1. It's not a numb, but it's not a word of mouth.
The expressions are varied or the parables are not novel.
The expression is nothing more or less than a normal uncle's face.
But no matter how many times I listen to it, I don't get tired of talking about this person.
Among the comments on this person's YouTube video, these comments are the most memorable.
"Whenever my heart shakes, I watch the video of the CEO's lecture and take my heart."
It seems that this man's words can be any scripture.
When my heart is shaken, I listen to this person's lecture over and over again.
The message this person conveys is simple and consistent.
They say that they should invest in stocks, that long-term investments in high-quality companies will help them prepare for retirement, and that they should stop spending on private education expenses.
This kind of story is mostly about skeletons without modifiers.
"Stocks are hope. Stocks are the ones that make up the limits of my workforce, and stocks are what makes capital work most effectively for me. Even if I go to play, the employees of the companies I've invested in work for my retirement. Too much. It’s exciting. The fun of collecting stock is great.”
This was the first time I heard the word financial illiterate, and it felt like I was stabbed.
I live with money, money, and money, but I have never really learned what money is and what I need to do to make money.
Financial illiteracy is a disease, and this man's point that it is highly contagious and addictive is devastating.
I am convinced that the financial illiterate society is a shrinking and declining society.
Japan, which used to do so well, is shrinking because it suffers from a disease of financial illiteracy.
In the early 2000s, there was a popular advertisement in the early 2000s where an actor said "Be rich."
There are also people who have been elected president with a pledge to make all the people rich if they elect me.
It is true that his heart was harsh at the words, but on the other hand, he even kicked his tongue asking if it would be okay to express his desire in such an outright manner.
It wasn't for decent people to talk openly about their desire for money.
There is still a view to associate wealth accumulation with corruption.
To such people, this person says:
“We need to be more honest about money. We need to be honest. Of course, money isn't everything. But we need to be more aggressive about money. The reason we emphasize money is to avoid being slaves to money. Because it is."
The instinctive desire for money, anxiety about old age, the dream of getting a home that became impossible by collecting salaries, and the unprecedented epidemic overlapped with this message of'stock investor hope' suddenly captivated people.
Last year, the number of video views this person appeared on was more than 23.6 million.
Literally, the'John Lee craze' is the blow.
2. I didn't know he was such a famous person.
It was a time when only two people were talking about investing in stocks, so I wanted to meet people related to stocks.
Acquaintances who knew some stocks recommended this person as if they had made an appointment.
Before preparing for the interview, he was a person who didn't even know his name, but as it turned out, he was famous but too famous.
The YouTube run by this person had more than 350,000 subscribers, and it was difficult to find a broadcast that did not appear in this person.
When it comes to books, they are bestsellers.
There were also an abundance of interview articles dealing with this person.
I thought of how I had lived without knowing such a famous person.
It was January 12th that I sent this person a text requesting an interview.
There was no answer.
There was no reply when I sent a text message again confirming that he was refusing the interview.
I thought I was very busy because I was a good person.
I didn't really want to make a phone call.
On January 31, about three weeks, KakaoTalk came to this person.
He said that there was a problem with the text receiving function, so he only saw the interview request text and that he could be interviewed at any time.
It was informal in setting the location and date of the interview.
He said he wished he had ample time for the interview, but he said he wanted to speed up the meeting time.
So the interview started at 8:30 in the morning.
I arrived about 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled time, but this person was already looking at the data in the office.
He said he went to the office early, saying it's a style that wakes up in the early morning after going to bed around 9 pm
I thought that he could be the first person to go to work among the employees of the asset management company he is representing.
3. In 2014, he was appointed as the CEO of Meritz Asset Management.
Prior to that, he worked as a fund manager and accountant for 25 years on Wall Street, New York.
As soon as he was appointed as the representative, the positions of the team leader and headquarters were eliminated and the telecommuting system and the flexible working system were introduced.
Women's workforce was moderated, in-house dinners were eliminated, and reports were replaced with e-mails.
He returned the benefits of providing the car and driver and used public transportation.
Of course, the financial company broke the preconceived notion of Yeouido and moved the company to the foot of Bukaksan Mountain.
Just nine months after becoming the CEO of Meritz Asset Management, the company raised the company, which was the last in the industry, to the leading position in this field.
In that year, the yield was number one and trustees ranked second.
It was said that this person was taking all the money from the same industry.
