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Korea (South)1897 Posts
EDIT*Extremely long introspective post about my life, Just a story that I wanted to write for my sons when they are old enough to read**
I'm currently in Manila right now, I've flew in on Friday and am at the New World Hotel in Makati (don't know if I spelt that right, but it is the commercial wealth district of Manila). I don't mean to say that as a brag whatsoever, just giving you the location and context of where I am, in fact, I'm kinda of sad that I'm here.
A LACK OF STRENGTH? On Wednesday I went to my first MMA class in over a year and it was the first major bit of exercise that I've done in a while. Having played rugby or done judo for most of my life, the last 6 years or so has been difficult because I've basically stopped doing the level of physical exertion that I use to and I've always been happiest when I'm just on the pitch or throwing people around; not because of violence or anything, it just feels like where I'm supposed to be and I enjoy the company of my team and the competition.
That night I got a call by a firm to fly over for Friday and look into some projects. It didn't get confirmed until late Thursday night and I was on the 8 am flight from Seoul to Manila. That Thursday night I went to MMA class again. The master, Master Yuk, said to me that I looked old, that I had lost my aura of strength and that he felt bad for me. I said to him, 2011 had been a rough year, and he said, 'even though, if you lose that aura, then it won't come back, you'll end up being an 'ajushi' ' Ajushi meaning in Korea a term for 'uncle/mister/middle aged'. He said that even though I've been overweight that I had that aura, but no longer. I agreed with him just because I didn't want to talk to much about about it, but at 37, I'm no spring chicken any more.
So I stood around during the free period then I asked one of the young guys, who was my same height, but likely around 75kg to 'roll with me' meaning do some jujitsu sparing. At 110kg, it's unfair, but it is hard to find someone my weight in Korea and plus we never spar with ill intent, at least not in Korea, its always at 70% or so. Using my unfair weight advantage, I easily got him to tap out with an arm triangle (where I lay on top of him and have one of his arms and his neck in my grasp), so the next round he simply didn't allow me to get on the top position. Rather, he ended up on my back and I turtled (simply tucked my head into my arms and kept my knees in) and that lasted 10 mins. I didn't give up, he didn't give until I tapped because it simply was enough.
We hugged afterward and he enjoyed the experience of trying to submit a guy who had 35kgs on him and I felt good that I had gone the distance and while I was exhausted, I felt as though, I still had the 'aura of strength' even though I had agreed with Master Yuk that I didn't.
CRAMPING UP Fast forward 10 hours later and I'm on this 4 hour flight and then both my calves start to seize up and by the time I land in Manila, I can barely walk. My shoulders hurt a bit, but my legs are totally screwed. As I force myself to walk properly, I pop a few aspirins and go directly into a few meetings with my clients who had paid for my flight and hotel.
I've pretty much been working non-stop for the last 48 hours, I go to a 3 hour meeting, then go back to my hotel work and work like a motherfucker so I can make good on all the points that need to be followed up on. I took a 1.5 hour massage in my hotel room, but other than that, I had eaten breakfast yesterday and then by 1am gone out to get some food at a 24hr Macdonalds, then worked a bit more, then went to bed. Today, same thing, but went out at 10pm to get Wendys instead.
I'm not the typical hotel guest here, there are Koreans, Japanese and Foreigners here and it is the weekend so they are all out partying. There is this massive mall complex call 'Green Belt' here, right across the hotel and it has 5 sections. Needless to say, there is a lot of excitement here, but I'm not here for any of that, I'm here to work. I'm here to impress my clients as well as put a bit more bacon on the table for my family.
I'd say I make a lot of money, more than most doctors do, but I work like a motherfucker. The only breaks I take are to sleep, shower, eat a bit, and I do play a couple of games to just ease my mind a bit, but I do all those things so I can work better.
WORKING FOR THE BACON? People don't understand how hard I work, or more to it, how hard you can or should work. I may come across that my life is an exciting role of jet setting with mad cash falling out of the sky, but I'm sure if I calculated my hourly, it would around the $10-$20 range per hour. But I'm not saying this as a brag or that my life is hard, I fucking love working because I get to do something which I'm good at and that is rare.
But I'm a bit sad because I see that a lot of people around me here in Manila don't have the same opportunity that I have and never will. You see, if I want to work more, I can work more, I have the option to do more projects and fill my time up to the max with work that will pay me. And when I do anything like sleep or even play games or read, I do it knowing that it will increase my work productivity, that I've worked without sleep, without eating without gaming and I end up producing sub-par work. Even myself writing these long ass blogs, it helps take the edge of my work, that as I articulate something on my mind here, my subconscious is figuring out a business issue that I haven't quite got a handle on.
TO KNOW MYSELF AS I'M FULLY KNOWN At 37, I know myself fully. I am completely honest with myself and I completely accept who I am. I think it wasn't until I was about 30, that I did come to that level of understanding. We spend so much time bullshitting other and ourselves of what we like or don't like or are embarrassed about that it is so hard to find that time to really understand and know ourselves. What really annoys us, what really makes us happy and what really drives us.
Much of the lack of focus or procrastination that many of you experience will stem from this; but this is such a momentous view for such a mundane thing. Most of the time when we are not focused or not concentrating or procrastinating, we think it because we are sleepy, we need coffee or we don't understand the project enough or that we are lazy. But you get to a point in your age when all those things aren't really anything - I'm sleepy, get some sleep, I'm need a coffee, go out and buy one, If I don't understand something, I'll ask. We get to be responsible for ourselves, our own actions - but I'll tell you, when I need to work, eating and sleeping becomes a distraction at times- rather working has become instinctual- something I'm mean to be doing.
This wasn't always the case. For most of my life, exercise, rugby, was my existence, no matter how fucking hard the practice was, the games, whatever, I could endure it, accept it. But aside from that, nothing really seemed important enough to warrant me putting the effort into it.
DUSTIN AND MATHEW When I was in grade 3, it was impossible for me to score less than perfect or any assignment; the answered seemed so obvious and whenever the teacher said, 'David are you listening' I would reply, 'Yes teacher I am,' 'Ok, then what did I just say,' and I would repeat it back to her word for word. But there were two other kids in my class, Dustin and Mathew, and I still remember them clearly. Dustin was a super super nice guy and Mathew a super cool guy. Dustin was really laid back and we never once got into a fight. Me and Mathew had fought maybe 3 times and then after that became friends. It is just how it is in grade school. But what intrigued me about them was that, when the teacher asked if they were paying attention, they really weren't. And it was shocking to me, I couldn't figure out why they weren't paying attention. And their test marks were brutal, 4/10, 6/10 and the teacher would always scold them.
But why I'm sharing this primary school story is because they changed my life at an early age. I spent half of grade 3 trying to understand them and tried to not get good grades. Ridiculous right? But I realized that 'marks' seemed to be the be all end all, but I liked Dustin and Mathew, and even though they got shit marks, they were my friends. So what were 'marks' anyway? It became meaningless.
SUCCESS IN FAILING AT SCHOOL By the time I hit grade 8 I had succeeded in getting low 60's and failing a course. The year before in grade 7 there was a city wide standardize beginning of the year test. I ended up tying with the highest score in the entire city of grade 7 students. The principle and my teacher called my mom in and she thought that I had gotten in shit, but they surprised her and asked he why I wasn't in an advance class.
We had moved from Quebec the year before and basically the school board had recommended that I skip a grade because while my marks were in the gutter it was obvious that I was just bored or something (my only quest in my academic career up to even university was see if I could finish an exam the quickest by a huge margin - to me that was a mark of intelligence lol) but coming to Toronto (specifically North York), the board of education didn't recognize the recommendation and I was just put into regular class. so in grade 8 the put into the academically gifted class and I proceed to just barely pass anything.
It wasn't that I wanted to fail my parents or didn't want to work hard, but my motivations have always been different than what most people's are. I'm a fucking weirdo. But being in that class made me feel as though, now I didn't have to work at all, because if you're in those classes, it is only by IQ score and testing alone so marks really weren't worth anything, you were already designated as smart, so in my fucked up mind I thought, gee, then if they board of education already recognizes me as intelligent, does any of this really matter?
NO GRADUATION LOVE FOR ME Thing is, that line of logic does make sense in an abstract setting, but practically speaking, yes, the marks mattered and when nearly my entire class of 40 kids in the school of 300 all got special awards at graduation time and me and best friends Eric and Evan (we were the bad boys of the nerds) didn't get any, my parents were so fucking pissed off that they didn't let me go to the graduation student dance party and I didn't get to say good bye to my friends that were going to different high schools. But at the time, 'the fuck if I knew why I thought like that'...
By the time I graduated high school I was assistant captain of my rugby team, had been scouted by a prominent university to play for them and was president of my high school, my marks were still shitty, at 89% and I didn't bother to study for my SATs so my parents hopes of me going to an Ivy league were dashed (my uncle went to brown and my cousins to cornell) - not that I would have gotten in with 89% average, but to get the crappy score that I did (it was bad cause while the math part was easy, I never actually tried to do them in the allotted time so by the time I was half way through, there was only 5 mins left). On the Verbal/English part I did score near perfect, but still, not perfect and crap math part just stripped away any hope in my parent's eyes that I could be redeemed.
THEOLOGY AND ME Eventually after graduating, I figured, ok, I'd like to be a university professor. So with my 3.5 GPA, which I had just managed to bring up in the last 2 years of my 4 year degree by getting nearly all As and +As (I bombed first year with 2.1 or so), it took a Herculean effort to change my cumulative to 3.5 and that for most grad schools was the bare minimum. So I went into theology, and stopped playing rugby for the first 2 years. I managed to get an 1 year academic suspension for failing a class twice (anything less than 70% is a fail and I had 68% and 57% ) and because I got 57% percent on the second retake, they took it as warning sign and had me ejected for a year.
THE NEW TESTAMENT PAWNS Now here is the fucked up part, the fact is, New Testament 501, is a fucking easy ass course, it is so freaking easy and I'm taking it for a second time. But I fucking hate it, I can't stand studying this intro crap and I want to study what I like, like German Systematic Theology or Homiletics and so I just can't help but screw around in class. I never type out my work, I actually hand write my assignments and hand them in on paper that I rip out of my spiral bound notebook, and of course the TA gives me the marks for the content, but a lot of the work is incomplete cause I don't do all the readings and just can't be fucked. But there is group work involved and most of the students in the program hate my guts cause I am the most elitist arrogant asshole in all of Christendom. I hated looking at my fellow students who were there because they wanted to be ministers because it was a good job (seriously people talked like that) or if they were crazy conservatives who kept thinking everyone was going to hell and were shocked when they were told that 'sleeping at the foot of the bed' was a euphemism for Ruth got it on with Boaz (sorry to shock you if you didn't know that lol). And they were right, I was a judgmental asshole who though I was one with the great German theologians. But why I didn't pass it the second time was because even though I knew I had already fucked up the course a second time I didn't drop it before I had chance to, instead, I stayed in because...I was part of the Korean group.
