My highlights from the book:

1. In one lifetime, we can become a revered, immortalized politician, a scholar, a revolutionary, a writer, a musician, a painter, or a businessman like those we admire. These remarkable people did not take two or three lifetimes to accomplish what they did. They did it in one.

2. I think there is nothing more foolish than living a life according to the mantra of “doing enough to get by” and not knowing how precious one’s time is. 

3. When someone said that a proposed project would be impossible, his famous response was, “Did you try?”

4. If you make full use of your time by living diligently, you can excel in any field. Such a life would be considered a successful one.

5. He had the ability to remain unperturbed in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties. 

6. Time is a form of capital provided equally to everyone. 

7. If I can be considered a successful person it is only because I made the best use of this evenly distributed capital. 

8. Back in those days, human feces (night soil) was the primary fertilizer for dry fields. So even when adults visited their friends or children kicked around an inflated pig’s bladder, they all made sure to relieve themselves at home when nature called to add to their essential stockpile of fertilizer. 

9. We were extremely poor. Even though my mother and father worked their fingers to the bone to make ends meet. 

10. We would completely run out of food. We barely managed to stay alive by eating tree bark, grass, and wild herbs. 

11. There was no concept of free time.

12. My future seemed bleak.

13. My parents arguments were always about food. 

14. When I went to the market to sell wood, it was difficult to take my eyes off of the rice cakes, noodles, and other delicious treats. I still remember how my shrunken belly growled with pangs of hunger. 

15. After I turned 19, I ran away from home for the fourth time. That fourth time ended up being the last. 

16. I scoured the city for a better job. A rice shop hired me as a delivery boy. For the first time in my life I felt optimistic about my future. 

17. Whatever I did, I never slacked off. Compared to farming, the workload at the rice store was nothing. 

18. No matter how small the task, such as delivering rice on a bicycle, I pour all of my energy into achieving the best possible result. Half measures, compromises, cutting corners, or “being realistic” do not exist in my world. 

19. Two years passed. One day, all my hard work finally paid off. He unexpectedly offered to sell me the rice shop. The delivery boy had no become the owner. 

20. I renamed my shop “number one in Seoul,” and aimed to make it the best rice shop in all of Seoul. 

21. Good times did not last. The Japanese colonial authorities instituted a rice rationing system and all rice shops in Korea were requisitioned. 

22. I could easily have given up everything under the weight of the debt. But I was determined not to give up. I did not want to end up a failure. 

23. I put into practice my motto, “Do your best till there is nothing more to do.”

24. Whenever I tell people that it was the bedbugs that taught me nothing is impossible if one puts in one’s best efforts, they think I am exaggerating. But this is the truth. The bunkhouse where I slept as a laborer was teeming with so many bedbugs it was almost impossible to fall asleep. Some of the other workers tried to think of ways to avoid the bedbugs. But even when they slept on top of dining tables, they were still bitten as the parasites could climb up the legs of the tables. We came up with the idea of placing a steel pot filled with water under each leg of the table. It worked, temporarily. Uninterrupted sleep lasted for only a few days and then things went back to the way they had been before. We wondered how this could be possible, considering that the bedbugs would fall into the post of water if they attempted to climb the table legs.

One night we decided to stay up and see how they survived and managed to bite us. We were completely dumbstruck by what we saw when we turned the lights on —the bedbugs were climbing the walls and dropping from the ceiling onto our bodies. This made me stop in my tracks and think, “Even bedbugs think long and hard, and use every bit of energy they have to achieve their goal, and ultimately they succeed. I’m no bedbug, I’m a man. These bedbugs can surely teach a man a few lessons. If these bedbugs can do it, why can’t we men do it? We just need to stick to it and not quit. We need to emulate these bedbugs. 

25. We did whatever we needed to get the job done. 

26. It is a harsh reality that bold actions are required to develop and operate a company.

27. I believe it is my duty to make the most of what I am given. 

28. I think of myself, first and foremost, as a builder. 

29. Not being able to say words of praise or encouragement is one of my many flaws. 

30. It is much harder for a poor man to become rich than for a rich man to become richer. The poor man has to work 10 to 20 times harder than the rich man.

31. A great idea starts with one single thought.

32. When a small idea the size of a grain of rice is implanted in my mind, I nature it until it grows into a major project that I can visualize in my head.

33. Thinking that anything is possible is the first rule of a successful person. If you doubt yourself, then you will only be able to accomplish as much as your doubts let you. If you think you can’t do something then you won’t be able to do it. 

34. Some time ago, someone proposed installing a separate elevator for executives at the company headquarters. I rejected the idea right on the spot. I truly despise the inflated sense of superiority held by executives who expect different treatment from their workers. Why on earth would anyone need a separate elevator?

35. When I dropped by a construction site one day, the workers were busy laying a new carpet believing this was a formality they should observe for their boss. Such formality is meaningless. With our company motto, “Diligence, Frugality, Affection”, hanging right there on the wall they should have spared a second to think about the workers laying rails in the deadly, scorching heat. I asked, “Is laying this carpet practicing frugality? What would our workers think about us if they saw this nonsense?” A carpet was a luxury I despised. 

36. After luxury comes corruption. I have never seen a country prosper with a leader who enjoys luxury. I’ve never come across a company that thrives under a luxury-loving, wasteful, owner. 

37. There are those who live their entire lives without doing 1/10 or 1/100th of the amount of work they are capable of. I’ve found that those who complain of being tired and bored are the lazy ones. I strongly believe that people must work to live a full life. 

38. If you are diligent for a day you will sleep comfortably for a night. If you are diligent for a month, the quality of your life will noticeably improve. If you are diligent for a year, two years, 10 years, your whole life, your accomplishments will be recognized by all. The diligent lead lives 100 times more productive than the lazy. Their lives are thus more fulfilling.

39. Unless your life goal is wasting time, then the first thing I recommend is to be diligent. Being diligent forces you to move a lot, think a lot, and work a lot. Diligence mirrors your sincerity about living a full life.

40. I don’t trust anyone who is lazy. 

41. Time is the capital that must be managed most wisely. I make a plan, jump headfirst into it, and finish a project in a shorter amount of time than most people. When others are hesitating, I have already begun working. My life was defined by time rather than age. This is how I lived and this is how I succeeded. 

42. The years have come and gone and now I am in my mid-80s. But age was never important to me. To this day, I remain completely engulfed in my work with no spare time. What has always been most important to me is how I use my time for work. Other than thinking about how to develop and grow my business, I’m actually not very interested in anything else.