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“What time slot can I currently secure for writing a book? Let’s divide it into weekdays and weekends to secure as much time as possible. What are the distractions? What can I do to eliminate them?”
Which part is the tastiest: the head, body, or tail? It is easy to think of it as a normal torso. However, there is a saying, ‘Eoduyukmi’. This means that the head of a fish is delicious, and the tail of an animal is delicious. No, the head and tail are more delicious parts than the sirloin and inner ribs in the body?
The same goes for books. To be precise, a ‘book chosen by readers’ must be delicious both head and tail. Let’s think back to the experience of choosing a book at a bookstore. The first thing that catches my eye is the cover design and title. Next, look at the table of contents and read the prologue and epilogue. This way, you can roughly understand the theme, concept, and flow of the book and decide whether to purchase it or not.
Of course, there are many cases where people buy books that follow the bestsellers chosen by others or books recommended by influencers they follow. However, except for such special cases, the prologue, which is the head of the book, and the epilogue, which is the tail, play a very important role in giving an idea of the flavor of the entire book.
So how do you write a prologue and an epilogue? It is best to write it after completing the main body (draft). That way, you can help readers remember which part of the body they should eat to make it delicious before savoring the body, and what they enjoyed after eating it.
One. prologue How to write
It is best to write so that readers can get a feel for the book by just reading the prologue. If we were talking about a movie, should we call it a trailer? Only then will readers look forward to reading and purchasing. These days, you can find a lot of theories if you search for them, so I’ll go straight into practical examples. This is the prologue from .
prologue. Do you love ‘me now’ and ‘my present’?
The age of 30, which I thought would never come, came upon me. Age wasn’t just a number. When I reached the age that started with 3, I suddenly felt scared and sad. I am still too young to be considered an adult, and I have already become an ‘adult’ who is too old to be considered young. I’ve been working hard all this time, but I haven’t achieved anything. The 30s that I vaguely imagined in my 20s was a flowery road, but in reality it was still a dirt road.
As the adults said, I worked hard, graduated from a four-year university in Seoul, and got a job at a large company, but I was not happy. Not only had he lived as a slave to entrance exams for 12 years in elementary, middle, and high school, and as a slave to specifications for 4 years in college, he had to live again as a slave to the company. “The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic” is clearly stated in the constitution, but he felt at odds with the anti-democratic behavior of corporations and became a helpless deputy.
The worries that started with ‘Am I living well now?’ followed me one after another. My worries continued at work and at home, between reality and ideals, and in relationships. I wanted to change the question mark that was bothering my mind into an exclamation mark. Between thirty and forty, I decided to answer one by one the forty concerns that life throws at me after turning thirty. “Five Opportunities After 30” depicts the process of an ordinary Korean office worker born in 1984 trying to turn his worries into opportunities. This process was organized into ‘work’, ‘reality’, ‘relationships’, ‘marriage’, and ‘dreams’ depending on the situation and topic.
At work, people in their 30s are pressured from above and hit from below. You have to walk a tightrope to avoid being treated as a ‘young old man who is no different from your boss’ by your juniors, and to avoid being seen as ‘an indifferent person who is no different from your juniors’ by your superiors. Although I achieved my dream of getting a job in my first ‘job’, I would like to share with office workers who dream of leaving the company about relationships, behavior, attitude, and growth at work.
Our reality is just bleak. A psychologist defined the 30s, who were found to be the most depressed of all age groups in the survey, as the fear generation. The second ‘reality’ exposed the reality of having no idea how to live amidst anxiety and fear. We will look at the causes that make us unhappy, such as why fear is maximized and why we are constantly tired, and think together about how to overcome them.
When you reach your 30s, many relationships emerge and end at the same time. What kind of relationships should we have during times of many changes in life, such as employment, promotion, marriage, and childcare? The third ‘relationship’ dealt with attitudes toward healthy relationships as a member of society. I would like to think together about how to restore a proper relationship with myself and reexamine my relationships with my friends, neighbors, and community.
Nowadays, marriage is a choice rather than a necessity. These days, half of people in their 30s have given up on marriage or declared non-marriage. In the fourth ‘Marriage’, the meaning of marriage and the worries of married life in the unmarried era were discussed. I would like to talk about the ups and downs of a first-time couple becoming first-time parents and their serious concerns about how to create a happy family.
The 7-po generation has emerged, giving up even their dreams and hopes. What will the future of Korea be like? In the fifth ‘Dream’, we discussed the dream choices we must make when we are in trouble. It’s difficult to choose between Jjajangmyeon and Jjamppong, so how do we make the right choice toward our dreams when it comes to life’s problems? We want to listen to the stories told by experts in life and share their thoughts.
