I am from a very humble working-class background living in Gia Lai, Vietnam. I have that typical entrepreneur story. I was a computer science student and didn’t like to be told what to do. I excelled in the subjects I enjoyed and crashed in the ones I hated.
Entrepreneurism was always on the table for me; I wasn’t going to work for someone for the rest of my life. I always knew that.
When I started researching on Facebook and Google, I found a great resources to start my own business as a video creator and a content publisher.
I used free social media tools and Google to grow my videos. I did not have any kind of investment or funding to get me off the ground, so it was literally just hours and hours of work to up and running.
At the beginning of the business, I had no choice but to devote 6 am-11 pm days until we had capital and could expand. I dropped out university in the last educated year to focus on my work in the hope to get success one day. I managed Yan News Page and it also reached 1,000,000 followers only in several months by that time.
Thrive Global: What gives you energy?
HN: My energy comes from my love of what I do.
“I always love working, so to me, all of my time is for work. At that time, I was… entertaining myself.”
TG: What’s your secret life hack?
HN: A life hack? I’m not entirely sure. If there’s one thing I have learnt in life, in general, it’s not to give up.
The only way to succeed in life is to be relentless with your work ethic and attitude.
This is, in my opinion, is ultimately the measure of whether a person is capable of great success or not.
TG: Name a book that changed your life.
HN: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in 1988
Originally published in Portuguese, this inspiring tale of self-discovery follows Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. But his quest takes him in a different – and far more satisfying – direction, to learn how to listen to his heart and follow his dreams.
It fascinates me, excites me and fuels my passion for business growth and digital influence!
TG: Tell us about your relationship with your phone. Does it sleep with you?
HN: My phone is never away from me. However in recent months during a working day, I have be-gun only taking calls at certain times of the day unless urgent. I have set times to do calls, as to fit in with my busy diary and I have also restricted my social media and email usage. I also reply to emails at set times, mostly.
TG: How do you deal with email?
HN: I guess I addressed this above!
TG: You unexpectedly find 15 minutes in your day, what do you do with it?
HN: This rarely happens! However, if I do, I will use that 15 minutes to catch up on menial tasks or to simply take a breather.
TG: When was the last time you felt burned out and why?
HN: I feel like I have been burnt out a few times within my entrepreneurial journey. For obvious reasons, I did not have my usual flair or energy to attend meetings, presentations, etc.
However, I’ve since got passed that burnt out feeling have learnt how to manage this well.
TG: When was the last time you felt you failed and how did you overcome it?
HN: I hate to lose. However, I’d be lying if I said I have never failed. I fail on a regular basis. Every entrepreneur does, this is how you develop as a business person and as a human in general.
Overcoming failure is easy, you simply remove failure from your vocabulary. It becomes a lesson, this way you can only ever improve yourself.
TG: Share a quote that you love and that gives you strength or peace.
HN: Do the things that you really good at, always study and do researches since the world is operating very fast. If you stop, you lose. If you do the things that you aren’t good at or do the things that you couldn’t understand it clearly or you think that you are clear about it but it isn’t, you also lose. Besides, never underestimate anyone, nobody has advantages or disadvantages in their whole life. Remember to help people around you in need, even if they can’t do anything for you and soon you will get sweet fruits.