How TWICE Survived K-Pop's Most Brutal Reality Show To Sell 10M Albums

These 9 girls went from competing on a tough reality TV show to selling over 10 million albums worldwide. Meet TWICE, the 9-girl K-pop group who fought their way out of a survival competition. In 2015, JYP Entertainment held a competition called Sixteen where 16 trainees competed for a spot in a new group. The show was filmed and broadcast for the public to watch, and every episode the judges scored each trainee on their singing, their dancing, and their stage presence. The lowest Low scores were eliminated, and there was no guarantee anyone would survive to the end. So the stakes are pretty real for every single one of them. Jihyo had already been training at JYP for 10 years without debuting. She had spent most of her childhood and teenage years preparing for a chance that had not come yet. Momo was eliminated during the competition and was told that she did not make the group, but days later the judges brought her back after reconsidering their decision. The pressure was constant, and every performance could be their last. Only nine of the sixteen made the final cut. In October 2015, Twice debuted with their song Like Ooh Ah. The response was positive, but they still were a brand new group that most people outside South Korea had never heard of. In their first year, they released multiple singles, film music videos, and appeared on variety shows and music programs every week to get their name out. The schedule was intense, but they kept showing up. In 2016, the hard work began to pay off. Twice released Cheer Up, and it became the most played song in South Korea that entire year. A few months later, they released TT, and it reached number 1 on the Gaon Digital Chart in South Korea and charted across Asia. People started calling them the nation's girl group, and their fan base, known as ONCE, kept growing. But success didn't make things easier. The group was performing constantly, traveling between countries, and releasing new music back to back. In 2019, member Mina announced she was dealing with anxiety. She had to step back from performing and missed parts of their Japan tour that year. It was a hard moment for the whole group. TWICE didn't hide it. They spoke openly about what Mina was going through, and their fans showed up for her. Mina took the time she needed and eventually returned to the stage. TWICE did not stop moving forward. In 2019, they became the first K-pop girl group to complete a full Japanese dome tour, performing across multiple stadiums in different cities all over Japan. In 2022, they made history again by becoming the first K-pop girl group to headline and sell out a stadium show in the United States Performing at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. Today, TWICE has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. TWICE once said, we want to repay our fans with great performances and music. Their support is what keeps us going. The ones who win are not always the best at the start. They are the ones who never stop trying. If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #Believe in the comments below so I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily, one video at a time. Believe. Imagine giving up 10 years of your life to one single goal. You give up your childhood, you give up your normal teenage years, you work every single day for a chance that might never come. This was a reality for a girl named Jihyo. She trained for 10 years at a massive company in music called JYP Entertainment. Then she was thrown into a brutal reality television show called Sixteen. There were 16 girls fighting for just 9 spots in a new group, and every single week they were judged on their singing, their dancing, and their stage presence. And if you failed, you were cut. One girl named Momo was actually eliminated. She was told her dream was over. So that's the exact same pressure a lot of entrepreneurs face when starting a business. You put everything on the line, the stakes are real. And today we're going to learn how these 9 girls survived this brutal startup phase to sell over 10 million albums worldwide. This is the story of Twice. The brutal startup phase. Starting a business is terrifying. You do not know if people will buy your product. The music industry is exactly the same. In 2015, JYP Entertainment decided to build a new girl group. They didn't just pick the members in secret, they made them fight for it in public. They created a TV show, a reality show called Sixteen, and they had 16 trainees compete against each other. The public watched every mistake, the judges scored them pretty harshly, and the show physically divided the girls into a major team and a minor team. The major team got their premium treatment and the better living conditions. The minor team had to struggle in a lesser environment, and it created intense daily friction. So think about the mental toughness that's required to survive something like that. Science shows that high-pressure situations can completely destroy human performance. A study from the American Psychological Association shows that chronic stress directly impairs brain function and decision-making. These girls were under chronic stress every single day. The lowest scores were eliminated. There was absolutely no guarantee that anyone would survive. So this becomes the ultimate test in resilience. And in business, you will face moments where your competitor is beating you too. You will face days where your customers reject you. You're gonna have to decide if you're gonna keep going Jihyo had already put in 10 years of work. 10 years is over 3,600 days of practice. She watched other groups launch their careers while she stayed in their practice room. She could not walk away now. She showed up every single