In conclusion, the message of this book is ‘Let’s love who we are and love who we are now.’ We feel true satisfaction when we overcome ourselves, not when we compare ourselves to others. Even if I am lacking now, when I accept and love myself as I am, I become a little better today than I was yesterday. If you love ‘my present self’ like this, you will love ‘my present’. I love the people I meet, the work I do, the values I pursue, the dreams I aspire to, and the community I live with. Wouldn’t we become more adults like this?
It’s already been 10 years since I ran like a racehorse through a blind job. Due to the nature of his sales job, he has met thousands of office workers. Through this, he keenly felt that living as an office worker in Korea was not easy. In particular, I saw many office workers who chose ‘food over dreams’ while compromising with reality and losing their dreams. As my career progressed, I became anxious that I too might become one of them.
One day, when I couldn’t shake the thought, ‘Was I born to die working like this?’, I mustered up a little courage to choose ‘dreams over food.’ He spent precious time looking back on his 10 years of work while on parental leave. I struggled to meet my true self through the process of sincerely finding answers to the concerns life throws at me. I decided to love the ‘me I am now’ and ‘my present’ that I discovered by facing myself.
This book is different from ordinary self-help books written by highly successful authors. An ordinary author in his 30s contains a life story that he wants to share all night long with people in their 30s. I would be more than happy if this book became a companion to readers who were struggling with the choices of work, reality, relationships, marriage, and dreams. Just as you get a little comfort and courage when you share your concerns over a cup of coffee or a drink with a friend.
Of course, the prologue I wrote is not the answer. However, I tried to write very kindly about what kind of intention I wrote, which readers need it, and how they should read it. I hoped that just reading the prologue would create a sketch in the reader’s mind. next < span>First place MD is like this This is the prologue of “For Sale.”
prologue. MD with no right answer, performance is the answer
I am an MD of 15 years. When people around me ask me what I do, if I answer MD, this is the answer I get. “What is MD?” Actually, as an MD, there are times when I don’t know how to explain things. MD stands for ‘Merchandiser’ and refers to a person who specializes in product planning or commercialization planning. Too comprehensive, right? So, there is a joke that MD is an abbreviation for ‘does everything’ and ‘does everything.’ You probably know someone who has worked as an MD. There is no correct answer because we do not know where the boundaries of work are.
So what kind of person is a good MD? In the end, it can be said that a person is a good performer, that is, a person who has the ability to maximize the company’s sales and profits through products. In a performance-based society, if you can’t prove it with results, no matter how hard you work, it will be in vain. If you do not move quickly to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers, it will be difficult to achieve success. If you are working as an MD for the first time and there is no right answer, it is natural that you will face challenges every day.
I wanted to help those who want to become a ‘performance-producing MD’ based on the experience and know-how that I have gained while working as an MD both offline and online and achieved overwhelming results. I think the most important qualities of an MD that produces results can be condensed into just three: analytical ability, persuasiveness, and execution ability. Through this book, I plan to conduct a level-up study to strengthen these three capabilities. In particular, if you are a current MD or dreaming of becoming an MD, or a salesperson or marketer who needs to deliver performance, you are most welcome. In addition, the content has been structured to be helpful to those currently running a commerce business or prospective entrepreneurs preparing to start a business. The success or failure of your business may depend on how much you understand the function of MD, the core of commerce.
This book consists of a total of five chapters.
The first chapter, ‘Understanding the Market and Industry’, was designed to help you gain a sense of commerce by looking at the ecosystem of online and offline commerce.
In the second chapter, ‘Three Basics for Highest Sales,’ we wanted to pass on core know-how about the three most important capabilities of an MD that produces results: analytical ability, persuasiveness, and execution ability.
In the third chapter, ‘Secrets of products that people buy and buy over and over again,’ we wanted to share specific ways to achieve results from a product perspective through actual cases of creating top-selling partners and top-selling products.
In the fourth chapter, ‘Three things an MD must manage as a master of management’, I tried to generously share my know-how with various examples of how to manage partners by combining analytical, persuasive, and execution skills.
Lastly, in the fifth chapter, ‘Communication Skills, a Glimpse of a Good Worker’, we tried to help you easily understand practical communication methods that create results depending on the target.Unlike the existing stiff, theory-centered job descriptions, we tried to capture a sense of real-life experience by focusing on actual cases. I am sure that you will not be bored if you read this book with the feeling that you are learning the know-how of your senior one by one in an apprenticeship manner in the field. Of course, I may not have the right answer, but since there is a goal of performance and a correct answer, I hope that this study will be a buoy of reference for those who are drifting in the vast sea of MD. Now, shall we take the time to grow together through warm mentoring in the commerce world, which is like a cold battlefield in our individual lives?
