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Thread: Yul - Cook Islands

  1. #211
    FORT Regular Kali Kitsune's Avatar
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    Nov 2006
    But really, Yul is giving money to SAVE LIVES!

  2. #212
    Snoozin' on the beach
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Quote Originally Posted by Kali Kitsune;2184778;
    But really, Yul is giving money to SAVE LIVES!
    I could care how the money is spent. Using going to college as a sob story is stupid, as if it's some huge unobtainable thing that few can do. it's called working your way through college, which alot of us have done.Is it easy? No. Can it be done witohut going into debt if you really do have the desire to get a higher education? Absolutly.

    It's not how money is used, its the story you give to the jury, real or fake to convince them you are more deserving and will vote for you. In the scheme of sob story's and reasons, going to college answer of Ozzy's was BS and it looked like BS the minute it came out of his mouth. I have no problem with lying about it, that is also the "outwit" part of the game because it isn't over until votes are cast--but come up with something good for crying out loud, that was pathetic. He was very fortunate that Rebecca is extremely gullible and bought that BS story.

  3. #213
    FORT Fogey
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    If Ozzy really wanted to go to college, he'd be there right now. It's doable while working, etc. I did it with two toddlers and a job.

  4. #214
    Endlessly ShrinkingViolet's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Here is Yul's TVGuide.com interview:

    Yul's Tidings: The Survivor Cook Islands Champ Speaks Out!

    by Angel Cohn

    On Sunday night's nail-biting Survivor: Cook Islands finale, Yul Kwon narrowly beat out tough competitor Ozzy by one vote to emerge as champion. The Stanford and Yale grad, who was often called "the puppet master" or "Godfather" by fellow players, was happy that his strategic game paid off and that he was able to pocket the million-dollar check. TVGuide.com spoke to Yul in the wee hours of the morning after his big win to find out how he's planning on spending his winnings, and why he looked so shell-shocked after being announced the sole survivor.

    TVGuide.com: Good morning, how are you doing?
    Yul Kwon: Good. I'm still sleep-deprived, but I'm living the dream.

    TVGuide.com: You looked stunned throughout the entire reunion show.
    Yul: I am sure you are being charitable. I was probably looking scared s--tless.

    TVGuide.com: Why were you so scared? You'd already won the money.
    Yul: I'm not really used to all this attention. I tend to feel self-conscious very easily. Just having all these people looking at me and hearing what I am saying and knowing that it was going out live to millions of people was kind of a scary thing for me. I can talk the talk, but inside I always get very anxious.

    TVGuide.com: Going into the live finale, did you think you had a good shot?
    Yul: Going into the final tribal council, I thought I had a good shot. I knew it was going to be between me and Ozzy, and I thought it would be a toss-up, which it ultimately ended up being. I don't think I could say I deserved it more than he did. I think that with any other season or any other group of jurors, he very well could have won and would have very much deserved it. I think it came down to people's preferences: Do people appreciate the strategic game play and the social side of it, or the physical-challenge side of it? In my case, just barely a majority ended up favoring the strategic side.

    TVGuide.com: They kept calling you a puppet master and a leader, traits that usually get people voted off much earlier in the game.
    Yul: [Chuckles] I don't feel that the "puppet master" or "Godfather" monikers were appropriate, or completely accurate. Honestly, I think I was an effective leader, and the way I influenced my tribe was not through manipulating people and being a dictator who told people what to do. The reason that people listened to what I had to say and respected me was because I tried to listen to what they had to say, and I tried to build consensus. That was one of the reasons why our alliance was so tight. People felt they had a lot of voice in what happened.

    TVGuide.com: We never heard you raise your voice or demand anything from them.
    Yul: That is not really my personality. I think everyone had a sense of ownership and, because of that, they never felt threatened by my leadership. The funny thing is that externally, the perception was that I was this puppet master. I tried to disavow it, but it was firmly implanted in their minds that I was manipulating things and pulling the strings. The more I tried to distance myself from it, the more people would think I was lying. I figured, if that is what they think, I might as well embrace it and use it to my advantage.

    TVGuide.com: And you did!
    Yul: Ultimately, it worked out for me. If you asked anyone in my tribe about the whole puppet-master thing, they would have been like, "No, that's BS. He never ordered us around."

    TVGuide.com: Everyone keeps focusing on your excellent strategic game, but you were quite the physical player, too. Are you mad you don't get credit for both?
    Yul: No. I have watched enough seasons to realize that if you are too much of a threat, you get voted off quickly. Before the mutiny happened, I tried to stay a little under the radar. I then had a lot of influence in setting the direction and pace and the vote order from behind the scenes. I was able to deflect attention away from me and to Jonathan as the evil manipulator. Everyone believed that. Ozzy was very strong in challenges, and I was more than happy to let him play it up so that other people would think he was the main physical threat.