So the college I went to, is a pretty prestigious theology college, so much so that we get a lot of foreign PHD candidates who dream about coming to our college to study and if you graduate here you can pretty much go to Cambridge or Harvard or Union or wherever you wanna go afterwards. But no one wants to work with the foreign students cause they were all selfish pricks (ok, maybe not all), but anyway it was a pain the ass because of language issues. But for me, obviously it wasn't that big of deal, so I had 2 foreign Korean old guys in my group. If I had dropped out of the course, there was a really really good chance they would fail it because the group mark was worth a lot. So I stayed in it just for them and got suspended because of it. Crazy right? Well, the one Korean student, he finds out afterwards and realizes that I didn't drop the course and failed it because I didn't want him to fail because of me, and he looks at me like I'm not really this fucked up bad student (cause in retrospect I think they didn't want me either! lol) but that I basically fucked myself just because. When he gets ordained a couple of years later, he still remembers and thanks me in his ordination address when he thanks the students that helped him at the college. lol. ( I was told cause it shocked some of the other students why in the hell would he thank a werido like me).
The rest nearly becomes history, in the year that I take off, I go to Korea to manage the Canadian team for the 1st WCG, I come back after a year of my suspension, go back to playing rugby, where the coach has a fit asking why the fuck did I not come out to the team for his university when I was attending for the last 3 years and am only coming out now in my last year of grad studies. And because of that I ended up getting to go to Korea and play rugby at the professional level there and get my Masters in Business etc.
And since I left my theology grad studies, I pretty much never read the bible again. Like really sat down and read it.
CHANGE THE WORLD? REALLY? The reasons why I stopped trying to become a professor and stopped doing anything related to theology was because I thought that by learning theology I could do something for the world. And I'm sincere in that. I honestly believed when I was a young man that I could change the world for the better. When I read the bible, I didn't see all this crap about going to hell or some moralistic bullshit, but I saw social justice and a revolution, sacrifice and of course, love. And I wrongly assumed that studying theology and becoming a professor and an ordained minister would put me in a position to help change things.
Truth be told I was trying to kill 3 birds with one stone: please my parents, please societal expectations on looking respectable and please my own messianic self interests in thinking that I was something special because I walked to a different drummer and thought that really understood what the world was all about.
In many respects, studying theology and really understanding and spending 3 years just focused on it was the best thing for me because at the end of it all, I realized that I had tried the best I could to fit in and do what was expected of me, and even though I had tried, it was evident that I had self-sabotaged myself considerably as well as I went to place where I found little mercy and grace when it was supposed to be a place of study where love abounded.
So, i wasn't disillusioned or bitter, I just stopped to care or think about that part of life and again, when I played rugby, it just felt right.
REASONS WHY I LOVE BUSINESS In the end, why I love doing business is that it exactly fits my personality and thought process. If you follow the same procedural process of competition with your competitors in business, you will be fucking yourself. You need to be contrarian, not for the sake of being contrarian, but rather because if you don't, you're not creating any value and you might as well burn the money instead of investing it.
I can be crass in business, I can tell my team to 'man the fuck up', I can piss around with clients and look them in the eyes and say, 'seriously Frank, if you make this call and do it, you're fucking yourself in the ass' and for clients to appreciate my directness. And the fact is, in business, the ones that can't handle what I have to say are missing the point that business is about what works and will continue to work better than what others have out there. Just working via a formula for success will lead no where cause every other motherfucker has the same MBA you do and read the same books and sees the same trends. But in this field, everything that made me a loser, made me procrastinate is what makes me great at my job.
But right before I went to Wendy's I went to the book store and saw the NIV bible there and I knew I had to buy it, to read it again. Why? Because I know myself, the angst I had as a theology grad student is long since buried and my life has been an orgy of doing business and I've lost a bit of the main thing that truly has driven me, and I can realize that about myself, namely caring about others. And for me, the bible was integral in my thinking/thought development.
I'M HAPPY FOR PEOPLE NOT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I WRITE Honestly, some things I write here, I shouldn't, not cause it is bad, but because if you get the significance of what I'm writing at times, I'm saving you a good 1 month off every related mistake. You'll still make the same mistakes, but you'll bounce back faster. If you get the significance in what I write, you get what I mean.
I don't hold much back and for those readers here who write comments that show that they don't get the significance of something things I write about business, you know what, I laugh. I'm not sharing my opinion, for me I'm sharing something as honestly and as sincerely as I can because I do care about this community and the members that it attracts and that is why I don't hold back. For some people who read this and think it is just another opinion have no clue what fucking hell and hours upon hours and real life sacrifice to come to these statements that are more than just applicable, but simply are true.
My clients pay me tens of thousands of dollars for what I do, I've made tens of millions of dollars from brand new projects from zero revenue for my companies. I tell my staff, do this, they do it, they learn, they produce and get results. But, that really is just a small thing that just reminds me why I did go full out into business.
OUR COUNTRY KOREA I had a dream that one day, I'd make enough money so that I could build a huge library in Korea that would have a full sound, media and design studios in it so that those students who weren't competitive in school could have a chance to develop other skills, and still be respected in society for it.
I had a dream that I would make enough money to fund an organization whereby all Korean children when they were in grade 9 or 10 could live abroad for 6 months.
My talent is that I can see frameworks and structures for both business and social structures. I won't get much into that, but basically I have a very easy time seeing how things relate to one another and as single unit/framework move/progress. It isn't just seeing the forest, but seeing how the trees compose the forest and how does each tree create the totality of the forest and ultimately the true nature of the forest and seeing both simultaneously. Seeing the forest from the trees is like preschool strategic level of thinking. And I came to two conclusion back in 2002.
#1. My country, Korea is fucked for the long term. We don't see it, but it's not an issue of the halfs and have-nots, rather in our country, you either half or you don't exist.
#2. I can't figure out the end stabilizing point for the capitalist system, meaning, that for all the understanding that I have, I don't see our current financial system every getting to any point of real stability and sustainability. And more importantly I can't see any real alternatives either in light of modernity's expectations either.
Thing is, I'm not wrong. I have a supreme confidence and knowledge that I was breed to think and understand systems and I do it better than anyone, and in this context there are 2 things that I are clear to me. If I can't understand and see where this is going, then no one fucking can. And I do not believe the solution yet exists, it is still too early for something to be formulated yet.
What I mean by that, the real conditions for the something stable or different haven't manifested themselves in the framework yet, so right now, no one can really plan or anticipate what will happen next until the context has developed further. It is like all around the world people get the same idea at relatively the same time and it isn't coincidence rather it is because the environment has developed certain factors/triggers that make the new idea/innovation obvious. And so I know that those conditions have not yet manifested and I don't know when they will. But in the meantime, I think, we won't know when and if the system works now, then we should get as much as we can out of it now. And that is why I work like a mofo constantly, because later on, I may not have the same opportunity to exploit the revenues I can now.
It's like: If you were a record executive in the early 90's and you were able to see what was going to happen to your industry when the internet hit, wouldn't you just try to make as much as you could with the current system that did work, before the system broke down (pre napster, the recording agency were rolling in an insane amount of cash and there was a clear formula for cash). I see the same thing.
Thing is, if you're somewhere like Australia or Western Europe, there is already a stability in the society and infrastructure due to the long history of industrialization. Thus, while there are issues, relatively when there are global economic crisis, the effects, while dramatic, are relatively stable compared to Korea where it will have a massive immediate impact in just a couple of days- where our relatively weak currency gets fucked up by global speculators and with such a resource poor country, everything can change on a dime.
So based on that I also know 2 things: #1. I need to make as much fucking money now when I'm in an applicable position to do so. #2. If the children in Korea are educated with alternatives, there is enough genius in our gene pool for someone to figure it (making a stable financial structure that will work for Korea), but only if they their potential genius is given the chance to be contrarian. Which is really not possible to have in the Korean educational system due the high degree of competition and the fact that it is either 'you have' or you don't exist in our society.
A LETTER TO MY SONS But why even think this way, why bother, why not just make cash, send my two boys to Le Rosey for 100k Euros a year and just keep my own place in Australia, France, Canada and Korea and just move accordingly. And for the last year, I have been asking myself that question because I forgot why I have been working so obsessively in the last 10 years in both my studies and work. And I guess that is reflected in why Master Yuk said that I had seemed to have lost the 'aura of strength' and that is why I felt that needed to buy and read the bible again, to remember what was lost..to really sincerely care and believe that, as ridiculous as it sounds, that I want to change and take care of my whole country that I'm just being honest with myself. Even when it is embarrassing or seems naive or impossible.
I know for some new readers, my sincerity doesn't shine through here, I know that this may appear to be some self centred rant on how great I really am, and likely things here kinda make sense but they don't and so it may seem like it is all speculative bullshit. And likely those reader will have skimmed through this and have no written some comment for the sake writing their first 'reaction'. Honestly- being honest. I could give two shits about them, full stop.
There are many many times I write here on TL, and I spend a hour writing then I don't post it, I just close the browser because at times, it does seem like a ramble or it's too personal or I just feel that it would be misunderstood so then what is the point. And about 4 or 5 times I have had the urge to just delete this all, and maybe I will, maybe you'll never see these words typed here; but I just wanted to say, thank you TL for reading and the comments that say thank you, because if I did share something that really did help you a bit and you know that I do care. And even if it is doesn't equal to financial or gain in some tangible way, it does feed my soul that I feel that I can share things and know that I still have one.
*I just spent about 5 mins about to delete this, but if I think it is something that I would like my sons to one day read. If only to understand why their dad wasn't home as much as he should have been. Ethan, Mark, I love you guys, so much.
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I'm not your son, but thank you for writing this. It's come at an appropriate time.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 02:17 beamingrobot wrote: I'm not your son, but thank you for writing this. It's come at an appropriate time.
