“How I Turned My Passion Into A Career” with Hyungsoo Kim Founder of Eone

Hyungsoo Kim, Founder of Eone, is a firm believer in the importance of universal design with the goal to co-design innovative products that are accessible and useful to everyone. His team has created an innovative fashion timepiece, The Bradley, that everyone, including the blind, can touch to tell time. The Bradley has won renowned design awards, including iF Design Award, Red Dot Award, Good Design Award, German Design Award, and became a permanent collection at the British Museum in London in 2014. Hyungsoo holds BA/MA degree in Psychology from Wesleyan University and an MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born and raised in Korea. As a kid, I was definitely not the type who could be defined as patient or disciplined. I seemed to consistently look for something new and interesting, not being able to stick to one thing for too long. This was a characteristic that continued with me until I was a young adult. I studied psychology for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees and continued to pursue my Ph.D in Neuroscience, but dropped out after two years. I then joined the military for two years and served in Iraq. After that, I got interested in finance and business and began working for a finance consulting company for several years before getting bored again.

That’s when I got interested in entrepreneurship — building something of my own. I wanted to learn more about starting my own business, so I applied to business school at MIT. I remember in an interview with the admission’s office, the interviewer went through my resume and said “Wow. I’ve never seen anyone who is so consistently inconsistent.”

What was the catalyst from transforming your hobby or something you love into a business? Can you share the story of your “ah ha” moment with us?

I loved jumping into something new without calculating the risk too much. Eone’s start was also rather spontaneous. I didn’t really think about how hard it was going to be or if I had the necessary skillset or relevant experience to do it.

Eone started when I was in grad school and had a classmate who was blind. Whenever I sat next to him, he poked and whispered to me to ask the time. It happened many times and one day I questioned, “Why does he have to ask me?” That’s when I realized all of the clocks and watches required vision. I looked at his wrist to see that he was wearing a digital watch. I asked him about it after class and he said it was a talking watch that speaks out the time. He couldn’t use it in class because it’s audibly disruptive and everyone knows that you’re checking the time.

I asked him if there was a different option, and the next day he brought me an analogue watch where you can open the glass cover to touch the hands. Unfortunately, he said the hands moved or broke very easily when he touched them so it was of no use for him. I was quite surprised to find out that those were the main two options visually impaired people had. Some people thought that they could use a smartphone with headphones, but being able to hear what’s happening around them is very important, so it wasn’t a very good solution. So, I said “It’s time to solve the problem. Let’s make a tactile watch that doesn’t break easily.”

There are no shortage of good ideas out there, but people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How did you overcome this challenge?

I meet many people with great ideas, but I seldom see those ideas turn into an actual business. It is the execution. With little exaggeration, any idea is not worth more than a piece of paper you write it on. It’s almost the same as the difference between drawing a gorgeous, green forest on a canvas in a couple of hours verses actually implanting and cultivating thousands of trees in barren soil to make a forest over many years. I don’t think it’s an exaggerated analogy at all.

What advice would you give someone who has a hobby or pastime that they absolutely love but is reluctant to do it for a living?

The greatest enemy for so many entrepreneurs is the fear of “losing it all.” Many people believe they have to go all in from the beginning to start a business. That fear keeps many people from starting something new.

You need to be free of the pressure to go all in and to go all in right away. You can take as much time as you need. It’s fine to take many years until you decide to go full time with your idea. Take as much time as possible to study the market, build your plan and, most importantly, save enough money as a safety net in case your business fails. Don’t put everything you’ve got — your time, money, passion, etc. — into one basket.

It might be the opposite of what you hear from start-up communities, but I often advise not to go all in. If you really go all in, it will push you to work harder for sure, but often times you will not be able to think rationally or relax and take a step back to solve unexpected problems. You will find yourself going for very short-term profits and results. It will quickly make you hate what you used to love. You will lose patience when you need to wait for the right timing to catch something. The pressure of “I’m really going to lose everything I’ve got” will mostly work against you rather than for you.

When you’re trying to build something new, you’re going to have many failures unless you’re a superhuman. The key is not allowing a situation where your failure is so big that you aren’t able to get back up and try again with lessons learned. So, I advise not to go all in financially as well as mentally.

It’s said that the quickest way to take the fun out of doing something is to do it for a living. How do you keep from changing something you love into something you dread? How do you keep it fresh and enjoyable?

