Funds accumulated through business operations are sacred.For business profits to be sacred, however, it is important
not to lie or to take excessive profit. When conducting
business, we must always be honest, and we must never take a
profit of more than 30 percent. Money earned in this honorable
manner must, of course, be spent prayerfully. It must be spent
with a clear purpose and intent. This is the principle of business
management that I have promoted throughout my life. I believe
the purpose of business is not simply to make money. It is also to
support the missionary work, which is the work of God.
One reason I worked to create funds for missionary work
through business was that I did not want to take money from our
members for this purpose. No matter how lofty the purpose might
be, sending missionaries overseas could not be accomplished just
by wishing it. It required funds. These funds should be earned
in the name of the church. Funds for missionary work had to
be earned in an honorable way. Only then could we be proud of
everything we did.
As I looked at various options for making money, postage stamps
caught my eye. In those days, I was suggesting to members that they
write to each other at least three times a month. Mailing a letter cost 40
won, but I suggested that they not simply place one 40-won stamp on
their letters. Instead, I suggested they use forty 1-won stamps. We took
the canceled postage stamps from these letters, sold them, and managed
to make 1 million won in the first year. Seeing that used postage stamps,
which seemed insignificant, could bring in big money, the members
continued this work for seven years. We also sold black-and-white
photographs of famous places or popular entertainment personalities
that we had hand-colored with paint. This business also contributed
significantly to the operation of our church activities.
As the church grew, postage stamps and painted photographs were
no longer enough to generate the funds we needed for our missionary
work. We needed to take our business to a higher level if we were to send
missionaries all over the world. In 1962, before the Korean government
redenominated the currency, a lathe that the Japanese had been using
but then abandoned in 1945 was purchased for 720,000 won. Following
redenomination, it was worth 72,000 won. Korean currency was pegged
to the U.S. dollar, then at 125 won per dollar, so the official value of the
investment was $576. We placed this lathe in the coal briquette storage
room of the “enemy property” house we were using as our church and
called it Tongil Industries.
“To you, this lathe may seem insignificant,” I explained. “You may
wonder what kind of business we are going to do by installing one piece
of old and used machinery. This machine that you see here, however,
will be multiplied before long to become 7,000—and even 70,000—
lathes, and the company will develop along with Korea’s defense and
automobile industries. This machine that we installed today will surely
be a cornerstone for building our country’s automobile industry. Have
faith. Have the conviction that this will surely happen.”
This was what I said to those then gathered in front of the coal briquette
storage room. It was a humble beginning, but our purpose was
lofty and great. They responded to my call and worked with dedication.
As a result, in 1963 we were able to start another business on a
somewhat larger scale. This involved building a fishing boat. The boat
was launched at a pier in the Manseok Dong section of Incheon and
christened Cheon Seung Ho, meaning Victory of Heaven. Some two
hundred people attended the ceremony where this fishing boat was sent
out onto the ocean.
Water is the source of life. We were all born from our mothers’
wombs. Inside those wombs is water, so we were born from water. I
launched the boat with the belief that, in a similar way to how we receive
life from water, we need to go out onto the ocean and pass through
a series of trials there in order to become capable of surviving the trials
we will face on land.
Cheon Seung Ho was an exceptional boat. It sailed throughout the
Yellow Sea and caught many fish. The reaction of many, though, was
that we had enough to do on land and that there was no need for us to
be going out onto the ocean and catching fish. I sensed, however, that
the world was about to enter an oceanic era. The launching of Cheon
Seung Ho was a small, but precious, first step in opening that era. I was
already picturing in my mind the vast ocean with boats larger and faster
than Cheon Seung Ho.
