 Brian, this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful ThinkTech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. Today's special guest is a former FBI, the winner of four bodybuilding competitions, and the founder of the very successful real estate company, the Zeus Group. He is Zeus Kang, and today we are going beyond excellence. Zeus, good to see you. It's an absolute honor to be here, really. The honor is me to have you here. You do so many great things. Tell me about your early years, Zeus. Yeah, so if I can start from the beginning, my family, my sister, my father and I, and my mom, we emigrated from South Korea. I was about four or five. My sister was about three, respectively. And yeah, my father was just looking for a better life for his family, you know. He came from absolutely nothing. He grew up during the war, so he grew up basically homeless, and he wanted a better life for his family. So in 1989, he was sponsored by his brother, who was in the Washington, D.C. area. We came over here, and the story is I heard a little bit later in life that my mom's side of the family purchased the airline ticket for us, and then his marine buddy at the airport gave him $500 in cash. So that's how, that's the only money we had, and the flight was, again, paid for by my mom's side of the family. So we ended up settling in in the Washington, D.C. area, where we called home for the better part of my adult life. So what schools did you attend, and what sports did you play? Yeah, so in Washington, D.C. area, I went to Lake Braddock High School. I was involved in wrestling and track and field, but predominantly football was my, was my main sport. And then after high school, I went out of state for two years to Atlanta. I went to Georgia State University for two years, and then I came back to the Washington, D.C. area and finished my graduate, my bachelor's degree in business at the James Madison University. Nice. Now let's talk about your mom and dad. I mean, obviously, they're very courageous people. Yeah. What are some of the principles that you learned from them? Yeah. So I don't know if there's any Korean people out there watching, but you know, or the Asian, you know, the Asian household, they're very traditional. My parents were kind of different. They were traditional Korean parents in terms of like respect and elder and respecting your elders and tradition. But they weren't so, and surprisingly, and to my benefit going up in high school, they weren't very traditional in terms of, you know, everything else. So they wanted us to get acclimated to the American culture. I remember, I think, being in third grade, I don't know where my mom found it, but she put on a t-shirt with the American flag in front of it. Nice. And that was all it was, and she sent me to school, and I have photos of it. So she wanted us to get acclimated really fast. She knew, you know, the tough road we had, you know, as kids growing up in a new country and not knowing the language. So yeah, so both traditional values in terms of Korean traditions, but also wanting, you know, that American lifestyle and living because we were going to be here basically, you know, for the rest of our lives. Yeah. Wow. Great. Now, Zeus, you mentioned that you went to James Madison University. You studied business administration. That's great. What was the first job that you've ever had? Yeah. So luckily, you know, in college, it's, you know, I did a little bit of drinking and you got a financial. Luckily, my last year of school, I got an internship with the IRS, working for the Department of Treasury, which was from where I went to school about a three-hour drive into Washington, D.C., proper. So I actually interned for them, and it was kind of cool because I was in college making 400 bucks a month. That's a lot of money for a college student, you know. So I'd host all our parties and I, you know, so I did a little bit of work for them interning and then they were impressed enough to where after I graduated, I extended a full-time position. So I went back home and then I was going to Washington, D.C. and working out the IRS, Department of Treasury headquarters. Wow. Yeah. Interesting. Now, Zeus, let's talk about you winning four bodybuilding competitions. Okay. I mean, that's amazing. And we have some pictures we're going to show too. Now, tell me about why and when did you first start getting interested in bodybuilding and fitness? Yeah. So if we can just start from the start, I was very heavily into football. I remember while I was training with the junior Olympic team at playing using Tech 1.0, I mean, I did Tech 1.0 for four or five, six years growing up. And then, you know, in high school, it's not just about in hindsight making the Olympic team, which would have been great, but it was about, you know, being popular and stuff like that. All my friends were playing football. So I decided I couldn't do both. So I decided, okay, I'm going to do football. I got my parents' blessing. And I started weight training very heavily. So as a part of playing football and any sport, you have to weight train. And so I got into powerlifting. And I got really good, really fast. I was really dedicated. I fell in love with lifting weights. I ended up competing in powerlifting and winning a lot of shows, not only in my weight class, but a few above. So I knew I had found something that I really loved. And that kind of carried it over. And then about four or five years ago, I was at a gym here in Honolulu, and I had someone come up to me and say, hey, when's your show? And I said, what show? And he said, well, there's a bodybuilding show coming up in about three months. And you should, you should compete. I said, what's bodybuilding? You know, I'd always seen those magazines of Arnold. And so I thought, well, why not? You know, and he had competed before. And he said, let me put together your diet, you know, just continue what you're doing in terms of your