Passion found Success

I want to share with you a story that I came across while I was on vacation in South Korea.

I cannot really verify if the story I heard is true or not. But nevertheless, it is a wonderful story that I want to tell all of you as it shows the great passion of one determination to pursue the things that one wants to do in life.

I was on this group tour in Korea and we had a mandarin speaking guide. Her name is Judy. Though she is a Korean she speaks fluent mandarin. We are very pleased with her as she did an excellent job in arranging our accommodation, meals and transportation. She did well in managing the schedule, giving us sufficient time to see places without much of a rush.

We were told that in the tourism industries in Korea, tour leaders profession is mainly dominated by the men. Very few women take up such job. In Korean tradition, men is seen as superior over the women. Men hold most of the high position jobs.

When Judy first joined the tourism industry as a tour leader, she is often being despised by fellow male colleagues as she is a female. Moreover, she is tasked to lead Chinese speaking tour group which requires her to communicate in mandarin. Being Korean, she has to pick up the Chinese language in order to do the job efficiently. She competes with her male counterparts. Some were migrant from China with no difficulties in speaking mandarin making the competition tougher.

Nevertheless, Judy, went to study the Chinese language, and constantly watching Chinese movies and listening to Chinese programs to improve her language skill so that she will not lose out to her peers.

Her parents had great objection to her being a tour leader as she is required to be away from home for long period of time. Her parents had put her through piano lessons hoping that she will become a well known music teacher one day. But Judy just wants to be a tour leader. Because of her love for the job, she made every effort to make her parents happy so as to gain their approval.

When she got married, her in-laws were not happy with her for being in such profession too as women are seen to be home makers to serve the husbands. But she is filled with determination to pursue in this profession. She is so passionate about this profession that she can make any sacrifices to be in this job. She managed to convince her in-laws.

She fought her way up the ladder becoming among the best performer in the tourism industries in Korea. She had received numerous awards from her company for outstanding performance.

We can see that she loves her job. She gets great satisfaction bringing foreigners to see places in her country. She loves to see the smile on our faces as this indicate that she is doing a good job. She likes being with people and playing host.

I am definitely impressed with her passion for the job and the great determination in doing it well. She had done it well for 7 years and I can see that she will continue to do well and succeed because she has the passion.

Judy is one good example of a successful person in her own way putting passion first which leads to success.