In the grand scheme of things, do you feel that there isn’t much difference between the prologues of the two books? There are many cases where the person you want to thank is mentioned first in the prologue, but I only wrote content related to the book in the prologue, hoping that the reader would focus entirely on the book. Instead, I wrote about the person I wanted to thank in the epilogue. Now, let’s look at the epilogue.
2. How to write an epilogue
If you are the author of a book, there will be key content that you want readers to remember after reading the book. The content is summarized in the epilogue and briefly explained again. The epilogue should serve as a reminder to readers who have finished reading the book, “This is the theme and message of this book.” It also contains the author’s feelings and gratitude he felt while writing the book. This is the epilogue of the practical example .
epilogue. My real life begins now
English words meaning opportunity include ‘Chance’ and ‘Opportunity’. Chance refers to an opportunity obtained through luck, and Opportunity refers to a created opportunity. In other words, Chance implies contingency, and Opportunity implies inevitability.
Tina Seelig, a neuroscience doctor at Stanford University, has been lecturing on entrepreneurship for over 20 years. He says that good luck and bad luck are never a coincidence and that luck is like a wind that blows continuously. That’s why it’s important to find opportunities in luck and turn them into luck, and there are three secrets. It’s about taking risks, developing habits of gratitude, and having a new perspective on ideas.
Luck is the result of sublimating coincidence into necessity. Turning Chance into Opportunity is up to me. The worries that started after I turned 30 changed me. If you love ‘my present self’, you will love ‘my present’. One day, as I struggled to find my own secret due to the worries that arose, an opportunity presented itself. To summarize my five opportunities:
We believe what we see, and we see what we believe. It may seem like a cliché, but when you see a glass half full of water, whether you say it is half full or only half full is related to faith. If you see your workplace as a battlefield, it becomes a hell that eats away at your soul. There is nothing in this world that exists without meaning. The same goes for experience. If you believe that every experience is a stepping stone for your growth, work becomes your stage. This is the first opportunity that came to me while I was worried about ‘work’.
When I turned 30, regret and fear came flooding back to me. Feeling the gap between her glamorous ideals and the shabby reality, she lamented her past, asking, ‘Why didn’t I try harder?’ At the same time, she thought, ‘How will I live from now on?’ She was afraid of the uncertainty of the future. However, even if you regret one day, you cannot change the past, and if you are afraid, you cannot determine the future. What matters is the present. When you focus on life right now, in this moment, and build up small happiness, regrets and fears disappear. This is the second opportunity that came to me while I was struggling in ‘reality’.
The mirror ego created by the expectations and gazes of those around us reduces us to slaves to endless desires. However, if I focus on ‘being myself’, I realize that I am the only being in the universe. It is about acknowledging and loving myself as I am, despite my shortcomings. When you go to a mountain temple, there is a ‘Su-gak’. When the flowing water fills the water tower, it overflows and wets the surrounding dry land. When I fill myself with love, that love flows to those around me. This is the third opportunity that came to me while I was worried about ‘relationships’.
Even in the era of non-marriage, many men and women still get married. Is marriage the gateway to happiness or the prelude to unhappiness? In Korea, marriage represents the pinnacle of respectability culture. We place more importance on external conditions than ever before. However, happiness and unhappiness depend on my personality, not the other person’s conditions. Marriage becomes a happy journey when you endure discomfort to become a mature person. A selfish marriage that pursues happiness is unhappy, but an altruistic marriage that pursues maturity is happy. This is the fourth opportunity that came to me while I was contemplating ‘marriage’.
We live our lives wavering between whether to pursue our dreams or compromise with reality. Conflicts especially deepen in one’s 30s. This is the time to meet the real me. Among the characters that appear in the book, what do Viktor Frankl, Saint-Exupéry, Frida Kahlo, and Martin Luther King have in common? They listened to what was stirring in their hearts and chose it courageously. Dreams are like the North Star. The North Star shows direction with its brightest light. Even when I fall down in frustration at the overwhelming reality, my dreams show me the direction I need to go. And it wakes me up again. This is the fifth opportunity that came to me while I was worrying in my ‘dream’.
Your 30s are an opportunity. It is time to meet the real me, ask questions seriously, and prove the answers I sincerely found in real life, one by one. On the one hand, opportunities can feel like worries again. Anyone can spread wonderful words, but not everyone can live a wonderful life. Can I live a life without being ashamed of what I wrote?
