Message to millennials and Gen Z

By Chang Se-moon

Today, I would like to talk to young Koreans. Actually, I have in mind young millennials and old Gen Z’s all over the world.

When you select a career choice, consider that no one is born as a professional. To be a professional, you do not have to know much more than others. All you need to know is just a little bit more than others. Because you know just a little bit more than others on a particular subject, people will depend on you for answers, and you have to continue to study the subject just to respond to those who depend on you. Before you know it, you will become a true professional.

An expert is someone who has made all of the possible mistakes in a very narrow field of study. Put differently, an expert is someone who knows the limitations of knowledge in his or her field of study or occupation. This is known as the Bohr’s Law. My advice is that you just select the career that you think you will enjoy.

When you fail to find an employment that you wanted, you have to move on. Maybe the job you wanted was not really good for you. You can never tell. I recall a Korean-American Harvard professor, who was arrested in Korea for fraud. You can really never tell what the future holds. You have to keep trying.

While you are trying, do not take an easy way out. Nothing worthy doing it is easy. Many have repeated that there is no such thing as free lunch. There really isn’t. Murphy’s First Corollary says that “nothing is as easy as it looks.” There are many Murphy’s laws. The most famous one is: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Although not as popular as the Murphy’s law, the Perrussel’s Law says the same: “There is no job so simple that it cannot be done wrong.” If you do not believe it, you will find out sooner or later, sooner if you are not careful.

In the military where defeat means the end with no room to recover, there are always Plan B and Plan C, if not more. If you are working on an important project, it is not a bad idea of keeping Plan B in the back of your mind.

No one can make a living in an isolated place. When you interact with other people in job search, friendship, selling something, and what have you, your attitude is most important. Let me show you how important attitude is. Assign numbers from 1 to 26 in English alphabet A to Z, in such way that 1 for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, and so on to 26 for the last letter Z.

Now, calculate the total number for the important word, KNOWLEDGE. The total is: 11(K) + 14(N) + 15(O) + 23(W) + 12(L) + 5(E) + 4(D) + 7(G) + 5(E) = 96, which is a very high score out of maximum 100. Let us calculate the total number for another important word, HARDWORK. The total is: 8(H) + 1(A) + 18(R) + 4(D) + 23(W) + 15(O) + 18(R) + 11(K) = 98, which is even higher than knowledge. Try to calculate the total for ATTITUDE. I will let you calculate this one.

While you interact with others, there will be time when you may have to compromise a little. No one can survive society without compromising one’s principles. My advice is that you can compromise a little because life is rarely black and white or right and wrong. Real life can be, and often is, between the two extremes, meaning that you need to compromise when needed. However, you should never cross the line. You will know what the line looks like when you get there. When you get there, just remember what I said: Do not cross.

There is a saying that what goes around, comes around. This is known as the Perisweig’s Law. In Korea, there is a similar saying that there is no need for you to find your enemy because you will meet your enemy on a bridge which is so narrow that no one can pass the other. This means that justice will be done. Well, not quite.

Civilized society tries to secure legal justice to correct any wrongdoing. In personal life, justice will not always be done. Quite often, you should learn to accept it, forget it, and move on. Actually, you should always look ahead and move on.

Many year back, I had an opportunity to review thousands of car crash reports. The most important lesson I found to avoid car accidents is to Keep a Longer Distance from the Car in Your Front to make sure adequate braking time just in case. Longer means longer than the distance you usually keep or think you feel safe from. You can call this Semoon’s law.

Chang Se-moon is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies. Write to him at: changsemoon@yahoo.com.