book summary of ” Every Street Is Paved With Gold ” by Kim Woo Choong

Summary of “Every Street Is Paved With Gold” by Kim Woo Choong

On the back cover of ” Every Street Is Paved with Gold ” that you should get to know Kim Woo-choong , not least because he was a poor boy who, with indescribable effort, founded the Daewoo Industrial Group with more than $25 billion in annual sales. Or since world leaders have praised his legendary genius in business and commerce, you should get to know him, because his story is a collection of creative and practical tips on the way to success in work and life. This book can give you tremendous motivation for entrepreneurship, so if it always reminds you that you can be more than you are now, be sure to read the book to get ready to move in the right direction. Do not forget that after reading this book and deciding to move, you should first think about selling the product, not producing it!

Who is Kim Woo Choong?

Kim Woo-Choong (born December 19, 1936) was the former chairman and founder of the Daewoo Group in Taago, Korea. As a child, Kim sold newspapers as a child. After completing his primary and secondary education (at Kyungi High School) in 1960, he obtained an economics diploma from Yans University in South Korea. After a year of service to the South Korean Economic Development Council, a government body, he started his business at Han Sang Industrial Company and before 1967, when he founded Daewoo Industries Corporation. In this company, he was promoted to the position of management. Kim then quit and started Daewoo Industries with five partners.

Kim bought many bankrupt companies; as a large part of Daewoo is made up of bankrupt and indebted companies that have been bought by Daewoo. He is a bold risk taker in the developing World. Of course, Kim has a motivation for his activities, but his motivation is not extravagance! Kim has a prominent position in the Korean business world. He sometimes looks so good that he cannot be real. Instead of being a solo playwright, Kim has multiplied his efficiency by hiring more than 90,000 employees and adding to his creative and daring spirit. Kim acknowledges his personal weaknesses.

Kim Woo-Choong says:

“I do not know about painting or music and I think this is a kind of imbalance, but all my attention is on business. Wherever I go, I immediately find out where the money should be earned! There are places in the world where no money is paved on the streets.”

However, why was the name of the book “Every Street Is Paved With Gold “chosen? The author believes that wherever he goes, he quickly realizes how to start a business there. He believes that all the streets are covered with gold, so he went to it, of course, there are many places that are not covered with gold and trade and making money there is not easy, and it requires hard work and effort, of course, he said it just to show his way of thinking. The book was written in the spring of 1989 and is a management and motivational book. Summary of this book is a collection of Kim Woo-choong’s notes to his country, which has been compiled into a book. This book became the best-selling book in Korea and has been named one of the most successful books in the world due to its global messages. The book consists of 4 parts and 52 chapters. Each chapter briefly examines a topic.

The 4 main parts of the book are:

1- Dreaming

2- Management

3- Growing up

4- Leadership

This book can be considered as a management and motivational book at the same time. The success story in this book is narrated in such a way that it shows the impossible as possible and tries to prove that man can overcome any obstacle on the path to success. The most important point that is mentioned in this book is the important concept of knowing that the impossible is meaningless, but the narration of the book fully emphasizes the importance of trying to achieve the goals.

Spending a lot of time and interest in what you do is one of the most important pillars of success that is mentioned in this book. This book proves that if you work hard and use your money to improve the situation of your community, then you will really come to the conclusion that the paving of every street is made of gold and you enter the road of real success.

Here are some of the most important concepts emphasized in the book:

1- Hope:

Hope is one of the most important concepts we encounter throughout this book, to the extent that the author considers despair to be the end point of progress. The author emphasizes that you should never stop moving and continuing, to the extent that he considers not moving as equivalent to being paralyzed. The author emphasizes in the book that at the very moment when we think that the efforts will no longer be fruitful and that everyone is disappointed, we should keep trying. In general, great successes are the result of efforts in times when everyone has given up.

2- Time:

Time is introduced in this book as the most important asset of people. The author defines the correct and sufficient productivity of time in its correct preservation, because time is passing and it can not be preserved like other assets and the only way is the end. Productivity of time. We must not forget that you will never go back. Time is money. Two people may be successful in one task, but one who spends less time is more successful.

