What makes a person deep?

Time passes for everyone.

But not everyone grows deeper.

Growing older comes with time. Growing deeper is up to us.

Time can help us ripen, but it can also leave us to rot.

A long life is not necessarily a life of depth.

When I was young, I came across an ancient saying by Confucius in a school textbook:

“If you hear the Way in the morning, you can die content in the evening.”

It was meant to teach us the importance of living a virtuous life. But it left me with a question.

What does it really mean to live rightly?

Korea’s Joseon Dynasty placed enormous importance on Confucian morality, proper conduct, and social order. Yet despite all those teachings, the dynasty ultimately failed to defend its sovereignty.

Preaching morality and putting it into practice are two very different things.

I carried that question for years until I found an answer in The Diary of Baekbeom, the autobiography of Kim Gu, a leader of Korea’s independence movement.

In an essay known as My Wish, Kim Gu described the kind of country he dreamed of.

He did not want Korea to be the richest or most powerful nation in the world. He wanted it to be the most beautiful, a country with a rich and vibrant culture.

When I read those words, I was overjoyed.

For the first time, I felt I had found an answer to a question no one had been able to answer for me.

Then I tried something simple.

I replaced the word “nation” with “person.”

A nation needs enough military strength to defend itself against invasion. A person needs enough physical strength and health to withstand illness.

A nation needs enough economic strength to sustain its people. A person needs enough financial security to live comfortably.

But what about the power of culture?

What would that mean for an individual?

To me, it is the power of the human spirit.

It is our character, our integrity, and the way we carry ourselves through life.

Money alone cannot give a person depth. Without character, wealth and power can turn someone into a greedy, self-serving person, no matter how successful they appear.

But that doesn’t mean poverty is a virtue.

Why should anyone have to be poor?

What could be better than being financially secure while living with dignity and integrity?

Having little money is no reason to lose your dignity. And if you have the means to enjoy life, there is no virtue in denying yourself that joy.

Strength matters. But where that strength comes from matters even more.

Does it come from greed and the desire to dominate others? Or does it come from a genuine desire to make life better for ourselves and those around us?

At the heart of my philosophy is Hongik Ingan, an ancient Korean ideal meaning “to broadly benefit humanity.”

To me, this does not mean sacrificing your own happiness for others.

It means living well yourself while helping others live well, too.

And for that, we need strength. But we also need the depth of character to use that strength wisely.

Human depth is not something we develop overnight.

Just as food needs time to mature, our thoughts and experiences need time to ripen. What we have lived through must become part of who we are, shaping our character and the way we treat others.

But time alone does not make us mature.

Two people may live through the same number of years. One grows wiser and deeper, while the other simply grows older.

In the end, depth is what makes the difference in life.