day, every single week, and performed through all of that stress. Surviving the cuts. So failure is going to happen, right? It's just a part of the journey on any successful career. During the show SIXTEEN, Momo faced the ultimate failure. She was eliminated from the competition. She was devastated. But she was told she was not good enough to make the final group. So imagine how that feels, right? You worked your entire life for this goal and the judges tell you no in front of the entire world. Most people, they pack up and you go home. Most people would just give up on their business after a major rejection. But Momo kept practicing. She kept working on her craft even when she thought nobody was watching. And that unseen effort is what separates successful entrepreneurs from people who just have ideas. Psychologist Angela Duckworth spent years Achievers and found that grit, which is passion and perseverance for long-term goals, is the biggest predictor of someone's success. The judges, they noticed her relentless dedication, her grit, and days later they made a shocking decision. They brought Momo back. They reconsidered their choice because they saw her extreme work ethic and realized the team needed her specific dancing skills. The lesson here is that your current failure doesn't have to be the end of everything, right? You have to keep building your skills. Only 9 out of the 16 girls made the final cut. They officially became TWICE. But surviving the show was just the beginning of the group's real work. The launch and early hustle. So in October 2015, TWICE officially launched their product to the public, right? They debuted with their very first song called Like Ooh-Ah. The response was positive, but they were still a brand new startup company. Most people outside of South Korea had no idea who they were. They had zero leverage in the global market. So they didn't just sit back and wait for success to happen. They went to work. In their first year, they released multiple new singles. They filmed complex music videos. They appeared on variety shows and music programs every single week to promote their name. The schedule was pretty intense. They slept in moving vans between jobs. They worked on very little rest. This is what the first year of a new business looks like too. You have to be everywhere. You have to market your product constantly. You cannot just launch a website and just expect people to find you. You have to show up, and Twice showed up every single day. They momentum through just sheer volume of work. Research on habit formation from University College London shows that consistent repetition is the only way to make a behavior automatic and successful. So they repeated their marketing performance efforts until the audience could no longer ignore them. Also, if you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. It covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write your biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in the description below to go grab it. And I'll see you there. Hitting product market fit. In 2016, all that intense early hustle exploded into massive success. Twice released a song called Cheer Up. It did not just do well; it completely dominated the market. Cheer Up became the single most played song in South Korea for that entire year. The song featured a catchy viral moment from member Sana that grabbed the attention of the entire internet. They finally found product market fit. The audience loved exactly what they were selling, and a few months later, they followed it up with a song called TT. It went straight to. Number 1 on the Gaon Digital Chart in South Korea. It also charted massively across Asia. People started officially calling them the nation's girl group. Their dedicated fan base, known as ONCE, started growing at a rapid pace. And when your business hits product-market fit, you have to double down on your efforts. TWICE did not take a vacation to celebrate. They kept producing hits. They secured their spot at the top of the industry by delivering exactly what their customers wanted on a highly consistent basis. The cost of scaling. But success does not make things easier. Success brings a whole new set of massive challenges. As the business of Twice scaled up, the pressure multiplied. The group was performing constantly. They were traveling between different countries every single week. They were releasing new music back to back. The grind was completely nonstop for them. And in 2019, this intense scaling took a serious toll on the group. Member Mina announced that she was dealing with extreme anxiety. She had to step back from performing entirely. She missed large parts of their major Japan tour that year, and it was a very difficult, hard moment for the whole group. This is a critical moment for any team or business leader. When a key team member breaks down, how do you handle it? Twice did not hide the problem. They spoke openly about what Mina was going through. The company prioritized her health over short-term profits, and that's backed by clear organizational science. Studies from the World Health Organization showed that unaddressed burnout and depression cost the global economy $1 million per year in lost productivity. Taking care of your people is not just the right thing to do, it's the only real way to build a sustainable long-term business. And the fans showed up to support her. Mina took the exact time she needed to heal. Eventually she recovered and returns to the stage stronger than ever. The group survived because they protected their most valuable asset, which is their people. Global expansion. Twice did not stop moving forward. They took their massive success in Korea and expanded their business model globally, breaking into foreign markets is one of the hardest things a business