training, because I was training hard. And I ended up winning my first show. And then my subsequent, you know, next three shows. Geez. So Zeus, we're going to show a picture. I mean, there's a picture of you with two Mr. Olympias. Now, I think it's a picture of three Mr. Olympias, in my opinion, they might be someone behind me. Now, what are the best and worst parts of training for competitions? Yeah. I'd say the best part is really pushing yourself to new limits. I mean, it's really difficult. I mean, it's it's 15 weeks of roughly of just, I mean, I was I was counting my grains of rice. Wow. And that's how that's how very specific your diet needs to be. And so really, it really, I mean, I've been working out my whole life for a better part of almost 20 years now. And you kind of get complacent. And as far as you're working out, you're in there and you work hard. But you don't really know your body's physiological and mental capabilities and where that ceiling is until I first competed. And it allowed me to really think, Oh, my God, I can I can change my body with my mindset. You know, so the way I thought I knew how to I knew how to go on a show date. And I trained my butt off and I dieted as hard as I could. And when I got there, the results yielded to where you know, it really showed the hard work that I put in the caveat to that, of course, if anyone out there has competed before anything, there are certain sacrifices you have to make, you know, so, you know, time away from certain things that you love, it takes time away from things that you would ordinarily do that ordinary people do. So it takes a level of sort of sacrifice, I think is probably the most difficult part. Yeah, most challenging. I can see that. Yeah. Now, Zeus, you work out with Daniel Day Kim, and the three of us are friends. And I love the Honolulu club. And I know you love the Honolulu club as well. I do. Yeah. For me, I got to I got to work out a lot more just to have a chance of maybe joining you guys to work out together. Now, what are some, you know, for the average person, what are some of the most important things that the average person should focus on for their fitness? I think this kind of carries not just in fitness, but in your professional and your personal life as well. I know I'm a testament to myself. But I think consistency, you know, so if you go to the gym January 1st as a New Year's resolution, and you go for three weeks, you don't see the results that you're looking for, you don't have washboard abs or six packed abs and six and three weeks. And then most people end up quitting. And so I think for the most important thing, of course, in trying to achieve your fitness goals or professional goals is that consistency. So set a plan, stick with it, and then give it give yourself enough time for it for you to see results. And then that that motivation that drive to continue will get easier and easier. And it'll be an exponential curve as far as the results you see. Yeah, make sense. Zeus, let's talk about the FBI. And how did how did you end up becoming an FBI employee? Yeah, so it was never it was never a dream of mine. And I'll admit that, you know, I mean, I could easily sit here and say, I've always had this dream of joining the FBI. It just it just wasn't the case. So my business, my major was business and finance. And my parents had struggled with money, you know, growing up and money was always an issue. And I remember, you know, hearing them fight about it and stuff like that. I never wanted that to be an issue for me and my family growing up and I wanted to take care of my parents. So my plan I was close enough to New York. And I was I wanted to get my finance degree, move up to New York and just make a gazillion different dollars and not ever, you know, not have to worry about money. Again, they call it, you know, like, a few money, right? So that's what I wanted. But really working for the Treasury Department was a good and a bad thing, you know, as a double it sort, I got a lot of good experience. But it really let me know that I don't want to get to finance. So so I took off and I took off, you know, a few jobs to travel. So I went to Japan actually for about six months. But indefinitely, I only had a one way ticket. And before I left, I had sent out a gazillion different resumes. And I said, I promised myself, I said, if one of these jobs that I think are really cool, that I'm going to leave Japan and come back. And that's basically what happened. I was six months into my trip in Japan. I was in Hiroshima. I got an email from the FBI. I had a really kind of like, you know, brush off my eyes and say, is this really the FBI emailing me? And they said, your application has been processed. You got to come back to headquarters in Washington DC, so you can continue with the process. And my response was almost like, can we do this online? So so I booked a flight from Hiroshima to Tokyo, Tokyo to Washington DC. And it was about a year and a half after that, where I was actually employed. So Zeus, what does it take to become an FBI agent? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, it's a very prestigious, it's a very, you know, renowned, it has a so much historical history behind the organization. It's kind of ingrained in the American culture. So it was an absolute honor. And it was quite, for me, when I first started, unbelievable. And so they have a very strict guideline. I came in as what they call a diversify candidate, which means I came in because they're really looking for some core stuff that the FBI does in terms of computer scientists now, attorneys, of course. And but I came as a diversify candidate with my language ability. So when I came in, I got shoot in as a linguist. I speak Korean. So I came in as a linguist. But the the core values and the core skill sets that you need again, the FBI are really varied. And the FBI, they said fluid and flexible. So depending on what's going on globally, domestically, the