Now whether one’s purpose is great or one’s purpose is slight, if one has determined on one’s intention, the next thing that is necessary is to select the way to achieve it. Just as there are many roads that arrive at a single destination, there are naturally various means and methods that help achieve a certain purpose. In this case, even when the purpose is good, if the means and method are mistaken, then one will be unable to achieve the purpose and the effort will of course end in failure. The quality of the means and method, their skillfulness or clumsiness, will truly make a great difference to their outcome. Young people, once they have determined a purpose, tend to act on impulse and proceed directly to it in haste, neglecting to work out their means and method. For that reason, therefore, they may be unable to carry through to the purpose they had taken the trouble to establish for themselves, and their effort may end in meaningless failure. Therefore it is necessary to take great care.
The question, then, is what are the best means, and the answer is, that which can achieve the purpose best with as little wasted effort as possible. Unless we put a great deal of thought into it, what one thought was a shortcut will sometimes turn out to be in fact a long and precipitous path. What appears to be a long way around may yet in reality be a shortcut. To attempt to reach that single destination without taking into consideration the existence of twists and turns that are intrinsic to the route, and paying no heed to the presence of mountains or rivers or moors or forests, but just rushing straight forward impatiently, is likely to result only in our going astray. What requires particularly careful attention is that the means and method absolutely must be derived from the correct and just path. People are given to say that one should choose whatever means achieves the objective, and sacrifice whatever is lesser to obtain what is greater, and similar things, but this is incorrect thinking. To think that a good purpose can be achieved by wrongful means is mistaken from the very start. It may be that when viewed from one perspective, even wrongful means could appear to bring about results that are good, but wrongful means are bound to bring about results that are bad in other respects, so that in the end, even the objective itself will be destroyed. Saigo Nanshu (Takamori) wrote that “In matters great and small, one should take the just, correct path, press forward in good faith, and not make any use of deceptive stratagems. When something does not go as they want, people often deal with the situation by employing guile, thinking that they will do this just to get past the obstruction because later when they have the chance, they can devise some way to do something about it, but their guile is bound to bring trouble, and their project will inevitably end in defeat. When the project is carried forward on the just, correct path, then even though it may appear to follow a roundabout way, when they go ahead on that route, success will come more quickly.” The issue he was addressing is the relationship between a purpose and the means taken to achieve it, and his teaching on this matter can only be termed exceedingly apt.
The purpose must be something that is not a fantasy but that definitely offers hope that it can be realized. Likewise for the means, too, which must be something sure and steady that offers the possibility of being enacted given the capabilities and circumstances of the person concerned. Even the means that seems a marvelous stratagem then and there, when one is coming up with it in one’s imagination, is most likely to fall short when applied in reality, and yield no benefit at all. For that reason, the means has to be always steady and sound even beyond steady and sound. However, it feels as though a favorable means that is steady and sound would be somewhat difficult to find. The way that one becomes able to discern steady and sound means is as the result of thought and experience. To act as younger people are apt to do, and casually decide on a means based on a moment of hasty thought is definitely not going to be a shortcut to achieving the purpose. It would be better rather to take a means that is steady and sound even if it appears to be going the long way around.
If one has decided on what to do based on the two acts of determining on one’s intention and selecting the way to it, then the next thing one must do is to exert the effort to accomplish it. A hundred empty wishes and a hundred fruitless plans do not match up to a single action. Success means ultimately the result of energy applied toward a certain purpose, and the more energy is applied, the greater the success will be, as well. Even if that purpose and the means to it partake of something entirely good and entirely beautiful, they must be put into action or ultimately they will be like a beautiful dream. What is needed in war is resourceful stratagems, but winning and losing are not decided by resourceful stratagems alone. Those who are skilled in stratagem win by exerting the effort, and those whose stratagems are crude may at times be able to avoid defeat by exerting their efforts, so winning and losing are usually determined by the energy one puts into action. One may be thinking at that time that the purpose is steady and sound and the means is steady and sound, but when it eventually comes to the point of action, all kinds of difficulties and all kinds of obstacles will arise so that what is required, more often than not, will be a tireless will in exerting unflagging effort. This is the reality of life.
Success and failure occur largely according to the law of cause and effect. Major results do not come suddenly, and obtaining considerable results necessarily requires considerable effort. Therefore it is necessary to be resolved that when something is of value, then the greater the value, the more protracted will be the effort required. Great things cannot be brought about by the inspiration of a single day. Young people are filled with passionate enthusiasm, and they will easily become impatient to achieve success all at once, but rushing is not itself reason to achieve success. When impatience does not yield success, one grows weary; when weary, one loses heart; and when one loses heart, one may easily fall into despair. Those who are quick to advance may also be fast to retreat, and there are many such who, despite the intensity of their initial enthusiasm, contradictorily end instead without attaining any success at all. What is necessary in life above all is the business of building and not the action of destroying. At times destruction is required, but that is in order to build something even better. When it comes to that business of building, it necessarily requires a long time. It is easy to do something to damage one’s body in an instant, but it is no easy matter to develop that body to make it sound. This is what all business of building is like, so if one is ever to engage in any project that is good and beautiful, then one must be fully resolved to avoid rushing into it, to take sound and steady measures by steps that take one forward a little bit at a time, and if one once begins such a project, then one must engage in it with the firm determination to use all one’s strength for the rest of one’s life to accomplish it.
Kano Jigoro, Seinen shuyo kun (Teachings for the Cultivation of the Young), Dobunkan Publishers, 1910
