YouSaid · the spoken record

Chung Ju-yung

lines on the record: 75
first: 2020-03-26
most recent: 2020-03-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“A life without daily self-improvement has no meaning. We live in order to make ourselves better. No one can control where they're born or what kind of family they're born into. These conditions are naturally unique. But there is one thing we have in common. Our future will be determined by our effort. Thus our future is our own responsibility. No matter how hard things seem today, with a positive attitude, we can all find joy in the midst of our troubles. I will leave the story there. If you buy the book using the link in the show notes, you'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. 117 books down 1,000 ago. I'll talk to you again soon.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whether a mid level or highly skilled engineer, a Chinese food delivery boy, a student, or an executive, it's the same. Those who live with an open heart and positive mind are respected by society and play an important role. On the other hand, there are people born with healthy bodies, but who live useless lives because their perspective towards life is negative. Everyone has the ability to solve his or her own problems. But to do this, positive thinking is critical. We should always remember that every major achievement was led by people with positive attitudes.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Throughout my 80 years, there have been hard times of frustration and harder times of humiliation and defeat when all I could do was clench my teeth and bear it. But if we set those times aside, I believe ninety percent of my life has been full of joy and meaning. I have truly lived well. What does it mean to say someone lives well? What does it mean to live well What circumstances a person was born into, what position he is in, or what he does for a living does not matter. Only when he gives his best and lives fully in the present is a man truly happy. A man who lives fully in the present while dreaming of a brighter future, a man who enjoys his work and who finds happiness in the smallest of things, that man will find success in whatever he does. Such a man is one who lives well.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I went to the market to sell wood, it was difficult to take my eyes off of the rice cakes, noodles, and other delicious treats. I still remember how my shrunken belly growled with pangs of hunger. Moving to the city was not an easy decision. After all, I didn't have a proper education. I didn't have any friends or anyone to rely on. I had to do hard labor. But despite all of this, I never once regretted leaving home and never complained. If you inherit good health from your parents and learn the value of diligence and hard work, nothing can stop you. Tomorrow will be better than today and the day after tomorrow will be even better. Knowing this, I've always been happy and full of life.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The diligent lead lives a hundred times more productive than the lazy. Their lives are thus more fulfilling. Unless your life goal is wasting time, then the first thing I recommend is to be diligent. Being diligent forces you to move a lot, to think a lot, and to work a lot. Diligence mirrors your sincerity about living a full life. I don't trust anyone who is lazy. And this next section is that positive thinking is the road to happiness. In all of my years, I never thought of myself as underprivileged, even when I was working on the farm with an empty stomach and no hope for my future. I'm a naturally positive person. I was born with the ability to accentuate the positive rather than the negative. Since I was 10 years old, I worked with my father under the scorching sun. In all that time, never once did I complain or slack off.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nothing from scratch is completely different. And I just really like his idea here. You know, I've never come across a company that thrives under a luxury-loving, wasteful owner. But you've come across tons of companies that have been ruined by luxury-loving, wasteful management. So to that degree, his next point to us, be diligent. Here he says, there are those who live their entire lives without doing one tenth or one one hundredth of the amount of work they are capable of. I found that those who complain of being tired and bored are the lazy ones. I strongly believe that people must work to live a full life. If you are diligent for a day, you will sleep comfortably for a night. If you are diligent for a month, the quality of your life will noticely improve. If you are diligent for two years, ten years, your whole life, your accomplishments will be recognized by all.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On building a dynasty. And he kept, when he was talking to his family and his company, he kept referring to that old axiom or maxims to shirt sleeves in three generations. Not this family is what he would say over and over again. He talks about, you know, you have somebody who's extremely poor. They, in one generation, they build these generational election points. They change the course of their family and their company. Second generation builds onto it like his sons did. And the third generation spends and wasted away. And that cycle of life that we've seen over and over again. And I think part of the, so the reason that there's a maxim for it is because obviously there's something in our nature that that's going to occur over and over again. And by going back to the fundamentals, going back to the founders of these companies, why is this podcast called Founders and not CEOs? Because founders are special people. They build things from nothing.