The Situation
Lately I keep getting this feeling — “I’m going to succeed.” (Of course, I’ve stumbled plenty of times before, too.)
But unlike the old days, it’s less of a racing-heart flutter and more a quiet sense of solidity.
The Reasoning
“Right before success, your whole bearing changes.”
I started to wonder whether there was real truth to that saying.
- In Korean fortune-telling (myeongri), saju, and Eastern philosophy, daeun — “great fortune” — refers to the major current of luck and circumstance that shifts in roughly ten-year cycles.
- When this enormous season of life turns over, our lives show clear early signs, the way our bodies react to the changing of the seasons. (Partings and new meetings, solitude, letting go of old stubbornness and attachments, changes in environment and daily habits, healing crises, and so on.)
- A healing crisis (myeonghyeon) is a term from Eastern medicine — the phenomenon where symptoms briefly worsen during the healing process. (Western medicine calls it a Healing Crisis.)
Mapping It Onto Myself
Then I tried mapping the framework above onto the steps I’ve been taking.
[“He’s got the look”] — Realigning Inside and Out
- Physical pump-up: I’ve been working out hard, and my shoulders, back, and arms have broadened and thickened. (= “Boss, have you been hitting the gym??”)
- Plugging the gaps (..): I started taking hair-loss medication, and my hair is actually growing back..!
- Shifting identity: I’m planning the life that comes after success, and naturally positioning myself as an “entrepreneur.”
- Reinforcing that success-identity through writing.
- Since I’m going to succeed anyway, the small failures don’t cling to me anymore. The grasping for results, the obsession, the anxiety — they’ve all faded. = It’s going to work out, one way or another.
[Signs of the Great Fortune] — Reshaping Environment and Relationships
- The blessing of dawn: Up at 4 a.m. every morning — reading, thinking through the business, executing, writing, the gym at 6.. relentless development.
- A physical change of scenery: Moved six months ago and completely overhauled the layout of the house.
- Embracing solitude: More and more time spent filling out the density of my inner world.
- New ties: Out of nowhere, freelance inquiries started pouring in a few days ago.
[The Healing Crisis] — Emptying Out and the Growing Pains (Hell) Before the Leap
- In the past year alone I’ve submitted more than 50 résumés, and not a single one panned out… 50 sounds easy enough to say, but it meant endless days of waiting for replies, two rejection emails arriving every day, interviews I was sure I’d nailed only to get cut, my head saying I’m fine while my insides quietly fell apart…
=> (It forced me to ask what I really wanted, and in the end became the powerful motivation behind the decision to build my own business.)
- This past year was genuinely hell, all because of my investment losses.. (depression, deep regret, shallow sleep, chest pains in the middle of the night, hair lo.., and the rest.)
- Since the failure flowed from my own choices, I tried to carry it alone. So I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family — not for anything. (I only opened up to my wife once the worst of it was behind me, over a drink together.)
=> I feel a stark shift from the mindset I had back when I had a billion won to my name. (From vanity and arrogance → into a “humble, solid vessel” capable of holding a far greater fortune.)
- Work at the company has gotten so impossibly tangled it almost defies belief. Outsourcing vendors bluffing, friction with the management firm, the business structure and the relationships behind it, and on and on… (But I’m handling it with composure. It’s just one sleeve of my portfolio.)
So what? When the tide rolls in, row harder!!!!! Time to look at my business more objectively.
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