Distraction is the key for me. I distract myself from doing this 24/7 so that I won’t burn out and lose the interest. One method I use most often is running. It might sound counter-intuitive but I run long miles to get exhausted so that I can relax. Oddly enough, I find it very helpful to relax. When I am over-working and overly stressed out, my brain is clogged up and overused from running the business and needs to be reset. After running long distances, I get physically tired to the point where I don’t have energy left to think. My mind gets forced to shut down and get the rest it needs, leaving me feeling refreshed.

What is it that you enjoy most about running your own business? What are the downsides of running your own business? Can you share what you did to overcome these drawbacks?

It might sound cliché, but creating something that hasn’t existed before and seeing that it impacts someone’s life in a positive way is the most enjoyable part. Also, the thought that I can be useful and helpful to my society is the driving force.

The downside of running my own business is that it often occupies me too much to the extent that it can interfere with my other roles as a father, husband and friend. The highs are very high and lows are very low on the roller coaster ride entrepreneurs experience, so it is hard to stay calm and stable. Often you are either too excited or too worried.

To stay calm and focused, I often remind myself that my business is not my everything. This simple reminder works quite well. It helps me from becoming a person whose happiness depends on the success or failure of the business.

Can you share what was the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I thought I would not have a boss above me. I thought I would have a powerful authority to execute my idea and implement my strategy without getting approval from anyone. But it’s been totally the opposite. It didn’t take long to learn that all my team members are virtually my bosses who I need to serve and get consent from for pretty much anything I want to try. Things wouldn’t move forward unless I get most team members, if not all, on board with my idea or plan. I need to make sure they are happy, satisfied and proud of working at Eone.

Has there ever been a moment when you thought to yourself “I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to get a “real” job? If so how did you overcome it?

It was not long after I started going full-time on Eone. I had absolutely zero experience or knowledge in either design, engineering or the watch industry. I was not a product designer or engineer but wanted to design and build a product. I had absolutely no idea where to begin. So, most of my time spent in the beginning was to find co-founders who had experience in those fields. In the beginning, I had nothing to show — no concrete prototype or design drawing with only a concept in mind, so no one was easily biting the bait. It was frustrating because I was spending 90% of my time looking for someone, instead of actually building the product. Many days went by without success in finding them, and it made me think “Well, maybe this is something I just can’t do, at least not right now. Maybe I should get a full time job for several months or years until I get to network with enough people who are designers and engineers.”

After a long search, however, I met my Co-Founder Nick through a mixer event. He was a grad student at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and his family used to run a watch business in Hong Kong. When I shared my idea with him, he got quite excited and joined the team. Still, now, my mindset is that if there is a problem I can’t solve, then there is someone out there who can do it, and I do everything I can to find that person and persuade the person to join our team.

Can you share a story about the mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

It was when we failed big time in the beginning. Our original goal was to make a Braille watch for the blind with Braille displays. We worked really hard for months. When we had the concept prototype, we arranged a meeting with a blind user group — with 50 plus individuals who were blind. My team was so excited. However, as soon as we introduced ourselves, one person asked “Before we start, do you know how many of us can read Braille?” I generally assumed that if you’re blind, you read Braille. I said “Well, if not all of you, then probably 8 or 9 out of 10 of you?” He said “Well, 8–9 out of 10 of us cannot read Braille” I doubted what I heard. Did you know that only 10 to 20 percent of the blind can read Braille? It is because many of them become blind at later stage in their lives, such as due to disease or accident, and don’t get to develop the good sense of touch required to read Braille. My team was ignorant of such fact. That was strike one.

Then another person said “Well, I can read Braille, so let me ask you some more questions,” along the lines of how big the watch was, what the material was, and even about the color of the watch. These questions were all focused on the look of the watch rather than the functionality. This surprised me again and made me feel absolutely embarrassed to realize that I wrongly assumed that the visually impaired would care more about functionality, and much less about the looks. They wanted the watch to look good. Why did I assume a positive correlation between not being able to see and not wanting to look good? That was strike two.

Their next question was, “Is it specially designed for the blind only?” I said yes and expected a positive response this time because we all like special products with limited designs. They said, “You’ve got it wrong again, Hyungsoo. That’s not what we want. What we want is what everyone else also likes. The label ‘designed for the blind’ draws attention to our disabilities and separates us. It builds a wall between us and others.” So I was wrong again. That was strike three and we were out.

After that meeting, our concept prototype literally went into trash bin. We were building something that we thought they wanted based out of common misconceptions and stereotypes. The blind user group didn’t stop after only criticizing our work. They said, “If you want to create something for us, why don’t you invite us to work with your designers?” It made sense. So, we started again. This time, I invited people with all different backgrounds and abilities — product designers, architect, students, teachers, people who were blind. The goal this time was to create something that looked beautiful and really cool aesthetically, yet was also functionally accessible to the blind. We changed our name to Eone which is short for Everyone.