In 2014, a media company selected this person as the person of the year, and an article titled '2015 is the Year of John Lee' came out.
The story of his success on Wall Street before coming to Seoul became known, and'John Lee Shinhwa' became even more solid.
When I was working as a fund manager on Wall Street, I sold Samsung Electronics stocks that I bought for 30,000 won for 1.4 million won, and SKT stocks for 40,000 won and sold for 4.4 million won.
The Korea Fund, which he was in charge of, has a cumulative return of 1,600%, so he is a proven person as far as stocks are concerned.
Until this point, it would have been a successful investor.
This man was
n't satisfied with pursuing the company's profits and increasing his wealth.
He has taken up his role as a stock evangelist to spread his investment philosophy to Korea.
“Korea is the safest, most intelligent people in the world, and the most diligent people. Why do we follow Japan, which is going the wrong way. Why don’t you live a rich life? Korea is my country. My friends and relatives are my friends and relatives. For me, this kind of look of Korea is very sad."
Immediately after coming to Korea, he told me to collect extra money and invest in stocks whenever I have a chance, and from 2018 I traveled all over the country on a bus with a rather inflammatory phrase of ``economic independence'' written on it.
They sought a school and even a postpartum care center to invest in stocks.
More than 1,000 public lectures, more than 40,000 people face-to-face.
In a capitalist society, investing in stocks is not an option, but a must.
In Korean society where stocks shouldn't be touched, and stock investments were considered a shortcut to defeat, this man's argument was a challenge to old common sense.
It is worth noting that the stock market has consistently made this argument when it is bad as well as when it is bad.
-Did you tell me to buy stock in March of last year?
When stocks have fallen tremendously.
“Yes. I talked about the stock price at 2,000, and I talked at the time of 1,500. Unconditionally buy and collect. I was appearing on the broadcast the day the stock price hit the lowest point. I said,'Today, too, today, a lot', but the comments are frantic. Negative ones. …. I knew it all over the time. Koreans have never really made such an investment. You don't know stocks."
After 2016, when the company's return has deteriorated, there have been criticisms to encourage others to do your job well without recommending stocks, but claims to invest in stocks continued.
With the opening of a record bull market last year, this man's assertion that stocks are hope began to gain attention.
Beyond the financial industry, almost everyone has become a national star.
4. After finishing my second year in college, I moved to the United States.
It is April 1980.
It was a period when the Yushin dictatorship ended and it was called the spring of Seoul.
I asked if there was any political reason for going to the United States, and he said it had nothing to do with that.
I thought there was no hope in Korean society.
It is said that it was terrible to think that I would be like that from the appearance of the employed seniors who visited the school during the department's homecoming day.
"I thought it was terrible to enter a company and work for 20-30 years. The salary was too low... I didn't want to live the life of a salaryman who lives as someone else's work for the rest of my life."
It would not have been usual to decide to study abroad 40 years from now, but it seems that it was not a difficult choice for this person.
"I make such a decision very easy. I make it very easily because I resemble my mother. Actually, there was a way to take a leave of absence, but I dropped out. Because I don't want to overturn the decision..."
The house was rich thanks to his father who was in the construction industry.
The two-story house I lived in Incheon was a mansion that was briefly seen in the movie'Sunny'.
The person who influenced this man the most was his mother.
My mother, who taught that there was nothing to worry about or dying, sent her youngest son to Seoul to study in Seoul when it came time to enter elementary school.
The mother's dream was for her youngest son to graduate from Gyeonggi High School and enter Seoul National University.
My mother, who thought why my son couldn't do what others do, was a big female ledger.
From his mother, this man inherited infinite optimism and a fiercely challenging spirit.
My middle and high school days were a nightmare.
My father went bankrupt when he was in the fourth grade of elementary school and ran away from debtors.
My father's bankruptcy made me realize that money is scary.
Naturally, the house was difficult.
What was more difficult than the economic difficulties was the unified education system.
“I hated that from morning to evening, wearing the same uniform and receiving the same education from the same teacher.”
However, he did not openly rebel.
She studied well, but she was quiet, so she didn't have much presence.
I didn't have any dreams to say this.
No one taught me about the future or about my dreams, so I didn't know what to do in the future.
After retaking in 1978, he passed the Department of Economics at Yonsei University.
I thought I would make money by going to the Department of Economics, but I didn't have Cheongwoon's dream.
