Known throughout the industry as
IFI’s Director of Asian Affairs, Sam Choi has worked
persistently for many years trying to bridge the communication
gap between Korean and American drycleaners in the United
States.
A strong advocate for opening the
channels of communication between people, Sam speaks English,
Japanese and Korean fluently, and he understands and writes
Chinese. He doesn’t just passively believe in bringing
people together through communication, he lives it. In
fact, long before he bought Neil’s Cleaners in
Beltsville, MD, about 23 years ago, he worked over two decades
as a diplomat throughout the world.
Sam has journeyed a long way from
the rural farm area on the outskirts of Seoul, Korea, where he
grew up. Even back then, he learned the profound value of
human relationships.
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Such hardship only managed to
strengthen Sam, who was raised lovingly by his oldest sister,
Chung Hee. “She took care of me all the way through
college. She paid for my schooling and everything. She was so
nice to me. I owe her so much... and I feel like she’s my
mother,” he said.
By the time Sam’s sister had
helped him go to college, he had already been impacted by his
exposure to many foreign cultures. Living through World War II
and the Korean War, Sam was made well aware of the world
outside of Korea. “I just wanted to see the rest of the
world and learn more... become an international person and get
to know other countries, other people,” he said.
As fate would have it, the Korean
government was recruiting young people for foreign service, so
Sam enrolled in the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He
graduated with a B.A. Degree in English, with an emphasis on
International Relations. He would later pursue a Master’s
Degree in Public Administration at Seoul National University.
Prior to graduating from college,
Sam applied for a job with the Korean government and was hired
under the office of the president. He received special training
in translation and cultural studies and started work as a press
liaison for foreign correspondents who covered Korean press
events. “I learned a lot. That’s exactly what I
wanted to do,” he said.
Working for the Korean diplomatic corps
gave Sam an excellent opportunity to make contacts and travel
to many countries. During his diplomatic career, he served as a
cultural and information officer at Korean embassies in Japan,
Canada, Germany, and in the United States.
Sam will always remember his first
visit to America, which included stops in Washington, D.C., New
York and Los Angeles. “I’ll never forget my first
impression. Everything was so fast and big. I was just
fascinated by what I had seen in this country,” he said.
Years later, Sam would have a longer
opportunity to live in America when he moved to Washington,
D.C., to work for a three-year stint in the Korean embassy.
After that, he moved on to Ottawa, Canada, to perform more
Korean public relations work for the next two-and-a-half years.
At that point, things changed drastically
for Sam. Because Korea had undergone a lot of political changes
by the mid-1970s, Sam questioned his effectiveness as a Korean
representative. “It was hard for me to promote the image
of Korea,” he recalled. “I became skeptical about
my job. I felt it was time for me to quit government
work.”
Not one to sever the ties of
relationships, Sam remained in contact with some of his
acquaintances, including John Calhoun, who worked as a special
assistant to President Ford during his presidency. At the same
time Sam was looking for a new opportunity, so was his old
friend, who was suddenly out of work when President Ford did
not get re-elected.
Calhoun became involved in
international trading and immediately hired Sam, who moved back
to Washington, D.C., in 1977. The business opportunity
didn’t pan out well, but it had moved Sam back to the
U.S. where he was determined to find a way to support his
family. He and his wife, K.C., who have now been married for
almost 40 years, had two daughters, Julie and Jane, and a son,
John, to support.
After years of sending his
diplomatic attire of suits and ties to the cleaners, Sam
consulted with a friend he knew who was in the industry. He
felt that his diplomatic skills would tie in beautifully with
the world of drycleaning. “I thought, and I still
believe, that business is a public relations job,” he
said. “If you want to do good business, you have to
promote good public relations.”
In 1979, Sam’s first year as owner
of Neil’s Cleaners, he ran into a few roadblocks. His
lack of experience in the industry hindered his ability to
succeed. “I realized I needed some experience and proper
training,” Sam said. “I also realized that without
any knowledge of drycleaning, I wouldn’t be able to
control my helpers.”
Some of Sam’s staff were, in
fact, out of control. One employee went so far as to tell
Sam that he wasn’t needed around the plant. The same man
also claimed to order about 260 gallons of perc every month,
even though the plant only used a fraction of that amount.
It was a tough first year, but Sam
remained determined. He joined IFI and enrolled in several
drycleaning courses. That decision saved his business.
“Through my experience, I learned that everybody should
have the proper training and education in this business,”
he said. “It’s essential for an owner to know
everything.”
Once he gained more knowledge of the
industry, Sam weeded out his bad employees and focused his
attention on maintaining a good relationship with his customers
and improving his production quality. “I’ve just
tried to give the best possible quality service to the
community there. That’s my honest effort and it’s
paid off.”
Neil’s Cleaners has proven to be
very successful over the years, earning distinctions in 1991
and 1996 as one of the “Best Drycleaners in the
Washington Area for Quality and Price,” and it was
honored in 1999 for its 20th anniversary of providing
“friendly and uncompromising quality service to the
community.”
During his drycleaning career, Sam
has given plenty back to the community, donating often to the
police and fire departments, as well as local girls’ and
boys’ clubs. He has also been quite active for about 15
years with the Rotary Club, where he served as president in
1998 and 1999.
Sam is modest about his
accomplishments, but he admits that he is quite proud of his
ability to help others obtain a good education, including his
own children. John majored in Business Administration at the
University of Colorado. Jane graduated from Harvard University
and is a landscape architect in Boston. Julie is a lawyer
living in New York.
More notably, Sam has tirelessly
spent years helping Korean drycleaners ever since Roger
Schilling from IFI approached him in 1996. “He asked me a
series of questions on my perception of business and my opinion
on Korean drycleaners... things like that,” Sam recalled.
“I told him that, at the time, Korean cleaners had gotten
into this business without prior knowledge and experience.
They’re in trouble. They need help from mainstream
drycleaners. They need education. They need
training.”
Since then, Sam has worked on
opening up the channels of communication with Korean cleaners
and making them aware that IFI can offer them helpful services.
The mission hasn’t been easy.
Sam estimates that there are about
14,000 Korean-owned cleaners and 30-35 Korean
drycleaners’ associations in the U.S.
“They organize their
associations mainly to help each other and to promote their
personal relationships among themselves,” he explained.
“I try to tell them that friendship among themselves is
good, but as long as they’re in business, they have to
learn the business. That’s my goal... to convince them
that they have to have the proper education and
training.”
If he isn’t writing a column for
various trade publications or speaking to a cleaner on the
phone, Sam takes time to speak at outreach seminars all across
the U.S. His task continues to be daunting, but he keeps
motivated by the feedback he gets from Korean cleaners.
“They say they learn a lot. They ask me to keep doing the
same thing. They say to me, ‘How can you do this and
that, run here and there, and write so many columns?
You’re an old man.’,” he said, laughing.
He may be old enough to consider
selling Neil’s Cleaners in the near future, but he
isn’t quite ready to retire from the industry altogether.
“As long as I stay healthy, I think I can serve IFI for
several more years,” Sam said.
In the meantime, Sam will continue
to pursue his mission with his relentless hard work ethic.
“If I don’t do it right now, maybe it will never
happen,” he said. “I strongly believe in Albert
Einstein’s opinion. He said, ‘I never think of the
future. It comes soon enough.’ I’ve always believed
in that. I like it. It means that you’ve got to do things
right now. Don’t wait too long.”
