Last fall, I spent time at home using the excuse of working from home.
I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin's words, "If you don't want to be forgotten the moment you die, write a book worth reading or do something worth writing about."
It's hard to find something to write about while sitting at home, so I thought I'd pick out a few things I've posted on social media over the past decade and turn them into an essay.
Since I just turned 50, I picked 50 tops.

--- p.6

No one can predict the optimal timing.
Only after time has passed will we be able to evaluate whether our choices were right or wrong.
I don't tend to regret my decisions because I rely on the sound of my heart.
However, following your heart doesn't mean just going with whatever comes to mind.
You can hear your heartbeat more clearly when the excitement and thumping subsides a little.
We need to think about how to reduce the risk of failure and seek advice from people.
The decision of the heart must be supported by the analysis of the brain.
I don't have many memories of holding on without knowing when to give up.
But there are plenty of times when I regret making hasty decisions.
This has resulted in the loss of many people and missed opportunities.
Every time I got hooked on something new, I couldn't quit what I was doing.
So I changed my thinking.
Rather than setting a complete goal and stopping halfway, set a half goal and achieve it completely.
It was a resolution to never give up halfway and to finish what I started.
Because 'half success' is mostly just a lame excuse.
--- p.20~21

Books are full of dreams I never dreamed of, paths I never took, and lives I never enjoyed.
Where can you find answers to life if you don't read even one book a month? No one wants to spend their final years in a hospital bed.
Yet, three times a week, I don't spend even an hour training myself.
No one wants to end their life with regrets about having lived wrongly.
And yet, they don't spend even 10 minutes a day reflecting on their own hearts and lives.
Lao Tzu said, “If knowing others is wisdom, then knowing oneself is enlightenment. If conquering others is strength, then conquering oneself is power.”
Don't get drunk on other people's alcohol and don't get full on other people's food.
A healthy and worthwhile life is not something that can be achieved for free.

--- p.46

True success is not a life where you do what you want to do, but a life where you don't have to do what you don't want to do.
A life without having to do unnecessary and meaningless things, a life without wasting time and effort.
Of course, who can live their life doing only what they want? But if 90 percent of their lives are filled with endless fighting and waiting, meaningless events and purposeless gatherings, then that's a life not worth reconsidering.
The residents of Sanggye-dong and party members who believed in me and supported me despite my shortcomings were on my mind until the very end.
However, Mencius said, “If an official cannot fulfill his duty, he should leave, and if a person who is given the responsibility of reprimanding cannot communicate with others, he should leave.”
I left the National Assembly, only to berate myself for my lack of competence.

--- p.96

The qualifications of a leader are determined by the times, not by the individual.
The times sometimes call for revolutionaries or managers, sometimes for elites or commoners, and sometimes for young people or elders.
The same goes for management.
Depending on the situation the company is in, you must lead the company quickly or correctly, honestly or smartly, conservatively or aggressively.
However, it is impossible for one person to have all the leadership skills.
We must constantly study and evolve, but we must not remain in the same place, imitating this and that like a chameleon.
If my personality and capabilities fit the spirit of the times and the business environment, I should step forward myself. If not, I should select a suitable leader and delegate the work.
Han Feizi said, “He who does not try to be in front of the world becomes a leader who will do great things.”

--- p.139

I'm not interested in things.
I like art, but I have no intention of collecting it.
I've given away thousands of CDs since I started streaming music, and I donate or throw away more than half of my books every year.
I have no interest in things like cars or watches.
On the other hand, I collect moments.
Those moments are filled with love and friendship, joy and sadness, admiration and disappointment, togetherness and solitude, that will never return.
It has been said that every journey has a secret destination that the traveler does not know about.
This year, when travel was difficult due to COVID-19, I didn't have the joy of discovering new destinations, but I found small solace in exploring corners of my heart I'd never been able to visit before, through imagination and meditation.

--- p.157~158

They say that pedaling a bicycle downhill is more difficult.
Some people console themselves by saying, 'This too shall pass' and leave it to time.
But the greatness of life lies not in never falling, but in getting up every time we fall.
In the Doctrine of the Mean, it is said, “If others can do it once, I can do it a hundred times. If others can do it ten times, I can do it a thousand times.”
I was neither strong nor wise.
But I believed that growth lies in those who worry more about weakness than strength, and in those who worry more about ignorance than knowledge.
I spent the year working so hard.

--- p.179

The core of privacy is freedom and respect.
There is nothing more precious in life than freedom.
Money, fame, even life are all meaningless if you are not free.
Because you can't use it properly, enjoy it, or have fun with it.
This is why even people who live public lives try to maintain the boundaries of their private lives.
Moreover, if I want my freedom to be respected, it is my natural duty to respect the freedom of others.
To assert my rights, I must also respect the rights of others, and to hold others accountable, I must also fulfill my own responsibilities.
This is why we must protect other people's privacy.
I have suffered from many rumors in my life.
Of course, there were few good rumors.
There were also many unfounded suspicions and malicious comments.
But sometimes I ignored it, sometimes I tolerated it, and I did my best to keep the boundaries of my life.
Sometimes, when I can't stand it anymore, I think of those who are suffering more severely and console myself by telling myself that my situation is nothing.
But the best course of action is to avoid talking negatively about others and to let gossip gossip go in one ear and out the other.
With the hope that if I respect the freedom of others, my freedom will also be respected someday.

--- p.217

How do you live to find your calling? Life throws you a variety of fastballs, curveballs, and sometimes even dead balls.
Sometimes it's self-inflicted, but most of the time it's a pitch that's hard to predict.
To find simplicity in complexity, harmony in discord, and opportunity in difficulty, we must constantly learn and be alert.
Henry Longfellow said, “Every man has a secret sorrow the world knows not of, and sometimes those we call cold are only sorrowful.”
The only way to overcome my secret pain is to rely on lifelong love.
We also said that we just have to try and the rest is not up to us.
Success lies at the intersection of human effort and heavenly blessings.
This is why we have no choice but to continue our fierce efforts until the end.

My quest to find my calling is still ongoing.
My ultimate goal in life is to fulfill my calling so that when I leave this world, I can say, "I truly lived this precious life that was given to me."

--- p.225~226