Chung Ju-yung

“He and other major Korean business leaders had been making regular payments to Korean presidents as a matter of routine, For decades. Under Park Chung-hee, it was roughly five hundred million won twice a year.”

“Two years and three months after Chung had broken ground on an empty beach, the first stage of the shipyard was complete. It could build ships up to 700,000 tons. It was the largest shipyard on earth.”

“Trust is everything to a businessman. The moment you lose trust, it's all over. If I have to choose between reputation and money, I will always take reputation.”

“Chung ran away from home four times. His father caught him the first three times and dragged him back. The fourth time, Chung Slipped out in darkness and never returned.”

“English tests were required at Hyundai years before the rest of Korea caught on.”

“There is one thing I fear the most as a business leader. Regime change. Whether it's a coup d'etat or a democratic election, private businesses are always the first target.”

“And then all of them would walk two and a half miles to Hyundai headquarters in downtown Seoul in silence. There was no conversation. There was no small talk. Just a formation of men moving through the city toward the company they all worked for. Chung did thi…”

“By the time Chung was a teenager, Japanese settlers owned more than half the farmland in Korea.”

“The average shop took 10 days to return a car. 10 days in a city where a car was one of the most valuable things a person could own. Chung saw the problem and solution immediately. Customers didn't actually mind the price. What they couldn't stand was losing t…”

“The contract paid Hyundai 547,800 won, which had seemed like an astronomical sum when they signed it two years earlier. But the project had left them 650,000 won in debt. They'd spent more than twice what they earned.”

“To finance it, Chung stole one of his father's cows, sold it for 70 won, and bought a train ticket to Seoul.”

“Chung did not build that alone. Millions of Korean workers, dozens of other entrepreneurs, and several presidents all contributed. But no single private individual had a larger hand in what happened.”

“65 years later, when he drove a 1001 cows across the demilitarized zone, he was still trying to pay it off.”

“Because of his wartime work with the Americans, they were the only Korean construction company registered as direct customer of the U.S. Eighth Army.”

“By 1996, he was the ninth richest person.”

“Chung fought back, but eventually he was forced to pay one hundred and eighty one million dollars.”

“When he died in 2001, South Korea was the world's 11 largest economy. Per capita GDP was roughly 11,000 dollars. That is a hundred and forty-fold increase in a single human lifetime.”

“Seoul's facilities were already 60% complete. Nagoya's plans were still on paper.”

“By behaving this way, Chung was making Hyundai regime-proof. Other Korean companies won contracts through political relationships. They prospered as long as their patrons held office. But the moment the political ones shifted, and in Korea they shifted constan…”

“Chung's eldest son, Mong Pil, was killed in a car accident on the expressway, which was the very highway his father had built.”

“In his final years, as his health started to decline, Chung divided Hyundai amongst his six surviving sons. Each one received at least one company.”