[ENG] HyunJoon Jung, CEO at Mphora_What Are You Optimizing Your Life For?

Before you build a career, answer this question first.

What are you optimizing your life for?

My guest this week, HyunJoon Jung — CEO and co-founder of Mphora, and former AI leader at Apple, Amazon, and Adobe — says this one question shaped every major decision in his life.

Not "how do I get promoted." Not "how do I raise money."

Just: what kind of life am I actually trying to build?

We talked about a backpacking trip through 28 countries that changed how he defines success, why the smartest people in the room aren't always the ones who succeed, and the three questions he believes every founder should keep coming back to.

What are you optimizing your life for?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone and welcome to Voices Across Borders, brought to you by Multicultural Talent Network. I'm Mina Kim Mock. In this podcast, we go beyond the resume to share real stories from professionals navigating life and career across borders. You will also hear from researchers as well as solo episodes where I dive into key topics shaping the global professionals. I hope you will find insight, connection, and maybe even a little encouragement along the way. Today's guest, Hyun Junchang, believes that one question determines nearly every important decision we make, not just in our careers, but in our lives. That question is, what are you optimizing your life for? Hyun Jun is the CEO and co-founder of Amphora Spells M P-H-O-R-A, a startup building trust infrastructure for sustainable AI. Before launching Amphora, he led Generative AI Initiative at Adobe and spent years developing large-scale AI and machine learning systems at Apple and Amazon. We did not talk much about technology itself. Instead, we talked about the choices behind his career, what it actually took to build a life across two countries, and what he's learned along the way. And I want to walk you through the part of the conversation that stayed with me. Hyunjun's path to the US began with two very different events. First one was at the bookstore in Korea. He came across Ray Kurzwei's book on AI and it opened up something new. At the time, AI barely existed as a field in Korea. Korea's tech industry was focused on semiconductors, telecommunication, and manufacturing. There were very few professors researching AI, very few companies building AI products, and almost no clear career path. Yet one book changed everything. For the first time, he imagined computers doing something interesting, something beyond he imagined, and he imagined machines' capability of intelligence. That single moment sparked a curiosity that eventually led him across the Pacific Ocean. But here's what interesting. AI wasn't actually the biggest reason he left Korea. Life was. In 2003, he and his girlfriend, now his wife, and other friends, backpacked through nearly 28 countries in Europe. This wasn't any luxury travel. They rented a small car, camped almost every night, navigated using paper maps long before smartphone existed. Looking back, though, he says the trip changed his definition of success. Throughout his journey, he watched. Families spend the evening together in neighborhood parks. He saw communities built around relationship rather than constant work. People weren't simply earning money. That experience stayed with him. So instead of asking, where can I build the best career? He began asking, What kind of life do I actually want? That subtle shift changed everything. Graduate school wasn't the destination anymore, it became a tool. Career wasn't the goal, it became part of much larger vision. And I have to admit that perspective really stayed with me because I see so many of us follow the opposite path. We spend decades building a career and only later ask ourselves whether it supports the life we actually wanted. Hyunjun chose the opposite order. First, he defined his life, then built his career around it. So when he eventually moved to the US, the goal wasn't just a degree and a return ticket. It was to test his own value in an open market as one competitor among many, and to build the life there with his family. Then our conversation shifted to a question many international professionals eventually faced. What does it really take to succeed in corporate America? As Hyund's career took him through Apple, Amazon, Adobe, and other leading tech companies, I asked him what had made the biggest difference. His answer had nothing to do with technical brilliance. Instead, he pointed out two qualities, self-awareness and self-discipline. Okay, what does he mean by that? He believes self-awareness means understanding yourself honestly, knowing your strengths, recognizing your weaknesses, understanding your emotions, your biases, and your motivations. But awareness alone isn't enough. Once you understand yourself, you have to develop the discipline to act intentionally rather than emotionally. Also, he shared with me that over time he noticed something interesting. In his experience, the most successful leaders were not always the smartest people in the room. They were often the people who understood themselves the best. He also shared another lesson that shaped his career. Technology may be universal, but people are not. Success in a global organization isn't just about solving technical problems. It's about understanding how people think, what they value, how they communicate, and how they build trust. Throughout his career, he intentionally sought experience that exposed him to people from different cultures and background. And looking back, he believed those experiences shaped his career just as much as his engineering skills. Because at the end of the day, every corporation are built by people. Then we talk about staying grounded in Silicon Valley. As many of you know, living in Silicon Valley also brings another challenge, comparison. Someone always seems to be raising more money, launching a bigger company, getting promoted faster. It's easy to feel like you are falling behind. So I asked him how he stays grounded. His answer wasn't productivity hacks, it wasn't morning routine. Instead, he shared three practices. First, he reads books written by people with wisdom, not just technical expertise. He said it's a humbling experience because it reminds him how little any of us truly know and puts his own knowledge into perspective. Second, is that working in AI actually led him to study human psychology. He explained that teaching intelligence to machine first required him to better understand how people learn, think, and grow. He added, in many ways, studying AI deepened his understanding of human intelligence. Third, he makes time for running and being outdoors. Nature, he says, has a way of reminding us of two truths at the same time. Those are how capable we are and how small we really are. Then our conversation turned to entrepreneurship. After years at Apple, Amazon, Adobe, and other companies, Hyon eventually decided to start his own company. So I asked him a simple question. Why now? He told me this wasn't a sudden decision. He had dreamed of starting a company since his early 20s, but for many years, his party were elsewhere. Building a family and creating the life he wanted came first. Finally, it felt right after more than 20 years of working in AI, he had accumulated technical expertise, experienced a first-hand pain point at large corporations, and perhaps most importantly, developed an idea he believed could create real value. That's what eventually led to the founding of Amphora. To explain what entrepreneurship means to him, Hyunjun used a simple metaphor. He compared it to cooking. So at first we eat meals prepared by others, then we learn to cook for ourselves, eventually we cook for our family and close friends, but opening a restaurant is something entirely different. You are no longer cooking for people you know, you are creating a value for complete strangers. That's what building a company means to him. It's about creating something meaningful for people you've never met. But at the same time, he said that there's no single right path to entrepreneurship. Every founder has a different story, a different motivation, and a different timeline. But regardless of how or when you start, he believes every entrepreneur should come back to a few fundamental questions. Those are who is your customer? What problem are you solving? What value are you creating? Funding is important, technology is of course important, but neither is the destination. They are tools, he said. The real goal is earning something far more valuable, which is customer trust. My biggest takeaway from this conversation is simple. Before asking how do I build a successful career, perhaps we should first ask, what kind of life am I trying to build? Once that answer becomes clear, many of our career decisions may become much simpler. So I will leave you with one final question. What are you optimizing your life for? If you'd like to connect with Hyun Jun Chung, his LinkedIn profile is public. He's happy to continue the conversation there. His name spells H Y U N J O O N. And his last name is Cheng J-U-N-G. And his startup is called M fora, spells M-P-H O R A. If you're interested in reaching out to us, you can contact us at Multicultural Talent Networks or Mina Kim Muk M I N A K I M M O K through LinkedIn. Thank you so much for listening.