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“After luxury comes corruption. I have never seen a country prosper with a leader who enjoys luxury. I have never come across a company that thrives under a luxury loving, wasteful owner. So I've done, I think, four podcasts on Henry Ford by now. All that we've learned about him. Do you think he would have made that same decision that his grandson did? There's no way he would have made that same decision. And I think Chung is putting that up. Again, it's amazing to me how these themes, you start to see these patterns emerge. These people are separated by different countries, different cultures, different time periods, and yet they keep hitting on that. They have a distaste for waste.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Formality that they should observe for their boss. Such formality is meaningless. With our company motto, diligence, frugality, affection hanging right there in the wall, they should have spared a second to think about the workers laying rails in the deadly scorching heat. This isn't Iraq, if I'm not mistaken. I ask them, is laying this carpet practicing frugality? What would our workers think about us if they saw this nonsense? A carpet was a luxury I despise, said”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I rejected the idea right on the spot. I truly despise the inflated sense of superiority held by executives who expect different treatment from their workers. Why on earth would you need a separate elevator interesting enough at the very beginning when his son was talking about that near-death experience he had where he's driving, he drove the Jeep and he fell into the sea at the construction site, he'd be the first one to arrive at work It was like four in the morning He'd get there so early that nobody else was even allowed to access the construction site and so he didn't hang out in his office He went and he talked to the workers He would travel all over the world and inspect the construction sites. He thought of himself very much as a laborer He didn't want to do this is complete opposite when I was reading when I did that multiple part series on Enzo Ferrari and”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I knew hunger, I was particularly sympathetic to the workers who couldn't afford to bring lunch to work. I know and understand the difficulties they face. I like and respect the simplicity and honesty of the average worker. Some time ago, someone proposed installing a separate elevator for executives at the company headquarters.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thinking that anything is possible is the first rule of a successful person. If you doubt yourself, then you will only be able to accomplish as much as your doubts let you. If you think you can't do something, then you won't be able to do it. And so on the other side of that, in other words, you don't mistakenly become great at something. You first believe you can be great at it and then you work to fulfill that belief. He's got another, um. Story for us, and I think the summary of this is don't covet luxury. It's interesting too, before I read this section because, well, let me read it to you first. I began as a laborer. I still see myself as a laborer. I just happen to have a little money now.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The years have come and gone, and now I'm in my mid-80s, but age was never important to me. To this day I remain completely engulfed in my work with no spare time. Has always been important to me is how I use my time for work. Other than thinking about how to develop and grow my business, I'm actually not very interested in anything else. Time is the capital that must be managed most wisely. I make a plan, jump head first into it, and finish a project in a shorter amount of time than most people. When others hesitate, I've already begun working. My life was defined. Is how I lived, and that is how I succeeded. Next short paragraph. I'm going to read it first and I'm going to give you my interpretation of it.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“President Park had only one desire, and that was our country's development. His passion and determination to build the shipyard moved me deeply, and this is what happens when sometimes we need other people. Chung would tell us, hey, hold yourself to high standards, right? And then sometimes I think he would also say it's good to let other people hold you to high standards because this is a result. I vowed, no matter what, that I will do this. From that day on, I found new strength ready to run again with renewed determination. I truly believe that constructions of the shipyard would become a powerful driving force for Hondai. Once I set my mind to a task no matter no amount of nay saying will hold me back. The more people say I can't do it, the more determined I am to prove them wrong. My desire to succeed becomes that much more intense.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then he clammed his mouth shut and sat there without saying another word. I sat there for a long time when he finally broke his silence. Chung, a country's president and vice prime minister promised you their full support, and you're just rolling over and giving up? Did you think it was going to be easy? You knew it was going to be difficult. If you'd already considered all of this and still went forward, then you need to do it, no matter what. You've only tried once and you're telling me you can't do it, this must be done. You've been to Japan and the US? Now go to Europe. We need to do it no matter what. His strong reaction gave me no other choice. I told him, yes, sir, and I left. I told myself that building the shipyard was a solemn duty that I couldn't escape or be lax about.