^^ more than enough for me. Thank as well.
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Great read.
Nothing on the one with the bully though. That was epic shit, really wish i was allowed to do such things as a nursery teacher in the UK :D
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Definitely read everything... man if I ever go back to Korea, please teach me your way MightyAtom I have much to learn.
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Jesus you're 110 kg
wtf man
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Just curious, how old are your sons? Also good read.
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Pretty good read, but I have a couple of questions. 1) Why did you leave the Canada to go to Korea? 2) If Korea is so shitty, why don't you come back to the Canada, or even the US?
I'm asking these things out of concern for you and for your family life. It's not good for kids to be growing up with one of their parents rarely being around. I understand you're basically working some sort of job that requires you to be all over the place internationally, but if there's any way to tune down the traveling a bit and spend more time with your sons, that would be ideal imo.
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This is my favorite blog post from you that I've read. Your blogs usually share the wisdom and experiences that you have acquired throughout the years but I always wondered about the person writing these blogs inside. You mentioned outside details here and there about your life, for example that you studied theology and I always wondered what were the reasons why you were studying it. I hope that your kids one day do read this and learn something more about the person they always called dad.
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I don't know whether I do or don't get your blogs sometimes, but I'm always grateful. Thanks.
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As always, your blogs are insightful and I'm so glad you're willing to share some of your wisdom with us. I hope when your sons finally read some of your material that they understand the point you try to get across, and appreciate what a really cool guy you are.
Fantastic read.
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
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I really like your blogs. Always very interesting Great read
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Was browsing Tl for past hour because I don't want to start my CompSci assignment that I know is going to take me upwards of 20 hours to complete and stumbled on this blog... realized that fuck... hardwork is everywhere in life and I should start now than later... thanks for the post!
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Oh my god. I'm glad I read all of that.
You're so amazing 형.
From my point of view it seems like in Korea there isn't much room for advancement. You kind of get stuck in a class and can't really "jump" ahead, unless of course you get really lucky, but then again, I guess that's how it is any capitalist environment. How would you compare the opportunities of advancement to Korea? I don't really know the deep financial sides to Korea, so maybe you could enlighten me?
I know my friends at KU are going to get pretty good jobs because of the whole SKY network, and it seems like it's getting easier to get in (than before), but I still seem to have a lack of understanding on the whole socio-economic structure.
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This is an amazing read. I think you definitely have one of the best blogs on TL :D Keep it up!
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I think I love you a bit, MightyAtom. Thank you, for all of this.
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Wow..I so need to reread this again lol. Thanks for sharing this with us! 5/5
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noo never delete stuff like this, it's so important!
i remember a ted talk from some absolutely weird looking dude who was advertising putting money into research for prolonging life. He was convinved, that the children being born within the last 5 years could basically become immortal due to medical advancements by the time they were old enough for it to matter. And he gave a nice motivation as to why fighting natural death should be very important. It was something along these lines:
Do you consider the burnt down library of alexandria to be a tragic loss? Well, imagine, the life knowledge of one person was equal to one book (which is obviously a ridiculous underestimation). Then, by natural death alone, each year, the equivalent of three libraries of alexandria is lost. Just the relation of once a few centuries ago to three times a year, and that by using a horrendous underestimation, really gives an interesting perspective.
Now, while he was motivating research for avoiding death, you can even easier use this comparison to just line out the importance of life knowledge. And that to me makes texts such as yours here just so very important. You cannot buy any book that gives you such rather personal bits of knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge, people would learn by listening to the town elders in previous times. But with that happening less and less today because families move apart a lot more and divorce rates increasing (or even coming into existence in the first place, depending on the time span), it's blogs like these that i feel need to happen more often, because they offer similar wisdom.
I completely understand, that posting this can be hard and inconvenient because it's personal and sometimes contains revealing weaknesses, stuff that just doesn't feel good or right to even write, much less post. But next time your are facing this question, i'd like you to know that you would make me really sad if you don't post it :p This stuff is gold. It's certainly a good read and good lessons to be learned. But i think, on top of that, it is kind of important actually, to have more of this in a general society kind of view (that sounds weird Oo).
see, i have the same feeling now ^^ i think i've drifted into weird territories and probably written complete gibberish, and now i don't think i should post it. But i'll do it, cause your blogs are just to good to not try and get more of them :D And if none of the above made any sense, just take it as a "thanks for posting this, love it! give more!"
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 02:46 Capped wrote: Great read.
Nothing on the one with the bully though. That was epic shit, really wish i was allowed to do such things as a nursery teacher in the UK :D
=) thx, I used to head butt my kids (extremely lightly) in sunday school when they swore, but the minister said I wasn't allowed to do that cause one of the kids got a headache.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 02:47 Flowjo wrote: Definitely read everything... man if I ever go back to Korea, please teach me your way MightyAtom I have much to learn.
We'll definitely get together for a TL Seoul meet up, but I think you'll find I'm only interested in showing you the way of the food and drink when we meet keke
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 02:50 Boonbag wrote: Jesus you're 110 kg
wtf man
Not everyone can look like a model forever, like you kaka, I'm fucking ajushi now!
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 03:08 Agama wrote: Just curious, how old are your sons? Also good read.
First son, Ethan is 3.5 years, and second son Mark is 11 months. Thx, and I've already applied them for high school already lol.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 03:12 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: Pretty good read, but I have a couple of questions. 1) Why did you leave the Canada to go to Korea? 2) If Korea is so shitty, why don't you come back to the Canada, or even the US?
I'm asking these things out of concern for you and for your family life. It's not good for kids to be growing up with one of their parents rarely being around. I understand you're basically working some sort of job that requires you to be all over the place internationally, but if there's any way to tune down the traveling a bit and spend more time with your sons, that would be ideal imo.
1. I could continue to play rugby and play at the national level there while continue to study for my masters in business (plus I had a hot Korean girlfriend at the time who lived in Korea) keke. 2. Korea is shitty for a lot of people, but I'm lucky to be on the 'have' side. I have a fairly good background so there are a lot of open doors for me, so life is relatively privileged. But it isn't a common state. If you come here to teach English and decide to go local and get a regular job and have no family here to support you- it is hell, especially compared to the much higher standard of living in Canada or the US, so many overseas Koreans go back after a year in Korea.
I actually use to fly 90 flights a year, 8 months of travel, I've cut it down to just 20 flights a year and 3 months of travel, and I hope that if I get lucky in the next 5 years, I'll be able to cut that down to 2 months of travel, but it is nature of the industry I work in. The only good thing is that when I'm in Korea, I basically am on vacation and hang out all day with my kids for 5 days straight. It is a different lifestyle and I hope that when they are older they can just come with me on my business travels. Actually my first son, has been to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Melbourne, Canada, Sydney and of course Korea and he is not yet 4. So I do expect them to have a different lifestyle. I just hope I can strike a balance somewhere though.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 03:20 Ilikestarcraft wrote:This is my favorite blog post from you that I've read. Your blogs usually share the wisdom and experiences that you have acquired throughout the years but I always wondered about the person writing these blogs inside. You mentioned outside details here and there about your life, for example that you studied theology and I always wondered what were the reasons why you were studying it. I hope that your kids one day do read this and learn something more about the person they always called dad.
Saechiis I don't know whether I do or don't get your blogs sometimes, but I'm always grateful. Thanks.
chaosTheory_14cc As always, your blogs are insightful and I'm so glad you're willing to share some of your wisdom with us. I hope when your sons finally read some of your material that they understand the point you try to get across, and appreciate what a really cool guy you are.
Linwelin I really like your blogs. Always very interesting
dapierow Was browsing Tl for past hour because I don't want to start my CompSci assignment that I know is going to take me upwards of 20 hours to complete and stumbled on this blog... realized that fuck... hardwork is everywhere in life and I should start now than later... thanks for the post!
lubu42 This is an amazing read. I think you definitely have one of the best blogs on TL :D Keep it up!
cmen15 Wow..I so need to reread this again lol. Thanks for sharing this with us! 5/5
^^ thx, guys I appreciate it, wasn't sure about it when I was going to post it, but really appreciate it. I guess the only thing I can really say is, any accomplishments require your intelligence, preparation and dedication, but at the end of the day, you need to just work like a mofo.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 04:31 mizU wrote: Oh my god. I'm glad I read all of that.
You're so amazing 형.
From my point of view it seems like in Korea there isn't much room for advancement. You kind of get stuck in a class and can't really "jump" ahead, unless of course you get really lucky, but then again, I guess that's how it is any capitalist environment. How would you compare the opportunities of advancement to Korea? I don't really know the deep financial sides to Korea, so maybe you could enlighten me?
I know my friends at KU are going to get pretty good jobs because of the whole SKY network, and it seems like it's getting easier to get in (than before), but I still seem to have a lack of understanding on the whole socio-economic structure.
At your campus of KU, it is easier, but not the main campus in Anam; but even the entire SKY thing is becoming tougher, with it really only being a Seoul Uni thing- but basically - if you don't have parental support and networks or coming from a great uni or overseas uni, you're screwed. -.-
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 06:47 drooL wrote: I think I love you a bit, MightyAtom. Thank you, for all of this. I love you a bit too, keke ^^
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On March 19 2012 12:12 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 04:31 mizU wrote: Oh my god. I'm glad I read all of that.
You're so amazing 형.
From my point of view it seems like in Korea there isn't much room for advancement. You kind of get stuck in a class and can't really "jump" ahead, unless of course you get really lucky, but then again, I guess that's how it is any capitalist environment. How would you compare the opportunities of advancement to Korea? I don't really know the deep financial sides to Korea, so maybe you could enlighten me?
I know my friends at KU are going to get pretty good jobs because of the whole SKY network, and it seems like it's getting easier to get in (than before), but I still seem to have a lack of understanding on the whole socio-economic structure. At your campus of KU, it is easier, but not the main campus in Anam; but even the entire SKY thing is becoming tougher, with it really only being a Seoul Uni thing- but basically - if you don't have parental support and networks or coming from a great uni or overseas uni, you're screwed. -.-
I suppose I didn't quite realize. Though a lot of my friends that are now seniors transferred to Anam for their last year. Does that means your kids are set, and probably going to KU?