needs of the FBI changes. So as you know, when you're working for the FBI, what what type of investigative operations were you in charge of? Yeah, so my specialty was counter terrorism and counterintelligence. We did do some criminal work. And but most of my the bread and butter and the bulk of my work was counter terrorism, counterintelligence. Okay. And in terms of common crimes here in Hawaii, when does the FBI get involved in, you know, what are some of the common crimes that that the FBI would investigate here? Yeah, yeah. That's a very good question. So we work, we worked very closely with local PD. I mean, a lot of the stuff we did would absolutely be impossible without the cooperation in the local police department, some fantastic professional we worked with. But if it ever escalates to a point where in court or that case becomes now a federal issue, I mean, in severity and in whatever the requirements are, then the FBI gets involved in collaboration with other agencies and local PD and stuff like that. So one more question. Yeah. What's what's the greatest thing about the FBI as an agency? Man, there's so many great things, right? But really, like any good organization, I mean, I really have to, you know, say it's the people that work there. I mean, I've met so many great people with so many world renowned and skill sets stuff that I've learned. I go into work every day and I meet, you know, the people that I work with and working side by side with them. I've learned so much over that five and a half years, I would definitely say the biggest part of the FBI and what makes that organization so great are the people. Yeah. Well, you guys are all learning so much. I mean, great things from each other. Yeah. Now, when and why did you end up leaving the FBI? Yeah, so that's a good question. Who in their right mind would do that? I mean, it took me the better part of two years to get the job. And then five and a half years down the road to be submitting a letter of resignation. It was it was definitely, for me, it was the most difficult, but the best decision I ever made in my life. Again, resigning wasn't something that, you know, that I had thought of overnight and made a decision. It had been, you know, perhaps a couple months, even a couple years. And I just I learned so much from the FBI. I mean, I attribute a lot of my qualities now that I carry on my professional and personal career to the FBI. And there's nothing negative about the experience. I just wanted to do something a little bit more different. And I was I knew in my heart that I was more entrepreneurial. And I really wanted to exercise that creativity and allow myself to do something else. So it was a fantastic chapter. It's just another chapter in my life. And then once you left the FBI, you decided to travel for nearly a year. Yeah, yeah, as crazy as it sounds. So a lot of people ask, you know, did you have 100,000 saved up your plan to go for a year? Like how, you know, and luckily, I was able to buy a condominium wiki key and I and I rented it out. And yeah, so I mean, if I can share with you what that looked like. So the night before I printed my resignation, I had on my computer screen, I had one, I think Microsoft Word document with my letter of resignation. And then on my little laptop computer, I had, I think Expedia or some travel website with a one way ticket to Iceland. Whoa, yeah. So I knew and it was non refundable, you know, I'm cheap, right? So I knew if I booked it, and that was it, right? So I hovered over the reserve button for a while. And then I just clicked. And then I ended up printing my letter of resignation. So the week following, I think I submitted it. They were very happy because they thought I was actually asking for a promotion or something like this. But yeah, so that's how it all started. Wow, interesting. And so to date, how many countries have you visited? I've been to 51 countries. Oh, wow. Well, I want to be like you. So we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond excellence. Awesome. You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Zeus Kang. We will be back in 60 seconds. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii Anna all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Aloha. I am Deyla Nyonegita, a host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to ThinkTechHawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thank you so much. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. Today's special guest is a former FBI and the founder of the very successful real estate company, the Zeus Group. He is Zeus Kang and today we are going beyond excellence. Zeus, I want to ask you, you know, what is your passion? Yeah, so, you know, passion has often changed. For me right now it's my business. It's real estate. I knew I always wanted to get into real estate. I remember, you know, being younger and my parents looking for a home and I'm following them into the open houses. That feeling was very exciting for me to walk into a new house and check out the new kitchen and everything like that. I knew I was going to get into real estate in some capacity. I just didn't know how or when, especially working for the FBI. I'd never even fathomed having my own business in real estate. But for me right now, I also do a lot of volunteer work and helping. I'm involved with Hugs Hawaii, which is an organization. There's a nonprofit organization built on helping, you know, Hawaii K-keys, you know, that are ill. So for me, helping in some capacity always has been my passion and what better way than helping people, you know, purchase probably one of the most expensive assets they'll ever own in their life or sell. So, you know, when we're handing the keys over to a new home buyer for the first time, and I mean that feeling, I've had tears in my eyes and doing that key transfer. So for right now, you have real estate for me and my team and my company is definitely a passion for