2023-12-27 14:39:45
The short, bald-headed man in his mid-seventies always smiled when he saw someone. He is a friendly old man who I think of as an older brother. He had traveled abroad with us. Even if he met someone for the first time on his travels, he smiled brightly and said, “Hello,” and approached them first. He wasn’t good at English either. When we were together, he took care of me first. His words were polite to everyone. He was an affable person.
This is someone I met by chance during my social life. It was not a relationship between a lawyer and a client. He was the owner of the building next to my office. When I was sixty years old and said I wanted to learn baduk, he volunteered to become my baduk teacher and teach me. He seemed to have an outstanding talent for teaching. He was an unknown wealthy person. There seemed to be several buildings in the rich areas of Cheongdam-dong and Myeong-dong.
When I became friends with him, I once asked him, “Excuse me, how much do you have?”
“Well, maybe 200 billion? “I don’t know exactly.”
He spoke as if nothing had happened. He simply told me how he became rich. He started out as a poor banker and had neither great education nor experience.
In my own way, I discovered two reasons why he became rich. One was his great affability. He had a look and impression that did not put anyone on alert. He had the advantage of smiling and actively approaching people to build relationships.
Of course, there were other advantages as well. In order to get ahead at a bank, one had to hold several positions. Rather than being promoted, he stayed in the real estate department for twenty years and specialized in that field. He said it was fun to watch people borrow money to buy and sell land. He was a salaried worker and had no money, but he was able to hear advanced information from high-ranking people, he said.
He said he also gained a sense of distinguishing between good land and bad land. He said that when the foreign exchange crisis hit, he saw valuable land and buildings being thrown away at low prices, so he bought the land and became rich. I was lucky enough to win even in a bidding competition with hundreds to one. He said that he did a lot of transactions, but the money came in even without doing anything illegal or breaking the law. He came to this conclusion regarding himself becoming rich.
“We need to make basic efforts and generate seed money. But next is God. “I have experienced that God wants to give us material blessings, so He pours them out abundantly.”
I have another friend who became rich. She is my high school classmate. He also always approached others with a smile. He became a certified public accountant and was working at a large law firm. One evening, a representative of an American valve company came to Korea and stopped by the law firm. All lawyers in charge of international relations left work or refused late-hour consultations.
He approached an American who was regarding to return and asked, “Why did you come?” He treated him kindly and guided him with sincerity. Of course, he didn’t get paid for his work. The following summer, when he went to New York, he met the American by chance once more on the street. He said that the American would give him exclusive sales agency rights, so why not sell the valves his company produces in Korea? This is something he heard once while giving counseling. I declined. I thought I was just an accountant.
However, when I received the offer for the second time, my mind changed. His entrepreneurial career changed the trajectory of his life. Valve wasn’t simple. It was a necessary part to make a smartphone and was also attached to a space suit. There was a rumor going around among his high school classmates that he had become rich overnight. It was true. A man who came to my office once told me how he became rich.
“In short, I am a person who has been struck by money. In order to sell Valve, I had to lobby, but Samsung executives came to me and asked me to supply smartphone parts. They even give you money up front without even lowering the price. That’s the perk of exclusive sales rights. Even if a conglomerate tried to go to the United States and establish a purchasing line, the American company said no. Go buy it from me. Especially during the foreign exchange crisis, the price of inventory in warehouses jumps following just one night. Moreover, as the foreign exchange rate rises, it doubles once more. Because the bank interest rate is high, the money you receive increases like a snowball. “I became rich.”
I looked at what advantages the two rich people had. They lived without comparing themselves to others and had completely positive personalities. And the compatibility with both of them was amazing. It may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but I realized that this is a huge advantage for humans. I learned that all opportunities and misfortunes come from people. I learned that a bug called unhappiness is likely to crawl into a person who is negative and isolated regarding things.
Even if you are not rich, food comes into your daily life and relationships. I realized late that only by having good relationships can you become rich and get a high position. I mightn’t do that. I hope that in the future, my grandchildren, granddaughters, and descendants will read this article and actively enter into relationships.
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