can do. You have to deal with new languages and new cultures and intense local competition. But TWICE trusted their product. In 2019, they became the very first K-pop girl group to complete a full Japanese dome tour. They performed across massive stadiums in multiple cities all over Japan. They proved their business model worked in a completely new international market. Then they aggressively targeted the United States. In 2022, they made absolute history again. They became the first K-pop girl group to ever headline and completely sell out a stadium show in the United States. They performed at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles to a massive screaming crowd. The language barrier did not stop them. The cultural differences did not stop them. Great products transcend borders. Now today, TWICE has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. They went from crying on a brutal reality television show to dominating the global music industry. They built an empire through hard work and constant adaptation. TWICE once We want to repay our fans with great performances and music. Their support is what keeps us going. They never forgot the customers who built their business. The ultimate lesson for your business. So the journey of Twice is a pretty cool blueprint for a highly successful startup. You start with a brutal idea phase where survival is not guaranteed. You face public failure, harsh rejection. You launch your product and hustle relentlessly for that first year. You find what your audience truly loves. You double down on it. You support your team when the pressure gets too high, and then you scale your impact across The ones who win in business are not always the smartest or the best at the start. They're the ones who refuse to quit. They're the ones who put in 10 years of practice in the dark before anyone knows their name. They are the ones who get eliminated and still show up to the practice room the exact next day. If you wanna succeed, you need to build your mental resilience. You need to take care of your team. You need to put in the work every single day, even when it hurts. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. Now let's learn the incredible story of Seventeen. This K-pop group went from struggling during their trainee days to becoming global superstars with over 10 million albums sold. The biggest number for one show has been like 70K. Meet Seventeen, the K-pop group that made history as one of the first self-produced groups. Hi guys, we are Seventeen! But their journey wasn't Some of Seventeen's members were almost cut during their trainee days because they struggled with singing, dancing, or rapping. The group originally had 17 members, but after some changes, the final lineup ended up with 13. Some members left during their trainee period for personal reasons. Now, despite the challenges, each of the 13 worked hard to prove they deserved to stay in the group. In 2013, Seventeen was supposed to debut, but Pledis Entertainment, their agency, was going through financial struggles. Almost facing bankruptcy. With limited funds and resources, their debut was delayed, but the group didn't give up. Instead of relying on outside producers, the members of Seventeen took control. They created their own music, which was rare for K-pop groups at the time. In 2015, they debuted with their album Seventeen Carat. What set them apart from other groups was that everything from the music to the choreography was made by the members themselves. This caught the attention of fans and made them stand out in a crowded K-pop world. By 2016, Seventeen won their first major award for the song Pretty U, showcasing their talent as both performers and creators. This win helped them gain more recognition and establish their place in the industry. In 2017, Seventeen achieved a milestone by holding a concert at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. This was a huge accomplishment as it's one of the biggest venues in South Korea. Only the top K-pop groups had performed there before, making it a symbol of their growing success and international recognition. Their hit songs like Don't Wanna Cry and Clap gained even more attention worldwide because of their catchy melodies, meaningful lyrics, and the group's powerful performances. By 2019, Seventeen had become an even bigger name globally. They won major awards including the IFPI Global Best-Selling Artist and performed at huge international festivals like The boy band won their first Global Album Award on Tuesday, presented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. They continue to grow their fan base known as Carats, who supported them through thick and thin. Seventeen is also known for their generosity. They have a tradition of donating to charity, especially on their anniversaries, helping communities in need. Their hard work and positive influence earned them the title of UNESCO Youth Ambassadors in 2021, A huge honor for their dedication to education and charity work. The 13 members of K-pop group called Seventeen is appointed as UNESCO's first ever Goodwill Ambassador for Youth. Today, Seventeen is one of the most successful K-pop groups in the world with over 10 million albums sold. Their YouTube videos have gained billions of views, and they continue to break records as one of the best-selling K-pop Seventeen once said, no matter how tough the path is, keep going forward with courage. We're cheering you on. Success takes time and effort. Seventeen didn't give up, and neither should you. Keep going and you'll get there. The brink of bankruptcy. Seventeen did not start at the top. Their agency, Pledis Entertainment, was struggling. The company was going through massive financial problems. They were almost facing bankruptcy. The group originally had 17 members in