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 07:14 MisterD wrote:noo never delete stuff like this, it's so important! i remember a ted talk from some absolutely weird looking dude who was advertising putting money into research for prolonging life. He was convinved, that the children being born within the last 5 years could basically become immortal due to medical advancements by the time they were old enough for it to matter. And he gave a nice motivation as to why fighting natural death should be very important. It was something along these lines: Do you consider the burnt down library of alexandria to be a tragic loss? Well, imagine, the life knowledge of one person was equal to one book (which is obviously a ridiculous underestimation). Then, by natural death alone, each year, the equivalent of three libraries of alexandria is lost. Just the relation of once a few centuries ago to three times a year, and that by using a horrendous underestimation, really gives an interesting perspective. Now, while he was motivating research for avoiding death, you can even easier use this comparison to just line out the importance of life knowledge. And that to me makes texts such as yours here just so very important. You cannot buy any book that gives you such rather personal bits of knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge, people would learn by listening to the town elders in previous times. But with that happening less and less today because families move apart a lot more and divorce rates increasing (or even coming into existence in the first place, depending on the time span), it's blogs like these that i feel need to happen more often, because they offer similar wisdom. I completely understand, that posting this can be hard and inconvenient because it's personal and sometimes contains revealing weaknesses, stuff that just doesn't feel good or right to even write, much less post. But next time your are facing this question, i'd like you to know that you would make me really sad if you don't post it :p This stuff is gold. It's certainly a good read and good lessons to be learned. But i think, on top of that, it is kind of important actually, to have more of this in a general society kind of view (that sounds weird Oo). see, i have the same feeling now ^^ i think i've drifted into weird territories and probably written complete gibberish, and now i don't think i should post it. But i'll do it, cause your blogs are just to good to not try and get more of them :D And if none of the above made any sense, just take it as a "thanks for posting this, love it! give more!"
Sincerely, thanks, I do know how you are talking about as well- Ray- but yeah, you can have all this info on the net, but in terms of really finding insight into something more day-to-day, really only comes from learning directly from others- I kinda always feel when I am writing on TL that I'm writing to everyone who if I did meet I would get along with in a unique way because we are gamers, we are more on the inquisitive side and it is just as though we are this tribe. Honestly I'm such a macho Korean guy - but when it comes to hanging out with young gamers, I just become giddy and stupid because I'm just so comfortable.
When I used to control and a lot of marketing spend, I use to fly into Taipei or Hong Kong and my clients would organize 9 other guys to play dota against of 3 other guys to play 2v2 SCBW against cause I didn't want to go drinking but play games in my off time. lol. It was cheaper for them than to buy me whiskey and a private room, than to call up their friend and find how who played dota and to leave me with them to lan for 5 hours. ^^ But thanks, I'm a bit embarrassed that the comparison you give is a bit too grand, but as long as you guys get a bit out of it, its more than enough for me as well. After all I have to contribute somehow ^^
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Should have bought them KJV...
reading this blog kind of reminded me of what some pastor told me when I was in high school: "A lot of people who grow up in churches stop going to church when they enter college, but come back when they have children."
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On March 19 2012 11:56 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 03:08 Agama wrote: Just curious, how old are your sons? Also good read. First son, Ethan is 3.5 years, and second son Mark is 11 months. Thx, and I've already applied them for high school already lol.
Make sure to spend the time with them. You can't take that back once its done. My Dad was busy working for almost nothing my entire childhood, because of that I can hardly have any good memories of my childhood with my Dad. I only remember when he was angry at me or made me cry. Good read, glad you didn't delete it.
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haven't posted on this forum in years but this was a great read i just had to comment it's something i definitely need to chew on but i think there's an unbelievable amount of wisdom in this post thanks for that and thanks for not deleting; i think it was a blessing realizing there's people who think similarly to me, even when you're roughly 15 years older than I am
saving this in case it disappears
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On March 19 2012 11:55 MightyAtom wrote:Not everyone can look like a model forever, like you kaka, I'm fucking ajushi now!
calbi addiction is something
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On March 19 2012 12:21 MightyAtom wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 07:14 MisterD wrote:noo never delete stuff like this, it's so important! i remember a ted talk from some absolutely weird looking dude who was advertising putting money into research for prolonging life. He was convinved, that the children being born within the last 5 years could basically become immortal due to medical advancements by the time they were old enough for it to matter. And he gave a nice motivation as to why fighting natural death should be very important. It was something along these lines: Do you consider the burnt down library of alexandria to be a tragic loss? Well, imagine, the life knowledge of one person was equal to one book (which is obviously a ridiculous underestimation). Then, by natural death alone, each year, the equivalent of three libraries of alexandria is lost. Just the relation of once a few centuries ago to three times a year, and that by using a horrendous underestimation, really gives an interesting perspective. Now, while he was motivating research for avoiding death, you can even easier use this comparison to just line out the importance of life knowledge. And that to me makes texts such as yours here just so very important. You cannot buy any book that gives you such rather personal bits of knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge, people would learn by listening to the town elders in previous times. But with that happening less and less today because families move apart a lot more and divorce rates increasing (or even coming into existence in the first place, depending on the time span), it's blogs like these that i feel need to happen more often, because they offer similar wisdom. I completely understand, that posting this can be hard and inconvenient because it's personal and sometimes contains revealing weaknesses, stuff that just doesn't feel good or right to even write, much less post. But next time your are facing this question, i'd like you to know that you would make me really sad if you don't post it :p This stuff is gold. It's certainly a good read and good lessons to be learned. But i think, on top of that, it is kind of important actually, to have more of this in a general society kind of view (that sounds weird Oo). see, i have the same feeling now ^^ i think i've drifted into weird territories and probably written complete gibberish, and now i don't think i should post it. But i'll do it, cause your blogs are just to good to not try and get more of them :D And if none of the above made any sense, just take it as a "thanks for posting this, love it! give more!" Sincerely, thanks, I do know how you are talking about as well- Ray- but yeah, you can have all this info on the net, but in terms of really finding insight into something more day-to-day, really only comes from learning directly from others- I kinda always feel when I am writing on TL that I'm writing to everyone who if I did meet I would get along with in a unique way because we are gamers, we are more on the inquisitive side and it is just as though we are this tribe. Honestly I'm such a macho Korean guy - but when it comes to hanging out with young gamers, I just become giddy and stupid because I'm just so comfortable. When I used to control and a lot of marketing spend, I use to fly into Taipei or Hong Kong and my clients would organize 9 other guys to play dota against of 3 other guys to play 2v2 SCBW against cause I didn't want to go drinking but play games in my off time. lol. It was cheaper for them than to buy me whiskey and a private room, than to call up their friend and find how who played dota and to leave me with them to lan for 5 hours. ^^ But thanks, I'm a bit embarrassed that the comparison you give is a bit too grand, but as long as you guys get a bit out of it, its more than enough for me as well. After all I have to contribute somehow ^^
Yay! Gamers unite! ("real" gamers anyways ^^)
Sorry, that wasn't my intention the comparison is grand, yes, but you're not in it alone obviously. You're just doing a good job with your part ^^ But there's tons of other people out there too, even some who are smart.
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I hope you realize that you play a huge part in all that makes TL great there is no one who could mimic the level of insight that you bring to us in your specific fields and we are very lucky to have you.
As a bit of an un-believer it always makes me very happy to hear stories about people finding actual 'salvation' in the bible, thank you for this 5/5 post!
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ALLEYCAT BLUES49042 Posts
Truly excellent read Hyung!
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That was a very interesting post and glad you didn't delete it as others have said. Your post reminds me of a book I read about 2 years ago called "The Last Lecture". It was written by a college professor who was in the last stages of a terminal disease. He did the lecture for his children (2 sons and daughter, I believe). He knew he didn't have time to really raise them and teach them as he'd like as he was going to die. He tried to squeeze as much as he could that he wanted them to learn in life. It was quite moving and the whole video can be found online. He passed away a fews months after. I really tried to take the message home that tomorrow isn't promised today.
Personally, I've tried to think of how I'd live my life if I knew I would die tomorrow. It makes me do stupid sentimental things but at the end of the day, I know I've got nothing to regret. I've lived my life to the fullest and tried to the best of my ability with what I am given. I have a young 6 mo. old son myself and I try to cherish every moment with him and my wife as well. Life is short. Everyone gets older and you may have lost your "aura" but it may have been passed to your sons instead. I think and hope that my son will remember me by the times we spent together.
I will probably read your old posts to glean over the pearls of wosdom you've shared. Thanks.
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I wish TL had a subscribe feature just for MightyAtom. Always dropping such insight on us from a stage in life that most of us won't see for a good 10-20 years. I hope you make the time to get your aura back in the Master's eyes. Thanks for the read
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That was a great read. I have to digest this for some time.
Also don't delete posts/letters like that! These kinds of things are good for you mentally!
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I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
- did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
- back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
- do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
- did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
- did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
- do you really believe in genepool?
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On March 22 2012 07:18 ecstatica wrote: I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
- did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
- back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
- do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
- did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
- did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
- do you really believe in genepool? ahh the questions aren't directed at me but in psyc genepool and biology is like maybe 50% of divience.
but yeah uhhh anyways i just want to say that is post is amazing. i wish i had the balls to write my heart out like you man. the things you write about are extremely important and helpful. i've grown tremendously as a person from just reading your blogs and from reading the books you recommened awhile back. "jack welch, good to great, essential drucker"
hopefully i write something meaningful on teamliquid as well ^__^
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On March 22 2012 10:16 jodogohoo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2012 07:18 ecstatica wrote: I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
- did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
- back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
- do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
- did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
- did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
- do you really believe in genepool? ahh the questions aren't directed at me but in psyc genepool and biology is like maybe 50% of divience.
www.economics.cornell.edu/dbenjamin/IQ-SNPs-PsychSci-20111205-accepted.pdf
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On March 22 2012 11:54 ecstatica wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2012 10:16 jodogohoo wrote:On March 22 2012 07:18 ecstatica wrote: I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
- did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
- back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
- do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
- did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
- did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
- do you really believe in genepool? ahh the questions aren't directed at me but in psyc genepool and biology is like maybe 50% of divience. www.economics.cornell.edu/dbenjamin/IQ-SNPs-PsychSci-20111205-accepted.pdf i read the discussion and conclusion and it's pretty damn solid from the looks of it. I'm not qualified to really give a meaningful opinion but hmm... it doesn't really offer another explaination why people would think there is genetic herability. it sort of disproves the theory we have which i feel is legit, but doesn't offer another one =x
the evidence is that within familes there seems to be capacity for intelligence but ofc that might just be ses and environmental factors.... ahh complicated buisness T.T;;
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Hey Mighty, thanks for your contributions to TL. I really enjoy the stuff you write about and I see a lot of experiences you've had that apply to my own life as well.
