The Korean Disabled Sports Association appointed Kim Jin-hyeok (43), CEO of Bobae F&B, as the team leader for the Hangzhou Asian Para Games in February. The ‘2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games’, which was postponed for a year due to the corona pandemic, will be held from October 22 to 28. On the 5th, ahead of the G-200, we met Kim Jin-hyeok, who will lead the 300-member Korean team, in his office in Yatap-dong, Bundang, Gyeonggi-do. The first twist is the shaved head of Farani and a shy smile like a boy from leader Kim Jin-hyeok, who is like a fighter. In response to the greeting of ‘Sports Chosun’, general manager Kim was delighted, saying, “I delivered Sports Chosun in Gileum-dong.” Afterwards, the interview, which lasted well over an hour and a half, went back and forth between a cruel fairy tale and a human theater, and eventually ended with a warm happy ending.
▶An ordeal that came when it was easy to forget, the young man never knelt down
My father was a Marine Corps veteran and Vietnam War veteran. Her mother died of cervical cancer shortly after giving birth to her two sons. Even the discouraged father left the world with a bottle of alcohol and a bottle of fire. Kim, who was orphaned overnight, was raised by his aunt, who was a karaoke bar owner in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The boy, who lived without hope, decided to go to Yeosu High School, a ‘regional prestigious’, because “the school uniform looked cool” when he was in his 3rd year of middle school. During the IMF period, his aunt incorrectly stood up for debt guarantees, and suffered from severe livelihood, but he did not lose his dream even while filling his hungry stomach with tap water. With grades in the top 5 of his class at Yeosu High School, he entered Chonnam National University’s Department of Business Administration in 1999. His next goal was to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and help his aunt, who had suffered a hardship without getting married. But at the age of 21, in my second year of college, the world collapsed again. Even my aunt ‘Gileun Jeong’ passed away from terminal cancer. No accident, this evil gate survival war has begun. After moving to Seoul in 2003, he started delivering Chinese restaurants for ’13 hours a day’. He slept for 4 hours a day and earned 1.85 million won a month. Starting at 3:30 in the morning, I circulated the newspaper. If 200 copies were circulated in 2 hours, 450,000 won fell. I saved everything minus the monthly rent. 40 million won in seed money was raised in two years. After working as a clothing wholesaler in Guangzhou, China, when the online market gained momentum, at the age of 28, he returned to his vocational ‘Chinese restaurant’. Aiming to start a business at the age of 30, he studied on-site business, menus, and marketing strategies at a food material supplier while running. I have built up enough knowledge to ask for consulting from my acquaintances. From 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., the ’24-hour Chinese restaurant’ delivery part-time job did not stop. That winter of 29, when I was running fiercely toward my dream, another mischief of fate began. I collided with a drunk car making an illegal U-turn during a night delivery. The right leg was not bent. The misfortune to raise your head when you live, Director Kim said, “‘Ah! Why the hell!’ I remember screaming evil,” he said. The doctor said the leg might need to be amputated. He was bedridden for 10 months after three major surgeries at Kyung Hee University Hospital. He had extreme thoughts with his wife and son in front of him. But he did not kneel this time either. “Being outside in a wheelchair and on crutches changed his mind,” he said. Four or five months after the accident, he began contemplating a way to live again. While reading books such as ‘The Story of Ramen King Lee Cheol-ho’, Seo Jin-gyu’s ‘I want to be a proof of hope’, and Professor Lee Ji-sun’s ‘I love you Ji Seon-ah’, he made up his mind. “Despite being an orphan, despite being poor, despite being handicapped, I will definitely succeed. I will also be a proof of hope.” While reading books such as Seo Jin-gyu’s ‘I want to be a proof of hope’ and Professor Lee Ji-sun’s ‘Ji Sun-ah, I love you’, he made up his mind. “Despite being an orphan, despite being poor, despite being handicapped, I will definitely succeed. I will also be a proof of hope.” While reading books such as Seo Jin-gyu’s ‘I want to be a proof of hope’ and Professor Lee Ji-sun’s ‘Ji Sun-ah, I love you’, he made up his mind. “Despite being an orphan, despite being poor, despite being handicapped, I will definitely succeed. I will also be a proof of hope.”
▶Reasons for deciding to lead the Hangzhou Asian Para Games
In the winter of 2010 at the age of 30, he succeeded in starting a business as planned. “The hot fire in my heart has come back to life,” he said. Director Kim, who took over a local Chinese restaurant with three employees in Myeonmok-dong, Jungnang-gu, Seoul, for 70 million won, increased the number of employees to 17 in less than a year, and monthly sales grew rapidly from 50 million won to 120 million won. The ‘new’ set menu, such as seafood tteokbokki with jjamppong soup base, fried rice, raw apple pork cutlet, and black bean sauce, was explosively popular. In 2014, he opened a brand called ‘Bobae Banjeom No. 1’ named after his name ‘Bobae Jin’ in Gileum-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, and got word of mouth as a restaurant for jjambbong. The corona crisis was also an opportunity for those who were prepared. With the opening of the Yatap main store in Seongnam-si in 2020, it broke through the 100th store nationwide in two years, and now has opened up to the 140th store nationwide. The average monthly sales of the branches are 90 million won, and the monthly sales of the Yatap main store exceed 250 million won. 안전놀이터
Director Kim, who has spent his entire life sleeping 4 hours a day and running to earn money, said, “Now that I am in my 40s, my values change. I want to live a meaningful life.” “Even if I join the trillion-dollar club, it’s nothing if I go to China. Will I be 5 times happier if I have assets of 10 billion to 50 billion? No, I think about what a life worth living is,” he added. “After I got accepted to Chonnam National University, I felt that life was warm when my friend’s father willingly lent me 1 million won for admission. I want to hold the hand of those who have it.” It is for this reason that he accepted after much thought when Jeong Jin-wan, president of the Korean Paralympic Games Association, whom he met through an acquaintance, offered him the position of director of the Asian Games for the Disabled in Hangzhou. Director Kim, who said that he enjoyed basketball, soccer, table tennis, and badminton during his school days, said, “I hesitated about whether I could do it, but I was thrilled to see the disabled people exercising at the Icheon National Training Center. The faces of the players were all bright. Sports are such power. You have this. I have the will to work hard together,” he laughed.
He shook his hand when he said that the promotional effect of the ‘word of mouth’ of the bobae restaurant was expected. “Of course it would be nice if our brand image improved, but we didn’t even think about it in the first place,” he added. He added, “I decided to take on the role of the leader because I am a disabled person and it is a meaningful job. If you want to promote it, you can do it through YouTube advertisements or PPL.” “If there is one thing I want, I want to become a general manager who is recognized by our players. As I do business, the superiors recognized by my subordinates are ‘real’. We will look closely at the areas we are lacking in and try to support them.”
‘You only have one life, let’s pick mulberries!’ The delightful slogan of the bobaebanjeom, which is thick like jjamppong soup, was also said to be the work of director Kim, the ‘Fireman’.