Authors – Dr. Ajayya Kumar, Mohamad Abou-Zaki & Ghassan Khoury
The Japanese movie Rashomon, released 70 years ago, gives profound lessons about human nature and life, as well as a timeless perspective on entrepreneurship.
The word classic doesnt even begin to describe Rashomon. The 1951 movie introduced Japanese cinema to the entire world and received an Academy Award for the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951″ when the Best Foreign Language Film category did not even exist! Its the masterpiece of a legend, the director Akira Kurosawa who, through the movie, held a mirror to all of us. He took us deep down a philosophical rabbit hole, pushed us into a personal turmoil and forced us to ask ourselves: are we really what we think we are? Is being true to oneself as easy as it sounds? Can we think about us without all the embellishments we give to the idea of us?
If you havent already watched the movie, heres a bit about it.
The movie revolves around the repeated retelling of the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife from the viewpoint of four people. Each witness (a bandit, a woodcutter, the spirit of the samurai who died, and the samurais wife) has a different take, a different interpretation, a contrasting narration of the events, all left to the discretion of the audience. Some are true, some are fuelled by ulterior motives but each of the four very different accounts appearing equally authentic.
Kurosawa would say that The testimonies were the event interpreted by each witnesss pride. He knew that every word that articulate is influenced by many factors and is shaped by our own perspectives.
Rashomon exposes our inner workings. It is a lens turned into the deepest and probably darkest corners of our souls. It is different from the movies that came before it and arguably even the ones that came after it. The lessons for entrepreneurs are thus also slightly different. Lets look at them.
- Rashomon effect is real
The film is so influential that it gave birth to the term Rashomon Effect. It is used to describe multiple and contradictory depictions and interpretations of the same event, as well as the impact of perception on memory.
Think about this scenario in the context of expanding your business into a new market: the size of that market, its growth rate, its demography, number of households etc are all solid facts. So, ideally, there should be only one view about venturing into that market or not. Yet, once you start asking around, people will give you a variety of opinions, analyses and advice that stem from their own understandings, experiences and perspectives.
People suffer from a perceptual bias, thats why it is important that, when you are about to make decisions based on peoples opinions or advice, you keep in mind that those opinions are always subjective.
The solution? Along with peoples opinions, scrutinise statistics and numbers and extract the actual picture from all those insights. To a certain extent, this would help you steer clear of opinion biases.
But what if, as a decision-making leader, you are wrong? That brings us to our second point.
2. Do not single-handedly make decisions.
Even your brightest idea or your smartest initiative can bomb with customers.
You are the sum of your experiences, perspectives and aptitudes. Your decisions come from there. Whereas your customers or clients are different people who come from a different set of backgrounds. They do not view your company or your product the same way you do. Hence, it is important that you understand your audience, and if possible, put yourself in their shoes, so that you give them what they want; not what you think they would want.
Conduct surveys, do market research, dig into data around what has worked in the past and why. Consult with your colleagues, seek their insights and find the common ground even if their views drastically differ from yours (thanks to Rashomon effect again). If the entire picture is too large to comprehend, choose the part thats the most relevant to you and analyse it further. Equipped with all those, go for it.
3. Can you be true to your story?
In the movie, we dont know who is telling the truth, or if anyone is telling the truth at all. The four witnesses fabricate a story that suits them, or more importantly, shows them as honourable men or women. In other words, they tell a story that they like to believe is true.
This is not to say that you should pass off stories to your employees or customers. But once in a while, it might be good to do a bit of reverse engineering. Start from the story. What is the story you have been telling or would like to tell your staff or customers? How do you like people to view you? Now walk back. Check where you stand. How real is your story? Does reality match your messaging? Have you provided the work environment you had promised your staff when you hired them? Have you been able to deliver the satisfaction you guaranteed the customer/client before they bought your product or service? Are you really the story you like to tell others?
If your answer has been no to all of these, then maybe, its time you go back to your foundations and start reworking on it. Or in other words, be the story that you want to tell others.