Chung Ju-yung

Born

1915 · Tongchon, Korea (now North Korea)

Roots

Korean; born in what became the North

Family

Poverty

The eldest of a subsistence rice farmer's seven children; school ended at the village level and famine was a recurring visitor.

Education

Village school; bookkeeping learned at night from a rice-store owner

Started with

A stolen cow's price

On one escape to Seoul he took the money from his father's sold cow — about 70 won; his father fetched him home.

Affiliations & societies

None documented.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1933 · age 18
   The fourth escape sticks

   Docks, construction sites, and a rice-store delivery job in Seoul; he ends up owning the store at 22.

2. 1946 · age 31
   Hyundai begins as a garage

   An auto-repair shop, then construction as the country rebuilds.

3. 1968 · age 52
   Cars

   Hyundai Motor assembles Fords, then builds the Pony — Korea's first domestic car — by 1975.

4. 1972 · age 56
   The 500-won shipyard

   By his famous account, wins foreign backing for a nonexistent shipyard by showing the turtle ship on the banknote; Hyundai becomes the world's largest shipbuilder.

5. 1998 · age 82
   1,001 cattle across the DMZ1,001 cows

   Leads 500 cattle north in June and sends 501 more in October — repayment, with interest, for his father's cow.

6. 2001 · age 85
   Dies in Seoul

   Hyundai's affiliates span cars, ships, engineering, and the Asan hospitals.