His parting request was for me
"Number two is to learn how to read, my boy. For there is only one thing that people can t take away from you, and that is your wisdom. " At that moment, he reached forward, grabbed my right hand in his and put them upon the books he d pulled from the shelves. They were the writings of Plato and Aristotle-immortal classics from ancient times .
The bum then led me back past the smiling old woman near the entrance, down the steps and back on the streets near where we first met. to never forget what he taught me.
I haven't.In my newspaper column some months ago, I reprinted a short essay on youth by Samuel Ullman, an author unknown to me. Then I got a call from Ullman's great-grandson, Richard Ullman Rosenfield, a psychologist. He told me that he had been intrigued with the "spiritual journey" of the essay, especially in Japan .
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, I learned, often quoted Ullman's "Youth" essay and kept a framed copy over his desk throughout the Pacific campaign. It's believed that the Japanese picked up the work from his Tokyo headquarters.
Unlikely as it may sound, this essay, written more than 70 years ago, is the underpinning of much Japanese productivity and the basis of many businessmen's life philosophies. Many carry creased copies in their wallets.
"Anyone worth his salt in Japanese business knows and uses this essay," says one longtime Japan observer, "It is our Popeye's spinach," said Tatsuro Ishida, who was deputy chairman of Fujisankei Communications Group.
"It touches me at the core of my heart," says Kokichi Hagiwara, the 67-year-old chairman of Japanese/American-owned National Steel in Pittsburgh. "This kind of enthusiasm is indispensable, We must have the spirit of youth to make change ."
