WINTER 2014
east bay local Your East Bay Connection
M A G A Z I N E
DR. TAE YUN KIM CEO, Grand Master and Global Inspiration… MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE IN SERVING OTHERS
m i K n u Y e a T . r D CEO, Grand Master and Global Inspiration MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE IN SERVING OTHERS
Leading a TYK International University lecture in Gyeongsan
D
r. Tae Yun Kim is the CEO of several very successful companies headquartered here in Fremont. She is also one of the highest ranking Martial Artists in the world. She is revered like royalty in her native Korea and greeted like a rock star wherever in the world she travels to. She is often a keynote speaker at large special events before thousands and, over the years, she would often speak with Presidents and Heads of State, Governors, Mayors, Business Executives, Celebrities and students everywhere. Dr. Kim is 67 years old and, yet, she has the energy of a 20 year old. She is 4’11”, just 110 pounds, tiny in stature, perhaps, and yet more powerful than people half her age and twice her size. It is a far cry from where she comes from and what she shares with others. This is the story, the living legend, of Dr. Tae Yun Kim. It was the Lunar New Year in 1946 when Dr. Kim was born. The problem was: she was born in Korea and born a girl. It was not a good start, since it was considered a travesty if a family’s first born was not a boy. Dr. Kim grew up hearing that she was no good, a disgrace, a disaster, a curse and ugly. People would say she was bad luck and to stay away from her. They
would spit and throw rocks at her. Her parents were cruel to her. Her father drank and would beat her. He would also beat her mother. She had no friends. She was starving for friends … and for food. As her family was poor, she was hungry and also scared. She literally ate what food she could find, often what was left for the pigs. When Dr. Kim was five, the Korean War was raging on. Her family abandoned her because she was an extra mouth to feed. They ran away from their home, leaving her inside. Bombs were exploding everywhere and Dr. Kim was very scared. A sweet, kind voice spoke to her, a young girl, slightly older than she was. Her one
and only friend in the world told her: “You can’t peeked out. It was her eight uncles training in stay here. It’s too dangerous. We need to run. the morning mist. She saw something; she did Come, race with me!” And so she did. not know what it was, but it was something she They ran and then suddenly there was a “ka- liked and wanted to pursue. It was TaeKwonDo, boom”. When Dr. Kim came to, she got up and something that for centuries was forbidden for looked for her friend. She women in Korea. Thanks found her lying motionless, to her teacher, Dr. Kim was covered in blood. Crying determined and began heavily, she shook her the pursuit of Martial Arts. repeatedly to please wake Indeed, she became very up, but she never did. She good at it – ultimately lost her one friend who, to coaching Olympic athletes this day, she feels was her and corporate executives in angel. personal training sessions. Everyone said that she One day her father was was bad luck and, yet, they drunk and was beating up were the ones lying bloodied young Dr. Kim. Her younger all over the ground, while brother got in between to she was not. They said stop it. The father then hit she was ugly, yet, she saw the young man and, as an her reflection in the water automatic reaction, he hit and thought she was rather his father back. This was cute. Then and there, Dr. a no-no, a shameful act to Kim had an epiphany. She strike a parent. didn’t want to run anymore. He wrote his sister a Dr. Tae Yun Kim at 23 years old “All I knew”, she said, “was letter. “Dear Sister”, he that we are special – each of wrote. “You know, everyone us unique. Like our thumb loves the rose, but you are print, we are an original, not like the wild daisy. They a copy, but a one-of-a-kind sway in the field and God identity. I am not another, takes care of them. I am I am not someone else. I not as strong as you,” It am me.” That was such a sounded more like a … she life lesson for herself and for quickly jumped up and went everyone, for then and for looking for him. She went always: He Can Do! She Can outside to where there was Lighthouse Worldwide Do! Why Not Me! a beautiful field of daisies … Solutions circa 1985 After the War ended, and she found him. After she was reunited with her this incident, Dr. Kim and family. In order to try to her whole family moved to change her, her Grandfather enlisted the help of Vermont to start fresh. a Buddhist Monk. But seeing something special In Vermont, Dr. Kim was now in her early in her, instead of trying to change her, the Monk twenties. She got a job in housekeeping working became her mentor. Though he was Buddhist, for Howard Johnson and also pumping gas. She he gave her a Bible because wanted to share said the greatest lessons came to her when she wisdom with her that inspired her to Christian was cleaning toilets. She was happy. She was spirituality which ultimately became a very singing. She worked and they would pay her. important part of Dr. Kim’s life. She knew her dream was to become a great When she was seven, Dr. Kim heard sounds teacher. She began teaching martial arts. She coming from outside the house. Curious, she attracted students from the local schools and made a small hole in the rice paper window and university. She loved it.
