How to remain thrifty in our lives and daily management -Learn thrifty life-

“Generally, once we have started making a profit, we tend to spend more as we are getting tired of saving expenses. However, if each department starts spending unnecessary expenses, the profit of the company will be greatly impaired. Once you get used to such spending, even if you try to tighten your expenses again under the recession, it’s hard to become thrifty again. Therefore, we must always be thrifty even under good financial results. In other words, minimizing expenses is the easiest contribution that every staff can deliver to the company. “

In our life or business administration, there are several stages: growing, maturing, and declining. However, no one thinks about the contingency. This motto, remain thrifty, is a sort of measurement against such an unexpected contingency.

This is something that is easy to understand but hard to conduct.

However, I would like to keep the following things in mind to conduct this principle.

Let me explain one by one.

1 Value the lives in our eating habit

When we eat, we must always take the lives of other creatures, such as crops, animals, fish, and vegetables. For instance, a grain of rice, a bowl of miso soup, or a sausage, each of them comes from something else.

Please carefully check your eating habit to check you have been doing the following.

・Eating one bite more even though you’re full because you think you don’t want to waste it.

・Eating up all the meals as you are hungry, although you can feel fulfilled with less food and save some portions for tomorrow.

・To lose weight, keep on a diet.

・Taking a specific food too much as you ‘ve heard is good for your health.

 I feel that all of the above are bad practices in eating, in other words, taking others’ lives.

People eat three times a day. If we think carefully about what we are eating now and ask ourselves what is enough for each of us, I think we will be able to feel the value of life in the world.

２ Learn how to share 

“I raised in a humble family. I’ve never had an extravagant life. I often go to Yoshinoya and eat a rice bowl with beef. I don’t like to enter the store alone, so I take my driver. Since there is too much rice for a large bowl, I ordered two bowls and another beef topping. When we start eating the bowl, we eat up the beef first, so we share the beef topping that we ordered and eat up the rest of the rice with this another beef topping. Even such a very tiny arrangement certainly made us quite fulfilled.”

→I think Mr. Inamori is a genius at sharing and finding fulfillment in our life. Just sharing makes us so happy. I think that we can find the value of sharing with others and how to carefully use things surrounding us.

3 Find a small fulfillment in our daily life

“There are people who get a little bit of success and always get a sumptuous meal at a hotel, but every time I see or hear of someone like that, I feel skeptical. When he started the company, I think he was probably thrifty in his management. Once we learn what luxury life looks like, we human beings gradually change our attitudes. “

 → After all, people end up thinking: as I have worked so hard, I will be rewarded even if I enjoy extravagance, and I will not be the one to be punished even for indulging in luxury life. People tend to justify their luxury spending by such excuses. With psychological analysis, people subconsciously are not happy that they are not valued by others, or they are seeking a sort of fulfillment. Instead of getting fulfilled mentally, people seek material satisfaction or a sense of richness material wise.

 In order to change this subconscious mind, I think it’s important to find small fulfillment and satisfy yourself every day, just like Mr. Inamori’s story about Yoshinoya’s beef bowl. Mr. Inamori said that it makes you feel very rich, just ordering one more beef topping. In this way, if you do small things every day to satisfy your own mind, I think that even a little success will not drive you to spend your money for a sumptuous meal in a hotel.

I would like to remain humble with those practices.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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