I often think about the stages in life that people go through and I get the feeling that you are in the "work as hard as I can" stage, which is admirable because, like you said, you need to make as much money in the time that you have to make that money. But from my own experiences (though I'm only 23) work is not the be all end all and there needs to come a point where you need to take the time to appreciate what you have.
Let me explain:
The whole of my 23 years has been enveloped in the oil industry of Alberta. However, when I was born was the year the the bottom fell out of the oil patch, so my family had to move to Ontario for a couple years so that we could survive (I was only 2 so when I say we, I mean my parents). In that time my Dad was working a shitty job just to put food on the table for my family and he came to a realization (one that you've touched on) and that's to work harder than anyone else for as long as you so that you have an edge to get you to the top. It's not so much in the interest of success that has been key for my Dad, but more about the interest of survival. And because of the endeavors of my Dad, I have been brought up in a life of great opportunity, which I am eternally grateful for (just so long as I was willing to work and capitalize on that opportunity). But I've also come to understand the harsh reality that is: everything can be taken away from you in an instant with no regards to what is fair and just. You see, in order to rise to the top of the oil patch (and I mean oil baron top) you need to become a tough son of a bitch. If you've ever seen the movie "There will be blood" with Daniel Day Lewis, you can get an understanding of the kind of men that are bred in this industry, but with less murder. It's a rise that has you not going to work, but going to battle every day and exposing yourself to a great amount of stress. And, from the sounds of it, you probably understand this stress well. But due to decades of exposing himself to this stress, my Dads body deteriorated. It wasn't due to poor diet or anything like that because his arteries were clean (even though his weight was in the 250lb range). Instead, the deterioration came purely from severe hypertension that wore out his aorta to such an extent that it dissected. They straight up told as they were wheeling him into surgery that there was nothing they could do and that he was going to die. My Dad, a man who worked his ass off for the sole purpose of survival was dying because of working too hard . . . literally. It didn't matter what he did, I mean, what can he do? Everything he's worked for, the name, the title, the millions of dollars cannot save him now.
Luckily for my Dad, he survived by a hair, quite literally. If it wasn't for the hair thin membrane surrounding his aorta he would have died in an instance from massive over bleeding. Not only that, but he happened to be operated on by one of the premier heart surgeons in the country (if not the world), performing what was very much an experimental surgery (due to the shear complexity of my dad's case). For things to transpire the way they did was nothing short of a miracle. But the fact remains that in matters of life and death, things become simple very quick and everything you've done, counts for little at that moment. All the money and/or notoriety in the world wouldn't have changed the fact that my dad would have been dead, my mom left without a husband and my sisters and I without a dad -- and that's not mentioning the impact on my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
So to wrap things up. I've spent a lot of time around very successful and powerful people and the same thing can be said for all of them: you need to make the most of the time you're given. You have an opportunity to work now and so you should make the most of that opportunity by working hard. However, you also have the opportunity, right now, to live. You never know when you are going to be ripped away from this earth and forced to leave everything you love and have worked for behind, so, much like you capitalize on the time you have to work, capitalize on the time you have to enjoy life.
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On March 22 2012 13:56 RBKeys wrote: Hey Mighty, thanks for your contributions to TL. I really enjoy the stuff you write about and I see a lot of experiences you've had that apply to my own life as well.
I often think about the stages in life that people go through and I get the feeling that you are in the "work as hard as I can" stage, which is admirable because, like you said, you need to make as much money in the time that you have to make that money. But from my own experiences (though I'm only 23) work is not the be all end all and there needs to come a point where you need to take the time to appreciate what you have.
Let me explain:
The whole of my 23 years has been enveloped in the oil industry of Alberta. However, when I was born was the year the the bottom fell out of the oil patch, so my family had to move to Ontario for a couple years so that we could survive (I was only 2 so when I say we, I mean my parents). In that time my Dad was working a shitty job just to put food on the table for my family and he came to a realization (one that you've touched on) and that's to work harder than anyone else for as long as you so that you have an edge to get you to the top. It's not so much in the interest of success that has been key for my Dad, but more about the interest of survival. And because of the endeavors of my Dad, I have been brought up in a life of great opportunity, which I am eternally grateful for (just so long as I was willing to work and capitalize on that opportunity). But I've also come to understand the harsh reality that is: everything can be taken away from you in an instant with no regards to what is fair and just. You see, in order to rise to the top of the oil patch (and I mean oil baron top) you need to become a tough son of a bitch. If you've ever seen the movie "There will be blood" with Daniel Day Lewis, you can get an understanding of the kind of men that are bred in this industry, but with less murder. It's a rise that has you not going to work, but going to battle every day and exposing yourself to a great amount of stress. And, from the sounds of it, you probably understand this stress well. But due to decades of exposing himself to this stress, my Dads body deteriorated. It wasn't due to poor diet or anything like that because his arteries were clean (even though his weight was in the 250lb range). Instead, the deterioration came purely from severe hypertension that wore out his aorta to such an extent that it dissected. They straight up told as they were wheeling him into surgery that there was nothing they could do and that he was going to die. My Dad, a man who worked his ass off for the sole purpose of survival was dying because of working too hard . . . literally. It didn't matter what he did, I mean, what can he do? Everything he's worked for, the name, the title, the millions of dollars cannot save him now.
Luckily for my Dad, he survived by a hair, quite literally. If it wasn't for the hair thin membrane surrounding his aorta he would have died in an instance from massive over bleeding. Not only that, but he happened to be operated on by one of the premier heart surgeons in the country (if not the world), performing what was very much an experimental surgery (due to the shear complexity of my dad's case). For things to transpire the way they did was nothing short of a miracle. But the fact remains that in matters of life and death, things become simple very quick and everything you've done, counts for little at that moment. All the money and/or notoriety in the world wouldn't have changed the fact that my dad would have been dead, my mom left without a husband and my sisters and I without a dad -- and that's not mentioning the impact on my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
So to wrap things up. I've spent a lot of time around very successful and powerful people and the same thing can be said for all of them: you need to make the most of the time you're given. You have an opportunity to work now and so you should make the most of that opportunity by working hard. However, you also have the opportunity, right now, to live. You never know when you are going to be ripped away from this earth and forced to leave everything you love and have worked for behind, so, much like you capitalize on the time you have to work, capitalize on the time you have to enjoy life.
This is indeed correct! As moms and dads always say, health comes first! Without being healthy, what is the purpose and point of doing anything? Work hard, stay healthy, and enjoy the ripening fruit. In my opinion, there is no greater pain than to suffer without seeing the result of your hard work.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 12:20 mizU wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 12:12 MightyAtom wrote:On March 19 2012 04:31 mizU wrote: Oh my god. I'm glad I read all of that.
You're so amazing 형.
From my point of view it seems like in Korea there isn't much room for advancement. You kind of get stuck in a class and can't really "jump" ahead, unless of course you get really lucky, but then again, I guess that's how it is any capitalist environment. How would you compare the opportunities of advancement to Korea? I don't really know the deep financial sides to Korea, so maybe you could enlighten me?
I know my friends at KU are going to get pretty good jobs because of the whole SKY network, and it seems like it's getting easier to get in (than before), but I still seem to have a lack of understanding on the whole socio-economic structure. At your campus of KU, it is easier, but not the main campus in Anam; but even the entire SKY thing is becoming tougher, with it really only being a Seoul Uni thing- but basically - if you don't have parental support and networks or coming from a great uni or overseas uni, you're screwed. -.- I suppose I didn't quite realize. Though a lot of my friends that are now seniors transferred to Anam for their last year. Does that means your kids are set, and probably going to KU?
I think the biggest thing is that even with all the advantages I can give them, their future still isn't set, especially if I can't give them a big leg up financially. Now of course they have a lot of advantages and I'm sure that with or without my assistance they will do well, but a majority of how 'less difficult' it will be will because of who their parents and that will automatically open x number of doors even if we don't meet the people. That is how it was with me and my wife, we still worked hard like mofos, but to get that foot in the door was of course extremely easier, instead of fighting it out with 1000 people, we fought it out with maybe 10 or 20 other people as qualified in both background/education.
Up to 20 years ago, going to KU guaranteed success, but I'd say about 8 years ago or so that did change dramatically, nowadays nothing is guaranteed, that being said, you graduate from Seoul Korea or Yonsei, and you're in the top 5% of the work force automatically, but likely only from Seoul University has a guaranteed formula for success still. But the entire system is outdated, without any real replacement. I expect some type of blow up within the next 10 years, either that or half the population just giving up...
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 19 2012 12:59 don_kyuhote wrote:Should have bought them KJV... reading this blog kind of reminded me of what some pastor told me when I was in high school: "A lot of people who grow up in churches stop going to church when they enter college, but come back when they have children."
That is very common, but I've never stopped going to church, just stopped reading the bible entirely. I use to read the bible about a hour and half every day, then when I got into seminary for grad school, I studied it for 4 hours a day. I can tell when a minister is misquoting the bible out of context or he/she didn't actually prepare enough for the sermon, but more than a social or moralistic stance with church or Christianity, I just became very disillusioned with the role or profession of being a clergy or being a professor in that particular field.
But it is true a lot of people go back to church when they have children, but again, it probably is for more the 'morality' of the church setting. Which is nothing bad or good. ^^
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On March 19 2012 13:42 Wrongspeedy wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 11:56 MightyAtom wrote:On March 19 2012 03:08 Agama wrote: Just curious, how old are your sons? Also good read. First son, Ethan is 3.5 years, and second son Mark is 11 months. Thx, and I've already applied them for high school already lol. Make sure to spend the time with them. You can't take that back once its done. My Dad was busy working for almost nothing my entire childhood, because of that I can hardly have any good memories of my childhood with my Dad. I only remember when he was angry at me or made me cry. Good read, glad you didn't delete it.
Well, I'll do the best I can, thing is, when you're a dad and you're the only breadwinner, the focus becomes taking care of the family as how you show your love. Of course in retrospect, all fathers will have wanted to spend more time with their kids, and I don't think I had an especially good relationship with my father as well, but when I got older, at least I could understand where he was coming from. Now, very late in his life, do we have a very good relationship, but it is hard when you are working for certain goals to create balance, but I'd like to think that by giving up my corporate job I've already taken a step in the right direction.
