Hyunjoo Je is a young teacher who taught me a perspective on work. In 2019, I read her book ‘The Working Mind’ and went to hear her lecture. Today, I went through my old notes and reread what I wrote down, and it still stuck with me, so I felt compelled to write it down.

When two of the following are involved: money, fame (recognition), and fun, we do the work.

The best thing is when all three are involved but that seems to be very rare. It depends on your own situation, but at the point of retirement in my 50s, I would prioritize ‘fun’ over money or fame (recognition) and be grateful if money or fame is involved.

My motto is ‘If you are curious, do it’. Even if I do my job, I reserve at least 20% of my energy for my work.

You are not the owner of the company, you are a worker who is paid for your time and labor. Even the position of president, unless he is a member of the owner’s family, is just a worker who is compensated a bit more. Then you need to have energy for yourself outside of work. So that you can pursue the things want to do and are curious about.

The paradigm of work is changing. It used to be that your identity was what you did, but now where your identity is what you do.

If your answer to “Who are you?” is still “I’m a lawyer” or “I work at Bank.” that’s outdated. There are a lot of lawyers in the world, and we need a certain kind of lawyer. A lawyer who specializes in traffic accidents, is a lawyer with a story. If your company is your identity, what will you do when you leave that? So I think people who know themselves well can express it in their work. “What do I like and what do I spend hours and hours on?” There is a possibility that your work will come from there.

All the important decisions are multiple choice question. If you try to find the answer in a subjective way, you won’t find it.

The choices you make now are decisions about future possibilities. In 1983, everyone laughed at Samsung Electronics when it said would make 64K DRAM semiconductors, which were only produced in the United States and Japan. If you think about this in a subjective way, there is no answer, so it can only be a multiple choice. It’s either do or not. When making a decision like this, it’s better to think in an objective manner.

It’s multiple choice, but it defines time. For example, let’s make the current decision into an answer sheet that is only valid for six months.

The more important the decision, the more you want to avoid it. But the worst thing is to miss the timing. Here’s a tip: make the decision, but give your answer sheet an expiration date. If it’s a six-month expiration date, that means you’re going to stick with your decision for six months and then decide if you want to continue or not.

There is no absolute better choice. So don’t overthink the choice itself. Make the choice now and go there for now. With any choice, there’s a timeframe to stick with it.

For me, decisions have a shelf life of 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, and 3 years. Most of us seem to have some decisions at each stage, which is why the author makes this statement.

Choosing simply, But Making today a good one.

Work is a large part of my life, but it is only a means to an end. Why do I work? To make a living? Then it’s simple. If you make enough to live on, you can get out of work. But if you need to be better than everyone else and have a better life, then you’re in a maze with no end in sight. It’s good to work, even if it’s just to make ends meet. Just make sure you’re working for yourself, not for others. Capitalism is a system in which the surplus of laborers’ production inevitably flows to capitalists. This is called the “shower effect” in economic terms. The money that the government released to the people during the COVID crisis would have been in the pockets of capitalists by now.

Knowing what you want to do is half the battle. Most people live their lives blindly desiring the desires of others. You want a Gucci or Prada bag not because you need it, but because everyone else does. That’s how most of us live. We’ve wanted to go where others want to go, we’ve wanted to have what others want to have, and we’ve gone where others are going. We’ve been posting on Instagram, looking happy, and trying to hide our inner emptiness. Maybe the person who wants to be alone and posts his or her life on SNS is really crying out for someone to look at me.

But he knows better than anyone else how empty his inside. We have to face that emptiness. We must start there. The beginning of our journey to find our inner self. The existence of human that is thrown into the world is destined to be empty. Maybe that’s why I pursued more worldly desires to escape that emptiness. We think If we have more, we will be better, if we go up, we will be better, but it won’t change anything. We are what we are.

In fact, it’s up to the individual to decide how to live in the world as long as they don’t harm others. It’s no one else’s business if you choose to live your life that way. But if you want to be something, if you want to have something, you need to pay for it. Because nothing in this world is just given.

My titles these days are much different than before I retired. I’m called Mr. President, Mr. Writer, Mr. Chairman, etc. The people around me have also changed: I’m meeting new people more than I’m meeting people from work. Just three or four years ago, I didn’t realize there were so many poets, novelists, and essayists around me. There are also professors, diplomats, activists, and quite a few solo entrepreneurs. I choose my own identity, but I can see what I’m doing by looking at the people around me. It’s a funny thing about the world, when I get interested in a certain area, there’s a whole new world there that I didn’t see before, and it’s moving with its own ecosystem.