training. Some members were almost cut because they struggled with singing, dancing, or rapping. The pressure was intense. Some members left for personal reasons. The final lineup dropped to 13 members. In 2013, Seventeen was supposed to debut. A debut is a product launch. It requires money for marketing, the music videos, and outfits. Pledis Entertainment did not have the funds. The launch was delayed. Now, this is a common problem for entrepreneurs. You have a vision, but you lack the capital. You have a team, but you lack resources. The easy choice is to walk away. The hard choice is to pivot. The members of Seventeen looked at the situation. They saw a failing company. They saw a delayed launch. They decided to solve the problem themselves. They stopped waiting for outside producers. They stopped waiting for outside choreographers. They took control of the manufacturing process. This is the first major lesson in business. You must own your product. Becoming the product. In the K-pop industry, groups usually rely on large teams of executives. So writers write the songs, producers make the beats, choreographers build the dances. The artists just perform. Seventeen changed the business model. They became one of the first self-produced groups in the industry. So one of the members stepped up and took charge of the music. He didn't know everything at first. He learned through trial and error. He studied how to use production software. He spent hours in the studio making beats. He took on the role of the chief product officer. Another member took charge of the performances. He created the dance routines. He organized 13 people on a stage. He took on the role of their chief operations officer. This decision saved their career. It also created a unique selling proposition. In business, a unique selling proposition is what makes you different from your competitors. Because Seventeen made their own music, their songs felt way more authentic. The lyrics matched their actual personalities. The dances highlighted their specific strengths. They turned a massive disadvantage into their greatest strength. When you lack money, you must use your creativity. Sweat equity replaces financial capital. The science of teamwork. So managing a startup with 13 founders sounds impossible. Human psychology tells us that large groups often struggle with communication. This is called the Ringelmann effect. The Ringelmann effect states that individual productivity decreases as group size increases. People get lazy when they think others will do the work. SEVENTEEN beat the science of the Ringelmann effect through strict organization. So they divided their massive team into 3 specific units. They built a hip-hop unit, a vocal unit, and a performance unit. This structure is actually pretty brilliant. It gave every member a clear job description. The hip-hop unit focused on writing the rap lyrics. The vocal unit focused on singing and melodies, and the performance unit focused on dancing and stage presence. This division of labor is exactly how successful companies scale. You cannot have 13 people trying to do the same job. You must assign roles based on talent and interest. When the 3 units came together, they formed one cohesive team. This is why their name is Seventeen. 13 members plus 3 units plus 1 team equals Seventeen. They built a corporate structure that maximized efficiency and destroyed laziness. The first major launch. By 2015, Seventeen was finally ready to launch. They debuted with their first extended play called 17 Karat. This was their minimum viable product. That minimum viable product is the simplest version of your idea that you can sell to the market. They did not have the biggest budget, they did not have the most expensive music video, but they had a product that they owned completely. 17 Karat was a massive success. It became the longest charting K-pop album of the year in the United States. The market responded to their authenticity. Fans noticed that everything from the music to the choreography was made by the members. This created a deep level of trust. In business, trust is your most valuable asset. Customers will support a brand that feels real. Seventeen kept pushing forward. They did not rest after their first launch. They went right back into the studio. They understood the science of momentum. Sir Isaac Newton proved that an object in motion stays in motion. This applies to a business as well. When you get a win, you must immediately start working on the next project. By 2016, Seventeen won their first major music show award for the song Pretty U. This was a critical milestone. It proved their self-production model worked. It proved they could compete with massive agencies. They secured their place in the industry. Scaling the business. Winning an award is great. Building a global empire requires scaling. Seventeen knew they had to expand their market. They couldn't just stay in their hometown. They needed international distribution. So in 2017, they held a concert at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. This is one of the largest venues in their country. Only the absolute top artists performed there. It was a massive physical expansion of their brand. Their songs like Don't Wanna Cry and Clap went viral. The melodies were catchy, the lyrics were meaningful, the performances were powerful. They were building a massive customer base in the K-pop industry. The customer base, it's, it's your fandom. Seventeen named their fandom Carats. They treated their customers with massive respect. They communicated with them constantly. By 2019, Seventeen had achieved global dominance. They won major awards, including recognition from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. They were booked for massive international events like Glastonbury. They