1.Prologue
In our series on books on business, we’ve covered:
1) 16 Books on Business Everybody Should Read
2) 16 Books on Self-Development and Business Skills
In this article I’d like to write about 16 books that will help build mental health and resilience. When I say the “mental” side of things, I’m referring to what the Japanese would call kokoro no mondai (心の問題)—matters of the mind.
Kokoro, of course, can also be translated as “heart”, and the vagueness of the word also reflects the less-than-scientific way this field has traditionally been approached. For the Japanese, especially, matters like these were usually addressed with calls to gaman (bear it) or gambaru (give it more effort). The idea was that you should be able to control your mental health through the sheer force of determination.
The 16 books I write about in this article cover topics like self-assessment, making good habits, and willpower, and give concrete, scientifically backed advice for improving your mental health and building resilience.
2.Shippai no Honshitsu — Nihon-gun no Soshikiron-teki Kenkyu
Researchers from the National Defense Academy of Japan attempt to unpack the failures and ultimate defeat of the Japanese military in World War II. The authors recognize that the first and final nail in the coffin is the fact that the Great East Asia War was objectively unwinnable from the Japanese perspective. Beyond that they identify relationships between superiors and subordinates hampered by social considerations like hairyo (配慮, being considerate, or in this case, over-considerate, of others) and sontaku (忖度, seeking to please someone by undertaking action you assume they would have wanted), vague orders leading to recklessness, and the tendency to set elaborate plans only to never revisit or adjust them in response to actual outcomes. A difficult read for Japanese people for obvious reasons, and it is doubly discouraging to see so many of the same problems holding back Japanese business organizations today.
3.The Hard Thing About Hard Things
by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz is a famous Silicon Valley entrepreneur and co-founder and partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He reflects on the hard things he’s experienced on his way to success and writes about the lessons he’s learned along the way. The book is based on Horowitz’s blog and the tone is humorous and straight to the point. The business insights are supplemented by Horowitz’s favorite rap lyrics.
4.Naze, Anata no Shigoto wa Owaranainoka
by Nakajima Satoshi
A former Microsoft programmer responsible for the conceptual design of Windows 95 reflects on his own work experience as he writes about the importance of speed in matters of work. This book is not so much about specific time-management techniques as it is a collection of life lessons like “the average worker who is quick will go further than the slow genius" and “finish 80% of the work in 20% of the allotted time". Recommended reading for graduates new to the workforce.
5.The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action
by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
With the market awash with books on business and self-help books, the question we are often left with is not what to do but how we can translate what we know into action. The authors, who are professors of management science at Stanford University, explore how we can do just that. They write about common pitfalls that you would likely find at many Japanese organizations: walking out of meetings feeling like you’ve already accomplished something, being afraid of failure, and crabs-in-a-barrel syndrome.
6.The Upside of Stress
by Kelly McGonigal
We live in a world where it often seems to us that stress is the root of all our problems, both in daily life and at work. This book, however, questions that assumption and argues the importance of accepting stress and learning to coexist with it.
7.Tensai to wa Doryoku wo Tsuzukerareru Hito no Koto de ari, Sore ni wa Houhouron ga aru
by Yamaguchi Mayu
If you’re someone who picks up a new hobby or pursues a new goal only to drop it after getting easily discouraged, this book is for you. Lawyer and Former Ministry of Finance bureaucrat Yamaguchi Mayu writes about the skill of practice and repetition leading to success. For her, a genius is someone who can repeatedly practice without getting discouraged or deterred.
8.Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell
In this modern-day non-fiction classic, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success through famous figures like Bill Gates and the Beatles. The book is perhaps most famous for the repeated mentions of the “10,000-Hour Rule", the idea that the key to becoming world-class in any skill or area of expertise is to practice the correct way for a total of 10,000 hours. Gladwell also posits that the reason Asian people are good at math and academics in general is because they are societies based on rice cultivation, which requires a stronger work ethic than Western wheat agriculture. This book was translated into Japanese by Katsuma Kazuyo.
9.Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
This self-help classic is one of the genre’s best-selling books of all time. The book is said to be based on Hill’ work interviewing more than 500 individuals who had amassed personal fortunes. The word “rich" refers to both monetary as well as spiritual wealth, but given the fact that the book was published amid the Great Depression in 1937, much of the focus is on increasing income.
