Yi Chun Cosmetic Medicine Group founder Wang Cheng-kun (王正坤) said on Sunday that the younger generation must not squander opportunities or give up hope of a better future.
Wang was speaking at the commencement ceremony for the group’s training center in Greater Tainan and used his own experiences as an example. He said that although his father had a steady job as a physics teacher at Guanmiao Junior High School and had been mayor of Guanmiao Township (關廟), their family was always in debt during his younger days.
“After my father’s last unsuccessful election attempt, the family was nearly NT$100 million [US$3.3 million] in debt,” Wang said, adding that by the time he graduated from college he had been burdened with more than NT$80 million of his father’s debt.
“I worked harder than anyone else to pay back the debt to the bank,” Wang said.
Wang said that by the time he was 28, he had left jobs at public hospitals and was hired by Tainan City Hospital as director of dermatology, adding that despite the hours — he left work at 1am every day — the pay, more than NT$500,000 per month, was very good.
Wang said he tried everything to augment his income and only slept two to three hours per night. By the time he was 30, he had founded the first Yi Chun dermatology clinic.
The clinic had more than 9,000 patients per month and within 10 years, Wang had not only paid off the family debt, but had also bought back land that had belonged to the family before it had been foreclosed and auctioned off by a court order.
Wang said that at the time his finances were inadequate to buy back every piece of land his family had owned, adding that it was something that he still regrets.
He hoped his experiences would motivate the younger generation not to give up and to work hard. Chances are given to those who are prepared, and one should not become discouraged when they meet difficulties, anything was possible if one had strong enough will power, Wang said.
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