I was born to Korean immigrant parents in Corvallis, Oregon in 1980. My dad was a military civilian, so our family traveled all over the United States. After bouncing from Oregon to Korea to Hawaii to Guam to Illinois to South Dakota, we settled in 1985 in Monterey, California where I would spend the next 13 years developing my childhood.

I’m thankful to have been blessed with hard-working parents who taught me what it was to hustle from a young age. When mom would sneak out at 4am to go sort letters at the post office, or dad would take two jobs day and night to support the family in our modest apartment, my young eyes saw what it is to do what it takes to make ends meet.

It was in Monterey that I was able to cultivate life long friends, develop my love for music, and forge my personality.

In 1998 I went to CalPoly, San Luis Obispo. I was there to pursue an Industrial Engineering degree, like a good Korean kid. However in the 3rd year of school, I walked into the first day of Calculus IV, and met a professor who would change my life (in an unexpected way). He walked in without saying a word, and drew an XYZ axis on the chalkboard. He then drew a squiggly line and a tangent line with a bunch of greek characters around it. I’ll never forget what he said – “If you don’t know what this is, I highly recommend that you go back and retake Calculus III and come back next quarter.” It was in that moment that I had realized that I was not cut out to be an engineer – but more importantly, I realized that I did not want to have any of this in my life, and that I had no use for this kind of knowledge in my life. After all, there would be plenty of engineers out there who would actually enjoy this kind of math who would be much better at it than I would be. I immediately got up, packed my things, and beelined it to the dean of the School of Business, requesting a change of my major. It was the best decision of my life to make this change, and I ended up graduating a year faster than I would have had I stayed in the School of Engineering.

In 2003 the aftermath of the dotcom bust laid the landscape for a poor job market – even with my shiny new BS in Industrial Technology (a major that I had to explain each time someone would ask – but I totally understood why). I came back home to Monterey with my tail between my legs, and stayed at my family’s house. I took a bunch of odd jobs- everything from selling airshow tickets to moving files from the Salinas criminal courthouse’s basement to the 3rd floor. It was understandably humbling, and I hit a rock bottom in my mental health, and found myself in the company of a bottle and others who were in the same station in life.

That December, I evaluated my options seriously. With my resume I could keep trying to apply for jobs that were scarce in technology (at that time), or I could develop a new skillset that would generate cash flow. In 2003, houses were selling like hot cakes. After seeing how realtors were making commissions, I quickly got in gear, and within 2 months, passed the California state exam and got my salesperson’s license. I began to help my broker as a buyer’s agent, and started to truly enjoy it. Our brokerage sold anywhere from 6-8 units a month, and I took a cut of our commission.

It was good money, and I saw a future in it. However even in my 23 year-old mindset, something was weird about working with mortgage brokers who would approve buyers with no credit on jumbo loans. I didn’t ask too many questions, as many didn’t back then.

I got a call from one of my best friends who had gotten into Amgen the year before, a biotech based in Thousand Oaks, CA. He asked me if I was still interested in a corporate job, and I definitely thought it was time to get out of Dodge. After prepping for the interview and quickly learning what SDLC was by reading the “for Dummies” books, I landed the job, and would spend the next 10.1 years at Amgen developing my career as a business analyst, project manager, and a launch program manager.

As I began my career, I had the bright idea of buying a house in 2004 in Thousand Oaks. As the real estate bubble began to burst, I started to feel the pain of my mortgage. To make ends meet, I took on a job waiting tables and bartending in the evenings. It was truly odd being in meetings with people at Amgen during the day, then seeing those same people that evening and asking them what they wanted to drink before serving them sushi rolls. Life was interesting during these years. I ultimately rented my whole house out, took a $100k loss, then settled in an apartment with a roommate in a much more exciting Santa Monica in 2008.

In 2012, I moved into another part of the city to save money. For 3 years, I lived in a 10 X 10 (literally 100 square feet) studio – but the rent was $950 and all utilities were paid.

A few years later, Amgen helped subsidize my MBA at Pepperdine University, which I finished in March of 2014. At this point, I was itching to get out and do my own thing, and I had been dabbling in trying to develop and market a mobile app. After 2 years grinding this out, we ultimately ran out of funding (and discovered that marketing is way more important than the app itself), and shelved it.

I was handling launch programs at the time at Amgen, and saw that in order for the company to accomplish its goals, heads would have to roll. As it was high time for me to move on, I had negotiated my own layoff with HR, and with my savings and the severance, I was ready to begin my next adventure.

I began a consultancy which would ultimately become the vehicle for the new business I am in today. I help people start their own entrepreneurial ventures, while also serving as a freelance management consultant. I also have a few other irons in the fire.

My ultimate mission – gain the freedom I need to not only support myself and the friends and family around me – but to effect real and effective change in the world by helping others. I admittedly am an amateur at philanthropy, but I find that each time I do activities in this area, I am enriched and blessed in ways that few other things in the world can make me experience. To help my fellow man, well, that’s why I’m here (or at least that’s what I aspire to).

My story continues here today, and man it’s been a crazy adventure!