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They mocked us. They belittled our primitive technology. It just can't be done, sir. The president turned away from me and looked at his vice prime minister and said, Reject all of Chung's business proposals going forward. Make sure the government never does any business with him again.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right does that. Then he says, okay, I want to be the first person to manufacture cars domestically in Korea for Koreans. He does that. And I was like, all right, well, let's build Korea's first shipyard. And now he's going to be the first shipyard. It's going to be the biggest one anywhere”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Section 12 is ships how a great idea starts out as a small idea. And so now this is him talking about the beginning of this idea is like, hey, maybe I can be a shipbuilder too. A great idea starts with one single thought. When a small idea the size of a grain of rice is implanted in my mind, I nurture it until it grows into a major project that I can visualize in my head. He's really big on visualizing what is going to happen in your life first. Planning it out in detail as much as you can and seeing it happen and then going and doing it. It was in the early 1960s that this dream of a shipyard to be built was planned in my mind. I had ambitious plans to build Koreas for a shipyard. So we see a pattern here. He wants to be the first person to build a domestic, to create a domestic, the first Korean construction company to be international.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's also a testament to what you can learn by failing. Remember, the Cortina failed miserably, but he didn't give up. He's like, okay, well, I made a series of bad decisions. Of course, I made some bad decisions because I didn't know what I was doing. Never manufactured a car before. And then he identified where he made mistakes, solved each problem one by one, and then he releases a pony and that launches Hondai to be successful. And they just keep building on that. All right, so I'm going to pivot myself here and want to talk about This guy's like not only is the super hardworking, super determined, super diligent, and super optimistic, but he also has ADHD. He just cannot stop building companies for the life of him. So he gets this insane idea. He's like, well, I've never did a construction before. I made a construction company. Never made a car before. I created a car. Let me just see if I can build ships.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Determination of our people. So he's telling us this, but this is also what he tells his company. The poor man has to work 10 to 20 times harder than the rich man. With sheer force of will, we made it. Hyundai is a living testimony of what hard work can do. And I also say from this example,”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That had lost its tail. But what do I know? Even before it came off the assembly line, its popularity had gone through the roof. He continues building Korea's first domestically produced car was one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced. I endured indescribable hardships and unrelenting pressure. Hyundai Motors is now 30 years old. It has a bright future. I know there are many who question whether Hondai could carve a place for itself in the competitive global car market. The obstacles were daunting. It was bold, bordering on reckless, but we survived and we prospered. Through such searing experiences we grew stronger and wiser. There is a saying in one of the four books of Confucius Confucianism that true knowledge can only be acquired through direct experience. It is much harder for a poor man to become a rich man than for a rich man to become richer. South Korea had no resources that would help us catch up to advanced nations. We only had strength and determination.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The important part here is what they realized. And essentially, what they realize is you need to maintain control. Eventually comes to him short time later. He's like, listen, let's not undertake any more joint ventures, right? Instead, we should make compact cars that would be suited to Korea's landscape and road conditions. Anything they don't know how to do, they're going to contract out and get essentially they're going to buy expertise that they lack, but they're going to maintain control. And that wind up being a really, really good idea. And this was the fundamental change they made to build Hondai motors. In 1974, we spent $100 million to build a factory to produce cars domestically. A year and a half later, we had our first model, the Pony. This part made me laugh. I didn't like the car. It looked like a chicken had lost its temper.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now he tells his partner, I think this is his brother actually, and he says, listen, I need you, I want you to immediately drop a plan to build cars with 100% Korean-made parts, right? At this time, they're still trying to fulfill the change that the President Park wants to make. Eventually, they realize, hey, we can't do this. They have to get the engine from Japan. They get the design work from Italy.