早稲田ビジネススクール修了式でなぜか祝辞スピーチをしました（英語原稿添付）

何かとご縁がある早稲田ビジネススクール（WBS）。最大のご縁はWBS入山先生のゼミで夫に出会った、ということで、入山先生からの依頼はすべて受けております。そして9月の頭あたりに「9/15にWBSの英語MBAの修了式でスピーチをしてほしい」という依頼が来ました。せっかく世界各国からWBSに学びに来て、その大切な修了式に、わたし？！、と最初はさすがにごにょごにょ言っておりましたが「留学生はどうせ日本人は誰も知らないから」という言葉になんかほっとしてお受けいたしました。

一日かけて原稿を作り、直し、ネイティブの友人にチェックしてもらい、その後はひたすらぶつぶつと暗記。私自身、大学院を卒業するまで人生ぶいぶいだったのが、その直後にある出来事があり、自分が何者かわかっていないことに気づき、全く前に進めなくなった、という過去があります。その後、絵を描くワークショップEGAKUに出会い、ブログを書いたらと励まされてブログを始め、よくわからない童話を書いたり、いけばなを一生懸命やったり、踊ったりしているうちに、少しずつ自分のことがわかるようになり、今ようやっと自分の核Beingとつながって生きていると思えるようになりました。そんなお話をつらつらとお話ししました。

なんとか丸暗記のままお話しできてほっとしております。

以下、英語そのままですが、貼付けます。

Thank you Professor Iriyama for your kind introduction. It is indeed a great honor that I am here to meet you all, with great thanks to the invitation of Professor Iriyama.

It was not so long ago, I was studying in the PhD program at WBS and was attending the MBA seminar of Professor Iriyama. Little did I know that this would be the seminar where I met my husband, who is here today with our two-year-old daughter, who has supported me and accepted me as who I am. So for this reason, I am eternally grateful to Professor Iriyama and WBS.

What I mean to say is that WBS is amazing and you all are amazing. Congratulations on your graduation!!!

Some years ago, actually many years ago, I graduated from the graduate school of foreign service, at Georgetown University, with my head held high. I was an honors student, had a wonderful resume and had a perfect future plan. I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Then, something happened. That something made me realize that the only question I had been thinking of was "what", what I wanted to do and what I should do. I had never ever thought of the question of "why?", why I was here, or the question of “who”, who I really was.

I had never felt so lost. My future plan vanished. It was like the path I thought I was walking on suddenly disappeared. I did not know where I was and I did not know where I should be going.

A few years later, when I was working at Harvard Business School, HBS, I encountered a concept that helped to illuminate my situation back then. At that time, HBS was trying to transform its education and the new guiding principle was called “Knowing, Doing, Being.” Knowing means knowledge, doing is skills to actually implement what you know, and being is about understanding who you are. In other words, knowing is your head, doing is your body and being is your heart. HBS was reflecting on the realization that it had put too much focus on knowing and it would have to restore the balance between knowing, doing and being. The school also said that being, understanding who you are, what you truly care about, what your heart tells you, should be the compass of your doing and your knowing.

When I was studying at the graduate school, I tried to design my life based on knowing only. I paid no attention to my being, what my heart tells me. I did not have a true compass in my life. When I think back, it was no wonder I got totally lost.

To know I didn’t know my being was one thing, and to know what my being is, was another. It took me almost 10 years till I could say that I know my being and that I am connected to it.

For these 10 years, I tried many things while working full time at HBS, but looking back, the most effective way for me to find my being was making things. I drew paintings, I danced, I wrote stories, I started my personal blogs...I do not know why but I tried to do anything creative.

When you make things or do creative things, two things happen. First, as you use your body to make things, your head is silenced. Without the noisy head constantly speaking to you about fear, success, failure, or how others would see you, you can listen to your heart more clearly.

Second, is what I learned from my favorite author, Elizabeth Gilbert. By making things, we can restore a sense of what it means to be a human. Humans created art 30 thousands years ago, a long time before humans invented letters or started agriculture to regularly feed themselves. So making things for nothing, without any practical purpose is what we, humans, have been doing throughout our history. Why not do it?

Through making things, I started to develop an understanding of my being.

Then, one day, the idea came to me that ikebana, the Japanese traditional art of flower arrangement that I had kept doing for 20 years as my hobby despite various life obstacles, could be my new career. Ikebana means letting flowers live. In order to let flowers live, you need to silence your head and listen to the voice of the flowers. Through my own experience, I realized the process of ikebana was similar to the process of us trying to figure out our own being. I thought that maybe I can bring ikebana to the broader society to let people get closer to their own being.

The idea never left me. I then decided to leave Harvard Business School to commit myself fully to the ikebana activity. I started to call myself an “ikebana artist.” That was about 3 years ago, and it has been an exciting and amazing three years.

I have no doubt that you all have studied very hard at WBS and have learned a great wealth of knowledge, such as 4P in marketing, 5 forces in strategy, and CAGE framework for globalization. You are a master of knowing.

And if you think you already know your being and you are connected to it, rock on. You have your compass and you are fully equipped with the knowledge you need. Just do whatever you think you want to do.

But some of you may not have much understanding of your being, like me just graduating from the graduate school. If so, just know that the exciting journey to find and get connected to your being is just beginning. And if you feel lost during the journey, just make things. Be a human who painted a picture on the cave wall 30 thousands years ago. If you keep making things, you become someone who is not just a consumer or an employee who does things that your employer tells you to do. By making things, you become yourself. It may take time, but you will, eventually.

Be a maker. Do not just be a consumer or an employee. Make things, whatever your heart tells you to make. If you want to make business, that is great. If not, that is also great. You do not have to be an entrepreneur just because you graduated from a business school. I guarantee that it would help you live a far more interesting life. It would help you live a life that you were born to live.

Again, congratulations, class of 2019. And thank you very much.