10.Kekkyoku, “Sugu Yaru Hito" ga Subete wo Te ni Ireru
by Fujiyoshi Tatsuzo
This book will convince you to undertake the most troublesome tasks in any endeavor first, rather than put them off until you’re left with not enough time to give them the proper attention. The main idea is to tackle tasks immediately, but not without first breaking them down into small, actionable steps.
11.Jibun wo Kaeru Shukanryoku
by Miura Shoma
The author, who is a life coach for athletes and executives, writes about scientifically backed ways to tap into our subconscious to acquire good habits. The key is to turn habits such as “getting up early" and “exercising" into switches that make it easier for us to acquire other habits.
12.Zettai ni Misu wo Shinai Hito no Nou no Shuukan
by Kabasawa Shion
A Japanese psychiatrist talks about techniques to condition your brain, focusing on the four pillars of input, output, thinking skills, and organization. She writes about how we can minimize the number of careless mistakes we make by training ourselves to have maximum concentration when it is most necessary. This should be required reading for Japanese salarymen.
13:Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
by the Arbinger Institute
by the Arbinger Institute
This is a must-read for anybody having trouble with interoffice relationships. The “box" in the title is a state of mind where we can only think about how things affect us. Getting out of the box means recognizing how we deceive ourselves into thinking others are to blame for our misfortunes. If we can do that, our relationships will improve and our projects will get off the ground more smoothly.
14.The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
by Kishimi Ichiro and Koga Fumitake
For so many of us, our actions are driven by the need to be liked by others. This book, based on Adlerian psychology, shows us why that is a futile approach and that we are only making things more difficult for ourselves. As long as we do what we ought to do to the best of our abilities, how others react is completely out of our hands; if someone ends up disliking us, that is more a reflection on them than it is on us. It’s an important message, especially in the social media age, when the value of things is determined by the number of likes it has received.
15.The Courage to be Happy: True Contentment Is In Your Power
by Kishimi Ichiro and Koga Fumitake
In this sequel to The Courage to be Disliked, the authors explore what it means to be happy, and how we can achieve it. The idea put forth is that instead of asking why we do not receive the love or respect we think we deserve, we should focus on giving love and respect to those around us. An important message for those of us who blame our misfortune on others.
16.The Willpower Instinct
by Kelly McGonigal
Based on a popular course by the Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal, this book explores the science of self-control. While we tend to think of self-control as an abstract thing, this book approaches it like a muscle—one that is weakened by lack of sleep, stress, and other daily habits. Important reading for anybody who frequently finds themselves torn between the urge for immediate gratification and their long-term goals.
17.Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals
by Heidi Grant Halvorson
Written by a social psychologist who specializes in the science of motivation, this book is about scientifically-tested strategies to achieve our goals at work and in our personal lives. The strategies are tailored for specific personality types and explores questions like “How do we set goals for ourselves in such a way that motivates us and drives us to perform our best?"
18.Epilogue
Whenever I travel to Japan on business, I like to take walks to clear my head after a long day at work. There’s a specific park that I always stop by, and there I’ve repeatedly come across a most interesting sight.
There is usually a middle-aged father trying to teach his young son how to play tennis, but he clearly does not know how to coach or effectively teach the skills necessary for the sport. The son almost always looks either confused or exhausted, and his heart is clearly not in the drills he’s being made to do. The father’s frustration—both at himself and his son—builds and builds until he explodes, yelling at his son, “Why can’t you put in more effort!?" The son, of course, doesn’t know what to say, so he continues to practice, fighting through the tears streaming down his face. It’s an incredible shame because it is so obvious that it is only a matter of time until the kid hates tennis, if he doesn’t already. The father’s determination is not only doing him no favors—it is actively making his son unhappy.
Problems with the father’s tennis technique aside, the books I’ve written about here in this article are for anybody who feels a similar frustration building within them, for whatever reason. Addressing that frustration will improve your relationships both at work and in private, and maybe even make life more enjoyable.
Next time I’ll be writing about books on neuroscience and the science of reading. Until then!
