Moving: A Story of Connecting the Dots

By Ihn (Ike) Lee

As William Cowper's poem, The Task, expressed, "Variety is the spice of life," and my life has never been dull, nor tedious, and it's definitely not the same all the time.
My journey of moving has been all about connecting the dots, not only geographically and professionally but also emotionally, and it lasted fifty years!
Having lived half my life in Korea and moving to live for the other half in the States, my identity stands alone, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was not easy as a poor boy on the street to meet the challenge of becoming the man with thousand jobs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667839967

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Moving: A Story about Connecting the Dots

© 2022 Ihn (Ike) Lee

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66783-995-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66783-996-7

Dedicated to my family and friends who have inspired me and believed in me.

As William Cowper’s poem, The Task, expressed, Variety is the spice of life, and my life has never been dull, nor tedious, and it’s definitely not the same all the time.

My journey of moving has been all about connecting the dots, not only geographically and professionally but also emotionally, and it lasted fifty years!

Having lived half my life in Korea and moving to live for the other half in the States, my identity stands alone, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was not easy as a poor boy on the street to meet the challenge of becoming the man with thousand jobs.

Whenever I conquered one hurdle, another was always waiting for me.

As I mastered each obstacle, I gained valuable bits and pieces that prepared me for the next steps, allowing me to move forward, questing for the last piece of the puzzle for ultimate happiness!

Table of Contents

What We Need Is Happiness

Chapter One: A Homecoming Boy

Homecoming in Silk Clothes

My First Trip to Seoul

Chapter Two: Obsessed and Wondering

A Quiet, Smiley Boy

The Harmonica Serenade

From Riches to Rags

Chapter Three: Moving Begins with Music

The Dream in the Postcard

Music Cafes in the 1970s

Chapter Four: Setting Up for the Big Leap

Army: The Mission-Driven Society

Unleash the Power Within

The First Day at My Dream Job

Chapter Five: My First Trip to America

Stairway to the Bridge

My Friendship with Rocky Aoki

The Big Moving

Chapter Six: Settling Down in Los Angeles, California

A Leap of Faith

Listening to My Heartbeat

My First Stepping Stone

Comparing My Toolbox with Others’

Chapter Seven: Facing Goliath

Being a Boss for the First Time

The Banker in Santa Monica

I Was Small, but Not Weak

Chapter Eight: My Dream House and the Security Guard

My Morning Routine

The Security Guard on The Avenue of the Stars

The Boxer, the Next Champ!

Chapter Nine: My Biggest Turning Point

First Bitter Taste of Failure

My First Engagement in Startup

In the Dirt of Page Mills, Palo Alto, California

Sunday Brunch at the Los Altos Country Club

Nail-Biting Moments in the Valley

Memories of Don Valentine

Chapter Ten: Searching for My Next Dot to Connect

Doomsday in the Valley

Why I Chose Seattle

Chapter Eleven: I Am Not Done Yet!

The Wrong Place to Do Nothing

A Man with a Thousand Jobs!

Giving Up the 280,000-Times Return

Chapter Twelve: My Second Home, Singapore

Unbounded Friendship in Singapore

The Wind Is Invisible, but It’s There

Chapter Thirteen: My Trips to Beijing, Helsinki, London, Tel-Aviv

Beijing

London

Helsinki

Israel

Hyo versus Respect

Chapter Fourteen: There Are Footprints on the Moon

The Avenue of the Stars

Colonel Sanders, Yes, That Was Him!

Joan Baez at Buck’s

The Amazonian

Will.I.am the Innovator

Barack Obama, Almost invited.

Steve Jobs at a Sushi Bar

Connecting the Dots

The Most Expensive Apple

The Last Day of Steve Jobs

Chapter Fifteen: My Five Young Friends

Lyon Wong

Reagan Hsieh

Lynn Gately

Liang Lu

Autumn Radke

Chapter Sixteen: Keep Moving

Tears on the Golf Course

My Payday!

Diane’s Story of Moving

My Book Tour to Munich

So, Keep Moving!

What We Need Is Happiness

In 2017, I prepared a presentation deck for the lectures I would be giving in Singapore and Seoul for my students and entrepreneurs in my class. There was one slide, in particular, that was very memorable.

It was a vocabulary list of words that reflected the changes in my life before my book, Wonder, was released and the current times. Creating the list of words was a nostalgic process, as I compared my life before and with my life in 2017.

It clearly revealed the early stages of my life in a new, foreign environment that put me into a game of survival.

Surprisingly, I was currently more homesick than before, when I felt the fear and racism as I began my life in America. The slide also represented that I still thought highly of studying and looking for cool things daily, even after declaring that I was retired.

My confidence level was also lower, even though I knew less in my earlier days.

