“If you were to leave tonight, what would you do now?”
Life insights from author Kim, loved by 2 million readers!

With 2 million YouTube subscribers, the most views in his field, and 700 million cumulative views, Kim Do-yoon is a bestselling author with 400,000 copies sold and a leading figure in self-improvement.
As a professional interviewer, he has interviewed over 1,000 of the world's most influential figures in depth for 13 years with his characteristically friendly and direct questions, gaining countless insights into their lives and sharing them with the public.


However, the answers to the question of 'what is precious in the world' were different for each person, and this raised questions.
Then I found out after interviewing a psychology professor.
People don't regret 'I couldn't earn more', 'I couldn't have more', 'I couldn't enjoy more' before they die.
The fact that what comes out in the most honest moment of leaving this world is ultimately something else.
That's how I wrote the essay "What I've Learned from a Thousand Lives."
Even though I may be late, I hope that at least one person who reads this book will not be late.


The author has put together 50 episodes of precious things and memories related to them that he did not know then but now knows.
It's a story about a love that can't be expressed in words and the memories surrounding it, the regret of happiness realized too late, and the most precious things that can only be seen after they've passed.
The author's most precious and regrettable relationship was with his mother, so he included many episodes with her, as well as warm, touching, and sometimes heartbreaking stories about his relationships with family, friends, and pets.
Through this book, readers will discover the lifelong happiness they had forgotten and learn what is most precious in life.

I watched my mother eat for a very long time.
We've been together for so long that I guess I didn't realize time was passing by.
In front of me sat an old man whose hair was now white unless he dyed it, an old man whose face had been battered by the ravages of time, an old man with slumped, small shoulders, bearing the weight of time.
--- p.28

I came home after finishing my first day at work.
There was no one to welcome me, and no one to prepare food for me.
I thought it would be very lonely to have to live alone like that.
However, because it was a place in Seoul where there was no one, it was also a time when I could realize the importance of family.
Because existence always learns its value through absence.

--- p.43

I found out after I grew up.
Both my father and mother were just weak people, and this was their first life.
It was my first time being a father, and it was my first time being a mother.

--- p.126

Thanks to working hard, I have more free time now and I often eat quite expensive food.
But, nowhere can you taste the taste of mother.
The taste that is familiar to me, the taste that is comfortable to me, is nowhere else in the world.
No matter how much money you have, you can never eat food prepared by your mother, prepared with your mother's hands, and filled with your mother's love.
I miss that taste, that moment, that love so much.

--- p.131

It is an era in which many people go on trips.
It doesn't have to be that way all the time, but I hope to have some time to travel with my family at least once in a while.
Even if you want to travel with your parents someday, that day may never come again in your life.
No matter how hard you try to turn back time, there comes a moment when you can't turn back time.
There is always a better time to travel with your family than now.

--- p.210

There was so much I wanted to say, but once I got there, I had nothing to say.
That's all I said.
“I’m sorry, thank you, I love you.” That’s how I try to live my life.
Create less things to be sorry about, do more things to be thankful for, and love more.
Life, when you live it, is actually nothing special.

--- p.222

I thought about it then.
'The person who comforts me in difficult times is not someone who solves something enormous, but someone who empathizes with my aching heart and shares that moment with me.' That day, my colorless world was filled with warm red and yellow for the first time.

--- p.246