This is because we are designed to always want something. But if you’re going to desire something, desire what you really want. People who are able to face their desires seem to have stronger life energy because they are able to do so.

I had a funny thought when I remembered the movie Joe Black’s Love. The movie was released in 1998, but the subject matter is memorable.

Joe Black (Brad Pitt) is a grim reaper. He takes on the body of a young man in a coma after a car accident and appears before Mr. Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), the man he’s supposed to take in sooner or later. Mr. Parrish is a man who has all the riches and honors of human life. Joe Black wants to see for himself what it’s like to have the kind of wealth and fame that men want so badly. And he becomes the only thing the president fears, controlling his decisions.

Here’s what I imagine. Here’s what I’d do if I were Joe Black, the Grim Reaper, and I could control someone’s behavior through the medium of his death. First, I’d show up in front of Putin, punch him in the face with a heart attack, and tell him to end the war in Ukraine immediately. If he doesn’t listen, I’ll give him another punch. Next, I will appear in front of Biden and give him a big punch to the heart and tell him to end the war in Ukraine and stop the hegemonic competition between the US and China. And I will also tell the leaders of North and South Korea to stop snarling and start cooperating with each other.

The way for the world to live in peace is so simple. It’s all in the words of the prefect. What I don’t like to do, Don’t to do others. If we could do this, the future of humanity would be bright, or not we would suffer from war, hunger, disease etc. History has taught us that powerful people are overly loyal to their own interests. They have little regard for the good of the community, even at their own expense. The more educated and intelligent they are, the better they know how to pursue their interests. In The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, there is such a story. Genes don’t care whether gene carriers choose to compete or cooperate, as long as they keep replicating themselves. In other words, it doesn’t matter if they’re black cats or white cats as long as they catch mice. But we, the gene carriers, suffer less if we cooperate rather than compete.

There are some lives that seem good. For me, it was the poet Liu Shihua. I envied his freedom, writing skills, and economic freedom to live just by writing. I also like the classical scholar Ko Mi-sook. Her desire to live a life of studying is challenged when she fails to get a professorship. She asks herself, “Do I want to be a professor or to live a life of studing?” When she came to the conclusion that she wanted to study. She created a study community and now has a structure where she can make a living just by studying.

And I have to add one more person to this list. Jang Myung-sook, the main character of the YouTube channel Milanona. The first image of her was an old lady with gray hair and a real big mouth. She was the first Korean fashion student to study abroad in Milan. And even now, in her 70s, she continues to mentor young people through her YouTube channel. My daughter mentioned her, so I looked up her content and found her fascinating. One word that describes her is “free and dignified dignity”.

There was a study that asked people on their deathbeds what they regretted most about their lives. The number one answer was “I wish I had lived my life to the fullest. Living as you wish means living freely. In that sense, it is probably the hope of most people to live freely and confidently without being judged. Yesterday, I had to access the company’s internal network so I stopped by the office where my junior works as a branch manager. He has a gentle personality and is always considerate of others. As we talked, I realized that all his choices were based on family first, company first, and his own desires took a backseat. He felt a little envious for me because I seem to be doing what I want to do. I guess it could be seen that way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but no matter what, I try to start something.

I don’t know how to do it but I gave my junior a tip to make it easier for him to start doing what he wants to do. I used the example that he had recently read the novel The Night Killer and had a vague desire to travel to Iceland.

First, explore specific possibilities
Iceland may be near the North Pole, but traveling abroad is all about airfare and lodging. I searched for the cheapest round-trip flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, and found it to be $1.000. I found an Airbnb listing for about $600 for five nights and six days. I figured that if I added about $1,000 in local expenses, I could do it for about $3,000. Since it’s a long way away, it would take about two days to get there and back so he could take five days off work. When I asked him if he could afford to go, he was a little surprised. I think he realized that traveling to Iceland is not necessarily out of the question.

Second, plan it
Once you’ve made up your mind, mark your calendar, create a specific timeline and funding plan. I’m pretty sure a branch manager’s salary would cover the cost of such a trip. Then book his flight and accommodation.

Third, execute
Travel to Reykjavík, Iceland, on that date. However, it’s best to pick a date as early as possible. You don’t know what will happen if you delay. People’s initial enthusiasm tends to wane over time so if you have something you want to do, Start when you Think of It. If that doesn’t work, take out a piece of paper and jot down a plan so you’re more likely to stick to it.

If you want to do something at least start it, Then you won’t regret it when you die. And once you start, the rest is not as difficult as you think. As you work on something, it slowly picks up speed and before you know it, it’s finished. That’s the fun of living.

