Meet Jung Park of The Life ROI in Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jung Park.

Jung, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Seoul, South Korea and migrated to New York City when I was 13. I came from a comfortable middle-class family in Korea, surrounded by family and friends to an isolated and cut-throat life of an immigrant in 1984. The culture shock drastically changed my personality and outlook on life. I pursued my passion for creativity early as I had chosen to audition for Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of the Arts, AKA, the “Fame” High School. My mother encouraged me to pursue my passion as she had not given the same opportunity when she was my age. My parents worked hard and long hours in the ghettos of Brooklyn to support my sister and me throughout our lives. With their support and blessing, I pursued Communication Design at Parsons School of Design in NYC.

After my sophomore year, my mom witnessed my father getting robbed at a gun point and decided to sell their business and move out to Colorado for a more peaceful path to their American Dream. I took a year off from Parsons to help my parents settle in Colorado. My sister stayed in NYC to attend college. My parents could not find any business opportunities in Colorado after six months and decided to return to Brooklyn. I chose to stay, as I met a girl and fell in love. Eight months later, Alexis and I got married and we have been married for 25 years with two beautiful, intelligent, loving, and quirky children Madison and Mateo. My wife and I spent five years in New Jersey after getting married. We both finished our undergraduate programs. I pursued a career in advertising/graphic design field in NYC while Alexis pursued graduate studies at NYU. I joined a dotcom company in the mid 90’s and I pursued a fast track in the field of strategy, user experience, and large scale enterprise engagements.

The company moved us back to Colorado in 2000 as I was tasked with opening up the Denver office as the Director of User Experience for the Central Region. I have been in Colorado ever since. Many events took place in my life during the past 19 years in Colorado, I faced horrific professional racism and toxic culture in a small private firm. After suffering the toxicity for a year, I quit and pursued the MBA program at the University of Colorado Denver for a career change. I wrote a business plan for a hybrid retail products & services business concept as a school project in my first year ion the program, which led to winning the first place in the UCD annual business plan competition. Along with the cash prize and in-kind sponsorship, I received tons of encouragement from family and friends to execute the business plan.

So, I launched the start-up in 2005, six months after the birth of our first child, Madison. I operated the business for 11 years before shutting it down due to health issues in 2016. I maintained an active consulting practice throughout those 11 years to not only keep my skills sharp but to fund the business when cash was tight. I went back to consulting full time after shutting the business down. I also began teaching at the University of Colorado Denver in 2012. I quickly found challenging and inspiring students to think deeper, broader, and differently to be addicting and fulfilling. The work I do now under the concept of “The Life ROI” is the harmoniously blended outcome of my work in strategic consulting, teaching, entrepreneurship, near-death experiences, and reflections for the past 25 years. I am confident and committed to my work in “The Life ROI” for the rest of my life as it is my true calling.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road had not been smooth at all. I faced racism, hate, fraud, sabotage, thievery, and economic downturns in my professional life. I faced doubt, fear, impostor syndrome, death of my father, deprivation of sleep, working around the clock, and pushing my mental and physical limitations to the breaking points, which eventually resulted in a blackout and a heart stoppage. The external factors I had to struggle through were manageable. The internal factors of working myself to near death and potentially leaving my mother son-less, my children father-less, my wife husband-less, and my sister brother-less was much more difficult to manage. The decision to face professional failure by filing bankruptcy was incredibly difficult but simply the right one.

Please tell us about your work.
My current work is my passion. The Life ROI framework simply cuts through all the fear, BS, and distraction to empower each individual to identify, define, own, and pursue the most important factors in his/her life to intentionally increase their ROI in life. This ROI is not financially driven. It leverages the most important asset we have, time. The ROI framework uses this precious asset as the prime unit of measure, as none of us know how much of it we have in supply. The Life ROI is not another self-help fad. This is not about me, my process, or my aspirations. This framework empowers each individual to take charge of their driver seat to create their ROI framework that is meaningful and relevant to his/her life.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the down to earth and humble culture of Denver. People are genuinely kind and open. The only thing I wish for is more diversity in people, culture, food, and entertainment. Denver has come a long way in the past 19 years I have been here. We need to continue the positive progress!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jungpark.me
• Email: jp@jungpark.me
• Twitter: @JungParkOne
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jungpark/

Image Credit:
Denver Startup Week

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.