Meet Seoung Hyen Cha | Student at Tufts University

We had the good fortune of connecting with Seoung Hyen Cha and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Seoung Hyen, what principle do you value most?
The relationship between my loved ones is what I value the most. Without my family and friends, I would not have been able to continue my school and my career. However, this value has just started to alter from last year when relationship with my father became stronger and this year, when one of my close friends passed away. Before realizing the value of these connections, I was a very goal-oriented person. I wanted to be successful, and by being successful, I defined it as having a job everyone looks up to and earning a lot of money. This passion for becoming “successful” did help me to a certain extent in improving sales of my start-up business in Korea that I started in 2020 April. However, I started to feel weary and burnt out sometimes because the goal I had was not what I dearly wanted and truly valued. I have realized I have been too absorbed in work and my future career that I have missed all the interactions with my family and friends. What kept me going was their support, but I have not been taking care of them as much as I should have been and I have not been able to express how grateful I felt for their support. I recognized this when my parents were undergoing divorce and when my friend passed away. As I value the relationships and people around me, I started to put my importance on the process than on the goal. As I switched my life value, I became happier and things started to work out better in terms of school work, career, and friendships since I enjoyed what I was doing and was more passionate. Now, my goal is to have my own business in the future to help underrepresented children receive adequate education and healthcare. I believe if you focus on the process, the goal will follow through.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I started Jinny company, a healthcare product e-commerce company, in April 2020 after I took a gap semester at Tufts University. I had no knowledge about business and economics but I just started with determination and passion. First 6 months, I did not have any profit, in fact, it was negative. However, I think what set me apart from others was I woke up earlier than others and worked a little longer. I do not think I was particularly smart, though I think I am a fast problem solver especially when there are risks, I came to the company at 5 am, packed hundreds of boxes of deliveries and by 12 pm when everything was sent, I would look at consumer behavior and try to analyze the trend and look for better alternatives to improve my business until I go to bed around midnight. It was not easy when I had to do my business, internship, and school altogether at once. That is when I learned I should not be too greedy to finish everything at once because it was the time when my health deteriorated as I had an average of 3 hours of sleep. In addition, I did not have any time with my friends or family. But, from that, I have never been healthier because now I care so much about my health that I never was sick afterward. One most important lesson that I learned is that with determination and passion I can do anything. I do not necessarily want the world to know about my current brand, but I do want them to know about my future brand in the future, which I want to develop after I improve on my business and economic related academics since I believe having those intellectuals would support my path as an entrepreneur.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
To be honest, though there are so many good places in Korea, I would like to take my friend to my house and introduce my family. We can sleep in my room together, play ping-pong with my father, and eat delicious tteok-bo=ki, a Korean spicy rice cake, that my mother I believe can make the best one in the world. Maybe, I say this because I am an international student and I miss my family and home. It is the place where it excites me and I can be the happiest.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate my shoutout to my father. He was there for me every time I cried and laughed. He is my mentor, my best friend, and my role model. I was able to be who I am now and what I want to be in the future because I learned perseverance, passion, and empathy from him.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-cha-0310/