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On March 19 2012 17:01 theobsessed1 wrote:haven't posted on this forum in years but this was a great read i just had to comment it's something i definitely need to chew on but i think there's an unbelievable amount of wisdom in this post thanks for that and thanks for not deleting; i think it was a blessing realizing there's people who think similarly to me, even when you're roughly 15 years older than I am saving this in case it disappears
Thx ^^ TL is full of like minded geeks keke.
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On March 19 2012 18:48 Boonbag wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 11:55 MightyAtom wrote:On March 19 2012 02:50 Boonbag wrote: Jesus you're 110 kg
wtf man Not everyone can look like a model forever, like you kaka, I'm fucking ajushi now! calbi addiction is something
and beer, soju and whiskey as well. ^^
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On March 19 2012 20:55 MisterD wrote:Show nested quote +On March 19 2012 12:21 MightyAtom wrote:On March 19 2012 07:14 MisterD wrote:noo never delete stuff like this, it's so important! i remember a ted talk from some absolutely weird looking dude who was advertising putting money into research for prolonging life. He was convinved, that the children being born within the last 5 years could basically become immortal due to medical advancements by the time they were old enough for it to matter. And he gave a nice motivation as to why fighting natural death should be very important. It was something along these lines: Do you consider the burnt down library of alexandria to be a tragic loss? Well, imagine, the life knowledge of one person was equal to one book (which is obviously a ridiculous underestimation). Then, by natural death alone, each year, the equivalent of three libraries of alexandria is lost. Just the relation of once a few centuries ago to three times a year, and that by using a horrendous underestimation, really gives an interesting perspective. Now, while he was motivating research for avoiding death, you can even easier use this comparison to just line out the importance of life knowledge. And that to me makes texts such as yours here just so very important. You cannot buy any book that gives you such rather personal bits of knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge, people would learn by listening to the town elders in previous times. But with that happening less and less today because families move apart a lot more and divorce rates increasing (or even coming into existence in the first place, depending on the time span), it's blogs like these that i feel need to happen more often, because they offer similar wisdom. I completely understand, that posting this can be hard and inconvenient because it's personal and sometimes contains revealing weaknesses, stuff that just doesn't feel good or right to even write, much less post. But next time your are facing this question, i'd like you to know that you would make me really sad if you don't post it :p This stuff is gold. It's certainly a good read and good lessons to be learned. But i think, on top of that, it is kind of important actually, to have more of this in a general society kind of view (that sounds weird Oo). see, i have the same feeling now ^^ i think i've drifted into weird territories and probably written complete gibberish, and now i don't think i should post it. But i'll do it, cause your blogs are just to good to not try and get more of them :D And if none of the above made any sense, just take it as a "thanks for posting this, love it! give more!" Sincerely, thanks, I do know how you are talking about as well- Ray- but yeah, you can have all this info on the net, but in terms of really finding insight into something more day-to-day, really only comes from learning directly from others- I kinda always feel when I am writing on TL that I'm writing to everyone who if I did meet I would get along with in a unique way because we are gamers, we are more on the inquisitive side and it is just as though we are this tribe. Honestly I'm such a macho Korean guy - but when it comes to hanging out with young gamers, I just become giddy and stupid because I'm just so comfortable. When I used to control and a lot of marketing spend, I use to fly into Taipei or Hong Kong and my clients would organize 9 other guys to play dota against of 3 other guys to play 2v2 SCBW against cause I didn't want to go drinking but play games in my off time. lol. It was cheaper for them than to buy me whiskey and a private room, than to call up their friend and find how who played dota and to leave me with them to lan for 5 hours. ^^ But thanks, I'm a bit embarrassed that the comparison you give is a bit too grand, but as long as you guys get a bit out of it, its more than enough for me as well. After all I have to contribute somehow ^^ Yay! Gamers unite! ("real" gamers anyways ^^) Sorry, that wasn't my intention the comparison is grand, yes, but you're not in it alone obviously. You're just doing a good job with your part ^^ But there's tons of other people out there too, even some who are smart.
We can only do our part ^^ and those TED talks are good/nutty lol.
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On March 22 2012 02:02 YoucriedWolf wrote: I hope you realize that you play a huge part in all that makes TL great there is no one who could mimic the level of insight that you bring to us in your specific fields and we are very lucky to have you.
As a bit of an un-believer it always makes me very happy to hear stories about people finding actual 'salvation' in the bible, thank you for this 5/5 post!
thx ^^ I don't know if I can say I found 'salvation' in the bible per say, but it is one of the major pillars of my worldview. And I don't mean that in any new age way, I'm pretty conservative in what my faith is in- but I'm also pretty simple about it as well. It's all about love. Sometimes I forget that love isn't about the ones around you, but to those who simply could use it. Very idealist and naive sounding I know, and that is probably the most difficult thing about it.
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On March 22 2012 02:26 BLinD-RawR wrote: Truly excellent read Hyung!
^^* gamsah
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On March 22 2012 03:03 htn2481 wrote: That was a very interesting post and glad you didn't delete it as others have said. Your post reminds me of a book I read about 2 years ago called "The Last Lecture". It was written by a college professor who was in the last stages of a terminal disease. He did the lecture for his children (2 sons and daughter, I believe). He knew he didn't have time to really raise them and teach them as he'd like as he was going to die. He tried to squeeze as much as he could that he wanted them to learn in life. It was quite moving and the whole video can be found online. He passed away a fews months after. I really tried to take the message home that tomorrow isn't promised today.
Personally, I've tried to think of how I'd live my life if I knew I would die tomorrow. It makes me do stupid sentimental things but at the end of the day, I know I've got nothing to regret. I've lived my life to the fullest and tried to the best of my ability with what I am given. I have a young 6 mo. old son myself and I try to cherish every moment with him and my wife as well. Life is short. Everyone gets older and you may have lost your "aura" but it may have been passed to your sons instead. I think and hope that my son will remember me by the times we spent together.
I will probably read your old posts to glean over the pearls of wosdom you've shared. Thanks.
Thank you for sharing that, I feel the same way, I don't know what kind of father I'll be at the end of it all, but whatever time and love I can share now, I hope it will be with them whether I'm around or not. Post of this nature, I mean the only way I could really write it out and not feel too self-concious about it was to think that that it was for my sons. ^^
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On March 22 2012 03:08 Scarecrow wrote:I wish TL had a subscribe feature just for MightyAtom. Always dropping such insight on us from a stage in life that most of us won't see for a good 10-20 years. I hope you make the time to get your aura back in the Master's eyes. Thanks for the read
Ha, I went to practice yesterday, challenged the jujitsu instructor, and I mean I really did challenge him, lol. We started stand up and when for about 10 mins straight, I tapped out from exhaustion not from getting submitted, but I literally had zero breath left, so I guess that is even worse. ^^ But, 10 years comes quick enough, hehe.
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On March 22 2012 06:41 Bunn wrote: That was a great read. I have to digest this for some time.
Also don't delete posts/letters like that! These kinds of things are good for you mentally!
This is true, at least it will prevent the onslaught of dementia in my old age keke. ^^
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I really do love all your blog posts. Btw I'm curious, what did you do for your undergraduate degree? Theology is an interesting choice for grad school to say the least.
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On March 22 2012 07:18 ecstatica wrote: I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
1. - did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
2. - back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
3. - do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
4. - did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
5. - did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
6. - do you really believe in genepool?
I've numbered them in your quote to answer them.
1. yes, even to the point of refusing to believe. but it comes down to it, if you really want to know, then if God is really God, then question the hell out of him, after all, he is God. lol.
2. Up to that point, I always thought I was the shit, but some of my professors went out their way to 'teach me' humility. I am not a humble person as an expression of personality, and am I humble, no- but I do know myself very clearly, I know when I do know and do not know, so in my view, I'm humble enough- but relative to most people of course no one would say I'm humble- but at least I realize that I'm mostly not and try to correct it on some occasions. But I won't be humble for the sake of looking humble, seriously fuck that. I'm not living to please people's perceptions.
But for those times that I did feel mediocre and not special, I was of course depressed and felt aimless and what that time taught me is that, humility is not my defining characteristic and never will be. I've never taken the route well traveled and because of the route I chose, and lets call a spade a spade instead of pretending it is something else. I have always been the one to take the lead, but also I'm also the one who will take the bullet for the team. Humility will never be in the top 10 words to describe me, and nor should it be.
The one thing I am thankful for that time is that while they tried to break me and succeeded for a while, the confidence that took the former's place was one that was painstakenly rebuilt, and I don't think can be crushed again, at least not just by the opinions of others. You come full circle but this time it is deliberate. But, when I was down and out, I simply, questioned and kept plodding along until I realized that this wasn't for me. It isn't to say I gave up, but, I left all those years of study behind for what it was and without any expectations more on it.
3.Luck, timing, always plays a role in it, but here is the kicker: I never stopped going for it, so I was always preparing and being in a position to take advantage of opportunities. Some kids come from extremely wealthy families, full connected, but do coke all day long and while they are lucky as hell, never try to go for anything. Some other kids, try like motherfukers, but just aren't in any position to get a break. Just being born into the family that I have, even without any help, just the way they raised me, I appreciate it. Made me appreciate others.
I've been burned as many times or more than I've been helped, but at the end of the day, I don't think we try because we know we are going to succeed, rather we try because it's all that we got and we make do or work it out from there.
4. This is an extremely inappropriate question that would foolish for anyone to answer who wasn't someone close to you and that you could put in context. The biggest reason, is not that it is on the public forum, but that it is very easy to make a very superficial judge of someone's character because the answer will always supercede the intent of the question. So let me answer both 4 and 5 together and answer what the question is perhaps really asking.
Any decision you make that has lifelong or very extreme or significant implications on your life, like marriage or committing to love only one for the rest of your life will ALWAYS be riddled with a lot of doubt, questions and unrest, EVEN after the decision is made- simply because, the gravity of the situation demands it.
If you simply 'fell in love' and got married the next day in Vegas, the chances of that marriage working out is close to zero (while it happens, I'm sure, they must live pretty simple lives in the first place). If you have two big job promotions, but one is in NY or one is Hong Kong, whatever you choose you will wonder, what if.
The older most of my juniors get, the more that they are in angst about getting married, and I say, look, at age 30, if you think getting married will be a bed of roses, then I think you've been taking too many drugs or are still a virgin. But when you understand what you're really getting into, then you're actually at that time most ready for it.
