Peter Chung, a 24 year old Princeton graduate was climbing the corporate ladder at a fast pace when he started his career with Merryll Lynch in 2001. Later that year he was stationed in Seoul, South Korea working for Carlyle Group, a Washington D.C. investment firm. Chung had it really good. He was in Korea, was making good money and was very successful at a very young age. He decided to send an email to his friends. Here is a copy of the email,

So, I’ve been in Korea for about a week and half now and what can I say, LIFE IS GOOD. I’ve got a spanking brand new 2000 sq. foot 3 bedroom apartment with a 200  sq. foot terrace running the entire length of my apartment with a view overlooking Korea’s main river and nightlife.

Why do I need 3 bedrooms? Good question…..the main bedroom is for my queen size bed…..where CHUNG is going to f#@$ every hot chick in Korea over the next 2 years (5down, 1,000,000,000 left to go)….the second bedroom is for my harem of chickies, and the third bedroom is for all of you to f@#$ when you come visit my ass in Korea.

I go out to Korea’s finest clubs, bars and lounges pretty much every other night on the weekdays and everyday on the weekends too (I think in about 2 months, after I learn a little bit of buy-side business I’ll probably go out every night on the weekdays). I know I was a stud in NYC but I pretty much get about, on average, 5-8 phone numbers a night and at least 3 hot chicks that say that they want to go home with me every night I go out.

I love the buyside. I have bankers calling me every day with opportunities and they pretty much cater to my every whim-you know, golfing events, lavish dinners, a night out clubbing. The guys I work with are also all chill – I live in the same apartment building as my VP and he drives me around in his Porshce to work and when we go out. CHUNG is KING of his domain here in Seoul.

Oh, by the way, someone’s gotta start FedExing me boxes of condoms, I brought out about forty boxes but I think  I’ll run out of them by Saturday.

Laters, Chung.

This email didn’t go very well with some of Chung’s pals so they started forwarding the message with “Amazing Cautionary Tale” as the subject. Well, this made quite a stir in the financial world and the stud was asked to resign two days later. That was the end of a golden career back then for Mr. Chung.

That was back in 2001. With Twitter, Facebook and thousand other communication platforms, it is much easier to lose a golden career today than it was during Chung’s time. Be careful.

source : The Dumbest Moments In Business History – Adam Horowitz

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