    TVGuide.com: Though arguably your physical strength was what landed you on Exile Island while you were with the Puka tribe. That worked out well for you, though, since that's where you got the hidden immunity idol.
    Yul: [Laughs] That did work out. But once that happened, I realized that I had to go under the radar instead of being the strongest member of the strongest tribe. I realized that it was kind of a do-or-die situation, and I worked really hard in all the challenges. Ozzy and I worked really well together. He is probably the best challenge competitor to ever be on Survivor. After the merge happened and we flipped Jonathan, I kind of went back into "under the radar" mode. From a strategic standpoint, it didn't make any sense to win any of the individual immunities. I didn't need it, and the more Ozzy kept winning, he became the threat.

    TVGuide.com: I've got to know: Were you just being nice returning Jonathan's hat, or was that part of your master plan to get him to vote for you?
    Yul: [Sighs] In general, I feel that Survivor is very authentic, that they [the producers] don't manipulate things. But that was the one instance where I felt like I was set up.

    TVGuide.com: So you were just trying to do a nice thing....
    Yul: [Laughs] Yes. And then it was like, "Where the hell is this coming from?" Even if I knew he would never vote for me, or if someone who hated my guts had asked for it, I would have given them the hat back because there is no need to be mean about this kind of stuff outside of the game. I tried to give the hat to one of the crew members when I was on the island, and they went off for an hour and came back and said, "We're not going to give it to him, but you can do whatever you want. You can give it to him at tribal council." I didn't want to do that, because that's weird. So I put the hat in the jury area before the jury members came in, and then Jeff Probst goes, "Yul makes a bold play for the jury by giving Jonathan his hat back." I'm like, "Well, if you hadn't just told him.... " That was frustrating for me, and that cemented my image as someone who was playing to the jury. A lot of things I did in the game were [because I was just] treating people the way I would want to be treated, but after that point everything I did was held in suspicion. That was upsetting to me.

    TVGuide.com: It did work out, though.
    Yul: It did, so I can't complain. But at the time, I was thinking, "This could be really, really bad."

    TVGuide.com: What are you plans for the million?
    Yul: I had been trying not to get ahead of myself. If you do and then don't win, it is sort of a disappointment. My parents immigrated here and had that classic immigrant story. They didn't have a lot of money, but they made a lot of sacrifices to provide for me and my brother to get a good education. I'd like to take care of my parents, I'd like to invest for my financial future and for my own family, and I'd like to spend a lot of time and some of the money helping out a lot of nonprofit organizations and charities that I feel very committed to. I am not going to go crazy and buy a Ferrari. I feel so lucky to have this and be in this position right now. There are so many other people out there who are deserving, or more deserving than myself, so it wouldn't feel right to me if I went and bought an expensive car.

    TVGuide.com: You had credited Becky during the game as basically being your sounding board. Do you feel like you owe her something, perhaps a really nice dinner?
    Yul: I owe her more than that. Honestly, I would have been genuinely happy to see her win the game, and I think she feels the same way about me. It was never a question that we wouldn't be friends for life and wouldn't want to work together to advance a lot of the causes that we feel strongly about. I hope that she sees it this way, I certainly do. Regardless of who won, it was a win for both of us.

  5. #215
    Endlessly ShrinkingViolet's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Here is another interview with Yul:


    Yul Kwon is the latest winner of CBS's reality hit Survivor. The 31-year-old strategic management consultant tackled Cook Islands with ease, but can he handle his first Star interview? Read on!

    When you decided to go on the show, what were your expectations?
    Most of the contestants this season where recruited. The tribes were divided on ethnicity and Survivor had a lot of trouble getting minority applicants so I was just in the right place. One of the recruiting agents contacted one of my friends who recommended me and I talked to the recruiting director and she said, 'Could you come down to LA tomorrow, we're having final interviews.' I came down, it worked out. It's amazing how much my life has turned around in the space of a few months.

    Can you describe how things have changed?
    It's weird that being on Survivor was the thing that engaged me on every level. Being a lawyer and being able to construct arguments and persuade people came in really useful. Being a strategy consultant helped on strategy. I think I'm more of an emotional guy and one of the things I was always frustrated about was that the jobs I had challenged me on an intellectual level and not an emotional one. Survivor is all about relating and interacting with people and if you have empathy and can understand how people are feeling, what they're thinking, it's a big advantage in the game. I've always liked physical challenges too so it's kind of weird how I found the right fit for all the things I've done, and it's on a reality show. I found new confidence in myself. It has really helped me get perspective on what I feel passionate about. I'm much more interested in community and public service.

