*This content was translated by AI.
The turbulent life story of "ship king" Kim Hyun-kyum, who went from a poor junior high school student to a salesperson with a salary of 500,000 won to a successful businessman who leads a shipping company with annual sales of 300 billion won, resonated heavily with viewers.
On EBS's "Seo Jang-hoon's Neighborhood Millionaires," which aired on the 28th, Kim Hyun-kyum's episode of "The Ship King Who Floated 130 Billion Hotels on the Sea" aired. This refers to the "Northeast Asia No. 1 Cruise Ferry," which was created by Kim Hyun-kyum as the first domestic technology, and he was sure of success with his excellent business sense despite the dissuasion of "crazy." The mega-project, which began construction in October 2023 and involved as many as 450 people in the construction process alone, finally began officially launching and operating in April 2025. Seo Jang-hoon, who went directly to the cruise ferry between Busan and Osaka, Japan, could not hide his excitement, saying, "I want to go to Osaka like this," but he hurriedly closed his romance and laughed at the explanation, "If you don't have your passport, you're stowaway even if you stay on the ship."
Kim Hyun-kyum's family, one of the richest people in Busan when he was a child, collapsed overnight due to his father's failure to guarantee debt. He, who was 12 years old at the time, confessed his heartbreaking memories, saying, "I had to be called out and stood in front of me during class because I couldn't pay 600 won for the fostering fee." After that, he worked as a private student during the day and continued his studies by attending middle school at night. Since he was a student at Sung ○ Kwan University, Kim Hyun-kyum has shown extraordinary business skills. Starting with coffee shops in Myeong-dong, Yuja Cheong was supplied to War ○ Hill and Joe ○ Hotel, showing the appearance of a "business genius" early on. After graduating from college, he got a job at a wireless night shipping brokerage company, and his business sense became even more brilliant. It is a so-called "building strategy" that targets all trading companies by coming downstairs from the top of the building, and has been reborn as a legendary sales king by giving the company 140 times its monthly salary of 500,000 won.
Then in 1990, at the age of 28, Kim Hyun-kyum entered the business by taking out a mortgage on his wife's house without her knowing. His firm goal of "buying a ship within 10 years" has been the driving force behind the creation of a company worth tens of billions of won in sales in just 10 years. Finally, in 2000, he got his first boat, which was his long-cherished dream. However, since the first year of the ferry business, it has suffered a severe ordeal, recording a deficit of 10 billion won. Nevertheless, Kim Hyun-gyeom operated an empty ship for more than a year without a break with the belief that "the life of a regular ship is trust," and eventually broke the break-even point in a year and a half. The global financial crisis hit in 2008 shortly after buying the second ship with confidence that "I can do it all." In an instant, he faced the biggest crisis of his life with more than 100 billion won in debt.
When he even decided to sell the company, a notarized document arrived from Japan's largest creditor, who owns hundreds of ships, saying, "I'll wait and survive!" At this time, Kim Hyun-gyeom went back to his original intention with only one ship left, and repaid the trust of the benefactor by paying off the debt in six years. And now he has become a "ship king" with six ships, worth about 400 billion won. His comprehensive shipping company, which marks its 35th anniversary as of 2025, has an annual sales of 300 billion won. Looking back on his business life, Kim Hyun-kyum calmly recalled, "I gave everything to my dream of buying a ship within 10 years." He then said, "I think about 'Is it okay for me to earn money?' and when I start a new business, I see if it doesn't harm others," he said, conveying his unshakable business philosophy.
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*This content was translated by AI.
