Final reading Assignment Ch.16

Ch.16 was an interesting chapter for me. It reminded me of my grandfather. Now, my father and brother are working as craftsmen, they make steel products. They chose this job as influenced by my grandfather.

My grandfather was a typical “craftsman”, and everyone approved that it is his calling. One of the reasons is his long time working. He spent his 50 years for working. As a result, he got great techniques that usual craftsmen do not have. As Perkins says, learning takes time. Of course he started at the beginning of incompetent, but he never give up working. Therefore he succeeded.

In addition, he loved his job like Issac Stern in this book. Actually, making steel products is not an easy work. I know that he lost his one eye by the spark. However, he looked so happy when he was working. My father said “I often heard he was humming while working”. Even after his retirement at the age of 70, he often saw my father working, and said “may I help you? ”.

He worked alone, so he was not a “leader”. However, his attitude impressed a lot of people (for my father and brother, he is an ultimate goal!), so I believe he was a great leader.

6.1 Class

On 1 June, we had a presentation in class. I realized the difficulty of telling the main point briefly. My presentation was prolonged because I put too much information other than some main points in it.

My presentation is not god, but my team member tried to listen carefully and ask many questions... thank you.

I will try to do better in a final presentation!

Suzu's Personal Mission Statement

1.At the end of every day I wish to feel that I have…
not forgotten to say “Itadakimasu” and “Gochiso-sama”
tried to enjoy everything
talked with people a lot
smiled heartily
challenged difficulties with courage
never excused myself
been patient if there were bad things
been honest and kind to everyone
thanked for spending a good time today

2.Someday I hope to have…
traveled all over the world
met various people and valued them all
found a job that I can involved in
been a mother and loved my family

3.When I die I wish to believe I have
had a simple and ethical life
been generous
believed others
loved others
had a wonderful life

It was first time for write down my personal vision. That’s all I come up with now. When other articles occurred to me, I would like to add.

About 1, my recent challenge is especially “trying to enjoy everything”. I am so busy now because of many assignments, presentations and club activities so that I often feel like throwing away them. However, these are things that I decided to do because I was interested in. Therefore, I'd like to try to enjoy and do them without excusing “I cannot do them because I am busy”.

2 is my future vision. I do not have a clear vision about my future career, but I hope to get a job that I can involve in. In order to do so, I have to challenge difficulties.

Finally, 3 is my sentence. I hope to die peacefully with satisfied.

Week 6 assignment

I would like to focus on Chapter 7 “Conflict”. I was surprised at this chapter because I’d thought that all Shackleton’s team members are cooperative and gentle so they could survive. However, there is a description that “more than half of his crew consisted of potential troublemakers”, and there were a lot of terrible conflicts in fact. Even so Shackleton was close by them and respected them. I was impressed by his attitude.

From his attitude, I also learned that “trouble makers” who often oppose and criticize are needed for the team development. Sadly, they tend to be ignored and excluded… Actually, I am not willing to have a conflict with trouble makers, because it exhausts me. However, their criticisms will make team member discuss deeply and get a better solution (although some criticisms just interrupt other member, it is a bad case). I think showing disagreements is an act of courage, because we have to take a responsibility to disagree with someone. Moreover, it takes much energy. Therefore, there are several things to thank “trouble makers”.

I tend to avoid showing disagreements and compromise. So, it may be good to follow “trouble makers” a little.