What a $4,000 Agency Course Taught Me About Finding the Kingpin

Behind every seemingly complex business problem, there's always a "kingpin" — the one core thing that, once knocked down, brings the rest with it. Behind my decision to pay the steepest tuition of my career to learn from a U.S. agency mentor was a long-running search for exactly this kingpin.

What Is a Kingpin?

I've always been in awe of people who can grasp the essence of a complex situation and propose a solution. Whether in business or relationships, every seemingly complicated phenomenon has a "kingpin." The term comes from bowling: the kingpin is the key pin that, once knocked down, lets you take the whole strike.

The kingpin looks obvious at a glance, but it's actually very tricky to find. Even in real bowling, the front pin — the 1 pin — gives the illusion of being the kingpin, when in fact the kingpin is the 5 pin. Complicated problems of the world, of business, of raising a child — they all have kingpins. They're just hard to find.

Feynman's One Sentence

One video gave me a big insight into finding the kingpin. One day someone asked the physicist Richard Feynman this question:

Imagine the Earth is on the brink of destruction. You can leave just one sentence for the twenty surviving children. What would you leave?

Feynman's answer:

Everything is made of atoms.

In that brief moment, Feynman distilled the kingpin that would become the foundation of humanity's technological progress into a single short sentence: everything is made of atoms. It's the kind of brilliant insight someone like me wouldn't dare to come up with. Ever since that video, whenever I face a problem I've gotten into the habit of asking: what's the kingpin beneath this?

• What's the kingpin for raising a child well? (Though of course it depends on how you define "well.")
• What's the kingpin for growing a business?

The Kingpin of Business — Asking for Help, Asking Questions, Changing Your Mind

Different business books each champion what they believe matters most. Some say the team is what matters; others say never abandoning your vision is. Team, vision, product, execution, grit, honesty, diligence, and on and on. Just as the kingpin of the primordial Earth was captured in the single sentence "everything is made of atoms," surely the complicated world of business also has a kingpin everyone could nod along to. What is it?

After a long time mulling it over, I found a hint in a book by the entrepreneur Seung-ho Kim: 1) ask for help from people better than you, 2) ask questions, and 3) be willing to change your view. A bit longer than Feynman's kingpin, but in short — "ask people better than you, then execute."

Team, execution, vision, grit, honesty, diligence — all good values, but each has a hole in it. Maybe because we're so used to the "entrepreneur overcomes adversity through sheer will" style of storytelling, asking for help and changing your mind somehow feels unglamorous. But if there's a kingpin that works for anyone, in any industry, at any stage — I suspect this is it.

The Steepest Tuition

Maybe because I'm so used to running a business on a shoestring, I'm still extremely frugal. Unless I'm buying a meal for a younger founder, I don't spend big. I can barely remember buying anything over ₩1M (~$725) in the last five years. So for me, $4,000 (₩5.6M) is a lot of money. My heart pounded at the notification of it leaving my account — but I decided that for a chance to learn from someone better than me, I'd invest time and money without holding back.

My New Teacher, Matthew

Let me introduce my new teacher, Matthew. Matthew has exited three agencies in the U.S. and is the kind of operator who grew one to $1M MRR in a single year. Actually joining his program, I could see exactly why he was able to do that.

Just when I was lost about what to do and how in the U.S. market, I found a genuinely great mentor. Matthew and I are trying a number of things; when something worth sharing comes out of it, I'll share it then. Right now I'm flailing quite a bit.

I'm honored to be Matthew's first Korean student. I'll do my best to make our company a good portfolio piece for him.

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Potential, too, approaches the global expansion of Korean and Asian founders with a kingpin mindset. If you have an essential question on your mind, let's talk anytime.