That was a bold move for someone who’s shy. Q: Yes it was and because you’re forced to give monologues and perform in front of a group of people, it helped me out a lot and I think that’s when my creative juices started to come out. Playing sports also played a critical role in building my confidence and becoming more comfortable in front of a crowd.
Tell us more about Kino 33 Entertainment. Q: Kino 33 is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I officially built it late last year. It’s a film and music production company with a small portion dedicated to artist management. I produce movies and music through Kino 33 and I try to build collaborations with some of the talents that I manage. I work with Korean talents who want to come to the US, but I don’t manage their Korean work, and vice versa. I normally represent friends who I have strong relationship with or people that I have trust and confidence in working together.
‘Blush’ is a multi-national group. Do you plan on expanding the venture to a multi-national level? Q: Absolutely. Right now we are touring in the US. Once we’re done with that, we have another concert in Singapore late May, where PSY will be performing as well. We’ve performed in Malaysia with
Will.I.Am, in Hong Kong with Justin Bieber and at Nokia Center in LA with Diana Ross. Quincy Jones co- manages the group now and I’m also working with him on various projects.
Do you have any advice or message for people who want to be where you are? Q: You have to find happiness within first. In order to succeed in this business or in any other business, you have to be happy and find what makes you happy. You also have to organically build a fun network of friends that you consider family. Sooner or later, all those things are going to create a synergy. That’s the way I’ve always built my life. I’ve never met somebody because they had something of my interest. I’ve always met people because I just truly like them and want to build a relationship. Some of them happen to be doctors, lawyers, entertainers, or restaurant owners, or people in all different industries. You want to work with people you can trust and enjoying being with.
So the relationship you have with them is never 100% business. Q: Definitely not. When I’m in town, I like to call them up and
get together and they do the same. It’s friends first and business later, if it happens to be, if it’s not, we’re still friends so it doesn’t matter. Yes, there are outfalls of that because mixing business with pleasure sometimes can create jealousy, greed, betrayal or other conflicts but sometimes that can also be a blessing in disguise; better experience that now than later and it’s easier to filter people in your life that way, so I don’t see it as a loss. But when it works out, it’s golden.
It almost sounds too simple. Q: It is simple. It’s society that complicates things and make you think twice, like ‘oh since that person is doing this, maybe I have to do it too’, ‘why does that person have that? I can do better than her’, which is all very unnecessary. If you find inner peace, inner happiness and work on yourself first, then everything else will fall into place. But most of the world has it backwards: people think, ‘if I do this or achieve that, I’ll be happy.’ If you operate that way, you’ll never be happy because by the time you get or achieve what you thought you wanted, you’re going to want something else. So find inner peace and happiness and build a relationship with a group of friends you love. That’s really how I got to where I am today.
At the end of his speech at NYU, he takes his phone out of his pocket and says “Here is my Facebook and Twitter address. Add me, follow me, and trust me, I will not ignore you. Better yet, add and follow people who are sitting next to you. I’m telling you, you just don’t know where a random relationship is going to take you. The hardest step in making friends is saying hello.”
For someone who has a strong foothold in the entertainment industry that seems to be somewhat superficial, Q is very genuine and authentic. He still holds onto the traditional values of friendship and relationship and truly believes that every one of them is valuable.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe we really do have it backwards. Maybe, if we truly focused on the countless encounters and relationships around us in an organic way and find what really makes us happy, maybe that’s all that matters.
글 Mom&I English Reporter Tina Kong
Bachelor of Science in Business, Indiana University Kelley School of Business Marketing Associate at Korea International Trade Association, NY Branch
July 2013 PEOPLE 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84