But at the end of the day, the choices we make, it is still up to us whether or not we made those choices in good faith or not. By their nature, it not the easy choice either way, but to also say, that you simply make the one time decision and that it is final, is also bullshit as well, you will be forced to reaffirm that choice until the choice is no longer a choice, but really part of your life.
I've been directly propositioned many times by women who knew that I was married and wanted to be my mistress and in many different countries (when I was in a position of public influence- even made the cover of some Hong Kong celebrity gossip magazines that I was secretly dating some swimsuit models). But I made a choice to be married and not have a mistress or two. Were these ladies hot? Was I admiring their bodies? Was I flirting back? Am I am man? hell yes.
But at the end of the day, we try, we try and we try some more, and we can fail and continue to try until it is no a choice any longer but who we are. The woman I married, was the woman who I knew made me a better man. That was what I based things on, for others, if the woman you want to marry is the one who is the hottest or the most sexy or the most charming, then I can't see how you're not going to live you life without doubting or questioning.
At the end of the day, why do we make those types of decisions, those big ones. Is it because we have to, or we feel pressured into it and just basically flip a coin, or is it because we are looking for something specific? Single out the thing that maters most to you and if you've made your decision based on that, then really, there was no other choice. Then own that decision you made and man the fuck up.
But if there was any doubt, watching my wife give birth to my two sons and seeing my sons grow, even as young as they are, I wouldn't trade them and my wife for the hundreds of enticing ballerinas which circled my head like angels for many years.
6. It's not believe or not believe, there is a gene pool, after all most of us Koreans look a like for a reason, lol (and I'm just assuming what you mean by genepool- so just sort out my definition, if it isn't the same, well, keke). But the issue is saying whether is one is better than other etc,then you get judged by all the people who are outraged to suggest that people aren't all equal and life really isn't fair etc...I'm not going to say one race is better than other race; you'll always find exceptions in every situation and while stereotypes abound, with whatever true they hold or don't; it all doesn't matter. Why, because it isn't applicable.
But for me, when I talk about genepool or what I have or what my sons will have, its about simply understanding the potential. That in certain ways, they have this or that potential. Whether or not they fulfill it is up to a number of factors. Most of it is desire. Desire can supercede talent given that desire has enough time.
I can always tell, in what I'm good at or very good at, who is better than me; whether it be business or whatever. But I'm also good at understanding why he/she is better than me and then learning and then finally being better. Most people are one trick ponies and even if you aren't, you eventually will be. But the one true benefit of good gene pool is the frequency, the amount and the shorten time period of getting to good results; providing there is passion and desire; but it is a lot rarer and harder to come by than you'd think.
Especially if you do have good potential or a good supportive environment, the 'hunger' usually is lacking. But I'm also talking about not the averages, but achievement at the highest possible levels, that does take a certain level of talent to start off with plus the hard work.
But I guess my point is, I know that the genius exists with my people to figure out what to do next for our country; and I know we have to potential to figure it out, and I just want to one day assist in at least providing opportunities for that desire.
Thanks for the questions: I know that they are addressing something more than just my post, so I hope that it was helpful in any way. ^^
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On March 22 2012 10:16 jodogohoo wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2012 07:18 ecstatica wrote: I have no idea if this is too personal for you to answer but you seem like someone Id want to ask.
- did you ever seriously question your religious beliefs to the point where you werent sure?
- back when you were failing your theology did you still think you were the shit? Did you ever feel mediocre or not special and how did you deal with that?
- do you honestly think you were lucky to get here before the hardworking stage?
- did you or do you look/sleep with other women after you got married?
- did you ever think for a second your marriage was a mistake and what did you tell yourself?
- do you really believe in genepool? ahh the questions aren't directed at me but in psyc genepool and biology is like maybe 50% of divience. but yeah uhhh anyways i just want to say that is post is amazing. i wish i had the balls to write my heart out like you man. the things you write about are extremely important and helpful. i've grown tremendously as a person from just reading your blogs and from reading the books you recommened awhile back. "jack welch, good to great, essential drucker" hopefully i write something meaningful on teamliquid as well ^__^
hehe, good on you for reading them! Everything in time and I'm sure you're kicking some booty right now!
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On March 22 2012 13:56 RBKeys wrote: Hey Mighty, thanks for your contributions to TL. I really enjoy the stuff you write about and I see a lot of experiences you've had that apply to my own life as well.
I often think about the stages in life that people go through and I get the feeling that you are in the "work as hard as I can" stage, which is admirable because, like you said, you need to make as much money in the time that you have to make that money. But from my own experiences (though I'm only 23) work is not the be all end all and there needs to come a point where you need to take the time to appreciate what you have.
Let me explain:
The whole of my 23 years has been enveloped in the oil industry of Alberta. However, when I was born was the year the the bottom fell out of the oil patch, so my family had to move to Ontario for a couple years so that we could survive (I was only 2 so when I say we, I mean my parents). In that time my Dad was working a shitty job just to put food on the table for my family and he came to a realization (one that you've touched on) and that's to work harder than anyone else for as long as you so that you have an edge to get you to the top. It's not so much in the interest of success that has been key for my Dad, but more about the interest of survival. And because of the endeavors of my Dad, I have been brought up in a life of great opportunity, which I am eternally grateful for (just so long as I was willing to work and capitalize on that opportunity). But I've also come to understand the harsh reality that is: everything can be taken away from you in an instant with no regards to what is fair and just. You see, in order to rise to the top of the oil patch (and I mean oil baron top) you need to become a tough son of a bitch. If you've ever seen the movie "There will be blood" with Daniel Day Lewis, you can get an understanding of the kind of men that are bred in this industry, but with less murder. It's a rise that has you not going to work, but going to battle every day and exposing yourself to a great amount of stress. And, from the sounds of it, you probably understand this stress well. But due to decades of exposing himself to this stress, my Dads body deteriorated. It wasn't due to poor diet or anything like that because his arteries were clean (even though his weight was in the 250lb range). Instead, the deterioration came purely from severe hypertension that wore out his aorta to such an extent that it dissected. They straight up told as they were wheeling him into surgery that there was nothing they could do and that he was going to die. My Dad, a man who worked his ass off for the sole purpose of survival was dying because of working too hard . . . literally. It didn't matter what he did, I mean, what can he do? Everything he's worked for, the name, the title, the millions of dollars cannot save him now.
Luckily for my Dad, he survived by a hair, quite literally. If it wasn't for the hair thin membrane surrounding his aorta he would have died in an instance from massive over bleeding. Not only that, but he happened to be operated on by one of the premier heart surgeons in the country (if not the world), performing what was very much an experimental surgery (due to the shear complexity of my dad's case). For things to transpire the way they did was nothing short of a miracle. But the fact remains that in matters of life and death, things become simple very quick and everything you've done, counts for little at that moment. All the money and/or notoriety in the world wouldn't have changed the fact that my dad would have been dead, my mom left without a husband and my sisters and I without a dad -- and that's not mentioning the impact on my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
So to wrap things up. I've spent a lot of time around very successful and powerful people and the same thing can be said for all of them: you need to make the most of the time you're given. You have an opportunity to work now and so you should make the most of that opportunity by working hard. However, you also have the opportunity, right now, to live. You never know when you are going to be ripped away from this earth and forced to leave everything you love and have worked for behind, so, much like you capitalize on the time you have to work, capitalize on the time you have to enjoy life.
Thanks for sharing and yes I do completely understand and I don't think anyone would disagree with the advice, but ask anyone if we'd do it all again in the same way, I don't know if we all would.
You hear at every great commencement speech someone great who has accomplished so much stand up and say, "I've done this and that, but I regret not having more balance in my life, you should remember that', but it is the nature of achievement. Even if you make it, when do you quit? And what your dad does to get to that point, when you say 'work,' I know what that really means, but a lot of people still have no idea what really working like there is no tomorrow that it is like you are buried 10 feet under ground and you need to claw your way up for air, then it is the same day every day. I understand that kind of work. But what motivates a man to do that, is what also blinds him as to when he should stop or not.
I already made that choice when I resigned from my exec position which paid a lot, but didn't leave me any space, both mentally and with my family. But much like your father, I also have expectations that I wish to take on. It's unlikely that I will go down that extreme path, but just by the nature of the job, you become a hard man and it is hard to break away from that which produces those achievements.
Finance has this phrase, 'what is your magic number?' cause if you're in sales/trading, there is only so much you can handle because the stress is that bad, and so what the magic number is, 'how much do you need to make to quit the industry and retire?' Unfortunately my magic number is a bit high, but hopefully I'll hit it before 60 and retire then ^^ but point taken and thanks.
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On March 22 2012 21:45 ExceeD_DreaM wrote:This is indeed correct! As moms and dads always say, health comes first! Without being healthy, what is the purpose and point of doing anything? Work hard, stay healthy, and enjoy the ripening fruit. In my opinion, there is no greater pain than to suffer without seeing the result of your hard work.
I don't disagree at all. ^^
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On March 22 2012 23:12 targ wrote: I really do love all your blog posts. Btw I'm curious, what did you do for your undergraduate degree? Theology is an interesting choice for grad school to say the least.
Well my dad who graduated from law school ended being a minister, so that was part of it; but, I started as a chemistry specialist, then switched to English Lit, then switched to Political Theory and had all my electives as science courses lol. I probably took the hardest route to an arts degree.
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Thank you for your answers, this is probably the only place where I can directly ask someone whos life experience and time opportunity cost is this high.
Youre exactly right, I was asking to possibly find answers for my own purpose. We all walk our own roads but sometimes a little tap on the shoulder is all thats needed. And I appreciate that.
Best of luck to you finding that purpose and aura again, youre a good human being.
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In a previous post you said you were good at predicting what will happen in systems, etc. I want to ask you a little about s. korea and religion.
I get the impression it is quite Christian? How long has it been so? It surprises me that such a far eastern country seems to be quite Christian. And mainly, how do you think this will progress in the long run? Are more people becoming atheist with more exposure to the rest of the world (I guess in particular western Europe which is very atheist now, at school in my year of 200 boys there were 2 muslims, one catholic and 197 atheists, so religion is always quite interesting/perplexing for me).
