Introduction_ I do not wish for happiness

Chapter 1: I was the most negative person of all.

A boy without dreams in a dark neighborhood
“I didn’t sell a single one.”
Memories of my first sale, which took me from heaven to hell
Good luck comes hiding behind misfortune.
To a salesman, I am his first customer.

Chapter 2: The Immunity of Life Given by Positivity

“Please send me to Seoul.”
There is no sterile room in life.

Chapter 3: The Power of Words to Create Something from Nothing

“Get behind me, devil!”
Three hours in the harsh Gumi factory
Why words have such great power
Words that become results, words that become causes
The magic of 333 characters that changed my life

Chapter 4: Receive 10.6 billion won in investment in one word

A reckless letter
Start dreaming
From the US to Japan, looking for investors
Received a 10.6 billion won investment from a Japanese chairman he had never met before.
If you do nothing, nothing happens.

Chapter 5: Make it the best

A great idea born on the way home from work
The obsession with good products begins
Why aren't our children in our books?
The Power of Women Who Saved "Children's Village"
The pain of surpassing salesman Yoon Seok-geum
Until one businessman is created

Chapter 6: Sell with a Story

It's human nature to love stories.
Tough, Tough: The Advertising Story That Changed the Industry
Reverse Marketing 1: [Woongjin IQ]
Reverse Marketing 2: Rental Water Purifiers
The Real Reasons for Success Behind Opposite Cases

Chapter 7: Believe in the power of people

Cody's woman power proven again
Manager slamming the desk
People do their best for those who believe in them.
If you take away just one letter from the word "no"
The magic of incentives that make everyone a winner

Chapter 8: A Life Without Failure Is Trivial

A future imagined too early
If you lose everything you've achieved in your life in an instant
My last one is
More intensely than anyone else, to the last drop

Appendix 1: 10 Commandments for Creating Innovation and Competitiveness
Appendix 2: The Flower of Sales Training: Role-Playing Training Methods

“Only those who are confident of success and affirm themselves can change their destiny!”
From a penniless unemployed person to the chairman of a conglomerate
Woongjin Group Chairman Yoon Seok-geum, a natural-born gambler, discusses the power of words.

The new book, "The Power of Words," by Woongjin Group Chairman Yoon Seok-geum, known as "a person who always finds answers in difficulties," "a manager who has never stopped challenging himself for over 40 years," and "a legendary salaryman who started out as a salesman and rose to the position of CEO," has been published.
This is Chairman Yoon Seok-geum's fourth book, following 『Positivity Creates a Masterpiece』(2009), which contains the positive message he gained while challenging himself as an ordinary salesman to become the head of a company; 『The Power of People』(2018), which finds the secret to Woongjin's successful leap forward after overcoming the crisis of court receivership in 2012 in 'people'; and 『The Power to Break Through Myself』(2022), which contains life advice for young people living in an age of anxiety.
This book goes beyond sharing the secrets to corporate success and management insights, and densely captures the autobiographical story of one individual who overturned his thinking and achieved remarkable success.


The book begins with a story about the author Seokgeum Yoon's youth, a time when he was more negative than anyone else.
Young Yun Seok-geum was a young man who was pessimistic about his poor situation and cursed the world.
He was such a listless and cynical person that he returned home from a job search, disheartened by trivial words, and lay down for two days staring at the ceiling of his boarding house.
However, during those two days, young Seok-geum Yoon talks to himself countless times and gradually finds a clue to change.
I convinced myself by changing the direction of the words in my mind.
After that, he joined the Korean branch of Britannica and achieved the incredible feat of becoming the world's number one salesman.
Once he had tasted the power of words, he never missed the good fortune that came his way, and he rode the wheel of positivity in his life.
As a result, the 27-year-old who had always been negative about everything finally became the chairman of a company in its 30s.

Among the many books that talk about the secrets to success, the reason why Chairman Yoon Seok-geum's story is drawing attention is clear.
Chairman Yoon is a self-made owner-manager representing South Korea, and is living proof that only those who take action can achieve miracles.
He is a representative figure who has overcome crises and achieved innovation while keeping pace with the economic growth of the Republic of Korea.
Looking back on his life, Chairman Yoon chose the 'power of words' as the shortcut to success.
The way you use the words and thoughts in your head can make a huge difference in your life.


In fact, Chairman Yoon had a more negative youth than anyone else.
Born poor, I had nothing to offer and was obsessed with the idea that no matter what I did, it would never work out.
What changed his life was when he started working as a sales representative at the Korean branch of Britannica, a global encyclopedia company.
Even when he was discouraged and ran away from the company on his first day at work, or when he had to go to a client at dawn to collect the unpaid contract deposit, what kept him going was the 'power of words' he repeated to himself.
Having nothing and no other weapon, he realized that the words he spoke to himself were thoughts, and he came to deeply feel the power of that boundless power while making sales.
Young Yun Seok-geum, experiencing successes both big and small, erased his negative thoughts, and once the wheel of fate began to turn, he was presented with countless episodes of trials and tribulations.
In this way, after 40 years, the young man who had been dissatisfied with the world rose to become a representative self-made entrepreneur.
It was all thanks to believing in the power of words and thoughts and putting it into practice.

