My dad certainly, and coaches I had that I was very close to. They took a big part in my developing an interest in sports, actually. One has passed away I was very close to. His name was Bill Slybaum. He was my coach in junior high school for tennis and then he moved up the ladder academically and went to the high school about the time I got there. He was my high school coach in basketball. I became very close to him. Later on, when I came back after the service, I went to Compton Junior College near Los Angeles, and he was the junior college basketball coach. I was very close to him.

To me, the greatest master that ever walked the earth. Maybe some could be as great, but none could be greater.

The closest to inspiration was my beloved fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Ponti, who I’m delighted lived long enough to get that book’s dedication. I exchanged Christmas cards with her for the rest of her life. She was a wonderful woman. I think the main way she inspired was by respecting students’ interests. She herself knew very little science. Science was not formally taught at all, as far as I can remember, at grade school level. She realized there were a group of us who were interested in science, so she would let us sit by ourselves in the back of the classroom once a week for a couple hours, and she got books for us and discussed science. So I suppose she was a very good model for good students.

I had a number of very good teachers in high school, in fact. Some mathematics teachers that perhaps allowed me the freedom to go beyond the normal routine of the class and to explore some more advanced areas. The same thing happened in college. I was able to communicate with a few of my teachers and professors, and go beyond the normal expectations. And then, as I mentioned before, Professor Pimentel, my mentor for graduate studies, was really influential in terms of the influence that he had for me.

People fail because they’re taking on new challenges. If they don’t fail, it’s because they’ve only set themselves small goals, and they’ve placed themselves in a safe environment where they aren’t taking on challenges.

And in the process, we have been able to share this core value with the 200,000 people at Toyota operations, dealers, and suppliers in this country. That is what I am most proud of.

Above all, the transformation into a product-centered company. I believe that laid the foundations for future growth and allowed me to hand over to the next leadership.

I was raised not to dream. I was told to live for others, so I don’t have many dreams, but I face countless obstacles and challenges. Arrogance, conflict, criticism, insults, inaction. At Toyota, there was so much rationalizing of why things couldn’t be done. As if doing nothing was the best option.

A supervisor once told me that an amateur is someone eager for knowledge. Start by looking to learn the things you don’t know.

Even I can't predict what kind of car we will be driving 20 years from now, but my time at Babson taught me to embrace change rather than run from it, and I urge all of you to do the same.