1. The Beginning of the Challenge and Eight Years of Time

• Barista Jeon Ju-yeon spent eight long years cycling through challenge, failure, and growth before winning the World Barista Championship (WBC).

• Early in the video, she says:

  "It took me eight years too, so I'm not going to pretend you never wanted to give up."

• The encouragement of people in the Busan coffee scene and her uncle, among others, gave her enormous strength.

  "They cheered me on so much, and it felt like they were always by my side whenever things got hard. Because of them, I think I felt a sense of responsibility — like I had to produce results, if only for their sake."

2. Why She Chose to Be a Barista — and the Opposition She Faced

• When she chose the barista profession, she encountered a great deal of opposition and prejudice from those around her.

  "When I said I wanted to become a barista, people said things like, 'You're really going to do that? Isn't that something anyone can do?'"

• She confesses that the opposition at home was so severe that she left the house.

• Then, the first time she watched a World Barista Championship video, she realized that being a barista was a profession worthy of respect.

  "That one barista at the World Barista Championship — I got the sense that they were being treated well, that they were being respected."

3. Joining the Company and Her Connection to Coffee

• In 2009, when she joined Momos Coffee, she started not as a barista but as an office employee.

• At the time, buying food products online was unusual, and she felt potential in it after doing various research.

• She naturally moved to working at the café bar, and she kept at it because she loved being with people.

  "I liked doing things with these people, and I thought first: if it's with these people, we can probably do anything."

• Her deep affection for the company and her colleagues meant she didn't leave even after winning the championship.

  "I work here because I love this company and I love the people I share it with."

4. The Reality of Preparing for Competition: Costs and Burdens

• Competition preparation demands enormous costs and time.

• She openly shares the real weight of working with overseas coaches — coaching fees, ingredient costs, and more.

  "If you calculate the coaching fees by the hour alone, it comes to tens of millions of won. I was told my rate started the moment I got on the plane."

• She also says that even though she received a salary for a full year, nothing was left over.

  "There was actual cash involved, and I received a salary for a year — but in reality I had nothing to show for it outside of the competition."

5. Failure, Heartbreak, and Realization

• She experienced profound heartbreak when mistakes cost her during competition.

• She forgot to tamp (compress the coffee grounds), which ruined the extraction. The judges didn't know why, but the vice president was the only one who noticed.

  "I had spent nine years enduring all that difficulty just to stand on that stage — and to have it end like this was just devastating."

• The words the vice president said to her in that moment became a great comfort.

  "There must be a reason this happened. Everything happens for a reason."

• Hearing those words calmed her down, and she came to accept that even failure has a reason.

6. The Difference Between First Place and the Rest — and the Role of "Luck"

• Asked about the difference between the winner and the other finalists, she answers:

  "Among the finalists, I genuinely think the difference between the person who wins and the person who doesn't comes down entirely to 'luck.'"

• Skill and preparation both matter, but she emphasizes that luck plays a major role.

• She stresses the importance of experience and preparing alongside others.

  "Please don't prepare alone. The most ideal situation is to prepare with a barista who has competition experience and with a judge."

7. Competition Preparation Know-How and Analysis Methods

• She advises watching competition footage repeatedly and doing careful speech analysis.

  "You need to analyze the speeches of the previous year's finalists. Not just read them and think, 'Oh, they talked about this' — every single sentence has a reason behind it."

• She recommends studying the technical sheet and the sensory sheet separately, practicing analysis of both technical and sensory elements.

• Having experience as a judge turned out to be a tremendous help.

  "In the end, competitions are judged by people, and I realized that human psychology plays an enormous role."

8. Communicating with Judges and Speech Strategy

• She emphasizes the importance of making eye contact with every judge during the 30 seconds before the routine begins, to narrow the psychological distance.

  "Before I press this button, I make eye contact with every judge, and I smile while locking eyes with each of them."

• She calculated the distance at which judges feel comfortable, and thought carefully about which position would make her look most like a champion.

• She also structured her speech in three-minute segments to maintain focus throughout.

  "When I structure a speech, I cut it into three-minute chunks. That way, even if they only hear those three minutes, they can fully understand what I'm saying across the entire fifteen."

9. Professionalism and the Secret of Scores

• The condition of the coffee can vary with the environment, but professionalism, if well prepared, earns fixed scores that don't fluctuate, she explains.

  "Professionalism encompasses a very wide range of things — appearance, positive first impressions, and so on. If you structure these well, those scores absolutely will not go up and down."

• She paid attention to even the smallest details, such as designing her routine so that the judges' eyes wouldn't have to move much.

10. Your Time Will Come — Don't Give Up

• Finally, she encourages everyone that if you keep steadily pushing forward with your own ideas and style, a time will come that is perfectly suited to you.

  "I'm sure that if you keep doing things your way, the way you love, there will come a time that fits you perfectly — and when that time comes, this flower will bloom. That's why I hope you don't give up."

Key Takeaways

• Eight years of challenge and a refusal to quit
• Support from those around her and a sense of responsibility
• Prejudice against baristas and the importance of respect
• Love for her company and colleagues
• The reality of competition preparation (costs, time, burden)
• Failure, heartbreak, and realization
• The role of luck and the power of experience
• The value of preparing alongside others
• Analyzing competition footage and crafting speech strategy
• Communicating with judges
• Fixed scores through professionalism
• Your own time will come — don't give up

A Final Word

Jeon Ju-yeon's story shows us what it looks like to ultimately become number one in the world through failure, heartbreak, and growth. Her honest account and hard-won advice carry a message of courage and inspiration not just for coffee lovers, but for everyone who dares to keep going. "Don't give up. Your time will come." 🚀🌱