She was young and pretty and spoke no English. Men there tried to force her into situations, to which she said she was glad she knew martial arts. She felt in Vermont, it was a quiet place, she had little or no money, and she could not see herself getting ahead. She was frustrated and went to the wilderness, to nature, didn’t eat for two weeks, wanting to ask for and find inner-most, true-self answers. And the answer she was looking for came. She didn’t know what “computers” were … What was this about computers and technology? One day Being knighted into the Order of Constantine the Great in 2009 she read the answer, which was literally her dining room or an engineer. Yet, she came up with the table. It was the March 31, 1983 Wall Street idea of Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions – Journal that was her table cloth laid out on the floor. An article headline caught her eye about a an international high tech company that company earning $25 million in computer sales. manufactures the most complete line of particle counting and contamination monitoring Dr. Kim said aloud: “Someday we’re going to have a company that’s bigger than that!” … and solutions available, including airborne and liquid particle counters, microbial samplers and facility she has kept that paper to this very day. monitoring systems. Their mission is to use All she knew was that computers and science and technology to better mankind. They technology were the future. “Future memory”, serve entire industries such as: Semiconductor, she called it. In school we learn about history, things that already were. What’s important, too, Aerospace, Defense/Homeland Security, Flat Panel TVs, Data Storage, Pharmaceutical, Medical she realized, is we also study that what will be. Devices, Hospitals, Automotive, Food & Beverage, She knew deep inside it would be important to ride this wave (called computers and technology) Air and Water Quality. It all began, it all came to her, she would say, without hesitation, when that was about to be. cleaning the toilets. All she knew about computers was a TV Dr. Kim never complained about her lot in commercial she saw for IBM with Charlie life. Everyone has challenges. It’s all about Chaplin and a red rose. Convinced, where do we go for that, she asked? Silicon Valley she was attitude. It takes courage and it’s all about how we respond. Dr. Kim, when asked, if she is an told. What is Silicon Valley … Where is Silicon optimist: “Oh, yes!” Do you believe people can Valley? California? OK. I’m going. There transform: “Oh, yes!” She has personally helped were three of her pupils, students at the time people transform from being lost, from being of Philosophy and English at the University … a gang member, from being in jail – without they listened, graduated and decided to come much hope – to finding one’s higher-self, sense along with her. Thirty years later, all three are still the top executives of the corporation Dr. Kim of purpose and feeling of peace. A Korean TV Network just made a full length documentary founded when they arrived. film on Dr. Kim, following her around for a Dr. Kim is a visionary, not a scientist full week. It became the most watched TV
Documentary ever in Korean history. Dr. Kim also opened her Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy - Jung SuWon means: “The way of uniting body, mind and spirit in total harmony” – and it is recognized worldwide as one of best. Physical training is overcoming limitations … such as reducing fear and weakness and building true confidence and self-esteem. A few of Dr. Kim’s companies includeLighthouse Worldwide Solutions, Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy, TYK Fashions, Tae Yun Kim International University, and TYK Productions. Dr. Kim is all about teaching, inspiring, motivating and making a difference. She has inspired many to be the best they can be. She knows all about overcoming obstacles and achieving one’s dreams. She cries, she says, when in the shower, for the many people she feels, and wishes, could realize such possibility. Dr. Kim realizes and is grateful for how fortunate she was and is. Her heart is open to share this with others, as she does for many, locally and globally. She realizes that many people are addicted – addicted to games, instant gratification, temptations. She realizes how difficult it is in today’s world – especially, for young people – and that many are looking for a way, whether aware or not, for a better lot in life. Dr. Kim knows first-hand it is up to us, each and every one of us. Media influences us a lot and there are no instant results. You have to take charge of your own life. You have to be the one who makes things happen. It was way back in 1953, Dr. Kim was but eight years old … “People said you can’t do this or you can’t do that. The more I heard: No!-No!-No! … I said to myself: Yes!-Yes!-Yes!Yes! I can do it!” He Can Do! She Can Do! Why Not Me! “I fought,” she said. “It took courage. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says.” And understanding the importance of Ki - Life Force – and to breathe in our lives. “The Breath of Life is vital. If we don’t breathe, we die.” Her motto of He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me began when she was cleaning toilets for Howard Johnson. It was the beginning of her tapping into the strength within – this Life Force - and it has led to a sense of joy, peace and purpose ever since. Dr. Kim has won many distinguished
awards, including the Susan B. Anthony award, the Silicon Valley Woman of Achievement Award (having been the only one to have won this coveted award twice – for Business and Athletics) - and became a
Carrying the American flag for the World Games in 1978
Modern Knight, the first woman knighted as a Chevalier in 1700 years. In addition, her company, Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, has been selected a number of times as the #1 Best Company To Work For. It is a story that has beautifully evolved and continues to. Dr. Kim has come such a long way from being an abandoned orphan in war-torn Korea to becoming the successful CEO, Grandmaster and Inspiration that she has become. As from a cocoon to a caterpillar to a butterfly, results are not instant, she would say. It didn’t just happen. It takes courage and it takes action. And she’s excited, she added, for it’s only the beginning. “It’s kindergarten”, she said, “with a lot more GOOD yet to come!” For Dr. Kim, it’s about leadership, making a difference in a big way and serving others. Learn more about Dr. Kim online at http://www.taeyunkim.com