February 2026

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

-Calvin Coolidge

Everything takes time … it is important to remember that everything takes more time than we imagined.  We can’t and shouldn’t expect our plans to fall into place.  Our mind, where we conceive an idea, is very, very different than the reality we live in.  But somehow I forget this or is it that I don’t want to remember this truth?  

Almost every project I have undertaken has lagged except Dding Ddong, the safe space for LGBTQ youth in Korea. That organization has exceeded my expectations and then some.  But Platform is taking its sweet time to grow - we don’t have enough leadership, enough money, and maybe not enough vision.  I plan and try to execute but we fail to gain the interest of our audience, the immigrant youth of Aurora.  They are busy and they have very little time for anything that is not essential or appear essential for their lives or their futures.  How do you capture the interest of young people who have grown up with 10 second videos, Google, and AI?  Reflections and thoughtful, meaningful conversations are a thing of the past when they actually shouldn’t be. We need more conversations, not less. We need more reflections and more spaces to share our reflections.

They say it is all about marketing.  I mean, look at Trump.  As awful as he is, somehow he manages to capture the votes of people who honestly should know better.  But then, do they really know better?!  After recent events in the world, I wonder how anyone can trust him but he has somehow learned to sell himself.  Here we have a wonderful program and opportunities at Platform and we can’t manage to get more interest, more participation.

How much do we change to meet the ways in which young people access information; how much do we keep the program as is to change the way young people interact with information.  All important musings but musings need to lead to successful actions or the musings would have been pointless.  This is a question of relevance and I still believe that our program is relevant, more now than ever with every message to denigrate the dignity of our immigrant community.

Yes, I try to get the input from our young leaders and yes, I try to integrate their perspectives.  But this too can be difficult.  How can we get busy people together in one space to explore; how can we get them to trust their opinion and share their ideas.  It is all part of the process of building leadership but again, we come to this notion of time.  We need time for things to unfold and they will but slowly or in their own time.  Seriously, how long does it take a person to develop and grow?  Ideally until they die but how can one measure their ‘success’ within a year or two?

People wonder why I continue Platform when in the business model, it isn’t successful or not successful enough.  Maybe because I am all too stubborn to give up or maybe because I really believe it can be impactful?  I don’t know anymore.  I am having difficulty ascertaining because our gauge for success can’t be pinpointed to one person or our empty bank account. 

Yet we persist.  We have to until we can no longer.  And we are not there yet. I think.

Sam Joo

CEO and Founder

February 1, 2026