3- Gaining experience:

In this book, travel, friendship with different people, doing things with determination and reading the book are introduced as 4 ways to gain experience and the author considers experience as the greatest human teacher.

4- Dream:

The author considers history to belong to people who have big dreams in their heads and considers having these dreams as a necessary force to change the world. Kim says somewhere in the book that nothing could stop me from moving, and this is a sign of the greatness of the dreams that he has nurtured in his mind along the way.

5- Creative dreams:

The author believes that work must be done from the brain, ideas originate from the input of information, so it will not have output until information enters the brain.

6- Information sharing:

In this day and age, those who do not share their knowledge with others and only think for themselves are behind others. He considers intellectual and material selfishness ugly and reprehensible. We are all interdependent and need help and we cannot live alone.

7- Job:

The author believes that everyone has a place in the world and that there is an order when everything is in its place, somewhere in the book he says we should all do what we should do.

8- A lot of work:

The author sees the importance of a lot of work where it turns into creative and great ideas, but emphasizes that one should enjoy working and have big aspirations. You have to work just as hard if you want to stay on top.

9- Trade:

Commonly referred to as a motivational book, the book contains important management tips at the heart of Kim Woo-choong’s life path. Somewhere in the book of business he considers something superior to a simple mathematical equation and believes that in business one should convert 1 and 1 to 10 and then to 50. Of course, Kim does not define business in making a profit, and believes that an important part of business is making less loss, which is the concept of management.

10- Specialty:

Kim believes that expertise, deepening and high knowledge in a subject have added value, he names doctors and writers in this regard and believes that you should immerse yourself in your work, it is this expertise that leads to success.

11- The importance of crisis:

Life is suffering and the world is a sea of ​​it, Kim considers crises and hardships as the most important factors of growth and as far as he says, the Korean War brought me here. He sees opportunities as the result of hardships and adversities, and sees the difference between successful people and how they act in relation to others in critical situations.

12- Self-confidence:

Self-confidence makes everything possible, just believe that you can do something, then you can even change your destiny, before you do something you have to believe that you can do it you have.

13- Health secret:

We have already mentioned Kim’s emphasis on hard work, but the interesting thing is that elsewhere in her book she tells the secret of her health that hard work. But not something that is hard and boring, but something that you enjoy! He considers the psyche more important than the body and believes that materialism should not prevent one from dealing with the human psyche.

14. Looking to the future instead of looking to the past:

Looking too far into the past prevents you from seeing the future, so you should not cling to the past. The higher you go, the bigger the horizons in front of you, just like on a mountain. He even mentions somewhere in the book that he prioritizes hiring those who think globally and challenge the world.

15. Feeling satisfied:

The feeling of satisfaction of one generation means giving up work and effort and being satisfied with the current levels of whatever it is, this causes the dissatisfaction of the next generation. It is also important to note that Kim’s thinking is long-term and takes into account the consequences of behaviors during the next generation. Long-term thinking and considering the long-term effects of a decision is one of the most important management principles.

At the end of the book summary, Every Street Is Paved With Gold, Woo Choong offers 8 steps for a full life. The most important points are as follows:

He considers youth as an important stage of life and considers it as an important foundation and reward and the beginning of continuing the path of life. Cultivating the mind, creative thinking and forcing oneself to look at the environment differently are among the most important points that are emphasized in this section before and throughout the book.

Kim believes that there is so much money in every street that he can make money, and this shows that he creates and uses the best opportunities from his surroundings. This in itself provides the ground for challenge, without a doubt, the creation of opportunities is not possible without difficulty, and these opportunities are also created from within the challenges.

In this book, on the one hand, Kim encourages the reader to grow bigger, to think bigger, and to have bigger ideas and aspirations, and the interesting thing is that at the same time, it leads him to humility, since where one thinks it’s superior to others, its right where growth stops. So it might not be wrong to interpret Kim Woo-choong’s world as an infinite world, where he knows no end to the path ahead and is constantly creating larger horizons in front of him.