Hunger & Ambition

I was born and raised in a poor village in northern Vietnam.

My parents had to work 2 jobs in order to provide for us. There is no such thing as work-life balance when you’re still trying to make ends meet.

I remember vividly there was a day when we had like $5 to survive the whole week. Brutal.

My father decided to take a big bet, a leap of faith. He applied to become an IT teacher at the top school in the province.

He was a math teacher and knew nothing about computers. But he always believed it would be the future.

He took a loan to buy a computer and then spent 3 months studying.
Finally, he was able to get the certification and got the job.

That’s how I was able to learn programming at a young age. But that’s only half of the battle.

Unlike my other wealthier friends, we do not have the luxury to learn what interests us. Learning is purely for the purpose of getting a good job. To get out of the bottom.

So the only subjects I learned were math and programming. Not art, not history, and certainly not entrepreneurship.

Luckily, I did love computers and programming.

Fast forward to today, I got a decent career in tech. Earning 6-figure in Vietnam is considered pretty successful.

But now I need to take a leap of faith: pursuing entrepreneurship.

If it works, my kids will have a much better future where they could learn whatever they want, and do whatever they love.

What’s your entrepreneurship journey?