Comedian Park Seong-gwang's wife and entrepreneur Lee Sol-i spoke about how her values changed after battling cancer.
Recently, OSEN met Lee Sol-i at her office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, for an interview.
When asked about her recent life that day, Lee said, "This may sound funny, but I think I have been busy, filling each day completely with work. Rather than working for a particular purpose, my values in life changed a lot after I became sick. I wanted to fill my life by concentrating more fully," conveying that she has been devoted to her business.
She currently operates a shopping mall brand while juggling live commerce and market operations, spending busy days. In addition, she recently started a new distribution business that supplies beauty products to warehouse-style pharmacies, leveraging her experience working at a pharmaceutical company.
Earlier, Lee had shared that she once started a clothing shopping mall business in her 20s and failed. At the time she confessed, "It was so hard that I quit," and when asked why she started a shopping mall again despite that, she said, "I think it's my personality. Looking back now, I unknowingly had the experience of trying a shopping mall before and it didn't work out. So maybe I wanted to try again. Somehow, through the various things I went through, my skills built up and developed, so I had the desire to try again and manage it well."
She continued, "And strangely, it's like my own jinx, but everything goes well for me the second time. So I think my life now is the second time around. Because I was sick. So I view life more positively, and when I went out on sales the second time, other pharmaceutical companies really couldn't come into the places I was in. I really did my job well. The shopping mall isn't doing extremely well right now, but I have hope that the second time will be more satisfying," she said.
Last year, Lee revealed she had battled a female cancer, which drew sympathy. She described her pre-illness self as "a racehorse." But after the illness, she began to live without a purpose and let life flow. Lee said, "I am a complete ENTJ. I am goal-oriented and performance-driven; I need a clear goal. I spent 10 years like that from my 20s until 33, but then I became sick. I realized too early that you never know when or how a person will change. So now, being faithful to each day is everything, and I don't really have a plan for 'how I should live.' It's simply 'let's live satisfactorily today.' Live without regrets. So these days, when making choices I ask myself, 'Will I regret this or not?' I choose by thinking 'this will probably result in less regret,'" she said, describing the change.
Lee said, "Before, I was fascinated by achievement and speed. I still shout 'I can do it,' but back then I would say 'why not?' and try to make even unreasonable things happen; I was a great player. When someone inputted something, I showed results immediately, and speed and achievement seemed to prove my life. I had a goal. As soon as I turned 20, my father's business was hit by a big fraud, and the family finances got difficult when I was 20. As the eldest daughter, there is that sense of responsibility. So I tried to make a lot of money on my own. I tried to raise my salary and was attracted to getting a lot of incentives. I preferred work to company dinners and liked meeting people who produced results rather than socializing. I didn't want to waste time," she recalled.
She added, "But now I live in a way that allows for what used to feel like wasted time. I realized that time spent on myself is so precious. Now that I can go slowly, I've become someone who pursues density in life. Working has meaning, but I don't place so much importance on results. Of course, I have 10 years of work skills built up, so when I do something I never do it sloppily and I give my best, but I am not overly attached to the results afterward. I changed like that. I take sudden trips, sleep well for myself. If my past life was fast-paced, now I live a dense life. And it seems that in the past others took priority, but now I come first," she explained her current values.
She said many changes have occurred in how she sets future plans and goals. Lee said, "Actually, in the past I would set one goal and run like crazy, but once I achieved that goal, burnout came immediately. So when I trained employees and taught juniors I would tell them, 'You should set a goal after the goal.' Because when a goal ends people tend to let go, so I used to say that, but now that is gone. Even so, life is so happy. So frankly, rather than thinking 'I should become a CEO' or 'I should become the representative,' if you just work hard and enjoy it, those who appreciate that will join you and money seems to follow. I haven't set any particular goal. I just want to live without regret, do everything I want to do, and die," she said.
Asked if there was anything she especially wanted to convey, Lee said, "When I meet my younger sisters or friends, I tell them, 'Don't try to live too hard.' I do work hard, but aren't there many roles that people in their 30s must handle? There are mothers, daughters, daughters-in-law, wives, and working moms who also have jobs; they are crushed by too many roles. But if you try to do all of this perfectly like a supermom, you end up getting sick. There are people around me who love me without me having to prove myself in any role. Ultimately, I think the total of happy times spent with those people can be seen as life. So I often tell people not to be so absorbed in being 'perfect' or 'a 100-point mother' or 'a 100-point wife,' but to find meaning in happily spending time with people who stay by your side even if you don't have to prove yourself," she revealed.
She said, "I originally never relied on others. But when I had chemotherapy and couldn't do anything, I changed like a newborn. So I inevitably relied on my mother and my husband. When I leaned on someone and relied on them, I realized how much being protected gives you courage. Having someone to protect you doesn't hide you inside protection; it gives you the courage to go out into the world. Those times are what let us find strength. I always tried to do everything myself. When I see young friends trying to do the same, I end up giving that advice a bit like scolding," she recalled what she realized after battling illness.
Now that she knows how to rely on those around her, Lee said, "Being able to lean on someone emotionally feels like truly living. When my husband and I were filming 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' and his company was in Jongno with a 9 a.m. start, we were building our newlywed home in Gimpo. Since my husband is a freelancer and leaves in the afternoon, I could have told him to go to Gimpo to see the interior and then go to work, but because I wanted him to sleep more I got up at 5 or 6 a.m., went to the Gimpo site, and then went to Jongno to work. After work, if he came at 7 or 8 p.m., we would do a live commerce broadcast at 9 p.m., so my days ran from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. I repeated that while filming 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' until the house was finished. Thinking back then, I wondered, 'How upset would my mother have been to see me like that?'" she recounted the time she tried to do everything alone.
She added, "If you have a husband you can lean on and depend on, why not do that instead of being foolish and splitting up time that should be for sleep and recovery? When I think about that version of myself, I feel really foolish. I don't do that anymore. I am living centered on myself," she said, noting that she has only now begun to care for herself. (Continued in interview ②.)
[photo] Lee Sol-i
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