Sighted people were excited about a watch that would allow them to check time without looking at their watch in situations like during meetings, interviews, or dinner with their in-laws. People who were blind were excited about a watch that didn’t build a wall between them and the sighted. They were excited because they were part of the design process. They were included. They felt connected.

From this experience, I learned the importance of talking to as many potential customers as possible in order to really understand them. We, especially entrepreneurs, have to make it happen in such a crunched, pressured time window. We often work with strong stereotypes and assumptions, just because we don’t have time to go out there to do the market research, which is very ironic. Often, it works and it saves you time, money and effort. However, it can also lead to a huge mistake. Even if you are quite certain of your assumptions, do check it with the customers. Talk with your potential customers as much as you can, so that you go beyond knowing them at superficial level. Instead of stopping at knowing who they are and what they like, it will lead you to really understand why they like it. Without this much deeper understanding, you would probably only be able to build an average product that fails to get to your customers’ hearts.

Who has inspired or continues to inspire you to be a great leader? Why?

Blake Mycoskie
After seeing a shoe drive for children in Argentina, he came up with TOMS, which has a philanthropic component, just like Eone. They’ve given away more than 70 million pairs of shoes to people that need them the most. They became one of the fastest growing shoe businesses in the world, growing to around $450 million per year in revenue within the first seven years.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We are leveraging Eone’s success to support various organizations that work for the blind and are proud to continue carrying out our mission with charitable partnerships that make a social impact.

We’ve partnered with Kilimanjaro Blind Trust to offer a special edition Bradley timepiece that helps blind children in East Africa read, write, and learn by either repairing a brailler device or providing a year’s worth of braille paper.

We’ve also teamed up with international relief organization Vision Care to help provide important ophthalmic surgeries to their program participants.

Additionally, Eone has proudly sponsored the training of guide dogs through non-profit organization The Seeing Eye to help bring independence, dignity, and self-confidence to blind people by providing expert breeding, care, and training for Seeing Eye dogs.

We continue to implement our brand mission through these initiatives and are always exploring meaningful ways to make an impact.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Find inspiration in your problems. Identify what is truly missing in the market or how you can best build upon an already existing concept. If you dig deep to find a solution for an unsolved problem in the mix, you will be able to create something extraordinary.
2. Follow your intuition, not your assumptions. Background knowledge is a great starting point but try not to base everything off of it. Interact with your target customers and ask for advice from trusted mentors to gain an outside perspective that you can back up with proper market research.
3. Find something to fuel your drive. Find what it is that you are looking to accomplish and recognize the impact it will make on not only you, but others as well. Continue to carry out your ideas no matter what roadblocks you face along the way and always remember why you started.
4. Build your team by networking. Good help is hard to find. Identify what skills and experiences you may need to outsource in the beginning, and build your network through events and industry happenings. You will find the right people to partner with who truly align with your mission.
5. Embrace your mistakes. Mistakes are a big part of the growing process and always provide a valuable lesson. Use mistakes as an opportunity to refine and perfect your product rather than a stopping point.

What person wouldn’t want to work doing something they absolutely love? You are an incredible inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Since the very beginning, several values have made up the core of our brand mission. It would be a great success to see other brands implement inclusive practices into their designs. We hope to continue inspiring brands to offer products and services just as unique as the individuals who wear them and would love to see a world where the wide range of everyone’s needs are not only acknowledged, but also met. We believe in doing good, whether it be through universal design, giving back and practicing sustainable measures to help make the world a better place.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite quotes is “A spinning top must rotate at maximum speed to keep itself from falling over.” Its self-sustainability is dependent on how dynamic it can be, and this has been a life-long inspiration for me. I value a dynamic life in which I seek change through challenges. It is only through the hard challenges that I have discovered myself, and knowing who you are provides the cornerstone for realizing your potential.

The quote always encourages me to welcome uncomfortable changes and difficult challenges. I switched my field of study and career many times until I was fully satisfied with what I do, and that led me to a journey as an entrepreneur. From running Eone, I learn every day that Eone can’t grow without facing challenges and obstacles. If you’re an entrepreneur and things seem to be going smoothly all the time, there is a good chance that you are either doing it wrong or you are not pushing hard enough.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Again, Blake Mycoskie. TOMS is more of a movement than a business and the business has a philanthropic component, just like Eone. It shows that a business can be both profitable and philanthropic. For our customers, we believe their purchase is also more than a business transaction. It’s their desire to be more conscious about inclusive design.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.