[W Frontier] CEO Yoo Jung-eun: "Don't Worry About Others, Look Into Your Own Inner Self"

Former Successful Consultant Quits to Launch Korea's First 'Meditation' App
Endured Long Hardships to Grow App with 210,000 Members
Believes Now Is the Best Moment... Either in 20s or Eventually in 30s-40s, Everyone Faces This 고민

Yoo Jeong-eun, CEO of Mabo and Wisdom 2.0 Korea, is being interviewed at Mabo Home in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

"Instead of obsessing over what others think of me, you need to look inside yourself and find out what you truly want."

Yoo Jeong-eun, CEO of Mabo and Wisdom 2.0 Korea, spoke in a calm voice that was neither too low nor too high, smiling throughout. This could be seen as the life answer offered by the CEO of Korea’s first mindfulness meditation application (app) 'Mabo,' but in fact, it was advice he gave to young adults based on his own experience of going through what is called 'Ochun-gi' (a term likening the wandering period adults face to adolescence). Yoo emphasized, "When you meditate, you realize that worrying won’t solve the problem, yet you keep thinking about it," adding, "Looking inward helps you find the center of your mind and begin to center your own life."

From a Successful Consultant to Diving into Meditation

Yoo started his career not as a startup CEO but as an HR organizational consultant. He recalled experiencing a major life crisis in his early 30s while working as a consultant at PwC, Accenture, IBM GBS, after graduating from Korea University’s Department of Psychology. Despite working hard on organizational consulting, he felt disillusioned seeing that outcomes depended more on the mindset of the client company’s leaders than on his own work. Additionally, as a woman in her early 30s, Yoo confessed she could not escape societal pressure regarding marriage. Yoo was an assertive person who even sent unsolicited emails to companies without internship postings during college to volunteer as an intern. Although she steadily built her career at work, she was not free from social conventions.

After much deliberation, Yoo quit her job and entered the doctoral program in organizational psychology at Seoul National University. She said, "It was a safe and cowardly choice," adding, "During the doctoral program, I had a desire to understand how people’s minds can change." What opened Yoo’s eyes to meditation during her doctoral studies was the book 'Search Inside Yourself' by Chad Meng Tan, a former Google engineer. The book contained the core content of Google’s meditation program 'Search Inside Yourself,' and the fact that a large organization like Google developed meditation as scientific content for education was very appealing. Yoo visited Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley to meet Meng in person, and that led her to dive into the world of meditation.

Finding a Path in the Untapped Meditation App Market

After choosing the new path of meditation, difficulties arose. Between 2013 and 2014, Yoo traveled between the U.S. and Korea to receive meditation training and began spreading Google’s meditation program to domestic companies, consulting and lecturing on it. However, the low social understanding of meditation held her back. Yoo said, "Google’s program is a 16-hour course, requiring either two full days or weekly two-hour sessions over 7-8 weeks, but requests came in like ‘Please do about 30 minutes during lunch or dinner time,’" adding, "After completing the doctoral program, I faced a turning point deciding whether to return to the company or continue promoting meditation."

Yoo Jeong-eun, CEO of Mabo and Wisdom 2.0 Korea, is being interviewed at Mabo Home in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

In November 2015, Yoo formed the initial Mabo team and began developing the meditation app. She grew the business by providing content that allows users to experience meditation scientifically and systematically, excluding any religious elements. Yoo reflected, "At the start, Mabo itself was so unfamiliar that we endured a long period of hardship." She explained that spreading the concept of meditation itself and enabling individuals to meditate in daily life through an app was not easy in Korea. Currently, Mabo has grown into an app with 210,000 members and over 450 pieces of content.

"Look Inside Yourself" Advice

Having gone through such eventful times, Yoo now says, "I live thinking that this moment is the best moment of my life." She has met and talked with famous millionaires both in Korea and Silicon Valley, but her conclusion is that anyone becomes unhappy if they think, ‘Why am I not happy despite all this effort?’ She emphasized that practicing mindfulness meditation in daily life helps accept oneself as is and find the center of one’s life.

Yoo said, "Whether female or male, I want to tell young adults to take a look inside and ask what they want and what kind of life they want to live." She advises them to deeply contemplate themselves, understand their values and personality, and base their social life on that. When she was in her early 30s, struggling with marriage as a woman, she said, "I wondered who I was and what kind of life I should live, constantly asking myself what I wanted." She added, "If you don’t have these questions in your 20s, you will face a time in your 30s or 40s when you have to question yourself," and encouraged, "I hope people take a step back and listen to the voice inside about what kind of life they want to live."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.