Suyoung Kim
Suyoung kim(김수영, 金寿映, 金壽映) is a best selling author,
power blogger, marketer, entrepreneur, inspirational speaker,
actress, documentary filmmaker, photographer, translator,
yogi and most importantly, a DREAMER.
Early days
Suyoung Kim was born in Kwangjoo, Korea. Her memories of growing up were not of affluence and encouragement but poverty and dejection. When she was 10, her father’s business faced bankruptcy and her family had to relocate themselves to a village in Yeosu, where modern facilities were not properly equipped. Suffering from extreme poverty and bullying at school, she contemplated suicide at the age of 12. Soon, she had started drinking, smoking, committing gang fights and even got into a drink-drive motorbike accident that nearly killed her. After constant arguments with teachers, she dropped out of school, ran away from home and became an alcoholic at the age of 15.
1996-1999: Life changing dream and the quiz show
After hearing her idol Seo Taiji’ song <Come Back Home>, she decided to believe in herself and her future and came back home. When she got into high school, she saw an newspaper article about conflict between Palestine and Israel that had changed her life. Seeing a picture of a Palestinian father who cries over his dying son not only shocked her but also inspired her to become a journalist reporting the changes around the world. Everyone around her mocked her new dream and discouraged her. Even her parents pressured her to find a job after high school and get married in early age. Despite all the challenges, she was successfully accepted to Younsei University, one of the most prestigious universities in Korea. She also won a popular quiz show Golden Bell on KBS(Korean Broadcasting System) during her senior year which allowed her to gain scholarship to pay her college tuition and quickly made her name in public.
2010 Korea Broadcasting Station’s TV license campaign “For your dreams, by your side” – Watch the video with French, Chinese or Japanese subtitles.
2000-2009: 73 Dreams
As she wished, she became the youngest freelance journalist of Donga Daily, the leading newspaper in Korea and won ‘Best Article of 2000’ during her college years. However, she found out that she would like to be someone who changes the world rather than reports such changes; so she moved on to next career at Goldman Sachs Korea following graduation. Shortly after starting her job at Goldman Sachs, She shockingly found a cancer cell growing in her body. When she had become fully recovered, she created her list of “73 dreams” that she wants to realize before she finishes her life. Her first dream was to explore the world for the next 25 years of her life; so she resigned Goldman Sachs and left to London to pursue a master’s degree in University of London. During the course, she started a language solutions company and worked with various multinational clients. In 2007, she joined Royal Dutch Shell in London and worked as a category manager responsible for $800m retail portfolio until April 2011.
12010-Present: Living dream by dream
Since 2005, she has realised or is in progress of realizing 42 of her 73 dreams(later expanded to 83), such as having a career abroad, musical performance, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, travelling 70 countries and building her parents a house. Based on these experiences, she published her memoir in Korea 2010 to realise another dream of inspiring others. The book quickly made best seller of the year and inspired countless readers. Along with her book, Suyoung’s Korean blog reached over 1 million visitors. She has also delivered inspirational speeches to thousands of audience at various universities and organizations. Her speech at Global Leadership Forum at Yonsei University was selected as the best speech of the year amongst 50 influential speakers.
2010-2011: DREAMPANORAMA – dreaming around the world
In 2011 and 2012, she is taking a year off to pursue DREAMPANORAMA project, road tripping from London to Seoul to interview 365 people’s dreams in 365 days. She will then revisit the people to see if their dreams come true and share the stories through social media, book, documentary film and exhibitions. In this journey she also fulfill more of her other dreams such as becoming a yoga teacher, appearing in a Bollywood film and trekking to Everest Base Camp.
Honours & Good Will
She has attended Asian Women of Achievements Awards in 2009 and 2010 and Women of the Future Awards in 2010 representing Royal Dutch Shell Group and Shell Asian Network.
She also won 2011 KEEP WALKING FUND from Johnnie Walker, no. 1 Scotch Whiskey in the world for DREAMPANORAMA project. She’ll also promote Yeosu Expo 2012 as a Goodwill Ambassador.
She supports number of charities and organisations such as Salesio Youth Centre in Seoul where she mentored troubled teenagers. She has sponsored many children in Africa, Asia and Latin America and challenges herself such as half marathon to raise fund for charities since 2008.
Hobbies and Interests
She is a keen salsa and belly dancer, photographer, yogi(qualified yoga teacher), trekker and traveler. She’s also a big fan of Bollywood films and has appeared in several films.
Links of Suyoungkim’s SNS
