As a business leader interacting with many people every day, what I feel strongly is that mere experience itself is not what matters — what matters is "how you perceive, give meaning to, and make use of experience." Here, I would like to revisit and organize that idea.
Who Gives Meaning to Experience?
Experience itself has no inherent meaning — it is our own interpretation that gives it meaning. Philosophically speaking, the same event can lead to vastly different lives depending on how it is received.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche stated that there are no facts, only interpretations. This is the idea that the same event is received differently by different people, and that those interpretations shape reality. For example, some people find a rainy day gloomy, while others see it as a good day to settle down and organize their thoughts. In other words, facts themselves carry no meaning — it is the interpretation of each individual that gives them meaning.
Jean-Paul Sartre also argued that life has no predetermined meaning, and that the meaning of life is something each individual creates for themselves. This is by no means negative — rather, it points to the possibility of freely creating meaning. When you fail at work, you can despair and think "I'm not cut out for this," but you can also give it a positive meaning: "Let me use this as an opportunity to develop new skills." Any experience only gains meaning when you yourself give it value.
In my own experience, I have encountered many failures in both business and life. Whether I viewed them as "invaluable lessons" or "wasted time" made a profound difference in my subsequent growth.
How Does INA Manage Experience?
Experience management at INA is a system that leverages past experiences as an asset for the entire organization through a culture of "recording" and "retrieval." By converting individual learnings into organizational knowledge, we achieve sustained growth.
Specifically, we have digitized all business records and introduced an internal system that allows anyone to easily access past experiences. This system accumulates a wide range of information, including negotiation details in real estate transactions, customer interactions, past issues and their solutions, and results of marketing campaign effectiveness measurements. This enables employees to quickly and accurately retrieve their own and others' past experiences and apply them to current work.
We also hold regular internal meetings. Every time a project or task concludes, we identify outcomes and challenges, and discuss specific measures to apply in the next cycle. By repeating this process, a corporate culture has formed in which failure is seen as "important information to be used next time."
INA also values opportunities for employees to share their experiences with one another. By learning from others' experiences as if they were their own, it becomes possible to leverage what would otherwise be individual experiences as assets for the entire organization.
Isn't It Interpretation and Application That Color Experience — the True Key to Career Growth?
Experience itself is neither good nor bad — how you interpret it and translate it into action determines success in life and business. INA's philosophy is grounded in precisely this concept of "making the most of experience."
What we aim for is for each and every employee to actively give meaning to their own experiences and connect those experiences to corporate growth and social contribution. By continuing this effort, we strive to help all those involved experience the joy and richness of growth.
In both life and business, I believe that the attitude of giving value to your own experiences and connecting them to your next actions is the key to true success.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What does "experience has no meaning" mean?
This is the idea that experience itself does not inherently possess value or meaning — meaning only emerges through how that experience is interpreted and applied to future actions.
What is the specific system behind INA's experience management?
Individual experiences are converted into organization-wide assets through the digitization of business records to build an internal knowledge base, post-project retrospective meetings, and the creation of opportunities for employees to share experiences with one another.
Does how you view failure affect your growth?
Yes. INA promotes a culture of not fearing failure, and by viewing failure as "important information to be used next time," we connect it to the sustained growth of our employees.
How can I practice "coloring" experience in my daily work?
It is effective to develop a habit of recording your daily work and regularly reflecting on it. By recording not only successes but also failures and challenges, extracting lessons from them, and incorporating those lessons into your next action plan, you can give meaningful value to your experiences.
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