The Most Inspiring Autobiography I've Read: Chung Ju-yung Founder of Hyundai

**David Senra** (0:00)
I first read this book almost five years ago, and it's one of these stories that just sticks with you. Chung's story is unbelievably inspiring. He grew up the son of a poor farmer, and had to eat tree bark to survive, and then he dies the richest person in Korea. And almost every week since this episode first came out, someone has sent me a message after listening to it, and we're surprised and inspired by Chung's life story. So I decided to re-listen to it today, which I just did, and then republish it for you in case you haven't had the chance to hear it yet. Something will jump out at you as you listen, and it's Chung's insistence on being the very best. It didn't matter if he was running a small rice shop or a giant conglomerate. Everything that Chung did, he did with the intention of being the very best. And that is actually something he shares with a lot of history's greatest entrepreneurs. They want to be great at what they do, and they want to work with other people and other companies that are great at what they do. And one of my favorite examples of greatness, a representation of being great, I should say, I just found out this week. In the last year, 12,059 different companies have started using RAMP. These companies are using RAMP to control their spend and optimize all of their financial operations on a single platform. Out of those 12,059 companies, only eight decided RAMP wasn't for them. That means 12,051 out of 12,059 different companies that tried RAMP, stayed with RAMP. The longer you use RAMP, the more efficient your company becomes. And that is because RAMP has built a team of A plus players. RAMP has the most talented technical team in their industry. Becoming an engineer at RAMP is nearly impossible. Here's another mind blowing stat for you. In the last 12 months, they've hired only 0.23% of the people that applied. That means when you use RAMP, you now have top tier technical talent and some of the best AI engineers working on your behalf 24x7 to automate and improve all of your business' financial operations. And they do this on a single platform. RAMP gives you easy to use corporate credit cards for your entire team, automated expense reporting and cost control. I read a RAMP customer review that sums this up perfectly. They said RAMP is like having a teammate who you never need to check in on because they have it handled. RAMP's website is incredible. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to ramp.com to learn how they can help your business control your costs. That is ramp.com.
For a long time, I was known as the bulldozer. I don't think this nickname came from my hard driving work ethic. I imagine that comparing me to a heavy steel body that drives over piles of rubble was not meant to be flattering. It was meant to depict me as an uneducated upstart who dug up the ground first and thought about it later. It's obvious that it did not receive much schooling, but not receiving formal education does not mean one is lacking in wisdom. It is a mistake to think that broad and deep knowledge can only be obtained through formal schooling. I think harder, work harder, have greater courage and am more active than others. Before starting any project, I spend an enormous amount of time and effort thinking, analyzing and planning every detail. When it's time to implement these plans, it may look like I'm working off the cuff or even being reckless, but if I hadn't first set down and planned everything out, the Hyundai group of today could have never existed. When attempting something difficult, people utter the words wrong or impossible. They said we couldn't build a highway so cheaply. They said it was crazy for us to build a shipyard. They said it wasn't possible to move heavy underwater equipment by barge. It wasn't just once or twice that I received this kind of treatment from people. People who only thought with their common sense and shunned adventure often found my ways of doing things ridiculous and ignorant. But I am someone who believes that if a person limits themselves to the fixed ideas inherent in common sense, they will not be very creative. People with a strong will to succeed have unlimited potential. By bringing together all of this potential, the collective energy of a people can be unleashed. My motto is, shorten the time. This was the surest way for improvement. If you search for a method, it will come to you. If you can't come up with a method, it's because you didn't think hard enough. The Hyundai of today was built by pushing aside all of our problems like a bulldozer. My performance as a bulldozer in thought, calculation, and prediction was the product of a modest intellect.