Resilience

It is hard to turn on the news on TV these days without seeing the devastation created by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. When I saw the videos of the earthquake and the tsunami, I was in awe of the power of the nature and the damages it created. Fortunately, my Mitsubishi colleagues in Japan and their families were not directly impacted by the disasters, but my heart goes out to the families that lose love ones and whose properties were badly damaged.

In every disaster, there are always encouraging and heart warming stories showing the resiliency and kindness of the human spirit. Such as the following examples from the Yahoo Contributor Network:

•A ship ripped from its moorings with 81 dock hands aboard has been found. The dock workers survived their ride to sea on the waves of the tsunami and were airlifted to safety, Jiji news agency reported Saturday.
•Rescuers pulled a 60-year old man from the sea, 10 miles off shore, after spotting the red cloth he was waving. The tsunami had washed him off his roof and out to sea.
•In Tokyo, in the earthquake aftermath when the streets were filled with stranded commuters, Butagumi Shabu handed out free curry and rice; Eiji Press offered shelter; and Suntory and Bic Camera offered free public phone charging.
•The town of Minaminsanriku was virtually washed to sea in the tsunami, yet an encouraging SOS written in chalk indicated survivors at the elementary school.

But the one story that impressed me the most is the following:
•The Japanese people are known for their orderliness and respect and did not abandon these characteristics in the disaster aftermath. Sendai survivors lined up and waited their turns to buy what they could in the few shops left.
This reminded me about what I learned from a friend of mine. One of her friends was on a subway train in Tokyo when the earthquake hit and participated in one of the most orderly evacuations that he had ever witnessed. People followed the direction of PA announcements without panicking, running, shouting, just quietly and orderly exited the station.

We all experience difficulties in life, may be not as drastic as the earthquake or tsunami, but how do we handle or react to the difficulties will certainly determine how we will come out of them. With the resilient, never give-up attitude, we can walk through the difficulties and come out strong on the other side. Keeping calm and behaving orderly, true to our characters in the most difficult situations, we will not do things in panic, we will not create chaos or create further damages to ourselves and others.

In some ways, these events are parallel to the difficult economic disasters in the past two years. Companies with the resilient spirit and orderly behaviors (taking sound steps rather than doing things in panic mode and reactive) come out of the down turn leaner and meaner than before. We had to make sacrifices, and we had to take steps that were not pleasant, but we knew what we had to do to get through the darkness, just like the 60 year-old man who hung on to the roof floating in sea, he didn’t give up!

I am positive Japan will come out of these disasters stronger. Just like people who survived the disasters in New Orleans in 2005, Sichuan China in 2008, Chile in 2010, people in Sendai will rebuild the town and the farm lands because of the resiliency of the human spirit! Yes, it may take a while, but I am sure the city will come out better than before!