When Young Paik was nominated for the 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year award, he wondered if they had made a mistake. The accolade once bestowed upon Ted Turner and Bill Gates couldn’t possibly go to him, he thought. Much to his surprise, however, the one-time chestnut vendor turned manufacturing mogul did end up with the award that November night.

Paik, whose big break came when he patented a type of corrugated steel beam in 1980, made his millions based on a sturdy work ethic and the motto that “the customer is king.” Paik’s ascent from losing his parents and siblings during war-torn Korea to becoming Entrepreneur of the Year in the United States is chronicled in his autobiography, The Do or Die Entrepreneur: A Korean American Businessman’s Journey, written with John Cha and published by Random House Joongang.

“I wrote the book not for money, but because I’d like to see every Korean become his own entrepreneur, not working for somebody else,” says Paik, who once worked as a dishwasher in Los Angeles before becoming an engineer and running his own business — PACO, short for Paik Company.

As rewarding as his business success may be, Paik says his life is incomplete without his siblings, especially the brother he left behind when Communist forces invaded his home village, now part of North Korea. He recounts the moment in the book:

Former KoreAm cover man, Young Paik, who graced the March 2001 issue, has written a memoir with John Cha that charts his life from war-torn Korea to being a successful businessman.

“My younger brother, Young-ik, ran up after me. ‘Hyung, my older brother, I’m here.’ I saw that he had rushed up the hill in bare feet. Apparently he saw me leaving the house and he figured that I was leaving the village and he wanted to come with me wherever I was going. ‘What about mother and the kids?’ I asked. I was worried about the family. Also, he was barefooted, and he wasn’t ready to go anywhere on the frozen grounds.

“‘If you come with me, what will happen to mother and the small ones? Go back and hide out for three or four days. When the American troops return I’ll come back right away. Be patient and wait till then,’ I told my younger brother. I thought that my brother would be safe at home because he was still a youngster, whereas I was definitely a target for the communist soldiers.

“‘OK, I’ll do what you say,’ Young-ik nodded weakly and turned around. I watched him shuffle his bare feet down the hill, his head hanging low between his slumped shoulders. That was the last time I saw him.”

Paik, whose father was killed during the war, was reunited in 1989 with his sister, mother and aunt for the first time in more than 50 years. North Korean officials told Paik his brother Young-ik had died, and that his youngest brother had been incarcerated for questioning authorities about Young-ik’s sudden disappearance.

“After the book was published, I learned that he didn’t die,” Paik says. “The officials, everybody, they lied to me. He’s alive, but in political prison camp. I want to see my brothers. I hope that someday soon brothers and sisters from the North and South can meet again.”