Dear Leader

When asked who my favorite leader is, I would say “Park Jungsu”. 

Then people go “who?”

Park Jungsu is someone who taught me that a leader doesn’t mean he’s perfect. A leader doesn’t mean he has to be on top of everything. But a leader should stay and fit right in the middle of the things, balancing every brain, every charisma and every talent existed within the team. He should know who would do what and how he would do it.

I looked up to him when I was a leader.

Now that I’m not leading a team anymore, I passed the wisdom to my son. He has the leader quality and kept “organizing” people around him. He has the charm and likes to put things into order. But he has many weaknesses that he often worried about.

“I can’t run fast.”

He once told me the reason he didn’t want to sign up for futsal. I told him it’s okay and he can go play the goalkeeper. You don’t have to be the one scoring the goals and be the hero… a captain can also be a goalkeeper *ehm Buffon*.

“I can’t pronounce the letter R”

He said the other day when I told him to try a debate competition. Yes, he sounded bad on radio – and working in the entertainment/media industry for over 5 years had taught me that inability of pronouncing the letter “R” can be a major problem that would strip you off a beauty queen title or scoring a top presenting/acting job. But I told him it’s okay. He doesn’t sound that bad speaking English.

Park Jungsu isn’t a tough leader, he shed more tears than all of his subordinates. He never covered his funny, stupid and clumsy image from the public. Yet, he’s still one respected leader. So I told Andrew it’s okay to be yourself and be a leader. Imperfection isn’t what stopping you from being a leader, because with imperfections, you know you need your team mates. Find someone who can run fast for your futsal team, find a good spoke person for your debate team, find someone who can fill your weaknesses and you’ll be the one arranging your team achieving the goal.

Park Jungsu may only be 30 and he’s just out of his mandatory military service. But he was a good leader, even before he wore the army uniform. Someone who has the determination to go, the motivation big enough for the whole team, and the strength to push every single one of his team member back up when they fail.

I was his leader before, a mom, a guide... but now that he's 8, he can learn to lead his life, make his own decision and negotiate me into following his lead.

Football team anyone?

So Andrew would be my team leader, the one saying, “It’s okay, Mom, we’ll try again next time,” whenever we lost another competition. The one challenging me “why don’t we do this?” when I was too lazy to grab my camera and snap pictures for competitions. The one who wouldn’t give up and leave until all winners had been announced (I usually quit at 3rd place announcement).

Then you all can go "what, this is about K-Pop?" Nope, this is about the story of an imperfect leader haha.

Thank you, Park Jungsu. Welcome back to the entertainment world. Please lead us once again.

Park Jungsu's comeback stage last week

“Thank you for following this fool’s lead. I never know what leadership is, all I know is how to keep Super Junior as one family.” - Park Jungsu (Leeteuk)