If you change your words, your thoughts will change,
If you change your thoughts, your destiny will change.

Are you, even at this very moment, uttering unhappiness-inducing words to yourself, like, "Why can't things work out for me?", "Why didn't my parents leave me with anything?", or "I'm such an unlucky person?" The author argues that this is natural in the face of unsatisfactory circumstances and difficult situations.
However, the author also emphasizes that 'if you want an exceptional life, you must think and act exceptionally, not react naturally.'


What the author particularly emphasizes at this time is the ‘power of words.’
If you want to change your environment and circumstances, you have to do something about it, but to summon the courage and motivation to do so, you have to first convince yourself.
At the point where most people back off with excuses of one kind or another, what I say to myself opens the floodgates of my thinking and gives me the strength to see things from a different perspective.
Because ‘what I say to myself’ is ‘thought’.
In "The Power of Words," the author tells of numerous instances where changing the words (thoughts) one speaks to oneself has changed oneself, and of changing the words one speaks to others has changed them.
In particular, the story of becoming the world's number one salesman at the Britannica Korea branch, receiving an investment of 10.6 billion won from the chairman of a foreign company with just a word, and the story of negotiating with the union of the company being acquired for three hours are all interesting and full of novel-like twists and turns.
It also emphasizes the importance of positive thinking through stories such as [Woongjin IQ], which succeeded through reverse marketing, the rental water purifier business, and Woongjin Foods, which rose from the brink of bankruptcy to become the third largest company in the industry.

“It’s normal for anyone to grumble when things don’t go their way.
It's a natural reaction that anyone can have.
Being natural means just doing what you are born to do.
(Omitted) But people who try to change something, people who try to make something that can't be done work, are different.
(Omitted) These people change their words, change their thoughts, and change their thoughts to somehow find a way.
So the people who were complaining see what they couldn't see, find what they couldn't find, and eventually get out of that situation.
And this is repeated throughout one's life." (Page 70)

Of course, things don't always go well just because you speak and think straight, but the author says that there is no good life without straight words and thoughts.
If you don't live the way you think, you will end up thinking the way you live.

"Don't let fear control your life! Good luck hides behind misfortune."
A master's weighty advice for those who hesitate

Words not only lead us to success in life, but also bring out the resilience to bounce back from failure.
The author, too, did not only experience success in life.
Despite the harsh environment for entrepreneurship, he achieved a miraculous entrepreneurial success, but he also failed several times and got back up again.
When Woongjin Group went into court receivership in 2012, we were able to successfully end court receivership early after 1 year and 4 months through consultations with employees and achieve a new leap forward.
Even when Woongjin Think Big faced a major crisis due to COVID-19, he displayed his characteristically competitive spirit and turned the crisis into an opportunity to establish non-face-to-face education. He actively invested in talent recruitment and technology development, and was able to elevate Woongjin Think Big to a leading edutech company in just two years.
What made it possible was the exceptional action taken at the moment of crisis, “cutting the Gordian knot with one stroke instead of untying it.”
Chairman Yoon's way of dealing with a crisis is to break free from negative thoughts and find a way out.
Launching the first water purifier rental service in Korea, and appointing a 37-year-old employee as the CEO to create Woongjin Foods' hit products, such as 'Morning Sunshine' and 'Green Plum', are examples of the great feats of reverse thinking that resulted from such decisions.


The success method the author talks about is so simple that anyone can put it into practice right now.
But applying it to life and making it a reality is never easy.
If you don't renew your mind every day, the author says, "you will end up thinking as you live."
However, the author also points out that we should be wary of positivity that is not backed up by ability.
It emphasizes that positivity is not about blindly believing in a good outcome without any basis, but rather about calmly assessing the possibility and persistently working to achieve it.
A miracle is never a stroke of luck, but rather a prepared result “created through a combination of skill, persistent effort, and guts.”


Only you can change your life.
Of all the things around us, the only thing we can control is our words and thoughts.
Changing your life begins with changing this.
This is how extraordinary lives, exceptional lives, are created.
This book honestly shows the failures and achievements of one man who accidentally discovered this simple truth and honestly put it into practice.
The author says:
I didn't have anything in the first place.
Just one thing, I believed in the power of my words and thoughts.
So you too can walk this path.
By doing so, you can change yourself and go against fate.


The one and only key insight he has gained from over 40 years of life management, corporate management, and thought management, "The Power of Words" is a book that contains the author's thoughts on the royal road to success and the perfection of life.


“I believe in the power of words and thoughts, and I have navigated my life with this ‘my creed’ as my North Star.”