Samsung-Third Period Exit

Samsung-Third Period Letter (The Farewell Letter I wrote but did not send)

On July 20, 2021, I will be reaching my 23rd year at Samsung and also invoking the beginning of the “Third Period” of life.  Third period is when a person reaches a certain age where everything slows down, priorities change, looking back, contemplating what took place in the first and second.  Also, in the Third Period is a stage in life when a person embarks into a new journey of uncertainty, freedom, autonomy and unknowns. I picked the date just for “coolness” reasons but also I just want to say to myself that I worked for Samsung for 23 years (exactly 23).

Think + DO

Not for seeking glory and admiration, in the first few days of my departure, you will miss me because I secretly do things for CMP everyday (silently) that no one knows – such as looking at all tools event logs, managing EQLOG, Sharepoint, remote desktops, complex tool problems, Disaster Recovery and tool health.   But I want you to know that I enthusiatically wrote (almost) everything that I could into Confluence so that when the time comes that you are looking for me, you will then go to the Confluence page first and search the items that you need. I will be very disappointed if you are not able to find what you need in the numerous HOWTO’s that I wrote in the past 2 months.  

Growth = Value

Part of the reason that I am leaving is I want others to emerge and grow.  Some of you will not be able to experience your growth of knowledge because most of the time, I end up spending time and effort on the subject or problems and not you. Now that I am gone, your brain will grow like never before.  Happy brain growing!!

Meaningful Life = Happiness

I stumbled upon the answer to happiness and how to be happy. The simple answer is “living a meaningful life”.  Doing what is meaningful and you will find true happiness.

Although it sounds simplistic, the entire happiness workflow is a complex process.  Complex in a sense that there is no definite outcome of the endeavor due to so many variables in play. As I mentioned earlier, find meaning in what you do, and you will find happiness.  To find meaning, you have to take responsibility, to find responsibility, you have to find your functions and purpose of your existence, to find your functions/purpose, you have to know your skills and the resources you have. Once you do that, you then execute (do it and not just think it).

You = Resources, Skill and Tools
Your functions/purpose
Your responsibilities
Meaningful Life
Happiness

The KantreKlab

There is a secret mentoring society in CMP called KantreKlab.  It started because one day one of our leaders sarcastically said to me “Oh, so you think this is a Country Club?”. He found us in the office just leisurely talking non-CMP related topics while he came out from the fab working on a difficult situation.  The KantreKlab is a small group which at one time discussed investment strategy. It started with a messenger message, “hey, here’s my one year and YTD, here’s mine”. That simple exchange of YTD becomes the core concept of the KantreKlab – “if an employee knows the password of his NetBenefits account, it means that he or she is paying attention at his finances”. But the story and learning did not end there. We discovered so many interesting facts about the financial behavior of each member once we gathered the information. It’s not a concrete dataset to make conclusions about financial outcomes but enough to infer what can happen next if you study and understand your finances – it produces better harvest when you retires.

Here’s the interesting summary of what we learned from the information we shared

1. People who don’t know their NetBenefits password has lower YTD and 1 Year performance compared to those who are looking at their account regularly.
2. People who set their account at autopilot, meaning they just let it set it there since Day01 of employment has lower performance.
3. People who tweaked their NetBenefits account every 3 months has better performance.
4. People who are in BrokerageLink has better performance than in Netbenefits.
5. People who actively traded in BrokerageLink has less performance.
6. People who carefully choose sector indexing regularly has the best performance.
7. People who don’t know anything and did not do any research on their own and just copied the best performer in the KantreKlab and left it their account grow had the best performance.

I am sharing you these information because I want you to be motivated to work at Samsung to at least 23 years or more. There is a hidden financial reward at Samsung if you look for it and know how to manage it.

I want to leave Samsung with the following note that I wrote when my son entered medical school in 2019.  We (parents) were in a conference room, we were instructed to write in a piece of paper a secret note to our student that will later be given to them at a random time of hardship – when things gets tougher.  As I write the note, I was reflecting some of the ideas of my time here at SAS and road cycling.  I do hope that you too will find it meaningful.  

Rx Notes:

When the road is bumpy + lots of roadblocks, please remember
Effort = Reward, keep pushing.
Start = Finish, Don’t give up.
Approach = Interest, Do things that you like.
Best Day = Today, Stay in the NOW!
Worst Mistake = Giving Up. Don’t QUIT!
Strongest Man = One who stands alone
Roadblock = Problem to be solved. Be excited.
Tired = Lack of energy. Rest.
Losing the battle = Seek help.
Defeat = There’s always a lesson to learn.
Hopeless = Accept it + move on.
Victory = Celebrate it.
Gratitude

Lastly, I want to say thank you to Samsung – to the very top Executives – President, VP, Directors and Managers. I am well aware of the Samsung product and not just the semiconductor chips that we manufacture here in Austin, Texas but also the consumer products. There has to be a great leadership involved at Samsung. Samsung as an enterprise changed the world and it is hard to imagine a world changer without great leadership. To those executives who made critical decisions for employees, thank you. I am grateful that I made a choice to work here in 1998. I was recruited from AMD to move to Samsung, had a pay cut, doubted if my choice was the best choice at that time. Looking back now, I can say I made the best choice.

Sincerely,

rx