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There seemed to be no hope and nothing we could do about it. And so in the middle of all this, he starts having major problems with Ford. And he realizes that they had a 50-50 joint venture, but it's equal in name only. And this happens a lot as he goes abroad. He says essentially, like, listen, these rich multinational corporations, they take advantage of developed countries constantly. And he's saying Ford's doing this to him. Eventually, he's going to run into similar situations when he tries to build the largest shipbuilding company. So says Ford was planning on using Hondai as a subcontractor. The real intention was to maintain our prior technical agreement and sell their products without taking risks, which effectively turn us into a subcontractor that made parts for Ford with cheap labor. There was no way I was going to let that happen. Who would allow themselves to be dupe like that? I couldn't allow Ford to do this.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“President, just by decree, remember this is a military dictator for all intents and purposes decides, hey, you know what? I don't like the fact that all these, there's a bunch of other Korean manufacturers at the time, and they're all using part, they have partnerships with all these other countries. And so he says, the president wanted to make one single Korean model car, which is why we only have one. It doesn't make any sense, with only Korean parts. Well, that's going to put them out of business. At the time, they were working with companies from America, Japan, and France. Just know that this happens eventually. The president relaxes some of these conditions when he realizes this is impossible. It doesn't make any sense. Like, why are you going to have one? You have four or five major manufacturers. Chung goes to him. It's like competition is going to make us better. Like, what are you doing?”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exist now in Korea. Bad marketing, bad road conditions, and an economic downturn. Here we go again, Murphy's Law. Our bad luck continued as an unprecedented flood hit the country. We received the heaviest rainfall recorded in 120 years. His factory becomes flooded. The cars start floating down the road. On top of our port, and it gets even worse, on top of our poor sales, the flood, and the Cortina's shattered reputation, we were almost bankrupt. Our plans for a partnership deal were going nowhere So then what he's talking about there is the president want”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And this is an example when it's not always a good thing. So they secure this joint venture with Ford temporarily. I'll get there in a minute. Hyundai turned out his first car in just six months. Remember his motto is like, we need to shorten the time, shorten the time. We need to move fast. Honda turned out its first car just after six months after breaking ground in the factory. There were no words that could describe how proud I was. All I could muster were the words good job. Not being able to say words or praise of encouragement is one of my many flaws. The car was called the Cortina. Here's the problem. The Cortina soon became a laughing stock. There were several reasons among them, including bad marketing, bad road conditions. What he means there is Korea at this time had the majority of the roads were unpaved. And yet the advice they got and the vehicle they built with Ford's help was something that would have maybe succeeded in the United States. So that's an important failure that he learned. He's like, I'm not building a car for the United States. I need to build a car for the conditions that...”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so now we're right in the 1970s. He says there's two different points of view about Hyundai's decision to enter the automotive industry as a latecomer. There were bullish voices and naysayers. And I love his response to that. These perspectives didn't concern me. I was sure that in the near future, the Korean automobile sector would grow rapidly. I told my brother, who was in the US on a different assignment, he was trying to secure financing for another construction project, to stop what he was doing and negotiate an automobile assembly contract with Ford. He was surprised. He asked me how he could possibly sign a contract with a major foreign car company so quickly. I have a blunt response in such situations to deter excuses. I asked him, have you even tried?”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A sense of duty is a life wasted. I believe it is my duty to make the most of what I am given. Now I am a chairman of a multinational corporation, a Fortune 500 company at this time. I have been called chairman, our businessman, but I think of myself as a builder. I have never lost my sense of pride and confidence as a builder. So I'm going to fast forward to a lot of the parts on building Honda Construction Company. He eventually gets the largest construction contract in the world at the time. It was in, I think it's Saudi Arabia. He does work in Korea. It does work everywhere. Starts teaming up with British engineers and all kinds of stuff. So he's definitely learning over multiple decades. But I want to get into where When he starts manufacturing cars.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Poor soil, we spent vast amounts of cash trying to make things work. We incurred a massive loss, and now we're going to see an example of that unyielding optimism. If a loss yields experience, then it's truly not a loss. If you can learn from a loss, then you can turn into a gain. Sometimes you get more from losing money than you do from making it. We lost money in the highway construction project in Thailand, but we also gained something in return. While we quickly tried to understand our failures, we gained experience and valuable knowledge which helped us modernize. On top of that, as Korea's first construction company to build a highway, we later became a domestic leader in the field. And they built one of the largest highways in the country and Korea from this experience. We were able to use this experience as a stepping stone quickly to quickly become an international construction company. Whatever you're doing, life without work, life without hard work, and a sense of do.