Start-Up — it’s one of my favorite dramas to-date.
What it’s about from Netflix: Start-Up revolves around “young entrepreneurs aspiring to launch virtual dreams into reality compete for success and love in the cutthroat world of Korea’s high-tech industry.”
Now that I’ve finished the drama for a few months, it’s still part of me — so I’d like to share some of my thoughts on the top 7 things I’ve learned from the drama! For those who haven’t watched the drama — there might be some spoilers so just letting you know in advance.
- It’s the one who takes the opportunity — wins.
The rivalry between the protagonists Nam Dosan vs Han Jipyeong, was a beautiful relationship. The whole plot revolving around the ‘old Nam Dosan from the letters’, it was a beautiful showdown between the one who refused to take the opportunity for over 10 years, the other one who took the opportunity immediately on their first meeting.
Sometimes, it’s not about who came first — it’s about who actually takes the risk to put down everything, to grasp the chance.
2. Live as yourself, and not as someone else’s pride and joy.
The father-and-son combination of Nam Papa and Nam Dosan — must relate to many. Especially amongst Asian parents — parents always wish for their children to be top of the class, competent, and strong, and many take pride in that. Just as in the story, Nam Dosan’s parents had always been very cautious of their son’s merits as a math genius — the record youngest Math Olympiad.
Later on in the story, Dosan admitted that he ‘cheated’: “Back then I had solved all the questions except for just one. I used to solve that type of question very easily, but I struggled with it that day. At that moment, a gust of wind suddenly blew in from somewhere. And that one line from that solution caught my eye. I thought that wind was a blessing. But that one line….because I saw that one line, I forgot the fact that I had solved nine questions on my own. The medal felt so heavy. So I ended up giving it away, I didn’t deserve it.”
Dosan had to live up to his parents’ expectations, and he felt he never deserved the merit and applause given by many, but he couldn’t bring it up to tell his parents, and that destroyed his self-esteem. The moment he dropped that, his relationship with his father was no longer of each other’s ‘pride and joy’. That was when he started to shine as himself.
3. Entrepreneurship is for those who enjoy hardship.
During the course of the drama, Jipyeong helped a lot as Samsen Tech’s mentor. As he helping Dalmi to gain a list of investors — he warned her — that it’s a lot of hardship, a lot of rejections. Dalmi’s entrepreneurship spirit shone through — she likes hardship. Entrepreneurship is for those who enjoy the process. It’s inevitable for a startup to go through tough times, but have a strong reason for “why” you’re doing it; enjoy and grow through the hardship, you’ll get there.
4. Never forget your moments of desperation.
When Dalmi was going door-to-door to find investors in the CSR community, she had to knock on all doors possible, and even use desperate measures — following a potential investor off to a rural place and saying that ‘she was going there too’ — just to have a conversation with her. Though a few of those desperate measures didn’t work as planned, that hardship was etched into her entrepreneurship spirit. And that shone through to the potential investors, and let her to places that wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t see the strength of her passion.
5. Give, without the thought of ‘take’.
One of my favorite characters in the drama was Dalmi’s lovely grandmother. When Jipyeong was young, he met Dalmi’s grandmother, and he accused her of taking out his money that he secretly put into her bank account. Even though she was accused of wrongdoing, she never blamed Jipyeong, and always just told him to ‘payback by being happy’. The way she endlessly ‘gives’ from the bottom of her heart, led many people to help her, without the thought of return. Jipyeong tried to find as many ways possible to help her; Dosan even made the app ‘Noongil’ — an AI-based service to assist the visually disabled — for her as she was becoming blind. The more you give, and don’t expect the returns, some good karma may come by eventually from somewhere else.
6. Just the thought that you’d win, you’ll win.
I love the empowering relationship between Dalmi and Dosan. They both are growth-orientated, do everything to help the other grow. A good example was when Dalmi broke off her relationship with Dosan when he was “acqhired” to Silicon Valley; she knew it’d be good for his career, instead of staying in South Korea. Eventually, Dosan became more confident after coming back from Silicon Valley, with the skills he had built. When they entered the self-driving cars bid — their confidence shone. With the belief that they’d win, they won. So you can do it too!
7. Pray first, then make it happen.
I believe that God is always here to support us. In the drama, Dalmi’s family frequently visited the church to call on God for prayers. Dosan didn’t believe in it — as he only believes in science. But instead, pray on it, and God will give you the energy. He won’t complete this for you, but he’ll give you the energy to make it happen. So just believe you can do it! #unicorn