I remembered my two-year college student days in Korea as a time when I had meetings and playing.
My decision to study in the US was because I had no dreams in Korea.
There was also a kind of selfishness along with the excitement to play in the bigger water.
Of course, it wasn't that there was no corner to believe.
My eldest sister, who immigrated to the United States early and worked as a doctor, was a wealthy man living in a house with a tennis court and a swimming pool.
After receiving the letter of admission to New York University, I asked my sister for help.
At this time, my older sister's reaction was unexpected.
"Why do I have to help you with your tuition?"
Since then, I have experienced American society from the bottom up with my whole body.
I worked over thirty part-time jobs, including serving at a restaurant and gas station.
He said that it was the best time to look back on these days, when he had an experience that he couldn't buy even with money.
It was because there was hope.
I graduated from New York University, which is famous for its expensive tuition fees, but it didn't cost a penny.
When this person entered Yonsei University, the tuition fee for one semester was 180,000 won, but New York University tuition was 20 times that of 4,000 dollars, and 4 million won in our money.
The United States was generous and kind to this young man from a small Asian country, poor English, no American society, and never paying taxes.
For this person, America was literally a'beautiful country'.
“The New York University I attended would be the most expensive in the world. But for four years I went without paying any tuition fees. The state subsidized all tuition fees…. I wrote a letter to a New York State representative. I am from Korea. I'm a student, but I don't have the residency requirement for more than one year and I'm not eligible to receive the subsidy, but I appealed to take care of it. I remember buying it."
In this way, the tuition was settled with support from the federal and state governments.
After graduating from college, he earned an American accountant license and worked for a renowned accounting firm for six years.
The huge company, with 50,000 accountants, was notorious for having to work hard enough to quit 80% of its employees within three years of joining.
Instead, my skills improved as much as I worked.
After that, he changed his job to an investment company called Scudder Stevens & Clark.
“The job as an accountant was very difficult. I also wanted to do something else. They said that'Scuder' is a company that invests a lot in Korea and is the most respected company. So I asked for a job interview over the phone and I told you to come. I heard that I want to invest in Korea, but I asked if I need someone who speaks Korean…."
He worked happily on Wall Street, where wealth pours out like lava.
The people I met here became the mentors of my life.
Korea-related funds were managed to make full use of the advantages of being from Korea.
I have lived around the world and have achieved remarkable achievements.
"It was a job to promote Korea to capitalists around the world and sell Korea Fund. It is so easy to sell Korea.'You guys know Samsung, you know Pocheol (Pohang Steel: POSCO's old name)" I said, "I did. At that time, people didn't know Korea very much, and Korean companies were undervalued."
Since the United States has a thorough compensation for performance, the compensation given to this person must have been large.
At that time, he did not say how much he received or how much he had fortune.
In 2000, an article about this person said that he had an annual salary of over 2 million dollars.
This man thoroughly obeyed the Jews' instruction not to boast of being rich.
However, he said the criteria for the rich he thought.
"I have hundreds of billions of won, so I can't say that I'm rich if I can go anywhere, whenever I want to travel, and if I can quit when I want to quit my company."
5. Almost all of this man's story converges to the United States.
Although he has dark hair and speaks fluent Korean, he is an American person with no qualities in terms of his words, actions, and values.
He is also an American with US citizenship legally.
It is the epitome of Korean-Americans who achieved the so-called American dream in the immigrant country of the United States and experienced the bright side of the society with their whole body.
-Is there any identity confusion between the US and Korea?
“I had no identity confusion because I went to the US as an adult. I think I was blessed in that respect. If you were a pure American, you would not have heard of Korean private education. You just look at the appearance of Korea and decide whether to invest. Individual Koreans You may not be interested in your life, but I know that."
He said he had never experienced racial discrimination in the United States.
He said he may not have felt it, but this person seemed to be dull to seeing the dark side or to not give any attention to the dark side.
Being an optimist is the most characteristic and strong point of this person.
There are many good things in the world, but people don't know why they're looking for bad things.
He said that he could not understand the attitude of Korean society toward young people called Hell-Joseon or dirt spoon.
It was the same with the view of the stock market.
"Corona and political issues don't last long. The opportunity to buy good company stocks at a low price. The coronavirus doesn't mean that the Samsung Electronics factory will not disappear. But the price has halved, and then there is a huge bargain chance. I'm here, but those who see it for 3 months or a year are afraid of that."
