Matsushita Electric = Panasonic

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

"I couldn't read or write well... but I built one of the world's biggest tech companies."

My childhood was a storm. At age 9, I dropped out of school to work as an apprentice in a bicycle shop. My family was poor, and education was a luxury I couldn't afford. My hands became my teachers. I was endlessly curious about how things worked. And when I discovered electricity, I knew: this was the future I wanted to help build.

Years later, working as a factory laborer, I invented a safer, more efficient electrical plug. My bosses didn't believe in it-they rejected my idea outright. So I quit. With almost nothing but hope, I started making plugs at home with my wife and brother-in-law. We had no tools, no clients, just faith. Some days, we didn't sell a single screw. But we didn't give up.

Little by little, those plugs began to sell. In 1918, I founded my own company: Matsushita Electric. The world would later know us as Panasonic. We survived earthquakes, wars, bombings, and economic crises... but I never stopped dreaming of helping people with useful technology. Radios, TVs, home appliances-even car batteries followed.

"Poverty taught me to create with little. Failure taught me to persevere. But vision is what kept me going."

Konosuke Matsushita