We were lucky to catch up with Junki Hong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Junki, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Taekwondo is not just about learning how to fight!

I think that Taekwondo is the same as our real life.
Most people of martial arts learners say that they want to be a black belt when they start martial arts.
It takes a lot of time to get a black belt. And the journey is not very easy.
Sometimes they meet a big wall. Their body doesn’t move as they want, and sometimes they get injured. They find something more interesting, neglect martial arts training, and lose motivation.
All of these situations are too similar to our lives.

We have a life skill at each belt.
White belt is Focus
Yellow belt is Consistency
Green Stripe belt is Goal-Setting
Green belt is Cooperation
Blue Stripe belt is Self-Control
Blue belt is Perseverance
Red Stripe belt is Enthusiasm
Red belt is Confidence
Black Stripe belt is Respect
Poom belt is Responsibility
Black belt is leadership.

All of these life skills are very important keywords that are related to success.

When I think about my life, of course, there were times when I had fun, but there were many cases where it was the opposite. When I try to proceed with something, I don’t think things have ever worked out smoothly at once.
Sometimes I complained, but I tried hard to be patient and think positively. Many of these experiences have also taught me how to keep my mental composure.

As a result, this experience is very helpful when I opened my Taekwondo school at the beginning of pandemic.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was young, I was very shy and I had no confidence. So when I was 6 years old, I started Taekwondo at the recommendation of my father. After that, I trained Taekwondo steadily and majored in Taekwondo at university.

During the winter vacation of the third year of university in 2009, I visited Taekwondo school in the United States at the recommendation of my professor. (The school that I visited during winter vacation is now the root of Tiger Hong’s World Class Taekwondo.) It was a short visit, but I was very motivated. My whole body was thrilled and I had a dream that I wanted to come to America and open my own Taekwondo school.

After graduating from university in 2011, I applied for a work visa to get a job at an Tiger Kim’s World Class Taekwondo school(This is the school that I visited during winter vacation). But the process was not smooth. Because surgery was performed due to knee cruciate ligament and cartilage rupture, and rehabilitation. So preparing a visa was delayed for a year. A year later, I prepared a visa again in 2012, but I had to wait another year because It was failed. And I prepared a visa again in 2013, but It was failed again.

And then I got married, and my wife got pregnant. I was going to give up going to America. But my wife told me to prepare for my visa again because it was my dream to go to America. So I applied for a visa again and received a visa in September 2014.

And on November 1, 2014, I came to the United States alone. Because, at that time, my daughter was a baby in less than a hundred days, I decided that it would be better to stay alone until I settled in the United States. So I worked hard and saved money to bring my wife and daughter to America. The original plan was to bring my wife and daughter a year later, but I saved more money than I thought, so I could bring my wife and daughter in six months. That’s how I started my wife and daughter’s life in the United States in May 2014.

And my Taekwondo journey in the U.S. continues until now.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

At the end of February 2020, I came to San Antonio for a lease contract for current my Taekwondo school. Three weeks after the contract, the pandemic was declared around the world, and the U.S.A shut down.

All the news reported only very negative content, and news continued that self-employed people like me went bankrupt.

My friends around me told me to cancel my plan to open a school. They said Taekwondo school would be difficult. I’m so panicked. I couldn’t decide what decision to make. But I didn’t want to give up. Because it was my dream to have my own Taekwondo school.

Two months have passed. Still, friends around me kept telling me to break the contract through a lawyer. But on May 1st, I went to San Antonio for the dream with my wife and 5years old daughter, and 3years old son.

I met a general construction for the school interior construction. Even this construction did not help me. To start construction, the blueprint must be submitted to the city hall for permission, but the architect drew it wrong and got permission in three months. (usually, they can get it in a month.) And construction became increasingly difficult because another worker stole the money I had paid in advance. Still, people around me ask me to give up. But I tried not to lose my composure.

In the early days of the pandemic, it was difficult to meet and promote people, so I promoted a lot through social media when my Taekwondo school was under construction, which later helped a lot.

In September 2020, the construction was somewhat completed.
So, I set up a table in front of the school and promoted. Contrary to my expectations and the expectations of people around me, many people were interested, and before opening, I registered 30 people before opening and 20 more people after opening. So, 50 people registered in a month. It was a great result, and everyone who asked me to give up was surprised. All of those people’s attitudes changed 180 degrees.

Now, more than 250 students are learning Taekwondo.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In the early days of the pandemic, when people were telling me to stop, I thought for a moment about giving up and going back to Korea. What would have happened to me now if I had listened to the people who told me to cancel opening my school? If I had listened to them and stopped, I wouldn’t have met such good people now. I’m so happy right now. I met a lot of really good parents and students at my school.

Nothing comes easy in life. There is always an obstacle. As long as we don’t give up, the good opportunity will come someday. Even if things go well, always be humble and be consistent. This is a lesson that keep in my mind as I overcame all the obstacles I experienced after graduating from college until now. Obstacles still exist and I am living my life trying hard to solve them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tigerhongstkd.com
• Instagram: tigerhongstkd
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/tigerhongstkd