Ko San’s path

A June issue of the New York Times carried congratulatory speeches by celebrities whom universities invited to their commencement ceremonies. As if life is tough everywhere, many of the messages this year urged graduating students to “take risk.” Oprah Winfrey, the famed talk show host, told graduating Harvard University students, “There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.” At the University of Rochester’s commencement ceremony, Steven Chu, the 1997 Nobel laureate in physics, said, “It’s O.K. to fail, as long as you give it your best, fail fast and move on quickly. Now you ask: ‘How do you do that? How do you fail fast? And efficiently?’ You think about the problem, and you work on the most critical and essential part of the challenge first — don’t do the easy stuff.”

“Incomplete astronaut” Ko San, 37, seems to have realized the meaning of these statements already. Formerly an ordinary researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Ko was picked as the primary “candidate for Korea’s first astronaut” after passing an intense competition with a competitive ratio of 36,000:1 in 2007. He took on a flurry of challenges in things he liked and made achievements, including acquisition of a bronze medal at an amateur boxing championship as a member of Seoul National University’s boxing club, and conquering of a 7,500-meter mountain as a member of the alpine club at the university’s college of liberal arts and science. While undergoing the last-minute training as astronaut candidate in Russia, however, he was disqualified at the final round.

The historic title of “first Korean astronaut” was handed over to Lee So-yeon, but Ko did not give up. He went to the U.S. to study science and technology policy, returned one year later, and established “Tide Institute,” a non-profit organization. The company aims to help young science and engineering majors to establish venture startups. Recently, he began steps to establish a global startup with 3-D printers. “A Team Ventures” founded by himself also makes the list of “global startup projects” announced on Monday by the Science, ICT and Future Planning Ministry.

“When you will land a job?” “You should find a decent job.” These are the first and second words that college students least want to hear from family and relatives during Chuseok holidays. Preaching by relatives depresses ambition and desire of young minds. It will sound all the more uncomfortable if such preaching is meant to ask them settle down, rather than taking on challenge. Playwright Samuel Beckett said, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” It would be great if Ko’s path can offer a guiding light to youth of this country.

Editorial writer Koh Mi-seok (mskoh119@donga.com)