(Samsung Special) Spirit to Challenge

Ho-Am Byung-chull Lee was born at a remote village in Gyeongsangnam-do, a province in the southeast of Korean peninsula. It took a 4-hour driving and a stare at GPS from Seoul to his birth house which is located within a 200-meter walking distance from the public parking lot in the village.

It was said that his grandfather built the traditional house with tiles on the roof in 1851. In spite of repetitive renovations, the pillars propping the entire house have still remained strong for the past 150 years.
 
“The house began to open to the public starting on November 19 of 2007, which marks the 20th year after the death of Ho-Am,” said Mu-hyung Lee, a maintenance manager.

“About 175,000 tourists have already made a visit to the house,” he said with pride.

Upon his guide, a group of dozen tourists stepped into the house and began to share the experience of Ho-Am in early days as if they could take on the great entrepreneur’s quality. They paid a silent tribute with their hands on “Turtle Rock”.

“I came here with my co-workers selling cosmetic products. I put my hands on the rock and wished for better sales in the hope of taking Ho-Am’s wealth spirit with me,” said Oak-sun Lee, who is a member of group tourist living in Masan.
 
A Chinese student studying in Busan city also said that Samsung is also a very well-known company in China.

“The house is surrounded by the mountain with a great shape and I hope Samsung continues to develop,” added Guo Ting-ting.

 
Ho-Am studied Chinese Classics from the age of five at the private school, established by his grandfather. Ho-Am was so curious about modern sciences that he persuaded the parents for him to be transferred to Jisu middle school. A new world came to him.
 
Five-minute driving took us to the school which is located in the town with vibrant activities. Jisu middle school seemed to be the perfect spot for Ho-Am to quench his thirst for modern knowledge.
 
“The school produced a lot of respectful businessmen including Ho-Am and LG group founder In-hwoi Koo,” said the owner of neighboring restaurant.
 
He added, “There is, even, a saying that Hyosung Chairman Hong-je Cho and GS Group Chairman In-hoe Gu also went to Jisu, though unidentified.”

The school is often mentioned as one of the best locations in the country to produce the leaders in Korean business, although it only admits 30 students in total at present.   

After the graduation, Ho-Am re-started dreaming of going out to the bigger world. He decided to go to Seoul where his grandparents from mother side live.
 
At the age of 13, Ho-Am got on the train bound for Seoul from Ham-an station in 1922. What ambition did he have in mind during the journey to Seoul?

A spirit to challenge was found in his days at Seoul when Ho-Am succeeded in completing a 2- or 3 year-course within one year at Jung-dong high school in the capital city of Korea.

He devoted himself to his studies after marriage and went to Japan to study Economics at Waseda University in April of 1930.

But he moved back to Korea from Tokyo after seeing and learning from a confused society caused by a whirlpool of the global crisis.

Finally he decided to launch into a business since he concluded that the most urgent task was to establish the national economy under the Japanese colony after several years of speculations and plans. 

His youth was full of ups and downs with continuous challenges, failures, and re-bounce. This is a quite different story from the public assumption that he had no failure but success in life, thanks to full supports from the family.  

But, the hidden stories where Ho-Am faced endless adversities made today’s Samsung with the world class image and current Korea with 10th largest economy.
 
“Every thought produces problems to solve, but this is a project that someone needs to achieve at any cost. At the age of 73, it is high time for me to put all my efforts for the nation’s 100 years ahead.” (Extracted from a speech of ‘Challenge to semiconductor industries')

아주경제= 신기림 기자 [e-mail]
(아주경제=ajnews.co.kr) 무단전재 배포금지