It is somewhat awkward to call this man, armed with American values and attitudes, the leader of'Donghak ants', and to call him'Jon Bong-joon' (John Lee + Jeon Bong-jun) in comparison to Jeon Bong-jun, leader of the peasant war.
However, I want to see what you call this person.
If General Nok-du Jeon Bong-joon awakened the sleeping folks and gave them hope for a new world, this person is the one who taught many people a new world of stock investment, so it cannot be said that the two have nothing in common.
-I'm an American, so why don't you compare me with Jeon Bong-jun?
“Apart from being good or bad, I'm satisfied that it helped to change people's consciousness. If it helped break the prejudice that stocks are going to fail, stocks shouldn't be touched, it's a compliment for me. I think my role is sufficient just by having a good feeling for it. I can't expect more than that, and the state has to do it now.”
It felt like an American pragmatist.
From wearing to talking, it's far from being fancy or pompous.
There is no car.
He says he doesn't feel the need to carry a car in Korea, where the public transport system is the best in the world.
Even now, they wear short clothes at Namdaemun Market.
That doesn't mean that you feel like you're going to save even a penny.
The thought of spending money in places where there was no need to do so was an attitude to the body.
There was no staff to take care of because the CEO was interviewing, and no staff was acting as a secretary.
This man's room, full of books and materials, looked like it was about five or six acres.
It was small and unpretentious for the room of a representative of a financial company rolling several trillion won of money.
6. I wasn't told to buy any stocks, but I talked about stocks that shouldn't be bought.
He said he did not look at the stock of a company that built a large office building and bought a golf course because he made money.
When I was working on Wall Street, when I heard that the head office gave me an appreciation, I talked about selling the stock of a company that was first prepared for entertainment, and also about the disposal of stock of a company with a manager who lacked basic manners for dealing with people.
This man's interest in corporate governance was extraordinary.
It even used the expression that this will determine the future of Korea.
When asked how to improve corporate governance, stock investing is the answer.
“In order to improve corporate governance, it is also necessary for the board of directors to play a role, but the people's perception is more important than anything else. The people should invest in stocks to make stocks a daily life. That is why this issue becomes the main concern in everyday life. ."
Being an optimist can't be without memories of failure or frustration.
However, the attitude of interpreting that failure or frustration is interesting.
When the so-called'Jang Ha Sung Fund' was launched in 2008 with the advocacy of improving corporate governance, this person was the actual manager of management.
Initially, the fund was liquidated in 2012 due to deteriorating returns and other reasons, although it was a hot topic and good performance.
-Wasn't the Jang Ha Sung Fund a failure?
"There are some successes and some failures. I think we worked very hard. There are many things that are not known to the general public. I did not want to get involved in controversy, so I asked to liquidate the Jang Ha-Sung Fund. Why we decided to liquidate it is that Korea thinks it is too early. I thought it was premature to improve corporate governance.”
-What do you think of the corporate governance structure in Korea right now?
"It's not that different from then. I think there is more hope in Korea on the other side. I think the number of young investors with new minds is increasing, and the introduction of children's funds is the faster way to improve corporate governance."
I wasn't very happy to talk about my personal identity, my conduct, and my family.
Even such details seemed to be thinking why I should reveal them.
If you point to the moon, you can only see the moon. Why are you interested in your fingers?
I wondered where this man, who was freed from money and wanted to spend money on good things, was spending money.
This man wasn't the one talking about what he had done.
There weren't many stories about how much they donated or helped someone.
-You donate in various forms, right?
"Yeah. I'm already doing it in a lot of different ways. But I don't know why I have to reveal all that, and why people want to know about it."
The biggest advantage of this guy is that he doesn't pretend.
Few stories say that they know anyone well.
Don't pretend to be rich and don't pretend to know.
They don't pretend to know more about politics.
Few comments have been made to guess his political orientation.
7. He is a 100% pure capitalist.
I wonder if there was someone as much as this person who explained to us something of capitalism in a way that touches our skin.
It was only after hearing this man that we realized that the world we live in is a capitalist world.
The core of this man's argument is that if you believe in capitalism, anyone can get rich as long as they know what the capitalist system is.
Labor comes with money only by using one's own body, but the capital invested in stocks will move on its own even if it is left alone. So, in order to make money, you have to invest in stocks.
It is difficult to find a person who praises capitalism and testifies with his whole body like this person.
