The long road to success for a small entrepreneur requires more than just a desire to succeed. Success is often elusive for some entrepreneurs, while for others success seems to be destiny. For Young-Joong Kang, Chairman of the Daekyo Group, success has become second-nature.

When he set up Daekyo in 1976, he founded a company in an ideal market. For a country devoid of natural resources, education has been a lynchpin of Korean success. Parents have done anything and everything to make sure that their children would never face the same hardship they had faced as Korea began to grow. No suffering was too great for Korean parents in their mission to see their children properly educated and receive a college degree. Korea's transformation from a war-torn country to a bristling modern economic power today is the direct result of the passion of Korean people for education.

Kang knew success in higher education requires that a child should have a solid foundation in the 3Rs. He realized that as children grow the confines of the traditional classroom may impede a full, rounded education. Children often require individual attention that a teacher cannot provide in a crowded or busy classroom. Thus, he developed a model of education that would meet each childOs needs, a business model now emulated by many of his competitors. Kang succeeded so effectively that in the past 30 years, according to one estimate, at least one in three Koreans has passed through the education system that Kang developed when he first brought his business to life.

The Daekyo business model is as simple as it is effective. It begins with the assumption that parents will spend a few dollars a week to provide their child with some personal attention from a teacher to learn math or other subjects in the comfort of home. He also assumed that no two children are the same when it comes to learning speed and that each child learns faster if a teacher understands the needs and requirements of each child. Since a regular teacher cannot give such a degree of personal attention to students in a formal classroom setting, Kang's model worked perfectly to fulfill this need. Kang started to hire and train teachers who would spend 15 to 20 minutes a week to help a child learn a particular subject at home. Thus, a whole generation of visiting-teachers was born in Korea.

As of 2004, 2.3 million students in Korea were enrolled with Daekyo. Many are learning a variety of subjects from their homes. Daekyo supports these students through a staff of 18,000 with each teacher visiting students at home. Korea's economy and society have come a long way from underdeveloped in the mid-1970s to an OECD member country. And yet, the model that Kang developed to teach students has remained as important to parents today as it was back then.

Of course, success did not come instantly. Kang spent a lot of care and time to develop curricula and tutorials, as well as properly train teachers. His unique tutorials, which encourage a child to learn independently with minimal teacher guidance, have been as popular in Singapore and the US as in Korea. This success is rooted in Kang's understanding of a child's learning needs and his overall vision. Kang's story shows that an entrepreneur really does require passion, spirit, and commitment.

And over the past 10 years, Kang has taken these qualities and channeled them into promoting a sport that requires the kind of individual attention that he has given to each and every child who is learning math. He has realized his vision in badminton, a highly athletic sport where strategy is crucial. Badminton players not only require a lot of energy and stamina to play a game that can last over two hours, but they must always be on their toes mentally as well to make the split-second decisions the game demands. Badminton is a competitive Olympic sport and is also a family sport played in backyards and parks around the world. Many people in Asia enjoy badminton as part of their daily health regime and as a bit of fun.

Daekyo's own amateur badminton team was born out of Kang's love of the game. Kang was later invited to become the President of the Korea Badminton Association, a position he now holds concurrently with President of the Asian Badminton Confederation. Just as Kang has always held a vision for his business, he also has one for badminton as a competitive sport. He would like to make badminton, which is played in only a limited number of Asian and European countries, a global sport.

After 30 years of endless activity in his business life, President Kang is now shifting more of his attention to badminton, its promotion as a sport, and to other social activities.

[1972]	Graduated from Konkuk University in Seoul, major in agricultural chemistry
[1975]	Established a learning Institute for children (Daekyo Inc.)
[1987]	Graduated from Yonsei University Graduate School of Education
[1990]	Completed Advanced Management Program of Seoul National University
[1992]	Completed Advanced Management Program of Korea University
[1992]	Chairman of Board of Daekyo Cultural Foundation Trustees
[1995]	Completed Advanced Management Program of KAIST
[1998]	Completed Advanced Management Program of Sogang University
[1999]	Completed Advanced Management Program in Yonsei University Graduate School of Communications
[2001]	Chairman of Daekyo Group
[2003]	President of Korea Badminton Association
[2005.07]	President of Asia Badminton Confederation
[2005]	President of Badminton World Federation
[2006.03]~ [2008.02]	Chairman of Korea Intellectual Property Right Legislation Institute
[2006]	Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 38th World Scout Conference and 10th World Scout Youth Forum
[2006.07.14]	Completed Wharton KMA CEO Institute Program
[2007.07.24]	Member of Advisory Committee for the Tax Policy
[2008.03.14]	The 14th President of Korea Scout Association