For your new beginning: Chung Ju-yung’s (Hyundai) winning formula for success.

“If there’s no road, find one. If you still can’t find it, pave it yourself.”

People call me a “Chaebol” (business tycoon), but deep down, my resume has always said “Laborer.” I was born the son of a dirt-poor farmer in Tongcheon, Gangwon-do. I had no education and owned nothing. My only assets were this sturdy body and my credit.

Today, I’m not taking you to flashy skyscrapers or luxury cars. We’re going to the dust-choked construction sites, the burnt-down factories, and the desperate scenes where I had to claw my way back from rock bottom.

You say, “I can’t do it because I come from nothing”? Don’t give me that excuse. I learned life lessons from bedbugs. Here is the first record of how I fought fate with nothing but my bare fists.

📍 Spot 1. Asan-ri, Tongcheon-gun: The Weight of 70 Won

Location: Tongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do (North Korea)

(His birthplace is currently in North Korea, so no photos are available. But I loved my hometown enough to use ‘Asan’ as my pen name.)

This is where it all started. My father was a stubborn farmer. No matter how hard he worked, we starved every spring. I hated that. I refused to die burying my face in the dirt. I knew if I went to Seoul, I could do something.

On the dawn of my fourth runaway attempt, I stole 70 won — money my father got from selling a cow — and ran. That wasn’t just money. It was our family’s entire fortune and my father’s blood and sweat. Clinging to that stolen cash on the train to Seoul, I swore:

“I will not return until I succeed. I will multiply this money a thousand, ten thousand times and pay my father back.”

That 70 won was the first debt I owed the world, and the most toxic reason I had to succeed. Do you have that kind of grit right now? Before you blame your parents or your environment, ask yourself: Have you burned your bridges?

📍 Spot 2. Korea University Construction Site: Sweat and Bedbugs

Location: Anam-dong, Seoul

Once in Seoul, I did everything. I worked as a dockhand in Incheon and carried stones on my back right here, building the main hall of Korea University. Carrying those rocks, I watched the students reading books on campus. Honestly? I was envious. But I wasn’t intimidated.

“You guys learn the world through books thanks to your parents, but I learn the world with my body.”

At the laborers’ camp, I couldn’t sleep because of the bedbugs. I tried sleeping on top of the table. I tried putting bowls of water under the table legs. But those persistent bastards climbed up the wall, across the ceiling, and dropped right onto my belly.

That gave me goosebumps. “If a tiny bug uses its brain and tries that hard just to survive, what can’t a human — the lord of creation — do?” I made a vow while carrying stones: Someday, I will become the master who builds these buildings. The dust of the construction site and the persistence of bedbugs were my education.

📍 Spot 3. Bokheung Store, Sindang-dong: Credit is Scarier than Capital

Location: Sindang-dong, Seoul (Rice Store)

I got a job as a rice delivery guy. I woke up earlier than anyone to sweep the front and organize the rice sacks. I studied how to stack rice so my bicycle wouldn’t tip over. When others said, “Just do enough,” I worked “like the owner.”

Then, a miracle happened. The owner, tired of his gambling-addicted son, handed the store over to me — a guy not related by a single drop of blood. “I can trust you,” he said. I became a rice store CEO without a penny to my name.

That’s when it hit me. “Money isn’t something you chase. It sticks to people who have credit.” Don’t complain about having no capital. The moment your sincerity is proven, all the money in the world becomes your capital.

📍 Spot 4. A-do Service (Auto Repair): Rising from the Ashes

Location: Seodaemun-gu, Seoul

Forced to close the rice shop due to Japanese colonial policies, I borrowed money to open a car repair shop. But just 20 days later, it caught fire. The factory, the cars under repair — everything burned to the ground. I was dead broke overnight.

I went back to the person who lent me the money. I had no collateral. I borrowed money again solely on the “credit” I had built. I built a shack in an empty lot in Sinseol-dong. We worked all night in that unauthorized factory fixing cars. We finished jobs in one night that took others days. The “Pali-pali” (Hurry, hurry) spirit started here.

Failure isn’t the end. If it burns down, build it again. As long as your credit is alive, flowers can bloom even on a pile of ashes.

📍 Spot 5. Goryeong Bridge Restoration: A Promise Kept by Selling My Home

Location: Nakdong River, Goryeong-gun

After the war, I established Hyundai Construction and took on the Goryeong Bridge project. But inflation hit 120x, and a flood washed the bridge away. The more we worked, the more money we lost. My staff said we’d go bankrupt and told me to pull out.

Instead, I sold the house I was living in, and even sold my brothers’ houses to cover the costs. The project ended in a massive deficit, but I kept my promise to complete it. Foolish? Not at all. Because of this, the government recognized Hyundai as “the company that keeps its promises even if they lose money.”

That credit allowed us to win massive projects later, like the Han River Bridge and the Gyeongbu Expressway. If you lose credit chasing small profits, you lose everything. An entrepreneur must not fear immediate losses.

Day 1 Epilogue: Credit, The Only Capital You Can Build with Empty Hands

Today, we looked back at my most desperate days. The boy who stole 70 won, learned grit from bedbugs, built trust delivering rice, and stood up from ashes and deficits to keep a promise.

The core of this story is simple. Because I had nothing, I staked my life on keeping my “Credit.” People say they can’t do business because they have no money. Wrong. You can’t do it because you have no credit.

What did you promise today, and how well did you keep it? Trust isn’t built overnight, but it crumbles in a second. Don’t be ashamed of your empty hands. The trust you build with those hands is your greatest capital. Tomorrow, let’s go to the wild field where I used this credit to challenge the impossible and pave roads where there were none.

Chairman Chung Ju-yung started with manual labor and rice delivery using nothing but his body. Looking at us today, surrounded by abundance, are we settling for less? Stop blaming your environment, talent, or lack of time. It’s time to start your business item.

If you are with people who share the same mindset, you can do it!

Author Linkedin