The English word on the chart reflected that learning the language had also become more stressful than the days when I barely spoke it, which made me believe that English is quite possibly the most complex language to master.

It’s fair to say that those who grew up and were educated in English should appreciate that knowing it is a priceless asset!

We often think that glory or wealth is the most important thing, but after searching for what’s bigger and better throughout my life, it’s all about one thing: happiness. Happiness is the highest value, so I put it at the top of the list!

How do you measure happiness? My perception of happiness has been about managing my time and making my daily, monthly, and long-term decisions based on my choices about what I’d like to do, where I’d like to go, and with whom I’d like to spend time.

I still hold meetings with entrepreneurs, students, and friends, and I travel to various places. I enjoy my hobbies, such as taking photos, attending concerts, and helping non-profit organizations. I also genuinely love sharing my experiences individually and in front of larger audiences.

I noticed that each year, I would tell myself, I now realize the meaning of life, and then I would repeatedly blame myself and regret those words the following year. This had a lot to do with my perception of happiness, as my Moving journey was so full of appreciation with every step I took, and that made me more calm as the years went by.

www.ikelee.com

Chapter One:

A Homecoming Boy

Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the Moon.

—Paul Brandt

Homecoming in Silk Clothes

The view outside my window sped past at almost 190 miles per hour as I sat comfortably in the KTX bullet train, which took me from Seoul, to Daegu, South Korea, in just an hour and a half.

The open briefcase was perched on my lap, and I carefully held my written speech manuscript along with a copy of my first book, Wonder, and the rest of my neatly organized materials for the presentation.

What an honor it was to give a speech to the bright students and entrepreneurs from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST, also known as the MIT of Korea), the entrepreneurs at Daegu Innovation Center, and its distinguished guests and students.

I was in the middle of working on my second book, Tomorrow, and was thinking about new ideas and messages to share. As I thought about the upcoming days, I wrote, You do tomorrow’s work today on a yellow pad before I closed my briefcase, placing it on the seat next to me. I usually worked on my speeches while traveling, but this trip felt different. It was a special day. It was an emotional day. My heartbeat was a bit faster than usual, and my mind was full of thoughts. I realized that I was different.

This invitation was particularly a more meaningful and special one than others I had received in the past. After more than forty years of being a U.S.-based businessman, I was coming full circle, returning to be honored in Daegu, my sweet hometown. In addition to the speech, I was to meet with the city’s VIPs and visit friends and relatives I hadn’t seen in decades. Newspaper and media were going to cover the story.

Kum Eui Hwanyang means returning to your hometown in silk clothes. Here I was, the quiet boy who had once had a job washing cars, returning home in silk clothes. I left Daegu as a poor young boy in the 1970s, and now I was coming home as a venture capitalist, author, and visiting professor at one of the most-recognized universities in the world.

How did all this happen? I gazed out the window, as I’d once when I was sixteen years old, riding the train for the first time, going in the opposite direction. I pressed my face to the glass again, curiously taking in the changes to the countryside that I left more than forty years ago. As I watched Seoul recede into the background, the rich greens and blues of the Korean countryside began to engulf my surroundings as the train traveled toward the spirit of the mountains. I grabbed my trusted Leica camera, which had always been by my side, especially during my travels, and tried to capturing the moment. Still, it could only snapshot what was merely a blurry reflection of the past.

Today, as I mentor and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs, I often tell them my stories of my journeys from Daegu to Seoul and America. Dare to dream big and turn those dreams into goals, as I did, I repeat. Success comes from always moving forward, taking concrete actions, not allowing anyone to stop you from going after your goals, and most of all, focusing on the intention, feelings, and detailed outcome of your desire to take a step closer to moving forward.

If you have a dream of your own, I hope that this book will encourage you to pursue it. There may be naysayers and people who doubt you, or even people who want to see you fail. Do not listen to them. Once you set your goal, give it everything you have and work toward making it happen. You will realize that you have incredible capabilities within you, and that will be the core of your dream, your innovative project, and your influential business presence.

The keys to success come from observing, wondering, listening, and implementing ideas. Listening to that quiet little voice inside you is both the first step and the most crucial part of this journey.

My First Trip to Seoul

I was born right after the Korean War as a second child in the city of Daegu ended and grew up eating a lot of apples. The city of Daegu was strategically located in a deep basin, surrounded by mountains, and divided by the Geumho River, which became a transportation hub during the war. The city’s location made it a target, leaving it in economic ruin for years after the war ended. But there were always apples.

Due to its subtropical climate and its location just fifty kilometers from the sea, Daegu historically grew some of its highest quality apples and Korean melons. My hometown was known as the Apple City long before Apple’s name would influence human lifestyle in other ways. By the 1960s, Daegu was slowly growing into a more