selfish focus was the recipe for my unhappiness. I realized that happiness was in fact to be found in forgetting about myself, regardless of how hard it was, and in spite of the temptation to think that because of my unique situation a self-centered focus would be okay.
I also realized that life is a series of extenuating circumstances, and that there will always be justification to turn our focus on to ourselves, onto our wants and needs. But the truth that happiness is to be found in the service of our fellowmen is universal, and not contingent on the idiosyncrasies of our circumstances, be they comfortable or difficult.
Many of us make the mistake of thinking that we can postpone serving others until later in our lives. This is not the case. Time and time again, I have seen first my own classmates from when I was a student, and now my own students since I have been a professor, claim that they would focus primarily on their own careers for a period of time, and then when they had "made enough money", they would shift gears, and go into a mode of giving back to their community and focusing on their families. This rarely (if ever) works out the way that they imagine.
There is always more money to be made, always more deals to be done, always more products to be launched. Once you have already made the decision to put what you believe to be your highest priorities behind something else, it is always easier to make that decision again, rationalizing that you'll do it "just this one last time," until the next "last time" comes along.
Additionally, some of the people who need our service the most - our families - are growing and changing. Even if we do make decisions later in life to make them a priority, many of the best opportunities to have a big impact with them may sadly have passed.
Instead, may I suggest a few things that have brought me happiness and joy as I went through my own rebuilding process. I have made a commitment each day, to choose to serve, to seek to understand what my families, friends, neighbors, even strangers need from us to be happier. I have set a goal to do some act of service for someone each day. Doing this requires that I consider the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of those around me: how can I help others if I don't know what they need? Focusing on others will help you put your own situation in perspective. Even if your circumstances are difficult, there is surely someone else whose lot in life is worse, someone who you could help directly, somewhere where you could make an impact for good. Focusing on others may also help you realize that you have been blessed in ways that you may be inclined to underestimate. Counting these blessings and realizing the things that have been done for you will ease your burden.
As I
said at the start, I think that decisions about how to respond to this crisis
are best left to the people who are dealing with their reality on a daily
basis. Still, I feel that there are many
lessons to be learned in the tragic series of events that have hit the people
of Japan which are relevant to all people.
They are a reminder that our lives are fragile, that our time on Earth
is brief, and that we never know what twists and turns our lives will take, and
when they will end. As a consequence, we
cannot count on being able to take care of the important things in life at some
later date which may never come. We
should decide now to pour our energies into helping each other and building our
communities up one relationship at a time.
Clayton Christensen
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