How to Read “Those who fear small embarrassments cannot achieve great accomplishments”
Kohaji wo nikumu mono wa taikō wo tatsuru atawazu
Meaning of “Those who fear small embarrassments cannot achieve great accomplishments”
This proverb means that people who worry too much about minor embarrassments cannot achieve great success. It teaches that focusing on immediate appearances and trivial pride prevents you from reaching truly important goals.
To achieve great success, you must sometimes accept embarrassing situations or temporary damage to your reputation. Bowing your head to others, admitting failures, exposing your ignorance—avoiding these small embarrassments means no learning and no growth.
Today, people use this saying when taking on new challenges or pursuing difficult goals. It emphasizes the importance of courage to try even if it means embarrassment, rather than doing nothing out of fear of failure.
The teaching is that true achievers possess the strength to push toward big goals without worrying about small embarrassments.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb is thought to be influenced by ancient Chinese philosophy, particularly military strategy and political theory. The term “taikō” (great accomplishment) is a classical Chinese expression used historically to evaluate the achievements of military commanders and politicians.
Looking at the structure, the contrast between “fearing small embarrassments” and “achieving great accomplishments” stands out. It shows that disliking minor shame and achieving major success are opposing concepts. This contrasting structure reflects rhetorical techniques found in Chinese classics.
Historically, when military commanders and politicians faced major decisions, the lesson was that obsessing over temporary appearances or small embarrassments would cause them to lose sight of the bigger picture.
During the Warring States period, commanders sometimes chose humiliating peace treaties or retreats, ultimately securing final victory. From such historical experiences, a value system emerged that prioritized ultimate success over immediate embarrassment.
This proverb is believed to have been passed down through Japan’s samurai society and merchant communities as an expression condensing such practical wisdom.
Usage Examples
- If you want to start a business, you must embrace the spirit of “those who fear small embarrassments cannot achieve great accomplishments” and keep challenging yourself without fearing failure
- He holds his current position because he learned through many embarrassments in his youth—truly “those who fear small embarrassments cannot achieve great accomplishments”
Universal Wisdom
Everyone cares about how others see them. We don’t want to be embarrassed, ridiculed, or have our failures witnessed. These feelings are natural for humans as social creatures.
However, this proverb recognizes that these natural emotions can sometimes become chains that lock away our potential.
When you look back at the lives of people who achieved great success, you almost always find experiences of embarrassment and periods of humiliation. This is no coincidence.
When you try something new, failure is unavoidable, and when you fail, embarrassment naturally follows. In other words, avoiding embarrassment is the same as avoiding challenges.
Our ancestors knew that growth comes with pain. Small embarrassments are tuition fees for great success, a rite of passage. The fear of embarrassment is a self-defense instinct, but if you’re controlled by that instinct, you cannot break out of your shell.
This proverb has been passed down through generations because it perfectly captures this human conflict—the battle between the heart seeking safety and the heart seeking growth.
No matter how times change, this essential human nature remains the same.
When AI Hears This
When you consider avoiding small embarrassments through a payoff matrix, an interesting structure emerges. Imagine a situation where you might make a new proposal and risk embarrassment.
Let’s quantify it: not speaking guarantees minus 5 points (lost opportunity). Speaking gives you a 30% chance of minus 20 points (embarrassment) and a 70% chance of plus 100 points (success). The expected value calculation shows speaking is 64 points higher. Yet many people still don’t speak.
This happens because of loss aversion bias in behavioral economics. Humans feel losses more than twice as heavily as equivalent gains. So minus 20 points of embarrassment subjectively feels like minus 40 points or more.
This reverses the expected value calculation, making not speaking appear to be the “safe dominant strategy.”
But here’s the trap. If you keep avoiding small embarrassments, you don’t accumulate experience and your success probability stays at 70%. Meanwhile, people who challenge themselves despite embarrassment see their success rate climb to 85%, then 90%.
The short-term dominant strategy destroys long-term Pareto optimality. With 10 opportunities to challenge yourself, this difference accumulates to hundreds of points. Here lies the mathematical mechanism by which avoiding small embarrassments makes great accomplishments impossible—local optimization preventing global optimization.
Lessons for Today
For those of us living today, this proverb holds special meaning. With the rise of social media, we’re constantly exposed to others’ eyes. Small failures and embarrassments get recorded and spread. This is why many people hesitate to take challenges and choose the safe path.
But if you want to walk a truly valuable life path, you need to overcome this fear. The courage to ask embarrassing beginner questions when learning new skills. The resolve to accept temporarily reduced income when changing jobs or starting a business.
The honesty to publicly share failures and the lessons learned. Accepting these small embarrassments opens the door to great growth.
What’s important is not seeking embarrassment itself, but not fearing it. What do you truly want to accomplish? If small embarrassments are obstacles on the path to that goal, they are hurdles you must overcome.
Embarrassment is temporary, but the regret of not trying lasts a lifetime. Starting today, why not take a step toward your big dreams without fearing small embarrassments?
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