me right now. So the Zeus group, very successful. When did you found your company and when, what is it all that you guys do with your company? Yeah. So the Zeus group Hawaii is a relatively new team here in Hawaii. We're just shy of three years. We've got six wonderful agents that are just servicing everyone here, all of our Ohanas here on Oahu. And we do residential sales. So we do, you know, we have first time home buyers, we do a lot of military, you know, veterans. And we do, we work with investors, developers. So the full spectrum of residential sales. Awesome. Now, and you're, I mean, you have like the highest level of excellence and you're all about integrity and ethics and loyalty and honesty. I mean, all the characteristics from the FBI basically, right? Absolutely. So, you know, they say, when I meet a lot of realtors or brokers and they say that, you know, we get into a discussion about what we've done in the past. I've met former school teachers, car salesman. I mean, the whole spectrum, you know, I mean, here in Hawaii, there's a lot of realtors. And when I say FBI, people often are like, whoa, FBI, why did you quit this job to do real estate? So a lot of the stuff we learned, you know, internally, when I was working for the FBI, the acronym is FBI for us that for fidelity, bravery and integrity. And I still hold that true in my real estate business. And I think a lot of people really appreciate the fact that we're our communications on point and we're ethical in everything we do. And it may not be what you want to hear, but, you know, but we definitely tell our clients what they need to hear. And I think, you know, we get a lot of respect in that manner. And that's basically the foundation of our business. That's why you go beyond the lines. Beyond the lines, exactly. I mean, now let's talk about, talk about my book. What is it about the book that you like? Yeah, there was a portion. There's actually a segment in the book that I really, that really hit home for me. And as a team leader and as a business owner, management's a big part. You know, just like you coached and managed your tennis team for 20 some odd years and achieving those goals that are for me, I can't even found them how you did that. But I took that little snippet and I really took it to heart. And it's the idea of not managing people, but guiding them, you know, and in sport and coaching them. And I think that really, really increases the efficiency and allows the people that you're helping to really understand what your purpose is. Yeah. In the book, I also talk about risk, you know, risk determines destiny. Risk promotes growth. What are your thoughts about risk? You got to risk it for the biscuit. You know, I think for me, I'm a very visual person. So I think about the pendulum, right? So the pendulum swings one way and it swings equally the other way, right? So on one side of the pendulum, I consider risk. The other side, I consider reward. So if you take a little risk, your reward's obviously going to be a little bit lower. Now, the higher the risk, the higher the reward, but again, that's situational. You can't apply the pendulum theory across the board. For example, in terms of my financial investments, my risk is a little bit lower. My reward is lower, but I leverage longevity and like Warren Buffett says, compounding interest over time. As far as, you know, my personal, I'm a very risky person, you know? So when I travel, I like to do things that are risky, but, you know, I do photography as well. So the shots that I get might be extraordinary, you know? So it's really situational. So again, you can't really, you know, say this is the absolute law as far as risk and reward. But I would say, if it helps you, for me it helps me visualize the pendulum as far as risk and reward. Now, every successful person and team, I mean, they have to have discipline and they have to have great habits. What are your thoughts about discipline and habits? I think it's the foundation for everything. You know, if you can, you can start something and if you don't have discipline, you won't ever get good at it. Now, conversely, if you're not good at something, but you want to, and you have discipline, over time, you'll get good at it. It'll become second nature. So I think discipline and consistency kind of goes hand in hand. And I know when you're teaching tennis, I mean, really, I mean, it could be one swing, right? You're doing it thousands of times. You know, they'd say, it takes 10,000 hours to really become a master at something. You know, and I really hold that to heart. So if you do what you want to do, and you do it consistently over a certain amount of time, it doesn't matter your skill set. It doesn't matter. There's no genetics involved in this. If you do it consistent, you stay disciplined. I think you can achieve whatever results you want to achieve. I love your insights, Zeus. Now, I also talk about courage. You know, there's never a wrong time to do the right thing. And the greatest leaders have courage because they do the right thing. They're not going to make everybody happy. They know that, but everybody will respect why they made that decision. What are your thoughts about courage? Yeah. So just going back to the FBI, you know, we often do things that are oftentimes, you know, that that may jeopardize national security, let alone lives. And so we always have to do the right thing. And I think, again, that carries over into my professional and my personal life. And my motto, no matter what I do, is just do the right thing. Because again, it may not be what other people want to hear, or maybe it's not something that they deemed as the correct action. But I know that at the end of the day, when I am getting ready for bed and I look in the mirror, as long as I did the right thing, I can go to bed happy. And I won't ever have to defend myself. