Konosuke Matsushita Quotes

106 Konosuke Matsushita Quotes (Matsushita - National Panasonic Quotes)

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On November 27, 1987 I turned ninety-three years old. I was nine when I started in business…
Konosuke Matsushita

Anything is possible if approached with conviction.
Konosuke Matsushita

Matsushita Electric is going to grow even more in the future, and even a temporary dismissal of workers goes against my management philosophy.
Konosuke Matsushita

One must be cautious of tempting offers that may not derive from the best of intentions.
Konosuke Matsushita

Private enterprise is ultimately a public endeavor.
Konosuke Matsushita

It is a kind of law of nature. The goal one aims for can rarely be reached by a direct road.
Konosuke Matsushita

An enterprise will grow in accordance with the amount of effort you plow into it.
Konosuke Matsushita

It is during the bad times that the skilled manager lays firm foundations for future growth.
Konosuke Matsushita

An old Japanese proverb goes that even a cold stone can be warmed through if you sit on it for three years. In other words, patient effort will bring you success if you but persevere.
Konosuke Matsushita

I began to think that running a business is not unlike governing a country.
Konosuke Matsushita



Success in business comes when strength in manufacturing and strength in sales are well matched.
Konosuke Matsushita

A good actor is in rehearsal until the day he dies, and the same rule applies to a businessman.
Konosuke Matsushita

A business is only as good as the people in it. Even a promising business will flounder if it is not well-managed.
Konosuke Matsushita

[On the 1929/1930’s recession] It was truly thrilling to watch the company rally despite the pressures of the worst depression in recent experience.
Konosuke Matsushita

A policy of austerity will never bring prosperity.
Konosuke Matsushita

No matter what difficulties a company faces, its goals can eventually be realized if management and workers strive with concerted and diligent effort toward those goals.
Konosuke Matsushita

It is… necessary to approach a project with the conviction that it can be done, and not waste energy about its difficulty.
Konosuke Matsushita

Truly able people do not let the difficulties get the better of them.
Konosuke Matsushita

I believe a manufacturer’s most important responsibility to the customer is to make defect-free products.
Konosuke Matsushita

All I did through my career was to work unstintingly, devoting my best to the job at hand from day to day, and following faithfully the dictates of common sense and my own conscience.
Konosuke Matsushita



When asked to pinpoint the key to my success, I am at a loss to answer; the path that led me to where I am is not a simple story.
Konosuke Matsushita

When I think back over the near century that has been my life, I cannot help feeling, somehow, that it has been very short. The years seem to have sped by like an arrow in flight.
Konosuke Matsushita

[On his father speculating on rice in the commodity market] Speculation of any kind, especially when the national economy is unstable, is risky and bound to bring failure.
Konosuke Matsushita

At four, I was still too young to appreciate the difficulties my family was going through. All I remember was the clinking sounds when my father or mother would check to determine that the silver coins they received from customers were genuine. Counterfeit money was not uncommon in those days.
Konosuke Matsushita

It is often only after our parents have died that we feel the impulse to do something for them in return for the love and protection we have received. When young, we tend to take all that for granted, sometimes going deliberately against their wishes, and remaining oblivious to the sacrifices they make for us.
Konosuke Matsushita

[From his father] ‘You’ve got to be successful in life. People who achieve greatness have always undergone hardship – like apprenticeship to total strangers – in their youth. You too, will achieve great things by overcoming hardship. You must never give in to painful experiences, son; be patient and endure.’
Konosuke Matsushita

A person who is fortunate enough to receive a proper education should make the best of what he has learned for himself as well as for society. If he does not, his studies are pointless…
Konosuke Matsushita

What struck me that the time was that my father had continued speculating on the rice market whenever he had some spare cash right up until his death. Though he clearly regretted having lost the wealth and property handed down from our ancestors, he persisted in speculating…
Konosuke Matsushita

Once you get accustomed to some kind of work, it does not seem as hard…
Konosuke Matsushita

The more people who make their fortunes and invest their riches in building fine architecture the better.
Konosuke Matsushita



I must have looked crazy trying to start a business so much in the dark…
Konosuke Matsushita

I concentrated my efforts on building a better model for the socket. We were so poor meanwhile that my wife had to make frequent trips to the pawn shop to exchange what good clothes we had for small amounts of cash.
Konosuke Matsushita

The unexpected things that happened in the days when we were starting our business, I have found, were not miracles. It is a kind of law of nature. The goal one aims for can rarely be reached by a direct road. It is well said that ‘patience is the better part of valor,’ for circumstances often change and the way may unexpectedly open up for success in what was previously an unfruitful endeavor.
Konosuke Matsushita

Patience and perseverance… often win praise from people who can provide help.
Konosuke Matsushita

The crux of employer-employee relations is mutual trust. If you run an enterprise too narrow-mindedly, putting undue priority on one aspect of the business, it can prevent you from both expanding your operations and training new manpower.
Konosuke Matsushita

I really believe that any business will be successful in proportion to the effort you put into it. Some seem to think that long-term success is the result of the balance of temporary successes and failures. But I don’t agree.
Konosuke Matsushita

Business… is like sword fighting in the traditional Japanese way. You cannot back out and you cannot let the other side win or you are a dead man. It’s all or nothing. In business… if you are to be successful you must always win.
Konosuke Matsushita

An enterprise will grow in accordance with the amount of effort you plow into it. If it does not grow, even though you are working hard, it is not because of unfavourable circumstances, bad timing, or bad luck. It is because there is a flaw in your methods of management. If you think businesses rise and fall solely as a result of timing, luck, and circumstances, you are wrong. A solid business… can thrive even in bad times, and will do even better in good times.
Konosuke Matsushita

It seems to be a kind of axiom that once a business gets going and is at last managing on its own, people from outside begin to come in with all manner of proposals for change, expansion, or reorientation. Sometimes the proposals are good; but one must be cautious of tempting offers that may not derive from the best of intentions.
Konosuke Matsushita

Today telephones are things we take for granted; most people have forgotten or will never know the wonder and the delight we experienced when that telephone first rang. Our first call was from a customer who had phoned to place an order; I was so excited and delighted I could barely contain myself.
Konosuke Matsushita



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