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South Korea is still predominantly non-religious. Christianity as a whole is the largest religion in South Korea at the moment though, and the history of Christianity actually does stretch back quite a bit, surprisingly enough. There's a lot of reasons why Christianity survived and then grew with such great vigor though. Christianity offered a very concrete way of circumventing the rigid and oppressive social hierarchy that was established during the Chosun era, and various Christian organizations put a great deal of effort in keeping the Korean language alive while also offering refuge during the Japanese occupation, and this continued on into the Korean War. Christianity had a great social presence and in some ways was the catalyst to many of the social reforms and rethinking that characterizes a great deal of modern South Korea.
But in modern times I think a great deal of South Korean Christianity has gone down the gutter and I think Protestantism in South Korea is extremely broken. Within the context of South Korea, the Catholics are much more genuine. But as a whole I think South Korea will retain the nonreligious plurality and I certainly do not think Christianity will become a majority.
edit: also, I think the Koreans are unique among the Far East nations in that Christianity (Catholicism) was being practiced within the nation (Chosun) before any missionaries from the West arrived to the nation. When the first Christian missionaries, Catholics, arrived to Chosun, they arrived to a nation that already had a Catholic community. Preliminary Catholic thought that arrived through China was already discussed by the Yangban intellectuals and the nation was already somewhat aware of Christian thought.
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On March 23 2012 01:11 Deadeight wrote: In a previous post you said you were good at predicting what will happen in systems, etc. I want to ask you a little about s. korea and religion.
I get the impression it is quite Christian? How long has it been so? It surprises me that such a far eastern country seems to be quite Christian. And mainly, how do you think this will progress in the long run? Are more people becoming atheist with more exposure to the rest of the world (I guess in particular western Europe which is very atheist now, at school in my year of 200 boys there were 2 muslims, one catholic and 197 atheists, so religion is always quite interesting/perplexing for me).
Actually, the presence of Christians is quite visible, as there are thousands of churches and some mega churches and you'll see tones of crosses all around the city in neon lights, but I think at one point 30% of the population considered themselves to be Christian or Catholic. So 1/3 is a ton, but that has since decreased to the low 20%.
Our current president is a practicing Christian and he was criticized very early in his term for giving favoritism to Christian projects over that of Buddhist issues.
Relative to China or Japan, which due to communism or or extermination, Korea has been considered quite the miracle, but we are a long way to being considered Christendom because it has such a short time in our history. My son, would be the fifth generation of protestant in Korea, which would be the longest line. Catholics should be at seventh generation at the very longest. But the impact of Christianity in Korea is not really social justice focused, but rather, personal salvation focused. Thus, this has played into Korea's natural shamanistic cultural character and so there is a lot of personal prayer, and tithing for the reward of something personal, whether it be material or rewards. This has created a lot of huge issues in that churches became corrupted by the influx of money and some ministers played into that. Also there is a huge Pentecostal movement which as died down somewhat, but still rakes the most money and active participation.
But I'd say, things are going in a good way, where due to the wealth of the country, people are going to church for more reasons than just praying for rewards, but on the other hand, we are following the same trends as more modern societies where by the mature church is shrinking in size. But for us, that probably is still at least 20 years away to see something really noticeable like the decline in the west.
To give some perspective to your question though. When you have wealth, you get into this consumer mode, so, it becomes, you are what you buy or associate with. The fundamental issue of life and death and the well being of your people doesn't not become a main subject of discussion. After all, all around you are people living happy, without any faith in their lives. But go to a 3rd world country and ask how many people don't believe in God, I'm sure none. Now the fault with this line of thinking is that do we pray because we are desperate or do we pray because we know life is about life and death and suffering, that there is nothing creating the illusion that everything is totally cool. But for the most part, all wealthy cultures will move away from any sense of religious when the basis for faith was simply to survive. But if the faith is based on a need to share love in the world, then that itself is entirely different.
So you'll find also, in third world countries the message is Heaven or Hell, but in 1st world countries the message is 'sharing love'. A fine difference, but a great leap in approach. ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 23 2012 01:49 koreasilver wrote: South Korea is still predominantly non-religious. Christianity as a whole is the largest religion in South Korea at the moment though, and the history of Christianity actually does stretch back quite a bit, surprisingly enough. There's a lot of reasons why Christianity survived and then grew with such great vigor though. Christianity offered a very concrete way of circumventing the rigid and oppressive social hierarchy that was established during the Chosun era, and various Christian organizations put a great deal of effort in keeping the Korean language alive while also offering refuge during the Japanese occupation, and this continued on into the Korean War. Christianity had a great social presence and in some ways was the catalyst to many of the social reforms and rethinking that characterizes a great deal of modern South Korea.
But in modern times I think a great deal of South Korean Christianity has gone down the gutter and I think Protestantism in South Korea is extremely broken. Within the context of South Korea, the Catholics are much more genuine. But as a whole I think South Korea will retain the nonreligious plurality and I certainly do not think Christianity will become a majority.
edit: also, I think the Koreans are unique among the Far East nations in that Christianity (Catholicism) was being practiced within the nation (Chosun) before any missionaries from the West arrived to the nation. When the first Christian missionaries, Catholics, arrived to Chosun, they arrived to a nation that already had a Catholic community. Preliminary Catholic thought that arrived through China was already discussed by the Yangban intellectuals and the nation was already somewhat aware of Christian thought.
Well I think I took a much more recent relative/approach to the question, because I think if you really want to talk about the modern era of Christian post 1980, you'd need to look to the factors as to the explosion of the Christian population during that period. ^^
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Definitely one of the best blogs I've read on here. Thanks for sharing that, I'm going to go read some of your past ones now.
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Hey MightyAtom-hyung, I have another question to ask you if you have time for it.
When I first graduated, I was thinking of going into management consulting, although in the end I went into IT consulting, from time to time I still think of going back and pursuing my original dream.
But then recently I read a lot of articles and discussions on management consulting, and they say that a large portion of it is just BS-ing the clients, or presenting some grand ideas that don't really help the client to do better in business, or just making fancy powerpoint presentations... you get the drift. And if it's really like that then I'm not very keen on doing it.
However I was seeing some of your old blog titles about your experiences in PWC (the content is deleted so I can't see what the experiences were). I feel that a guy like you wouldn't be content with just passing out spin BS to clients, so I'd like to ask you do you feel the management consulting industry is genuinely useful to clients? If so, how?
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MightyAtom bossing againn. Any chance of a republishing of your older blogs? :D
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I have been raised from birth in a catholic school. I am now 16 years old, much like you did I slack a lot during school, I'm going to finish my grade 11 year with only 86% average which is unlikely to get me in to any schools. Unlike you, I am drifting away from being christian. I can't bring myself to believe there is a god anymore. I am much more interested in non-religious taoism and even budhism. Can't say why but the few bits I have watched on youtube and read online appeal to me.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I just sincerely hope that I will find something that seizes my imagination the way your business work does.
Recently I've taken to walking around the city by myself, giving money to bums and just noticing the things around me and being very fascinated by the things going on around me. I have way more fun than if I was with any friends, maybe inspiration will find me.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 23 2012 07:54 Vronti wrote: Definitely one of the best blogs I've read on here. Thanks for sharing that, I'm going to go read some of your past ones now. ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 14:16 targ wrote: Hey MightyAtom-hyung, I have another question to ask you if you have time for it.
When I first graduated, I was thinking of going into management consulting, although in the end I went into IT consulting, from time to time I still think of going back and pursuing my original dream.
But then recently I read a lot of articles and discussions on management consulting, and they say that a large portion of it is just BS-ing the clients, or presenting some grand ideas that don't really help the client to do better in business, or just making fancy powerpoint presentations... you get the drift. And if it's really like that then I'm not very keen on doing it.
However I was seeing some of your old blog titles about your experiences in PWC (the content is deleted so I can't see what the experiences were). I feel that a guy like you wouldn't be content with just passing out spin BS to clients, so I'd like to ask you do you feel the management consulting industry is genuinely useful to clients? If so, how?
Management consulting is only good if the company is in a growth period and for that moment they need more strategic HR, normally a company will require very little strategic input, operations is like 98% of what makes a company turn a profit, but that 2% is of course critical in either highly competitive markets or in growth sectors.
90% of management consultants are hacks, but that being said, it isn't like they aren't creating some value for that firm because, they are drawing on a lot of work from past clients in similar situation and the fact is, if you're hired as a management consultant, then you can work like mofo and you're ultra sharp/quick thinking, so its not totally a wash.
But no one forces you to be a hack and a lot of times what is strategically difficult for normal companies, is pretty easy/run of the mill for top tier management firms because that is what they've been doing for the last 30 years or so.
If you don't want to be a hack, then its great, also, after doing it for a couple of years, if you do a good job, most of the time your clients will end of scouting you for an executive position. I don't see a down side to you, like most jobs that are 'professional' in nature, you can hide behind your title or do your job as you see fit. ^^
edit: but you will have to do a helluva lot of powerpoint presentations, but no worries,there are like 20 templates to choose from lol.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 15:13 heha wrote: MightyAtom bossing againn. Any chance of a republishing of your older blogs? :D
There is a chance the next month ^^
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 17:18 Thaniri wrote: I have been raised from birth in a catholic school. I am now 16 years old, much like you did I slack a lot during school, I'm going to finish my grade 11 year with only 86% average which is unlikely to get me in to any schools. Unlike you, I am drifting away from being christian. I can't bring myself to believe there is a god anymore. I am much more interested in non-religious taoism and even budhism. Can't say why but the few bits I have watched on youtube and read online appeal to me.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I just sincerely hope that I will find something that seizes my imagination the way your business work does.
Recently I've taken to walking around the city by myself, giving money to bums and just noticing the things around me and being very fascinated by the things going on around me. I have way more fun than if I was with any friends, maybe inspiration will find me.
Faith is not belief, it is seeing the world as God's sees it, and that takes time to doubt, to move away, to move close and to sometimes give up and re-see things. We're granted life to live and and as we do, we gain more understanding and when we have more experiences and new situations, our ways of thinking are tested, developed and changed.
The world and people is always much much bigger than what you see, even right in front of you, and I think you're on the right track. Life isn't just school, marks and stability - not to say that it doesn't play a part, but it isn't everything and later in life, it isn't much at all, but people are always going to be at different parts of their lives. I would say, explore, do, and then come back to what you think is being Christian, after learning more, you may find that there is still a lot to learn in Christianity as well instead of just want you've been directed to learn in the church or school, after all, Jesus was a shit disturber of the nth degree. ^^
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