But I am not afraid because I am with the person I love. It is a great strength to have a wife who always supports her husband who is lacking. This book could not have come out if it were not for her wife’s dedication and consideration. Jihee, I love you with all my heart. Also, I am truly grateful to her first child, who gave her father a joyful sense of responsibility for her life, and to her second child, who was born and gave hope to life like spring in difficult times. Seongang, I love you Yean.
Stephen King, a world-renowned best-selling novelist famous for “Misery” and “The Shawshank Redemption,” said, “Writing is man’s work, and editing is God’s work.” The manuscript, which almost remained as a gemstone, was reborn as a gem when it met Whale Book. In particular, this was possible thanks to editor Kim Hyo-dan’s ‘act of God’. I am sincerely grateful to the Whalebook family.
Just as aged kimchi is delicious, I felt that writing needed a period of maturation. Isn’t life like that too? I am also grateful to my family who helped me mature even though I had many shortcomings, my friends who were always with me, and my mentors and co-workers who were a positive influence.
Lastly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the reader who read this book to the end.
Next, let’s look at the epilogue of .
epilogue. We are all MDs.
From startup CEOs to executives and team leaders to MZ’s youngest workers, there is something they all say in common when they meet them. “There are no work roles, so I have to do everything.” Does this really only apply to startups? Even in large companies, the more directly involved in sales the department is, the more blurry the boundaries between work are, and the time off from work is like a paper boat drifting in a stream. I think this is proof that commerce is both a science and a comprehensive art.
Are you sure it’s just office workers? We are all one-person businesses that employ me for my life. In order to raise my value, when I was a newborn, all I had was my voice, so I cried and got what I wanted, and when I grew up, I earned pocket money by organizing shoes and running errands. As I grow older, I continue to live with many one-man companies, starting with competition for entrance exams, competition for qualifications, and competition for employment. This whole process is no different from personal branding.
We interact with a variety of relationships, including time management and self-development, networking and finance, dating and marriage, and we strive to make our one-person businesses more attractive. From waking up to going to bed, and even while sleeping, a one-person business runs non-stop. I research and analyze vegetables when I need a diet, books when I need knowledge, connections when I need help, and bedding when I need a good night’s sleep, so I source and utilize them to suit my taste. I think the life of an MD who does everything and does everything is our life.
I don’t know if the level-up study conducted with this book so far has helped you grow. As an MD with 15 years of experience working in everything, there is no end to what I want to say, but I tried to make it as simple and easy as possible, focusing on essential content and capturing the real-time feeling. Just as there is no right answer in life, there is no right answer in the world of MD, so I would like you to vary what I have shared to fit your individual situation and strengths and use the measurable indicator called ‘performance’ as a lighthouse to row your own path.
If this book feels overwhelming or difficult, please remember this one thing. ‘It is more important to do well than to work hard, and to do well is more important than to do well. What makes this possible is not skill, but sincerity. This is because commerce is a place where people meet.’ As I sold products like this, one day I became the number one MD in sales. Race horses cannot all come in first place because they run in one direction along a set track, but wild horses run each in their own way, so they can all come in first place. As an extremely ordinary person, I have been moving forward step by step in search of my own unique path. I sincerely hope that you all find your own path and move forward on the path to becoming number one.
There are countless people I have met as an office worker and MD. There are countless mentors, mentees, and colleagues who have had a positive influence on me from my days as a nose-dive to writing this book. I apologize for not being able to say thank you to everyone in detail, and I hope that you will understand. I had a difficult time with many things this year, but thanks to my wife and children, I was able to persevere without wavering. As a husband and father, I think I am a ‘happy rich person.’ I dedicate this book to my beloved wife and children, who have given me the gift of a loving family that grows every day.
An acquaintance I met recently published his first book, and he said that he suffered internal injuries when red lines were drawn all over his manuscript during the editing process. But I liked the red lines in my manuscript. I would like to express my gratitude to the Red Pen teacher, Editor Heo Yun-jeong, and the members of The Quest who worked hard to make this book shine like a red laser polishing a gem. Lastly, I am extremely grateful to the readers who chose this book among many others and took the time to read it despite their busy schedules. We will not stop taking steps to repay you with better content in the future. Thank you.
Now, do you have a sense of how to write a prologue and an epilogue? Let’s use this as a reference to complete your own prologue and epilogue. Today’s mission!
See you next Wednesday for the tenth step, ‘The secret to turning a gemstone into a gem’
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