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love hearing that. Now, Zeus, what do you see? What do the best leaders do that you've seen in your life so far? Yeah. So I look up to you, obviously. Oh, thank you. And the achievements you've made, and I've had the privilege of talking to a lot of leaders and starting up a business as a first time business owner. And from what I see, the characteristics that a lot of leaders possess is their ability to create systems and guides. Yeah. And then also, to not just take that and say, hey, do this, but to really guide the people that you're wanting to lead in that path. So setting that path and setting a system and then teaching that system to the people that they're wanting to lead. Guiding and coaching. And a system for sure. And the system. Yeah. Oh, great. Zeus, have you had an adversity, like a big adversity that you have, that you face in your life that you have to overcome? Yeah, for certain. I remember when I was a little bit, a couple of years after college, I remember my father getting very sick. And at the time, my pipeline dream was to go to London and to go to school and find a nice English girl and settle in the country and get a couple of sheets and then lead that whole life. And I had everything set. I got accepted to the London School of Economics which was my dream school. Yeah. And I was talking to my roommate. We were talking about what we're going to do. And I was very excited, obviously. In that time, unfortunately, my father got very sick. He was diagnosed with stage 3 gastric and esophageal cancer. And so, as a son, neither say I deferred my enrollment. I deferred. And eventually I had, they basically canceled my partial scholarship and I had to help my dad heal. The results, obviously, there were no guarantees. We were getting some good responses and some bad from the doctor, from the oncologist. But it was a huge adversity because I wasn't sure if I had just basically gave up my dreams of going to my dream grad school in order to fix my dad. So that was a really tough time. But I think what really helped me was to really evaluate what the task at hand was and to simply put everything aside and say, what do I need to do to get the job done? And that was to be there for my father. And luckily, he's still with us today. And yeah, that was a tough time. But we made it out. Wow, that's interesting. And it's so good that he's doing fine now. Yeah. And he doesn't speak much English. He's a very old school guy. He's a former rock marine. And they don't want to go to doctors. And I mean, he's your quintessential retired marine. And so but I was there every step of the way. I went to every appointment. I went to every reading the charts. I became like a nurse. So I know it's kind of funny because my sister's a nurse now. So yeah, I mean, like anything else, when I was younger, I was like, why is this happening to me? But as I'm older now, I realized it created a mental and a spiritual callus that I built up that's helping me now as an adult, as a business owner as well. Zeus, what's the most valuable piece of advice you ever received? Man, so I love podcasting. Okay. And I've been reading a lot of books lately. And I read this recently. I read this book by David Goggins. Okay. And I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard about the book and his story. But I mean, this guy came from nothing. From being a 305 pound and his words POS to being a Navy SEAL and running an ultramarathon. And the real important point that he makes is again, going back to consistency, having that discipline and that structure in place and then doing it every single day and then making sure you're living outside of your comfort zone. Do something that you're uncomfortable doing and then perfecting it. No, I like David Goggins. I mean, he's just straight up. Straight up, yeah. Doesn't feed around the bush at all. Now, Zeus, before we wrap, I want to ask you one more thing. What's something that you want to do that you just haven't been able to do yet? So as I mentioned before, I've done a lot of volunteer work. I think it's really important. I mean, simply and lately, because we are born in America, I mean, we could have easily been born anywhere else. And we have the inevitable luck of being born in such a great country with the opportunities that we have. And not a lot of people have those opportunities. And traveling, for me, is sure it's fantastic seeing new countries and trying new foods. But for me, it was a real eye-opening experience to go to countries like Cambodia where these are third world countries and they're less fortunate simply because they're born where they were born. So for me, like I said, I volunteered a lot and I think it's because we're in a position to give back. My mom always said, it's better to be in a position to give back than to need. And so since we are in that position, I think it's important for us to do that. And so for me, I would like to set up an organization, some sort of nonprofit, so that we can help globally. On a small scale, I'm not trying to change the world, but on a small scale, provide some of the resources that we take for granted, for example, clean water. So if I can, again, in working hard, if I can work towards that mission of starting some sort of organization or cause to provide free water and the resources, again, a lot of us take for granted, I think for me, that would be a dream come true. Very interesting insights. Love it. Yeah, we take so many things for granted. I mean, water, food, clean air. A roof overhead. Bathrooms. Zeus, I really want to thank you for joining me on the show today. And you definitely live up to your name, Zeus. So I really appreciate you. Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure and honor. Thank you, Zeus. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii, and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor, Eolani Incorporated. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Zeus and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.