Great lessons by Naruto's father
Great lessons by Naruto's father
What we can learn from Minato.
Introduction
Minato Namikaze is the father of Naruto Uzumaki.
They got different surnames because of events that happened, but don’t focus on that now.
In this post, I want to talk about what I learned from observing Minato and in the end, mention some other people worth studying.
Minato’s achievements
Minato accomplished a lot.
He was a prodigy. Extremely skilled and talented from a very young age.
He is one of my favorite Naruto characters.
I even bought a Kunai necklace because of him.
The two primary things I want to focus on:
Minato innovating a new Jutsu: Rasengan.
Minato taking an innovation and perfecting it: Flying Raijin Jutsu.
Let’s dive into what we can learn from his two accomplishments.
It’s super interesting when you dive deep into the traits of Minato.
Minato’s innovation of the Rasengan
Minato created the Rasengan.
The Rasengan isn’t just a new Jutsu. It’s a powerful one also.
I don’t want to bore you with too much history. But let’s dive into some of it and then move on to the traits.
History
Minato got the idea to create the Rasengan by observing the Tailed Beast Ball. His motivation was to protect his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, was a Jinchuriki, a vessel for a Tailed Best, making her likely a target for enemies using Tailed Beast Balls.
It took Minato three years to create the Rasengan. It was a hard Jutsu to innovate. It was an abstraction of the Tailed Beast Ball which is huge and destructive. One alone could destroy an entire village.
There was a moment throughout the three years when Minato had a causal conversation with his Sensei Jirayia. It opened Minato’s eyes to a different approach. It was a breakthrough moment for the Rasengan as it started to finally take shape.
What can we learn?
Be someone who is observant. A critical thinker. Don’t walk around this earth blind. Reflect. Think.
Be patient. Great things aren’t created over night. Make sure you persevere.
Learn from others, directly or indirectly.
I recently did a course on becoming a better speaker in front of the camera. I learned more by observing the teacher speak than the content they gave me.
Have the courage to try things. If you fail, you learn. There are no losses.
Take self-education seriously. Experiment. Learn. Don’t be afraid of going on a lonely journey trying to teach yourself something new.
Minato’s perfection of existing innovation
The Flying Raijin Jutsu wasn’t Minato’s innovation. Interestingly, there was only one person before Minato who could do it, the one who innovated it, Tobirama.
There isn’t any history from the Naruto world exactly how and when Minato learned it.
Now, we know Minato is an expert when it comes to self-education.
The best assumption is that Minato learned through reading about the history of the Shinobis that came before him and from there took steps towards learning the Flying Raijin Jutsu.
The most exciting part is how he decided to go beyond and even perfect it!
To me it’s mind-boggling. Teaching yourself something hard and then perfecting the technique. The process and journey to perfect it is a difficult one that requires creativity, connecting pieces from other Jutsus and being extremely analytical.
What can we learn?
Never underestimate self-learning. Deeply invest time to thoroughly learn things. Ask questions others aren’t asking.
Don’t think “good enough“. Always ask how you can improve things.
Patience is more than a virtue to achieve mastery. It’s a necessity.
Understand that not following the crowd is a good thing. Exceptional things don’t come from being or following what’s average.
Other people
You may be wondering, do people like Minato exist in real life?
When we talk about innovation and perfecting existing innovations, yes, they do exist!
I could dive deep into each one of them, but to mention names:
Leonardo da Vinci
Albert Einstein
Marie Curie
Steve Jobs
Nikola Tesla
Thomas Edison
Richard Feynman
Grace Hopper
Elon Musk
Galileo Galilei