were no longer a small startup. They were a multinational corporation. The science of consistency. So how did they scale so fast? The answer is consistency. Seventeen releases new products constantly. They produce albums and videos, merchandise, live shows. The science of habit formation explains why this works. When a brand consistently delivers high-quality content, it wires the human brain to expect a reward. This releases dopamine. Every time Seventeen releases a new song, their fans get a new hit of dopamine. This builds intense brand loyalty. The fans become repeat customers. They buy the albums, they buy the concert tickets, they share the music with their friends. This creates organic marketing. Organic marketing is when your customers do the advertising for you. Entrepreneurs often fail because they're inconsistent. They launch one product and disappear for a year. The market forgets them. The dopamine loop is broken. Seventeen never breaks the loop. They work tirelessly to keep the supply chain moving. They understand that attention is the most valuable currency in the modern economy. You must produce consistently to keep the attention on your brand. Overcoming burnout. Now, working this hard creates a new kind of problem. The problem is burnout. Burnout is a state— is when your emotional, physical, mental exhaustion just caused by excessive stress and, and prolonged stress. When you are the product, the pressure never stops. You are always traveling, you are always performing, you are always creating something new. Seventeen faced this challenge together. In the K-pop industry, contracts usually last for 7 years. Many groups break up when the contracts end. The stress destroys the relationships. These founders wanted something different. Seventeen did something incredibly rare. All 13 members renewed their contracts early. They survived burnout through aggressive communication. When you have 13 ambitious people, egos will clash, arguments will happen. Seventeen made a rule to talk through every problem. They hold regular team meetings. They force themselves to be honest with each other. In business, unspoken resentment will destroy your company, so you need to communicate clearly and often. They also protect their culture. They remember the days when they had nothing. They remember the financial struggles of their agency. They remember the fear of never being able to launch. This shared history keeps them grounded. They don't let the success make them arrogant. They focus on the work, they focus on the product, they focus on the customers. The power of resilience. The journey of Seventeen is a pretty powerful showcase of entrepreneurship. They started with zero leverage. They were trapped in a failing company. Their dream was entirely dependent on someone else having money. When the money ran out, they had 2 choices that they can make. They could complain about all of their bad luck, or they could take extreme ownership of their situation. And they chose the extreme ownership. They learned the new skills. One member learned to produce, another learned to choreograph. They all learned to sing and rap better. They built a structural system to manage 13 different personalities. They created their minimum viable product product. They launched it to the world. They gathered feedback. They improved. They scaled their business globally. They built a massive customer base. They delivered consistent value. They protected their team culture. They communicated through the hard times. They became one of the biggest acts in the world. Their YouTube videos have gained billions of views. As Seventeen once said, no matter how tough the path is, keep going forward with courage. We are cheering you on. And this is the mindset you need. Success takes time. Success takes effort. You will face painful moments. You might face bankruptcy. You will face delays. You will face burnouts. The people who win are the people who simply refuse to quit. Seventeen did not give up. You should not give up either. Look at your current problems. Figure out what skills you need to solve them. Stop waiting for outside help. Take control of your product. Take control of your life. Keep going, and you will get there. Now let's learn the incredible story of IU. This girl went from sleeping in a cockroach-infested room to becoming one of the top celebrities in South Korea. Meet IU, one of South Korea's most beloved singers. Her real name is Lee Ji-eun, and she was born in Seoul, South Korea in May 1993. Her family was doing well until her father's business failed. The debt piled up, creditors called the house constantly, and the family went bankrupt. Her parents could no longer take care of the children, so they sent IU and her younger brother to live with their grandmother in a small city outside Seoul. The 3 of them shared one tiny It was cold, dark, and full of cockroaches. Her grandmother sold small hair accessories at a market stand every day just to get by. To save more money, they moved in with a relative. One night, that relative came home drunk and shouted at IU for practicing her singing. He told her she would never make it. IU lay still in the dark, pretended to be asleep, and quietly promised herself she would prove him wrong. In 7th grade, she sang a a school event and felt something click. She decided right then she was going to become a professional singer. She auditioned everywhere and failed 20 times in a row, including at JYP Entertainment, one of Korea's biggest music companies. Then she got scammed. A fake agency promised her training and a TV appearance and took every coin her grandmother had saved from selling accessories at the market. IU was heartbroken, not just because of the money, but because it belonged to the one person who had sacrificed the most for her. In 2007, at 