When you look up “itadaki” in a dictionary, its meaning is “the highest part / top of a mountain”. Don’t you ever think that you want to achieve a top position in something? As for companies, many of them (?) compete with other companies to win the number one position, too. So why do they want to be a number one then? Why do they aim to get to the top…..? When you become number one, is there anything good that would happen to you? Or what can you see when you get to the top?
By the way, have you heard of this sentence? “Even if you take a different entrance, the place we get to is the same…..”
This sentence is used to express that even if we get onto the track from different entrances, we all get to the same place (the top)… However is it true? Do you feel that’s right?
Imagine, for example…one sunny day without even a cloud, you can see a mountain far away from you. Also you can see the summit from where you are. So it is a goal that you are going to get to (achieve).
So then each of you decide your own route (entrance) to take and you start heading toward the top with a map and compass. Each of you has enough food and necessary equipment. Well, what do you think? - how many people could actually get to the top…?
This is actually an allegorical story of life, and I think that everyone doesn’t always get to the top. Because when they were looking at the mountain from far away, they didn’t know that there was an extensive forest at the bottom of the mountain. So it was quite easy to get lost.
They could’ve even gotten totally lost and wouldn’t know where to go. Or there could be a possibility that most of them would just give up and come back. Isn’t this situation applicable for companies? In the case of companies, getting totally lost or giving up could represent their bankruptcy and company withdrawal…
Well, why such a wording was made then? I wonder if it was only made for us to accept the situation and not to waste the time and efforts that we spend with our hopes even if we can’t get to the top.
So what’s necessary to get to the top for sure? It’s the “correct way of seeing things”. If we can’t read the map and compass correctly we’ll get lost. It’s not good if we just have them. When we can see things correctly, the entrance and route will automatically come into view. If you blindly try going forward you will never be able to reach the top. Also there is another thing we must not forget. It’s the weather (observation of nature). You wouldn’t go in heavy rain, would you?
