15) Dr. Shockley Appeared on NHK Program
Shockley and Kikuchi in the pre-meeting on their talk program in the studio
William Shockley who was the key person of the invention of
transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories was invited to Japan by Institute
of Electric Engineers of Japan in 1963 and he appeared on NHK for the 45 minutes'
talk program with Makoto Kikuchi. They had been acquainted with each other.
The photograph shows their pre-meeting on the talk program in the studio.
According to Kikuchi, Shockley carefully described his theory of "Creative
Failure Methodology" in the talk program. Known as a great genius for
science, he described himself as a scientist who had made most mistakes and
failed most, and he advocated his "Creative Failure Methodology."
To put it into practice, he started "Meeting on Failures" to analyze
failures in a positive manner and to find out creative solutions. He always
started his opening speeches at the meetings, saying "Let us frankly
talk about experiences of failures. The purpose of this meeting is to learn
lessons from mistakes and failures and to get a clue for creative solution."
It reminds me that Andy Grove who was one of founders of Intel said "Those
who do not make failures will not take risks. Those who make failures will
learn lessons from failures and shall become valuable persons."
(Photo: by courtesy of Makoto Kikuchi)