The securities firm in Euljiro occupied the building's seventh floor. The elevator was slow. Seo-ah took the stairs. Her legs, strengthened by years of dawn newspaper delivery, handled seven floors with ease.
Her first day at work. The desk assigned to Seo-ah was in the corner of the Sales Support Team. One desk, one computer, one phone. Her duties were organizing client data and making copies of documents. It was far removed from finance.
The team leader looked at Seo-ah and said,
"Han Seo-ah, you only graduated high school, right?"
"Yes."
"Everyone here has a college degree. Some of them are SKY graduates. So use your judgment."
Use your judgment. Seo-ah knew exactly what he meant. Know your place.
Seo-ah knew her place. She just had no intention of staying there.
During her first month, Seo-ah did whatever she was told. Perfectly.
When she copied documents, she sorted them before returning them. When she organized data, she caught the errors and reported them, too. When she answered the phone, she wrote down the client's name and inquiry and stuck the note to the person in charge's desk. No one had asked her to do any of it.
"Han Seo-ah, who told you to do this?"
"No one. I thought it might be useful."
The senior colleague looked at Seo-ah. It was the kind of look that showed discomfort at a high school graduate new hire going beyond her assigned duties. Seo-ah read that look. But she didn't stop.
In her second month, Seo-ah started working late.
After everyone else went home, Seo-ah stayed behind. She read the Research Team's reports. She read market analysis materials. Whenever she came across a term she didn't understand, she wrote it down and searched for it during lunch the next day. It was just like spreading out her textbooks in the convenience store. Only the location had changed.
Seo-ah discovered something.
There was something missing from the Research Team's reports. They analyzed macroeconomic indicators and corporate earnings, but they had no data from the consumer front lines. Seo-ah knew what she had seen during three years at the convenience store: which products sold, which brands were losing ground, and when consumers opened their wallets and when they kept them shut.
Seo-ah wrote a memo. One sheet of A4 paper. "Outlook for Retail Stocks in the Second Half of the Year, Seen from the Consumer Front Lines." She had no intention of showing it to anyone. She wrote it for her own study.
The manager of the Research Team saw that memo.
The manager's name was Jung Min-hyuk. Thirty-five years old. A graduate of Seoul National University's business school. He was rumored to be the most demanding person on the Research Team. After reading Seo-ah's memo, he came down to the Sales Support Team.
"Who wrote this?"
The team leader pointed to Seo-ah. Jung Min-hyuk looked at her.
"Han Seo-ah?"
"Yes."
"What's the source of this data?"
"I worked at a convenience store for three years. That's what I saw there."
Jung Min-hyuk's expression changed. It wasn't ridicule. It was curiosity.
"You saw the convenience store's POS data?"
"I couldn't see the POS data. I observed it myself. Which products sold when, and how quickly the inventory ran out."
"You put all that into a three-page report?"
"One page."
Jung Min-hyuk laughed. He was the first person to smile at Seo-ah.
"Are you free tomorrow at lunch?"
Jung Min-hyuk bought Seo-ah lunch. It was at a small Korean set-meal restaurant in an alley in Euljiro. Soybean-paste stew and rice. Seo-ah left none of the side dishes behind.
"Han Seo-ah, I'll be honest with you. The analytical framework in this memo is a mess. The logical structure is weak, and the data hasn't been verified."
Seo-ah nodded.
"But your observations are good. You have a feel for the front lines. That's something they don't teach you at school."
Seo-ah said nothing.
"Do you want to join the Research Team?"
"I'm on the Sales Support Team."
"I'll talk to the team leader. Of course, you'll start with support work. Organizing data, collecting materials. It might not be all that different from what you're doing now."
"What would be different?"
"You'd be able to learn. How to read the market."
Seo-ah set down her chopsticks.
"I'll do it."
Jung Min-hyuk nodded. Seo-ah remembered that moment. The first time someone recognized her ability. Seo-ah didn't say thank you. Instead, she made a decision. She would make sure this man never regretted it.
After transferring to the Research Team, Seo-ah's days grew even longer.
She arrived at six every morning and organized trends in overseas markets. During the day, she collected data and drafted analysis reports. In the evening, she worked through the assignments Jung Min-hyuk threw at her. "Analyze this company's financial statements for the past three years." "Make a valuation comparison table for this sector." "Find the logical flaws in this report."
Seo-ah didn't miss a single thing.
When she got home at eleven at night, her younger sibling was asleep. She ate the rice her grandmother had left behind, wrote in the household ledger, slept for two hours, and went back to work.
Her coworkers thought Seo-ah was strange. It was strange enough that a high school graduate was on the Research Team, but it was even stranger that she arrived first and left last every day.
"What's with her? Is she acting like that to get on the manager's good side?"
Seo-ah heard them. She heard them and ignored them. She learned how to ignore things when she was ten. While listening to debt collectors shout.
[Coaching Insight]
When you have nothing, the only way to prove yourself is through execution.
No prestigious degree. No connections. No one to recommend you. Then there's only one thing left. Do the work no one else will do, during the hours no one else will work.
Seo-ah did things no one had asked her to do. She read reports no one else read. She stayed after everyone else went home. This isn't effort. This is strategy.
For someone with nothing to survive in an organization, the answer is simple. Become irreplaceable. And being irreplaceable doesn't come from talent. It comes from the density of your execution.