Revised Edition Prologue | Life is a Journey to Conquer Myself

1.
A relationship that connects the dots and opens new paths

The only differentiating factor in life may be relationships.
What do you want to do when you retire at age sixty?
The power of human relationships can extend anywhere.
The essence of business is good influence.
Sometimes, there are relationships that need to be cut off.
Good relationships breed good relationships

2.
Finding strengths, choosing

Someone else's plague is not as bad as my own.
We must continue to make the right choices as we live.
If you say happiness, it is happiness, and if you say unhappiness, it is unhappiness.
If you try to see the weaknesses, you will only see the weaknesses.
Nothing just happens, you have to think that it will happen.
It's a waste of time to suffer alone.

3.
Self-created opportunities

The blue ocean is always here, right now.
If you're not number one, make your way to number one.
If you can't win the war, change the battlefield.
Great success begins with small successes.
Better than Nothing!
If you curl up on a cold day, you'll freeze to death.
It ain't done until you try
People fail not because they lack talent, but because they lack goals.
Even if it's just a span, create a monopoly there.
There is only one way to avoid feeling disappointed.
Don't dwell on small humiliations.

4.
Skills that compete with fair play

Be logically illogical
In the end, the right arm gets hurt
Don't swallow human relationships because they're sweet and spit them out because they're bitter.
Nothing can be solved with whining and complaining.
Choose people with care
If you work hard, even your weaknesses become icons.
Character is also a skill
The best skill is a sense of ownership.

5.
An attitude that is not afraid of innovation

If you take the saltiness out of salt, what's left?
You have to know the reason and get scolded to learn something.
If you want long-term success, train your juniors.
Have a pro coach, learn from anyone
There is only one word between success and failure.
Survive, survive righteously
Academic background doesn't matter, attitude does.
There is no rest or pause in a leader's life.

Epilogue | Be grateful for small possibilities, they can change your destiny.

“Pessimists only see difficulties in opportunities,
Optimists seek opportunities even in difficult times.”

We are stuck in a swamp of recession with no signs of recovery.
An age of cynicism about words like hope, passion, and perseverance.

Previously unimaginable epidemics like the coronavirus have emerged, threatening humanity. Blockchain and coins have emerged, manipulating people, and AI that has surpassed the singularity is said to be eliminating all kinds of jobs.
Meanwhile, in our country, the birth rate problem is becoming a serious issue, and some say that the economy will never get any better, and that the country itself may even disappear.
In times like these, giving up, frustration, and apathy become familiar, and it becomes difficult to imagine hope, passion, and perseverance.
It is becoming an era where only pessimism and cynicism are rampant.

But didn't Churchill do that?
“Pessimists tend to see difficulties in opportunities, while optimists tend to see opportunities in difficulties.”
And Chairman Cho Seo-hwan shouts even louder in these times.
The only choice we have is to be pessimists or optimists.
And we all have to choose to be optimists.
His words are not just words of optimism, but rather his own life has proven the triumph of optimism, so we find ourselves listening intently to his story.

The only word that separates success and failure is 'giving up.'
In other words, if you don't give up, you are on your way to success.

Born into a family of eight children with a silver spoon in his mouth, he had no connections, no blood ties, and no school ties.
Instead, he had a dream.
My dream is to enter the Korea Army Academy and become a general.
However, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army, but in his first year of service, he lost one hand in a grenade explosion and was seriously injured when 24 pieces of grenade shrapnel were embedded in the back of his head.
In a situation where anyone would be frustrated and discouraged, the first thing he said upon opening his eyes was surprisingly, “Thank you.”
I'm so thankful that I'm still breathing in an accident where I wouldn't have thought I'd die, that I can walk without any problems because it's my arms and not my legs, and that it's the back of my head and not my face.

Regardless of my gratitude, I couldn't continue my dream of becoming a general with the loss of one hand.
But even if he doesn't become a general, life goes on, so he found a new dream.
It was the life of a marketer.
Of course, the new dream wasn't easy either.
He is kicked out of the interview room simply because he has no hands, but with the mindset that 'I can't achieve anything like this, I have nothing to lose no matter what I do', he runs back into the interview room from which he was kicked out and succeeds in getting hired.
Even when anyone thought it was the end, he never gave up, and with his determination and perseverance, he achieved his goal.

A true optimist is not a superman,
The person who overcomes me when I want to give up

Even in the life of a person with two hands, there are countless ups and downs, so it's unlikely that the only ups and downs the author faces in his one-handed life will be job interviews.
But he never gave up despite the countless difficulties that followed.
Even now, his favorite saying is “Never give up.”
On the outside, he may seem like a human being, or even a 'superhuman', who is very different from us.
So, when I try to follow his life and attitude, the first thing that comes to mind is that I am such a weak human being that it is impossible.

On the other hand, you could also look at it this way.
His optimism could never have been easy.
When he woke up in bed after the grenade incident, was his heart filled with nothing but gratitude?
Could he, who had lost his dream of becoming a general, talk about a new dream as if he were choosing a dinner menu?
Wouldn't you have felt humiliated and ashamed before re-entering the interview room from which you had been kicked out?
If you think about it carefully, you will see his heart more than his expression or words.
Then, his expression, hidden in the shadows, gradually becomes visible.
This is not a superhuman who is unshaken by any ordeal, but a human being who, even when faced with ordeals approaching like a tsunami, fiercely pushes himself, saying, "I cannot collapse," and trembles with his whole body as he tries to hold on to his life.

The strength and tenacity to overcome the desire to give up
A Handful of Courage Gained by Examining the Five Pillars of Perseverance

The life of a superman is something we would never dare to emulate.
I don't think I can dare to reach that far-off realm.
At first glance, this is the life of marketer Jo Seo-hwan.
But the life of the human Jo Seo-hwan seems quite different.
His life was more winding than it appeared, but at no point did he say the word "give up."
Instead, he shouted out for perseverance, and the five pillars of 'relationships', 'choice', 'opportunity', 'skill', and 'attitude' formed the source of that perseverance.

When I encounter a path without a path, I think of the 'relationships' that connect the dots to open a new path, and I have always made the 'choice' to find my strengths rather than my weaknesses.
And instead of waiting for this moment of choice to arrive, I sought out 'opportunities' of my own making.
Also, at this opportunity, I honed my 'skill' by competing only with fair play and without any tricks.
And yet, the person who lived his entire life with an attitude of not being afraid of innovation whenever he was swept up in the flow of the times was none other than Jo Seo-hwan.

His image of never giving up and never giving up, with the five sources of tenacity as his pillars, finally resonates.
True optimism is the attitude of persevering instead of giving up even in situations where one is bound to fail.
As we watch his attitude of overcoming the self that wanted to give up, we gain a handful of courage to face this cynical era.