Issue No. 40

I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago, and he told me that we should be realistic about what we can achieve in life. Not everyone is going to be successful, so it's important to adjust our efforts based on what's possible. While I agree with the premise of this thought, it does not take into account the influence an active participant can have on the situation.

To illustrate, let me give you a tangible example. When I applied for the Global Korea Scholarship in 2015, there were hundreds of students who also applied. The probability of me passing the scholarship, which had three rounds in total, was around 1%. The odds were against me. If I had taken that reality to heart and gotten discouraged, I would not have passed the scholarship and would not have changed my life for the better. Some would call it luck that I got it, but it wasn't. I made the improbable more probable by acting on it. Here's how I did it:

When I failed on my first application in 2014, I promised myself to study what kind of students pass the scholarship. Upon interviewing more than 30 scholarship awardees, reading more than 10 essays, rewriting my own essay 100 times, reading more than 100 articles on how to ace a scholarship interview, practicing interview and English communication skills, participating in more than 10 competitions, and learning Korean, I realized they wanted a well-rounded student who is not only good at school but also in life. They needed a student who could survive in Korea because that student would have to live and study by himself in another country at a young age. I was 19 when I arrived in Korea. All those efforts made that 1% become 80% because I made an active decision to get closer to their ideal scholarship awardee.

The concept of changing the probability of a specific instance is almost remote to the minds of regular people. They give up on the simple thought of a low chance. If your mindset is like this, your life will be stagnant. Sooner or later, the universe will require you to have an effect on your surroundings and become active in your life. This is why I do not agree with the entire meaning of my friend's thought. It takes into account only what's given in the environment, not what the person can influence it to be. Success is not a zero-sum game. You can have an influence on it and change the system in your favor. That's why unfair advantages exist. If they didn't exist, then eventually no one could become successful.

I dreamt high and succeeded, but it was not the first time I dreamt. I have had dreams that didn't become real, but because I dreamt high, I fell on a higher ceiling than my peers. What this means is even if you fail in your dreams, what you have accomplished along the way adds to the steps on the stairs you're walking on. So that when you fall, you fall to a new height. Higher than when you started, higher than those who didn't do anything about their dreams. When I failed in my first application to GKS, I fell not into where I used to be before I applied, I fell into a state where I had more skills, a more detailed vision of my future, and a deeper understanding of what I wanted to become. Those were enough to change my behavior which eventually led to my winning the scholarship.

Any person without a goal, without a dream, will eventually get beaten by his own mind for the mind requires novelty and dopamine-induced goal-seeking. It's literally and chemically embedded in our system.

So, go ahead, be bold. Dream high, as high as you can, so that when you fall, you fall on everyone else's ceiling. Do it enough times, and you'll be out of reach. Good luck.

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Until next week,