If you know them, they’ll surely guide your life! Important words to engrave in your heart (21–30)
The optimal framework for decision-making is to minimize regret.Jeff Bezos
There’s a quote from Jeff Bezos that says, “The optimal framework for decision-making is to minimize regret.” When you make an important decision, what do you keep in mind? It’s said that when Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, he struggled with the choice to leave a stable job to pursue it.
In the end, he decided to launch Amazon and achieved great success, but that quote is said to have given him strength during his period of doubt.
It’s a powerful message that encourages us to keep moving forward and take on challenges step by step, rather than becoming discouraged and avoiding them.
Curiosity is also a detour. It may indeed seem like a waste of time, but it always becomes nourishment for yourself.Osamu Tezuka
Have you ever had dreams or goals, yet found yourself getting distracted by other things along the way? It’s important to keep your head down and work hard, but the quote, “Curiosity is a kind of dawdling.
It may indeed be a waste of time, but it will always nourish you,” also teaches us the value of easing up a little.
When you’re absorbed in one thing, you tend to think only within that field’s knowledge and mindset.
By turning your attention elsewhere, however, you can sometimes come up with new ideas you wouldn’t have had before.
Of course, if you spend too much time dawdling, it can become a detour from achieving your goals, but this message helps ease the guilt around taking a breather.
If you know them, they’ll surely guide your life! Important words to engrave in your heart (31–40)
Trust in others, but trust yourself a hundred times more.Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka: "Trust others, but trust yourself a hundred times more." #SelfReliance #Growth #Success
From the quote, “Trust people, but trust yourself a hundred times more,” we can quite literally learn the importance of believing.
It’s understandable to feel suspicious of others, but there will likely be many moments in life when nothing begins or moves forward unless you choose to trust.
And more than that, unless you trust yourself, you can’t face forward and move ahead.
This message teaches a mindset essential for progress—one that’s closely tied to seeing things in a positive light.
It’s never too late to set your aspirations.Stanley Baldwin
It’s never too late to set your ambition.
Stanley Baldwin, a British businessman who served as a Conservative politician and held multiple ministerial posts, served as prime minister three times in 1923.
His famous quote, “It is never too late to be what you might have been,” likely resonates all the more with those who have grown older.
Society often prizes youthful energy, and it’s not uncommon to be written off as no longer useful once you pass a certain age.
Yet he reminds us that it’s always the right time in life to set an aspiration.
Younger generations might not fully grasp this yet, but it’s a message I’d like to offer as words of encouragement for the day when it will make sense to them.
Nothing makes you regret more deeply than indecision.René Descartes
René Descartes, the French mathematician whose statement “I think, therefore I am,” proposed in his own writings, is counted among the most famous propositions in the history of philosophy.
His maxim “Nothing is more conducive to regret than indecision” teaches the importance of making decisions in life.
If you take on a challenge and fail, you may feel regret, but you can reflect on it and use the experience next time.
However, if you cannot bring yourself to decide to take on the challenge, nothing happens—there is nothing to reflect on, only the regret of inaction remains, and that cannot be undone.
This is a message worth keeping as a personal motto to help reduce regrets in life.
To mature, one must take the long way around.Takeshi Kaikō
The writer Ken Kaikō, who left behind a wide range of works—from novels based on his reporting experiences during the Vietnam War to essays about his hobby of fishing—once said, “To mature, one must take the long way around.” It’s a message that seems to call a halt to the modern trend of overvaluing youth.
Companies seek immediate contributors, and the arts are trending younger, but humans are neither completed nor truly grow in such a short span.
Isn’t it precisely through a variety of experiences and repeated failures that we mature? It’s a quote I want to remember as a personal motto—one that teaches us to move forward steadily without rushing.