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Move here. Eventually, he gets a contract working in Thailand. Now, how, again, doesn't have a lot of experience. He's done construction for a few years, but they don't have the specialized equipment. They don't have the engineering knowledge. They don't have anything that their competitors do. So how are they winning bids? They're winning bids because they're submitting bids at cheapest prices. The problem is he's submitting bids at prices he doesn't even know he's going to make money on And so as you can imagine he's going to lose a lot of money That's why they're giving him the bid. So this is an example of him doing this in Thailand expanding abroad was very difficult for their company and it cost them a lot of money but again we see his unyielding optimism He's one of the most optimistic people that have ever met and like there's parts in this book when I got to the end like I felt like he empowered me so much I could run through a wall So he says because of the out because of our outdated technology our lack of expertise in managing construction work huge rainfall”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he says, After two regime changes and the ensuing fallout from both, imagine we're having to run businesses the entire time. Just keep your mind. This is remarkable that he was able to manage through all these ups and downs. I mean, these are extreme outlier events, and yet they're compressed in five decades, and he has to deal with them all constantly. I became convinced that we had to go abroad to find a way out. I began to seriously consider entering foreign construction markets. So it's like, okay, well, it's a lot of money in Europe, a lot of money in the United States, but I can't start there. He's like, we have primitive technology. We don't even know really what we're doing. So he's like, I'm going to do an intermediary step here. He says, I dispatched some of our company's executives to Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, so they could seek contracts. Nobody could get in the way of my determination to utilize the Southeast Asian market as a pivot to the rest of the world. That's just a smart.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So what he's talking about there, he's like, you know, I am certain that rigorous examination, training, and encouragement made Hyundai what it is today. Like he's setting extremely high standards. You see the high standards he sets for himself, 20 years old saying, I'm going to have the best rice shop, but not in the street, not in the town, but in the entire country. And so he kept pushing that his whole life. Okay, so this is another advice that he has for us that we should go where the money is. So this is where Hyundai construction company must go abroad because the Korean domestic economy is really, really bad at this time.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Obviously, I'm not condoning being mean to the people around you, but he kept pushing his employees. He would say, hey, listen, eventually the construction company I'm about to get to this part where their own economy has a series of booms and busts as it continues to develop. And so they have to go and start competing with worldwide construction companies. And he's telling these people, it's like, we're poor. We have no resources. All we have is the management of our time and how hard we're willing to work. So he gives examples to employees where they would fly in other Western countries would fly in. And he gives an example of one company where if you were over 55, they'd send the person three days before the meeting so they could be fresh and get over their jet lag. And if they're under 55, they would fly them in two days. He's like, we can't do that. We have to work 10 and 20 times harder than them. So as soon as you land, whether you're jet lagged or not, it doesn't matter. You have to go straight to the meeting. And then you have to come straight back.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know I must have hurt the feelings of many as growling was the only way I knew how to speak to them. I'm truly sorry for that. However, I am certain that rigorous examination, training and encouragement made Honda what it is today. I would also say it's next impossible to go through what he went through to survive and thrive like he did and not be an extremely hard driven person.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“These remarkable people did not take two or three lifetimes to accomplish what they did. They did it in one. Remember picture grandfather sitting you down talking to you one-on-one. If you make full use of your time by living diligently, there's that word again, you can excel in any field, such a life would be considered a successful one. It is a harsh reality that bold actions are required to develop and operate a company. This next sentence is not going to be a surprise to you. I was a tough boss for everyone everywhere.