While I was having my hair cut 20 years ago, my barber advised me to wash my hair with soap, not with shampoo. He told me, “You are losing your hair here and there. You’d better stop using shampoo because it’s full of chemicals. Try soap instead.”

From that day on, I began washing my hair with a bar of soap. Strangely, however, I noticed a bunch of hair was clogging the sink every time I shampooed with soap. Recently, I switched back from soap to shampoo and I noticed I no longer lost my hair. Obviously, it was the soap, not the shampoo that contained more chemicals. By the time I realized I was given bad advice, it was too late; I had lost a considerable amount of hair in the past 20 years already.

When I first took office at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in 2012, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was full of expectations, thinking that I could bring substantial changes to the institution.

Thus the ministry requested long-term plans for LTI Korea, presumably to see what kind of innovative plans I had. While reporting the ministry’s request to me, one of my directors told me, “But you do not need to do it, sir. Customarily, my Division takes care of such a request.” I was highly doubtful about his assurances. So I asked, “Are you sure about this?” He assured me that the ministry’s request was some annual routine paperwork.

Soon however, I received a phone call from the ministry, “President Kim, we have received the long-term plans from LTI Korea. But this is a carbon copy of last year’s. We had expected something new.”

Then I realized I was given bad advice by my director despite his good intentions. Later, the same director advised me to attend a conference held on Jejudo, saying. “You should be there, sir. It’s an important occasion for us in every sense.” When I arrived at the conference site, however, I found it was, in fact, an irrelevant meeting that I did not have to attend to at all. I realized that wrong advice can be a serious obstacle and even jeopardize your career.

When I arrived in the US to pursue my doctoral study in 1978, I did not have a car yet and was not familiar with the land, either. But I needed to go shopping. I heard there was a huge shopping mall called Eastern Hills Mall. So I asked another Korean student, “Where can I find this Eastern Hills Mall? Is it far from here?” He replied, “You can just walk along Main Street, and you can’t miss it.”

So I began walking toward the shopping mall. I walked for about 20 minutes, and yet there was no sign of a shopping mall. I asked a passerby, “Excuse me, I am looking for Eastern Hills Mall.” Surprised, the American goggled at me and said, “It’s not walking distance. It’s at least a half-hour drive away.”

Bad advice can affect diplomacy too. It is well known that if King Seonjo had not been misled, Joseon, as Korea was called at the time, could have avoided the Japanese invasion in the 16th century.

If Kong Injo had not been given bad advice, Joseon could have avoided the Chinese invasion in the seventeenth century. Suppose King Gojong had not been misguided, Joseon would not have lost her sovereignty in the early twentieth century. Alas! Our kings were hopelessly swayed by misinformed people and invited national disasters and catastrophes.

On the contrary, good advice is indispensable. When I was selected as one of the five recipients of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1977, I had applied for it for my M.A. study in the States. At that time, I thought applying for a doctoral study might be too presumptuous. Congratulating me on the news, Professor Cho Myong-won gave me a piece of invaluable advice, “Why not for the Ph.D. study? You should ask the Fulbright Commission to change the category.”

Following his advice, I rushed to the Fulbright House to see Dr. Edward Wright, executive director of the Korea-America Educational Commission, and luckily secured his permission. Had it not been for Professor Cho’s timely advice, I would not have been able to complete my Ph.D. study on a Fulbright Scholarship and would not have become a professor at all.

These experiences taught me that it is extremely important to have experts around you who can give you the right advice at the right moment. My aides dish out all sorts of information and opinions in my ear. If I am misinformed, it will be disastrous.

In fact, it is a blessing to have someone who can give you valuable advice when you need it. That is why you need to have smart brains to see the bigger picture. In order not to be misguided, you should have people of resources around you, not flattering schemers. 

By Kim Seong-Kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. — Ed.