    Who did you feel empathy for?

    Ozzie is an amazing competitor. I can't say I deserved to win any more than he did. Any other season I think he would have won hands down. If you had a different group of jurors, it could have very easily gone his way. In some ways, I really don't think there should be such a difference between first and second place, in some ways, I wish we could have both won. He does deserve it.

    What do you think meant when he said you was the puppetmaster of the island?
    At some point in the game I got labeled as being the puppetmaster and the godfather. I don't think it was accurate. The way I tried to lead my alliance was to try to listen to people, understand where they were coming from, incorporate their views and let them feel they really had a lot of influence, which was true. I think that's why we stayed so tight. From the other tribe, I think they thought I was basically running the show, that I was telling everyone what to do and everyone was taking orders and I tried to explain to them that was not true, that that was true, that wasn't the way we were working and that wasn't the way I wanted to work. But the more I denied it the more they felt I was lying to them. So at one point I said if they're going to stick that label on me then I will embrace it and use it to my advantage.

    Now that it's over, who was the hardest person to beat?
    The thing was, after the mutiny, we were down in numbers eight to four so the majority of the people on the jury were members of the other tribe, so I think if any of them had made it to the end, they would have won so there were so many people from their own tribe packing the jury they would have voted for people that they like, so from my standpoint the worst possible scenario was if any of those people from the other tribe had made it to the end because they would have beaten any of us, but within my own alliance the biggest competition was Ozzie.

    Who if anyone did you really feel the most connected to?
    I was really tight with Becky. We had very similar values and ideals. She's a nonprofit attorney who does a lot of work for battered women and I think we're very committed to trying to serve our community and trying to make a difference. So we formed a really tight bond and a really deep friendship.

    Do you think you will stay in touch?
    Absolutely. I made a lot of close friends on the show. I feel very fortunate.

    How did you adjust to your every thought and emotion being on display?
    It was hard. I don't actually like being in the spotlight. I know it's ironic saying this being on a reality show but in some ways I was more afraid of winning because I would have the spotlight put on me. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I don't know if I will ever be totally comfortable.

    What did you find out about Cook Islands that you didn't expect?
    It looks like the Garden of Eden. What it looks like from an aerial shot is this deep blue ocean and there's this circle of light blue lagoon and the coral reef causes a standing wave to circle the lagoon. You feel like you're the center of the world. It's very romantic if it weren't for the fact that we were hungry and hadn't showered in six weeks. But as it was, I didn't want to touch anybody including myself.

    What are some of your plans for your winnings?

    I feel so fortunate and blessed to have this opportunity. I really want to use this opportunity to really make a difference and do things for my community. Beyond that, I'd like to help out my parents. It's the classic immigrant's story, my parents came to this country and didn't have a lot of money and they worked really hard, they gave me and my brother opportunities to educate ourselves and I'd like to help them do things they were never able to do on their own.

  6. #216
    FORT Newbie HelloSugah's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004

    Re: Yul - Cook Islands

  7. #217
    Red Sox Nation Brooks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004

    Re: Yul - Cook Islands

    LYDEN: How long does your term go? Do you know?

    Mr. KWON: I think I will probably serve as long as I feel like I'm making an impact and having a difference. So, we'll see. I mean, it's an adjustment, I got to tell you, wearing a suit again and coming into an office. But, you know, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They offered me access to bathrooms and cooked food, so, couldn't turn it down.

    Yul has done very well for himself. I'm glad!

  8. #218
    FORT Fogey
    Join Date
    Jul 2009

    Re: Yul - Cook Islands

    This quotation from Yul is particularly interesting--

    "Mr. KWON: And when I got the call from the FBI, it totally flipped me out because I was thinking, you know, I swear to God, I paid my taxes. But as it turned out, they were interested in trying to find nonconventional methods of teaching their agents how to build rapport and earn trust and interact with people. Most of the bureau agents had been trained in ways of interrogation. So, basically using leverage and intimidation to get information from somebody that you think is hiding information. But as we're finding out in the post 9/11 world, that doesn't always work.

    And interestingly enough, they were using Survivor as a case study. And once I won, they were interested in how I was able to build rapport, build these teams and in particular convince someone from an opposing tribe to flip over to my tribe. "

    I find this especially interesting because I brought up Yl as a xase i point about how one does NOT need to act like Russell H in order to win allies and win Survivor.

    Apparently the FBI agrees with me.

  9. #219
    Red Sox Nation Brooks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004

    Re: Yul - Cook Islands

    Does this mean my tax money has been going to pay FBI staff to watch reality tv?

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