14, she finally signed with Loen Entertainment. After 10 months of training, she debuted in September 2008 at just 15 with her first album, Lost and Found. The album failed to chart. She later said, my first album failed, but I'm grateful for that. She kept going. In December 2010, she released Good Day, famous for its 3-level high notes that even trained singers struggled to hit. It stayed at number 1 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart for 5 straight and in 2019 Billboard ranked it the number 1 K-pop song of the entire decade. Korea gave her a new nickname, the nation's little sister. She then took full creative control and started writing her own songs. In 2017, she wrote and executive produced Palette, with all 3 singles hitting number 1 in South Korea. Billboard named it the best K-pop album of 2017, and the New York Times placed the title track on its list of 25 songs that tell us where music is going making IU the only Asian artist on that list. Today, she holds the record for the most number 1 songs in South Korean chart history with 31 number 1s and has sold over 120 million paid digital downloads. Rolling Stone named her the 135th greatest singer of all time in 2023, and in 2025, Forbes Korea ranked her the number 1 celebrity in South Korea. By 2009, just one year after her debut, she had already paid off her family's And bought her father his dream car. Proof the doubters wrong. Don't argue with people who say you can't do it. Just work hard and let your success speak for itself. Imagine lying awake in a cold room. You are wrapped in a thin blanket. You can hear cockroaches crawling on the floor around you. The room is tiny. You share it with your younger brother and your grandmother. This is your entire world. Your family was doing well, but then your father's business failed. The debt piled up quickly. Creditors called the house constantly. Your family was completely bankrupt. Your parents could no longer take care of you, so they sent you away to a small city outside of Seoul. Your grandmother sells small hair accessories at a market stand every single day just to buy food. She counts every penny. You want to help her, but you're just a child. To save even more money, your small family moves in with a relative. You think things might get better, but they just get worse. One night, that relative comes home drunk. You're practicing your singing. He gets angry and shouts at you. He tells you that you're wasting your time. He tells you that you're nothing. He tells you that you will never make it as a singer. You lie perfectly still in the dark, You pretend to be asleep, but in your mind you make a quiet promise. You promise yourself that you will prove him wrong. This is not a movie script. This is the real life story of Lee Ji Young, the girl who would grow up to become known as IU. She is now one of the top celebrities in South Korea. Her story, I think, is the ultimate blueprint for any entrepreneur. It shows you exactly what it takes to survive failure, to take control of your career, and to build an empire from absolute scratch. The science of rejection. Most people give up after 1 or 2 failures. IU decided she was going to become a professional singer in the 7th grade. She sang at a school event and felt something click in her mind. She knew what she wanted, so she started auditioning. She didn't fail once or twice. She failed 20 times in a row. She auditioned for JYP Entertainment. It's one of the biggest music companies in Korea. They rejected her. So think about the psychological weight of failing 20 times. Science tells us that rejection actually triggers the exact same pathways in the brain as of physical pain. A study from the University of Michigan showed that when people experience social rejection, their brains release opioids to kill the pain, just like when they're physically injured. And your brain is wired to avoid rejection to protect you. So every time IU stood on a stage and heard the word no, her brain felt physical pain, but she kept showing up. Then the worst thing possible happened. She found an agency that said yes. They promised her vocal training and a guaranteed appearance on TV. But it was a scam. They demanded money up front. Ayu took the money that her grandmother had carefully saved from selling her cheap hair clips at the market. The fake agency took every single penny and disappeared. Ayu was completely heartbroken. She was not sad about the money itself; she was devastated because that money belonged to the one person who had sacrificed everything for her. As an entrepreneur, you're going to face moments like this. People will scam you. People will tell you that you're not good enough. You will feel that physical pain of rejection. But the difference between the people who win and the people who fail. Fail is simple. The winners just do not stop. They take that pain and use it as motivation. IU did not quit after she lost her grandmother's money. She just worked harder. The breakthrough strategy. In 2007, at the age of 14, IU finally found the real home. She signed a contract with Loen Entertainment. She trained intensely for 10 straight months. She debuted in September 2008 at just 15 years old. She released her first full album called Lost and Found, and it completely failed. It did not chart. It did not make her famous. It was a commercial disaster. Now, most teenage girls would have quit right there, but IU had a different mindset. She later said in an interview, my first album failed, but I'm grateful for that. She realized that early failure is the best teacher. If she had succeeded immediately, she might have become lazy. The failure forced her to get better. It forced her to study the market, to understand her audience, and to improve her skills. And then 2 years later, in December 