A while ago I wrote a letter to Mitsubishi in Japan, as I wanted to inform them that I have put my mind on a black Mitsubishi Pajero, highest model, diesel with manual transmission. And while writing this, I realize that that letter was partly written based on fear, fear of not receiving the car I am determined to acquire within the time frame that Mitsubishi will still produce this car. But of course there was more, as somehow of course I am hoping that Mitsubishi would just give me the car I am determined to have, preferably including everything needed to be able to drive it, as as of the moment I still have no clue how I would realize all of this in the ‘real world’, the real world of money and such.
And I actually had no clue what to expect. I just wrote a letter to the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in Japan, including an image of the car I have in mind, with the statement that I am determined to have this car, brand new, but have no means of just buying the car in the near future. So basically my request was to reserve a car like that for me until I would have the funds available to buy and drive it. And of course I doubted(?!) and still doubt that they would just give me that car, so my main request was basically to just have some kind of reply, even if it were just a confirmation of receipt of my letter.
So I had no clue what to expect, but, as I mostly do recently with these type of things, I just sent the letter and left it to The Universe what to do with it. And for quite a while, months, I didn’t hear anything. And as it was not really priority and I didn’t feel anything about it, I didn’t do anything like following up, something I often do (persistence…). So a few weeks ago I received a letter from Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, which made me quite happy, as at least I got a reply to my strange letter, my strange request. And I was a bit scared to open the letter at first, but after one or two days I opened the letter to see what the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation had done with my strange request.
And I was a bit disappointed. Or actually a lot. As it seemed my letter apparently hadn’t reached Mr. Takashi Nishioka, the President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, the person I was trying to reach. Apparently the letter had been passed to the marketing department of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and was handled with what felt like a standard reply to Mitsubishi Pajero enthusiasts. Something like that they were happy with my interest in a Mitsubishi Pajero, but that Mitsubishi Motors Corporation does not sell cars themselves and that I should contact the local representation in The Philippines. And yes, the address was provided, but no name of a contact person or anything and the postal code was missing.
And of course this letter made me think of leadership, the leadership that Napoleon Hill mentions when he states that leadership requires delegation to capable lieutenants, so a leader can appear to be in many places at the same time and can handle many things at the same time. And to me Mr. Takashi Nishioka did not really pass the leadership test, as my letter was intended to be personally read by him, which I thought I stated pretty clearly, and not to be handled by the marketing department of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Actually I would have appreciated a simple one sentence letter stating that he had received my letter with his signature, than a more or less standard letter from the marketing department. Anyhow, of course it is up to him or Mitsubishi how to deal with with this, so please don’t misunderstand, as I mean no offense here or anything. I made and sent the letter and just released it to The Universe, and this is what I got.
And of course, me being me, persistent and dreaming and taking action, decided to see if I could get something more. So I did two things:
- I wrote a letter to Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation as suggested, without any research, so I didn’t add the name of the CEO or anything.
- I wrote a second letter to Mr. Takashi Nishioka as I wanted to inform him about my feelings about the handling of my first letter.
And I guess it will take a while again before I hear anything related to (1) as PHLPOST took months to deliver the first letter, but today I got an e-mail from Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation relating to my letter, which kind of made me happy, as the tone of the letter was very accommodating, even though I had the feeling that Mitsubishi Philippines didn’t really know what to do with my request, which of course is logical.
Ah, and one of the reasons to write this post, or actually the main reason, was that Mitsubishi Philippines stated that the car I have in mind is only available with automatic transmission in The Philippines. And that statement made me think, made me think a lot. Because how far should I go, should you go, to get exactly what you want. Something like “if Mitsubishi would decide to give me a black Pajero, highest model, diesel, with automatic transmission, should I take it or not?”.
Very interesting question to me, which made me think again about the phrase “Be careful what you wish for”.