10-Year Project on Launch Pad to Nurture Future Millionaires
By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
Most people want to be rich but they don't know how. A university professor is seeking to help them achieve their dreams of being wealthy.
In an unprecedented long-term project, Prof. Han Dong-chul at the business management department of Seoul Women's University will select 10 applicants every year over the next 10 years to help them become rich.
Of course, not all of the candidates will end up achieving their target wealth under the project that Han says will take at least three to four years. The first group of 10 applicants has been selected ― mostly collegians and young office workers ― and they will be coached by a team of professional advisors.
Han has been studying the rich ― from their investment styles and knowhow to their childhood educational experiences. He established the "Korean Academy of Affluent Studies" in 2007 and has since led the school as its chairman.
The academy has hundreds of members, including 80 professors and over 100 "wealthy" members. Han has said that expatriates are welcome at the academy.
The members will attempt to coach the selected applicants to riches. The academy will select a total of 100 candidates over the next decade from middle and low-income brackets, and provide them with information, consultation, manpower and workspaces. But direct financial support is precluded.
One condition is attached to the applicants: They must pledge to donate one-tenth of their gains to charity.
"Through this 10-year project from 2010 to 2019, I want to set up cases to show how one can become rich and prove that even ordinary people can be wealthy if they continue to study and make persistent efforts," Han said in an interview with The Korea Times.
To be called rich in Korea, Han says, one should be worth at least 5 billion won ($4.3 million) including 1 billion won worth of cash equivalents.
Han, who majored in marketing to the affluent, said he became interested in the project to make people rich after he watched his friends and relatives suffer economic hardships in the wake of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
"Not everybody has to be rich to be happy. But after watching people around me go through economic difficulties, I came to the conclusion that I can use my studies to help those who want to be rich," Han said.
Han has been teaching students, and has set up a regular course on studies on the affluent at his school.
He expects, of the 100 selected applicants, at least 10 will be able to attain their target wealth over the next decade.
"If about 10 make it, I would call it a success," Han said. "These cases could be used as a basis for our society to have more rich members."
There are about 10 steps ― including field and volunteering tests ― they must pass to attain their goals, with the target wealth set by each applicant.
The steps require them to earn their target money in phases, with the first phase calling for them to earn a 1,000th of their target money in six months. From there, their earnings should rise step by step.
"If they pass all the tests, they will be rich as a result," he said. "There is no easy or magical way to be rich. One must endure hard training for years to become a star in any field."
He said the final applicants will be selected from diverse fields.
Asked what one must do to be rich, Han said, "One should be thrifty, laborious and willing to undertake challenges. They should also invest in themselves and the most important element is to never give up.
The academy has awarded prizes to rich people who have actively donated and volunteered to help the needy. "The foremost virtue of the rich is helping others. If you donate or volunteer, you will always gain in a bigger way," Han said.