When you hesitate to do something, what are the reasons? First of all, Not sure it will success. We don’t want to start something that we don’t know if it’s going to work. We also hesitate when the price of success is too high. What if it doesn’t work out? You can’t be 100% sure of anything. And this is an unusual case where you want to do something even though it’s unlikely to work and the price is high. For example, independence fighters and democracy fighters did that in Korea. . They didn’t think their country was going to be independent and they were afraid of the military regime, but they did it anyway. That’s amazing.

It was the last study session of the ‘Chad Club’. ‘Chad Club’ is named after the first letter of Change or Die. It’s a group of people who are self-employed and want to figure out how to incorporate online marketing into their work. I don’t have an active business, but I’ve been a part of it to explore what I could do. The members’ businesses are diverse. There’s a Hanok-Stay( Korea Traditional House Style) operator, a handmade cake maker, a caregiving dispatcher, a health food maker with a workshop, an image consultant and more, but they all have the same desire to expand their businesses through blogging and social media marketing.

After the meeting, a small party was held to celebrate the achievements of the past three months. I felt like a bit of a stranger in the room as everyone shared their business concerns. I didn’t feel like an outsider because I wasn’t desperate for more income by increasing sales right away. However, I did make a small breakthrough and found one item that I would like to try in the future. That is to build a content platform for the 50,60s online. I’m not sure it’s going to pay the bills right away but it seems like a good idea for fun since I enjoy writing and I’m pretty good at teaching and video editing. It’s a little weird. I’m not creating content, I’m building a platform. I’m going to put my content on it.

This is the group of people who are there to earn an income but I’ve said something that makes me cringe. First of all, I said that I don’t want to be passionate about it. I wanted to do it because it was fun and meaningful for people in their 50s and 60s who are retired. I said that it would be nice to make money from the business but I know the difficulty of making money so I don’t want to put as much energy into it as I did when I was young. I also said that I have about 10 years left to live as actively so I want to live without being tied to anything.

There is no standard for what is right or wrong because people have different positions. But I think the purpose of business is not just to make money but also to have a good impact. Actually, I don’t have anything to say to them. I was asked a lot of questions about whether it would attract people or make money. But it’s not impossible. I don’t have any resources to give except for my time. Resources are people, time, and money, and they are interchangeable. I am not going to invest money or people in this platform, only my time.

I’ve spent most of my life craving money, achievement, and external recognition. And I’m honestly ready to break out of that rut. I guess that’s why I’m looking for more fun and meaningful things to do. When I look at myself these days I don’t want to be told what to do and let me go of the purpose of living. I only want to do what I like. But I feel like this is fun and energizing. Now that I’ve decided what I want to do, I’m going to do it. It’s not something I hesitate to do. First of all, I will enjoy the process rather than the result. The resource I’m putting into this is my time, not money or people. Luckily, I’m time rich.

Dukkha, a Sanskrit word translated as suffering in Buddhism. However, its original meaning refers to limitations that humans cannot control. A heavy rainfall that makes the sky look like a hole in the ground can also be considered Dukkha. What we do can be good or bad. If you open a large restaurant after retirement and the corona pandemic comes, it is beyond your control.

Dukkaha!

I need to make choices when the circumstances surrounding me don’t necessarily go my way. If you break up with a relationship, it hurts to a certain extent and you have to look for a new relationship, but if you keep clinging to a relationship that is far away, it is a disease. In the same way, even though the circumstances surrounding me are not in my favor, how I treat them is entirely up to me.

Victor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who realized this during World War II when he was forced to spend time in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, under extreme conditions where he knew he could die at any moment. He realized that no matter how beaten, starved, and sick you were, it was up to you to decide what to make of it. It’s a human being who can go through forced labor and still be happy to see a flower on the side of the road. You have to accept the unavoidable circumstances that happen to you, and then you will have the strength to shake them off and overcome them.

I don’t know if it’s my parents’ influence or the self-help books I’ve been reading since I was young, but I tend to look for the positive in everything that happens. It is said that repetition becomes a habit and habits become second nature, but it is considered a good character trait anyway. But how can there not be difficulties and difficulties? Everyone’s conditions are different, so there is no reason to have a difficulty battle with each other, but this idea popped into my head at dawn today, or rather, it just popped into my head.  

Do things have a predetermined ending? Maybe they do. But I don’t know the end of it. What I do know is that nothing comes to pass without trying.

Perhaps this should be the principle by which I live in the midst of Dukkha, or the many acting conditions that surround me. So if I want to do something, let me try. Will it work, I don’t know. But I do know that when I’m in doubt, I’m less likely to regret it later if I choose to do it.