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Here we go. This relative tranquility did not last long. The Chinese People's Army entered Seoul and everybody was forced to retreat. This time, my entire family and all of my workers fled to Busan. We bought a house in Busan and built temporary living quarters for my workers in the front yard. We cooked rice and we ate together. There's actually a picture in the book from this time period. We hung the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company sign up. We did whatever was needed to get the job done. So temporarily, Honda is now headquartered in Busan. He does construction projects for the U.S. Army, and then the Korean government, and then eventually the war is over, and he moves the company back to Seoul. We are now in the 1960s. The Hondai that manufactures cars in this point, to give you an idea of where we are in the time period, we're still 15 years away from him building his own car.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Eventually, the U.S. Army is going to push back the North Korean Army. And so Seoul is liberated again. So he says, when Seoul was finally liberated, I rushed home, but no one was there. Like my house, the factory had been stripped bare by the North Korean soldiers. Eventually, he reunites with his family. He's able to save a little bit of money from working with the U.S. Army Corps engineers. And he says the horrifying stories of their unbearable hardships, meaning his family, were difficult to swallow Immediately went back to work for the U.S. Army. So they have him do all these construction and rebuilding projects to rebuild”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Clothes on our back not only does a fleece so nothing but the clothes on our back and without a single penny but the family separates too. So he has to leave his home and his business. And he flees, I think he flees to another city called Busan in that city. American soldiers arrive and he sees that they run like a job ad. And so he shows up and starts working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And so he shows up and they're like, what can you do? And he says, I'll do anything. Starts doing manual labor. Then he starts building temporary barracks for soldiers. He gets family members jobs as translators. He just does anything he possibly can.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, right before the war, he says the construction industry was quite profitable. I said to myself, We're going places. Six months later, North Korea invaded South Korea. Now here's the crazy thing. And it just speaks to the unpredictability of life. So they're hearing rumors in the country that North Korea is evading. They're running through the army of South Korea. And Chung is very patriotic. He doesn't believe it. So he says, my brother-in-law suggested, let's buy some rice while we still can. I outright dismiss his suggestion saying, do you think our army is sleeping on the job? Stop talking nonsense. I naively placed that much faith in government. I thought Soul's defenses would hold, but seeing everyone fleeing in panic, I realized the gravity of the situation. We had to flee Seoul with nothing but”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the time, most construction projects and automobile repair jobs were controlled by the government and the U.S. Army. One day when I was dropping off my submission for a contract, I happened to witness some construction company representatives receive their construction fees. While I was earning about $300,000 or $400,000 per contract, these construction companies could make up to $10 million won per contract. I was completely shocked to realize how much money was in construction. So as a result of this, he does a logical thing, and maybe people won't think it's logical because he doesn't have any experience, but he goes and starts a construction company. He just believes that he can learn and figure things out. And you see this over and over again. Don't know how to make a car? I'm going to make a car. Don't know how to do construction. Don't do construction. Don't know how to build a bridge. I'll build a bridge. Don't know how to build a ship. I'll build a ship. He doesn't care. He's relentless.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of relentless resourcefulness here. So I also need to tell you where in history we are. This is after World War II, okay? But before the Korean War So that's why he's working for working at the US Army Depot. We started remodeling Japanese jalapis. We welded together two 1.5 ton trucks to make one 2.5 ton truck. We modified gasoline cars to run on charcoal since fuel was scarce.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The bed bugs were climbing the walls and dropping from the ceiling onto our bodies. To this day, I cannot forget the shiver down my spine that I felt back then. This made me stop in my tracks and think. Even bed bugs think long and hard and use every bit of energy they have to achieve their goal, and ultimately they succeed. I'm no bed bug, I'm a man. These bed bugs can surely teach a man a few lessons. If these bed bugs can do it, why can't we men do it? We just need to stick to it and not quit. We need to emulate bedbugs.