So newcomers to New York can find their footing

Take the good people you meet as your mentors, and make the plans of your life come true.

• 1981

  At 35 he arrives as a student with his wife and two children. Unable to find work in Connecticut he moves to New York, and the next year takes over a small alteration shop on 49th Street in Manhattan.

• 1990

  Nine years after arriving he buys his first building, on 57th Street and 2nd Avenue, with bank and seller financing. Running more than ten dry cleaners, he adds buildings one at a time.

• 2000~2016

  As building committee chair of the Korean American Association (2000 to 2002) he turns around a loss-making hall, and chairs Congressman Charles Rangel’s supporters (2002 to 2016). He also led the Korean Dry Cleaners Association and the Yonsei alumni of New York.

• 2005~

  He founds City Lights Real Estate Brokerage (2005) and B.I.G. Continent (2011) for investment, management and education. Since 2008 about 3,000 people have attended more than 700 lectures and seminars, and the “100 property owners” campaign has produced new Korean-American landlords.

• 2012~

  He founds the Global Leadership Foundation. “To build a cooperative community in Korean America on education that holds real life, and to invest in and support everyone in finding the ‘I’ who is the master of their own life.” (Foundation mission, from his Sebasi talk)

Sources: The Korea Times New York, November 17, 2023; Sebasi episode 608; foundation records