The original founder

Read time: 2 minutes

Welcome to issue #017 of Unicorn Parents. Each week, I share practical insights and reflections to help you build a profitable business without missing the magic at home. If you’re serious about winning at work while raising great kids, you’ve come to the right place. This is a community built for ambitious parents who want both.

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Life doesn’t come with a manual.
It comes with parents.

This week, my family is celebrating my mother’s birthday.

And as I raise my own kids, I can’t help but think:

Oh boy, I’m a lot more like her than I admit.

When people ask where I learned business,
they expect me to mention an MBA, a mentor, or a book.
But my first lessons didn’t come from any of those.

They came from watching my mother work.

Growing up in our Korean American household in Los Angeles,
my first role model wasn’t a CEO on TV.
It was my mom running her business with relentless care and quiet strength.

All my truths about business—trust, risk, reputation—
began from observing her.

She never said, “This is how to run a company.”
She just lived it.

What stuck with me most?
She managed every relationship fully aware
that her actions today would ripple into her children’s future.

The way she treated partners, suppliers, and competitors
would one day shape the way those same people treated us.

The Korean business community in L.A. was small.
Everyone knew everyone.
Reputation was gold.

And she protected that gold like it was family heirloom.

Her quiet philosophy became mine:

Business isn’t just transactional—it’s generational.

Now, as a founder, a father, and a fund manager,
I realize I’m living out her playbook.

My kids are watching me just like I once watched her.
How I handle stress.
How I treat my team.
How I speak to their mother when no one’s watching.

Every decision I make in business
is writing the manual my children will someday live by.

The takeaway?

Our parents were our first teachers,
and now we are that for our children.

We think they’re watching our parenting—
but they’re also watching how we work, lead, and love.

Integrity echoes across generations.
Reputation compounds.
And grace under pressure becomes the family brand.

Maybe our real startups aren’t the companies we build,
but the children who grow up watching how we build them.

So this week, as I celebrate my mother’s birthday,
I’ll whisper a quiet thank-you…
for showing me that success isn’t what you accumulate,
it’s what your children inherit without you ever needing to say a word.

Because life doesn’t come with a manual.
It comes with parents.

And the best ones teach by example.

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