I recently traveled to Shanghai, China to attend our company’s 10th anniversary event. At the quarterly business review meeting, I met founder Tony Bin Zhao for the first time and also brainstormed with the global leadership team who flew in from our US office. The group included the Chinese CEO, Indian branch manager, American CTO, and even a fluent Spanish-speaking chief of staff. It was both surprising and deeply gratifying to realize I was working alongside the world’s top talent as the Korean branch manager.

Staying at the Hyatt Regency Shanghai Wuzhaochang, I started each day with a dawn swim. The 15-minute walk to the office after swimming was incredibly refreshing. Upon arriving at the office, warm Chinese steamed buns, McCafe fast food, and boiled eggs welcomed the early-arriving staff. Meeting colleagues I’d only seen on screen felt like virtual characters leaping into reality, while reuniting with those I’d met last year was a joyful reunion.

Above all, reuniting with Tony Wang, the co-CEO I’d met in the US two years prior, was special. When he messaged me from the same hotel suggesting breakfast together, I instinctively sensed ‘business talk’ was coming—and indeed it was. He proposed entrusting the breakthrough in the Indonesian market to the Korean branch. Since I’d been wrestling with the same dilemma, I readily agreed. Ultimately, during a dinner meeting that followed the business trip, I also took on responsibility for business development in the Australian region. I jokingly told the head of the business division, “After having breakfast and dinner with the CEO, Indonesia and Australia were added. Who knows what country might be added the next time we eat together?” This sparked a burst of laughter.

Working at a global tech company headquartered in Shanghai and listed on NASDAQ has been deeply insightful. Witnessing the celebration of a history where a founder, originally a Silicon Valley developer, started in a garage ten years ago and grew the company to over 700 employees, I saw the sheer power of the members building this vibrant corporate culture. In contrast, I felt a pang of regret for South Korea’s youth generation, still trapped in the outdated paradigms of ‘exports versus domestic demand’ and ‘large corporations versus small businesses,’ living like frogs in a well. It struck me as akin to covering an eaglet’s eyes while feeding it, making it mistake itself for a chick in a chicken coop.

While our children struggle with advanced learning just to raise their math scores by one point, others are learning coding to launch startups. While our university students obsess over building resumes for employment, others strive to solve the world’s problems through entrepreneurship. It’s time for our youth to break free from an environment dominated by education focused solely on past knowledge and entrance exams, and seize the boundless opportunities beyond the well. I earnestly hope our next generation will break free from the confines of the chicken coop and soar like eagles across the vast global sky. Encouraging their challenges, I too begin today with vigor.