There is a long-standing stereotype that wealth, so-called unearned income, not created by working on one's own is not proud.
This is why there is a strong reluctance to acquire or increase wealth through investment.
This person refutes why that is the problem.
Isn't it too natural to make money by rolling money in a capitalist society?
He reacted sensitively to bad comments or accusations.
"Sometimes, there are people who hurt my heart", "I'm tired of fake news", "I received enough to get hurt", etc.
This man's assertion not to spend private education expenses or not to buy or sell stocks seems to have created a number of critics.
"There are a lot of people who think differently from me. People who do reading rooms and securities companies will hate me. I don't buy or sell. Our competitors will also hate it. Why does he pretend to be so handsome and do interviews? I have no choice but to be an enemy. Will the academies like me? They tell me not to do private tutoring."
They said that stocks are not buying and selling, but buying and collecting.
No one knows whether stocks will rise or fall in the short term.
In that sense, he said that investing in stocks is a philosophy, not a technique.
It is in this context to say that stocks have no experts and that they are not experts either.
“People think there are experts in stocks and they think they know everything, but it’s not. Actually, I’m just an ordinary investor. For example, when a doctor diagnoses cancer, he says,'You are stomach cancer.' So the doctor I'm an expert, that's not about stocks, no one knows, fund managers say they're experts, but some sell and some buy, each has a different judgment, then who's the smartest investor among them, who knows how to wait, who knows how to use experience People who know how to do it, people who really understand the company, those people are the winners."
8. I thought that our society was expecting too much of this person.
It is not appropriate to ask this man, who is only an investment expert, his philosophy of education and to question the causes of poverty.
This person just wants to tell you how to make money.
-Wouldn't it be more persuasive if you talk to people about the rewards or happiness that money can't get?
"How do I know that. I'm not an expert there. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not a happiness-buyer. I just get rich, everyone can get rich. Please do it like me, and do this to get rich, do it, that's it. I am not politician, nor have I set up a counseling center…."
The reason why this person's voice recommending investing in stocks made such a big repercussion is that the Korean stock market last year was a major bull market.
If the stock market hadn't been good, it wouldn't have been this way.
"The stock market isn't always good. When stocks run out, there's a question of what to do to get people to feel composure. My wife also thinks about it. What if they invest because of you and then fail? I believe in the potential of Korea, so even if it falls, I think,'stocks are supposed to come back up. It's just a matter of time'."
Wouldn't it feel like you're at the peak of your life?
It's because it's holding money and fame.
Just as there are downhills and uphills in investing in stocks, this person cannot know that so is life.
-Do you think your own voice has an influence in Korean society?
“Yes. There are a ton of letters coming to me. Most of them are positive. I didn't know that Korea was such a good country, I was grateful for letting me know that there is hope. Even life imprisoners in jail contact me. Extensive There is a frenzy."
There is a line of media looking for this person as there is a saying,'It is at this time that not meeting this person is abandonment of work.'
There are many people who want to see this person personally.
You want comfort from this person, and you want to find a basis for your investment in this person.
The'stock evangelist' preaches boldly to them.
Don't be afraid, my believers!
Believe in the future and believe in capitalism.
Believe me, believe and wait, and you will all make money.
"Anyway, I got the buzzword, and some people agree with me and some disagree, but the thing that feels hope is that young people agree with me. Poor or rich, they say they saw hope. I'm good enough with that." ."
No matter how confidently this person recommends investing in stocks, the responsibility for the investment is ultimately the investor's responsibility.
Over the past five years, 134 companies have been delisted on the stock market, and more than 100 stocks are currently suspended.
In short, the stock market is a'money battlefield' with land mines buried everywhere.
If there is a winner, then of course there is a loser.
There can be no war in which everyone wins.
Stocks don't just invest money.
Passion and time are also invested there, but the problem is that our passion and time are not infinite.
The more you invest in stocks, the less time and enthusiasm you have to invest elsewhere.
The Bible's saying,'You cannot serve God and riches together' is what the Bible says about this.
Seeing our society cheering at this person's words and writings for teaching us how to get rich, we can't just be happy and happy.
It's because of the idea that this is the only thing we're going to be excited about.
* This interview was held in the form of a two-on-one conversation with editorial writer Yang Man-hee at John Lee's office on February 24th.
▶ Interview with CEO John Lee, go to the 2nd video