PureInsight | March 30, 2008
[PureInsight.org] In 1965, a Korean student was studying psychology at Cambridge University. At afternoon tea time, he always went to coffee shops or salons to listen to conversations between successful people. Those people were scholars who won the Nobel Prize, academic authorities in various fields or people who had created economic legends. They were all humorous and easy-going and thought that their successes came naturally and logically. With time, he realized that he had been misled by some successful people in Korea because they exaggerated the difficulties in building up their careers so as to make those just starting out give up. That also meant that they were scaring off those who had not been successful yet.
As a student who was studying psychology, he thought it was very necessary to do some research on the mental states of successful people in Korea. In 1970, he handed his thesis, "Success Is Not as Hard as You Thought," to Professor Will Bladen, who was the founder of modern economic psychology. Professor Bladen was very excited when he read the paper and noted that it presented a new discovery. Though the phenomenon was actually common in the eastern countries and even all over the world, no one had ever brought it up and done research on it.
Then Professor Bladen wrote to his schoolmate, Park Chung Hee, who was President of South Korea at the time. In his letter he said, "I dare not say how much this work will be helpful to you, but I can ensure that it will be more influential than any of your policies.:
Later, this book did take off, together with the economy of South Korea. It encouraged many people because it told people from a new angle that living though extreme hardship was not necessarily relevant to success. It showed people that painful experiences that were often described in success stories, like "exhausting and starving yourself," "getting up early and going to bed late," and "hanging your hair and stinging your leg to keep yourself awake." were not prerequisites for success. If you are interested in a career, you will be successful if you keep on doing it because time and the intelligence given by God are sufficient for you to accomplish the task. The young student also became successful. Later, he was the president of KIA Motors Corp. in Korea.
I have never read the book that created a great sensation in Korea, nor did I even want to look for it. From to my own life experience, I had already realized the principle indicated in the book: many things in life can be achieved if one wants to. Difficulties can be overcome without iron wills or techniques or strategies. If one is just down-to-earth and passionate about life, he will find that success will come when conditions are ripe, just like it was all being arranged by the Great Creator of the Universe.
Translated from:
http://xinsheng.net/xs/gb/da4print.asp?ID=42537