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Try to think of ways to avoid the bed bugs, but even when they slept on top of dining tables, they were still bitten as the parasites could climb up the legs of the tables. We put our heads together and came up with an idea of placing a steel pot filled with water under each of the four legs of the table. It worked temporarily. Unfortunately, uninterrupted sleep lasted only two days. Then things went back to normal the way they had been before. The bed bugs were biting us again. We wondered how could this be possible considering that the bed bugs would fall into the pot of water if they tempted to climb up any of the lakes. One night we decided to stay up to see how on earth they survived the water and managed to bite us. We were completely dumbstruck by what we saw when the lights were turned on”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was officially unemployed for the first and only time in my life. At that time, my family of twenty lived in a small seven hundred square foot house. So that's the conditions he's enduring before he starts Hyundai. Before I get into the birth of Hondai, he's got this fantastic story in here. And it's about what you can learn from bed books. So I want to take a short tangent because I love the story, and then we'll get into Hyundai. Whenever I tell people that it was bed bugs that taught me nothing is impossible if one puts in one's best effort, they think I'm exaggerating. But this is the truth. So to make ends meet, he's taking any jobs you can imagine, taking any job he can possibly get. And it's all manual labor. He's back to where he started. So it says the bunkhouse where I slept as a laborer was teeming with so many bed bugs that it was almost impossible to fall asleep. Some of the other workers”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Having neither the will nor the energy to work at a forcibly merged company, I left. I was 29 years old. Okay, so we just followed him from a 19-year-old runaway. And then over a decade, he works extremely hard. But now at the end of the decade, he's left with nothing again. And a lot of that was outside of his control. There's some people that were going to go through that and easily, you know, that said, okay, I tried. I gave up. Let me just go and, you know, maybe do manual labor. Maybe I'll be a farmer. Chung's not that kind of person. So I'm going to, I want to just describe to you now he's back and his living conditions. And the reason I want to point this out is because this is right before he starts Honda.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would visit the home of the chief of police, just show up and knock on the door every day. After a month, the chief, who up to this point had never once acknowledged my presence, finally said, okay, I give up. You ought to be arrested, but how can I detain someone who comes and pleads at my door every single morning? He's like, listen, I'm not going to arrest you. He makes them put cardboard up so people can't see the auto repair shop from the street. So this is just another weird obstacle that he's got overcome. All this, now this is Chung reflecting back on his perseverance. All this was made possible because I put in practice my motto. Do your best until there's nothing more to do.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This guy gives him another loan, and so he opens up another auto repair shop. But this one, they have to start from the very beginning, like from scratch. And so he runs into an issue that they're not, there's no way to get a license to do that. When he purchased the other auto repair shop, he could inherit a license. So this is where we see some creativity. How, you know, Chung talked about the beginning of the book. If you just stick to common sense, like you're limiting what is possible. And then if you just become determined and relentless, you're going to find a lot of, you're going to come up with creative solutions, the inevitable problems that you're going to experience in life. So he says at the time a license for the auto repair shop was only given to automobile manufacturers. So it was nearly impossible to get the license for an independent auto repair shop. Running an unlicensed auto repair shop coupled with enormous pile of debt I was treading on thin ice. So this is a unique solution. They could put you in jail for doing this at the time. So it says early each month.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Into. However, as the saying goes, bad luck comes in threes. Only five days after we paid off our loan, a fire broke out. So, not only does the entire shop burn down, but then the customer cars that he's responsible for that. And so now he has to go and go back to the person that lent him money and ask for more money. So he says, I could have easily given up everything under the weight of debt, but I was determined not to give up. He's talking about all that he owes, he has to rebuild the shop and pay back the customers. But I was determined not to give up. I did not want to end up a failure. This is where he visits the private moneylender that loaned him the money to open the shop to begin with. The fire burned everything down. Now I have nothing but debt. If I stop now, there's no way I can pay you back. Sir, I beg you, give me another chance to set this right.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he goes back. He's asking people for opportunity, spends a little bit more time with his family, and then goes back to Seoul. And this is where he gets into the auto repair business. Okay, so we're going to see more struggle, more perseverance. The same set of scenarios plays out over and over again just on different scale. He'll work really hard. His company eventually succeeds, and then the government takes it away. Something happens. Then he starts another business, works really hard, and that continues and continues and continues. All right, so he says a year later I returned to Seoul and started looking for work. He winds up meeting some people and they become business partners. One of them had experience as a mechanic. And so they combined and they take over, they borrow some money, and they buy this existing auto repair shop, okay? So he said, we made good money and it was ecstatic to have chosen the right industry to get in.”
2020-03-26 · Founders · #117 : Chung Ju-yung founder of Hyundai (the most inspiring autobiography I've read) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source