How to Read “Building a storehouse with losses and cost prices”
Son to motone de kura wo tate
Meaning of “Building a storehouse with losses and cost prices”
This proverb means you can succeed in business by learning from both losses and profits through experience. Taking losses or selling at cost price with no profit seems like failure at first glance.
However, these experiences are actually valuable learning opportunities that teach you the essence of business.
When you take a loss, you think deeply about why you failed. When you sell at cost price, you build trust with customers. Each of these experiences accumulates and eventually becomes the power to build great wealth.
You use this proverb when you want to convey the importance of viewing business and life from a long-term perspective rather than getting caught up in short-term gains and losses.
It carries an encouraging message that the attitude of learning from all experiences, including losses, is the path to ultimate success rather than doing nothing out of fear of failure.
Even today, it’s understood as a positive way of thinking that all experiences, including failures, help you grow not just in business but in life in general.
Origin and Etymology
There don’t seem to be clear records of when this proverb first appeared in literature or its exact origin. However, based on the phrase’s structure, it’s believed to have emerged from merchant culture during the Edo period.
Notice how the contrasting words “losses” and “cost prices” are paired together. In business, taking losses and selling at purchase price are both actions that produce no profit. At first glance, these seem like failures that merchants should avoid.
Yet this proverb ends with “building a storehouse,” which represents great success. A storehouse is a symbol of wealth for merchants.
In other words, it’s a paradoxical teaching that the accumulation of experiences like taking losses and selling at cost price ultimately becomes the foundation for building great wealth.
In Edo period merchant society, it was said that “only after three generations do you become a true merchant,” showing how difficult it was to sustain a business.
If you only chase immediate profits, you lose customer trust and don’t last long. Sometimes you accept losses to value customer relationships, and sometimes you cut profits to build credibility.
Each of these experiences eventually becomes an unshakable business foundation that leads to great success. This merchant wisdom is believed to be embedded in these words.
Usage Examples
- The new business kept losing money, but as they say, building a storehouse with losses and cost prices, this experience will surely become valuable in the future
- The failures and hardships of my youth weren’t wasted—building a storehouse with losses and cost prices is why I have today’s success
Universal Wisdom
Humans instinctively fear failure and try to avoid losses. However, this proverb has been passed down through generations because our ancestors saw a deep truth. That truth is the paradox that failure and loss are actually our most valuable teachers.
People who have only experienced success don’t truly understand why they succeeded. Maybe they were just lucky, or perhaps they simply rode the wave of the times.
On the other hand, people who have experienced losses gain deep learning along with pain. They understand in their bones what went wrong and where the pitfalls were.
This “learning through pain” is essential for human growth. Just as children learn to walk carefully only after falling and getting hurt, adults acquire true wisdom through the pain of failure.
A deeper insight is that losses forge human character itself. Weaknesses, arrogance, and narrow-mindedness that weren’t visible during smooth sailing become clear through failure.
And in the process of overcoming these, true strengths like humility, perseverance, and flexibility are cultivated.
This proverb fundamentally questions the meaning of failure in life. The recognition that failure isn’t something to avoid but a necessary process toward success.
This is the universal wisdom that continues to resonate with people across time.
When AI Hears This
The act of honestly saying “I took a loss” or “This was my cost price” in business is an extremely high-cost signal from an information theory perspective. This is because you’re deliberately disclosing disadvantageous information in situations where lying would be profitable.
There’s an interesting asymmetry here. The buyer thinks, “This person even told me information about their losses,” and infers that they probably handle other invisible information honestly too.
In other words, one honest signal generates trust in countless unverifiable pieces of information. In economist Michael Spence’s signaling theory, signals that can’t be faked because they’re costly have value—this is exactly that.
What’s even more noteworthy is that this trust generates repeat transactions. In game theory’s “repeated games,” while betrayal is rational in one-time transactions, cooperation becomes the optimal strategy in ongoing relationships.
A merchant who discloses “losses” is proving they’re taking a long-term strategy.
Modern systems like Amazon reviews displaying low ratings too, or subscription companies emphasizing how easy it is to cancel, operate on the same principle.
Short-term disadvantageous information disclosure accumulates invisible assets called trust, which then converts into tangible assets like a “storehouse.” This proverb brilliantly captures the essence of this information strategy.
Lessons for Today
Modern society is filled with an atmosphere that doesn’t tolerate failure. On social media, only success stories get shared, and failures are treated as things to hide. However, this proverb conveys a teaching we should take to heart precisely because we live in such times.
If you’re facing losses or failures right now, that time is never wasted. Rather, it’s a valuable investment for future success. What matters is your attitude toward learning from that experience.
Specifically, take time to stop and reflect when you fail. What didn’t work well, and how can you improve next time? This process of introspection accumulates as solid wisdom within you.
A perspective that doesn’t judge based only on immediate gains and losses is also important. Even if there’s no profit now, if you can think of it as an investment in building trust, it’s planting seeds for the future.
Have the composure to look toward long-term growth without getting overly excited or disappointed by short-term results.
Not challenging yourself out of fear of failure is the greatest loss. Losses and cost prices—everything is material for building a storehouse. Believe that all your experiences will eventually become great wealth, and take that step forward.
Comments