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“Always look for new ways to self-improve.”

When my husband Sam first visited Korea, he was amazed at the emphasis put on the national examination time. He considered putting that amount of stress on little children to be almost criminal.

“You would think it would scar them for life,” he said. “Make their little psyches go snap, crackle, and pop.”

Of course, the value that Koreans put on education gives us a big head start in the world, especially in the math and science fields.

But formal education isn’t everything, as I soon learned after moving to the US. The university I graduated from in Korea had no effect at all on my success in America.

Of course, graduating from Harvard or Yale or Stanford would have been a big help to me. Even so, you don’t need to graduate from Harvard to succeed in the global marketplace. Some of the most successful people in the world, like Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, never graduated from college at all.

One of the great things about America and many other countries around the world is that you can educate yourself at any time and in a thousand different ways. Americans especially believe in self-improvement – in fixer-uppers, whether in a house or a person. The Extreme Makeovers shows are some of the most popular on television for that reason. In America, people are always making themselves over; they “pimp” their cars, they add “curb appeal” to their homes and they have plastic surgery done on their faces and bodies.

They also embrace the idea of lifelong learning. Elderly people go to continuing education classes and go on cruises to the Arctic to learn about penguins. Corporate managers attend night classes and seminars to get a little extra training or even an MBA. It may take them a long time to get there, but almost everyone is working toward a certificate, an advanced degree, something.

The key is to take advantage of the ability to improve yourself. There are people in the US, for example, who decide to go to medical school at thirty-five or even forty! Here it’s never too late to start. So, get started!

How do you start? First, get all of the education and training you need, based on your ambitions and dreams. My dream was to become a successful and powerful executive at an American corporation. I had the degrees and technical knowledge I needed, but I never looked really hard at what was needed and what I was missing. Only when I finally recognized that communication skills were absolutely essential did I begin to move ahead. When I finally did understand, I hired a speech coach, joined Toastmasters (a public speaking club), and even took several high-powered sales training workshops. All of which enabled me to get where I wanted to be.

(By the way, sales training is great to have, whatever your goals. Don’t groan and say you hate sales. Everything in business relates back to sales. Without sales and customers, no business, large or small, will be successful. Believe me, it’s not just corporate sales executives that need sales training. Think about it. Maybe you want to be a jewelry designer or a landscape gardener. Someone has to buy that jewelry you designed or hire you to tend his or her garden. That’s where sales training comes in. Even writers have to be able to market their skills to a magazine or book publisher, otherwise their masterpieces will never see the light of day.)

I find the best approach is to examine your goals carefully – the immediate ones as well as the big “someday if I’m really lucky” dream. You need to list what it would take to achieve those dreams in detail. If you don’t know, talk to someone who’s already doing it. You’ll find most people are willing to talk about themselves and their lives if you just ask. Most successful people love to tell the story of how they made it. Listen and learn from those stories.
Then inventory your own personal assets – the traits and training you already have – and determine what skills you still need to acquire. Make a plan to get what you need. Get started today.

Whatever you do, don’t be smug or arrogant. Arrogance can block your success because it prevents you from understanding what you lack. In some ways, I was arrogant in my belief that I had what I needed. I thought prejudice was preventing me from getting ahead. Be humble and allow yourself to admit you don’t know everything. Ask for help. Every time I’ve asked for help and advice, I’ve been rewarded. There’s no more powerful question in the world than “Can you help me?” Not all people, but most people, are willing to help. Most people like to help others.

I’ve also found it helpful to write things down on paper and carry that paper with me so I can read it again and again. I like to imagine my dreams coming true – actually visualizing them. I find it also helps to talk about your goals to your friends. You’ll be surprised at the ideas and insight they can provide. Do something every single day to move closer to your goal. What’s not going to work is sitting in front of the television every night. There’s only way one way to make anything happen: begin.