I have known about this guy for a while. I have to write a piece about him.
So Jonny Kim is a first generation Korean-American. Straight out of high school, he joined the US Navy and began his career as a Navy SEAL with 2 combat deployments. Then he finished an undergraduate degree in Mathematics with summa cum laude honours. Then he earned a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard. Then he was selected as an astronaut for NASA.
Those titles alone should be enough. Navy SEAL Doctor Astronaut man. And he’s 35 years old. Three of the most remarkable accomplishments, each representing an entire lifetime’s career, done in less than 17 years.
To put it into perspective, anyone who completes SEAL training has some world-class mental fortitude and grit. Anyone who earns a summa cum laude degree in Maths is probably among the smartest minds in the world. Anyone who has a MD from Harvard has elite levels of brainpower and… well I’m running out of words here, probably something to do with an unbreakable work ethic. But to top it all off, NASA received 18,000 applications for their astronaut class, and 12 were selected — Jonny Kim is one. Those are some unfathomable odds.
Now, what I’m even more impressed is how remarkably unremarkable this guy is. Check out this interview with him:
What really strikes me is how mild-mannered this man is. Seeing him on the street you would not bat an eyelid. He seems like your regular soft-spoken Asian guy.
And yet dude is a killing machine. He was a SEAL point man and sniper. He must have had at least a few kills to his name.
What also stands out to me is how he never talks about himself. Instead he seems obsessed with the idea of service — he wants to protect his loved ones, to save his teammates and his patients, to help humanity advance. I could barely find any information about this man on the Internet either. Not even an interview or any social media presence. He seems to just quietly fulfills whatever insanely demanding job he is given and enjoys his privacy with his family.
My hats off to this man. He seeks neither recognition nor fame. He humbly dedicates his life to a calling and he sticks to it, lets his accomplishments do the talking.
I don’t seek to be, nor will I ever be, as awesome as this man is. But he really has shown many that regardless of your upbringing, with the right attitude and work ethic, anything is possible. Even something so laughably ridiculous as becoming a Navy SEAL Doctor Astronaut.