2010, she released a song called Good Day. This was her breakthrough. The song became famous for a specific vocal run at the end It's called the 3-level high note. It's an incredibly difficult vocal technique. Even heavily trained professional singers struggle to hit those notes. Hitting a 3-level high note requires extreme physical control. The science of vocal cords shows that high pitches require the vocal folds to stretch and thin out, vibrating at massive speeds. You also need to have immense lung capacity and core strength to push the exact right amount of air through the vocal cords without damaging them. IU practiced this relentlessly. She treated her voice like a professional athlete treats their body, and her hard work paid off. Good Day stayed at number 1 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart for 5 straight weeks, and in 2019, Billboard officially ranked it the number 1 K-pop song of the entire decade. The entire country fell in love with her. They gave her a massive new nickname. They called her the nation's little sister. She had finally made it. Taking complete control. Becoming famous is one thing, staying famous is another. Many pop stars hit it big and then fade away because they let other people control their careers. They become puppets for big corporations. IU refused to let that happen. She thought like an entrepreneur. She knew that to build a lasting brand, she needed complete creative control. So she started writing her own songs. She learned how to play instruments. She studied music production. And in 2017, she took the biggest risk of her career. She wrote and executive produced her album called Palette. She was no longer just a singer singing other people's words. She was the boss. Boss. She was the visionary. She controlled the budget, the marketing, the sound, and the image. Now, taking control is scary. When you're the executive producer, you have nobody else to blame if the project fails. But IU trusted her own vision. The result was pretty massive. All 3 singles from Palette hit number 1 in South Korea. Billboard named Palette the best K-pop album of 2017. The New York Times placed the title track on its exclusive list of 25 songs that tell us where music is going. This made IU the only Asian artist on entire global list. She transitioned from a manufactured pop idol into a respected independent artist. This is the exact same journey that you can take in your business. At first, you might have to follow the rules of your industry. You might have to work for someone else at the start, but eventually you have to take the wheel, right? You have to take control. You have to start writing your own script, your own songs. You have to take full ownership of your company and your product. Building the empire. When you create incredible value, the money naturally follows. So I use built an absolute empire. Today, she holds the historic record for the most number one songs in South Korea chart history. She has a staggering 31 number one hits. She sold over 120 million paid digital downloads. But she didn't stop at just music. She expanded her brand. She became a highly successful actress starring in massive hit TV shows like My Mister and Hotel del Luna. She became a brand ambassador for massive global companies like Gucci and New Balance. She diversified her income streams just like a smart CEO would. And in 2020, she made another massive entrepreneurial move. She left her old agency structure and moved to a brand new company called EDAM Entertainment. But she didn't just sign a standard contract. The company was founded by her own longtime manager, and IU was the company's very first and only artist at the time. This means she essentially built her own corporate ecosystem. She surrounded herself with a team that she completely trusts. She dictated her own terms. The global respect that she commands became unmatched. In 2023, Rolling Stone named her the 135th greatest singer of all time, placing her alongside the biggest legends in global music history. In 2025, Forbes Korea officially ranked her as the number one most powerful celebrity in South Korea. The ultimate payback. But all the awards and all the billions of won in her bank account do not matter as much as what she did for her family. So remember the cold room with the cockroaches? Remember the massive debt that tore her family By 2011, just one year after her breakthrough with Good Day, IU had enough money to do something incredible. She paid off every single penny of her family's crushing debt. She completely cleared her parents' financial burdens, and then she bought her father his ultimate dream car. She took her family from a cockroach-infested room to total financial freedom in just a few short years. She did it through sheer willpower, massive skill acquisition, and a refusal to listen to her haters. Think back to that That drunk relative, the man who stood over her in the dark and told her she was nothing, the man who said she would never make it. She didn't argue with him. She didn't scream back at him. She just stayed quiet, put her head down, and worked harder than anyone else in her industry. And that's how you win. You don't waste your energy fighting with the people who doubt you. You don't try to convince them with your words. You prove the doubters wrong with your actions. You build something so big and so successful that they cannot ignore you. Don't argue with people who say you can't do it. Just work hard and let your massive success speak for itself. To learn the incredible story of Elvis Presley, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. Nobody talks about the time Elvis Presley was a truck driver. He got a job as a truck driver at Crown Electric for a good salary of $40 a week. Unknown, working long days and singing along to the radio