Welcome back to the Easy Knowledge Channel — I’m The Fool: a shipper, a biker, a founder… whatever you want to call me, it’s all the same guy.
Today, join me for a brand-new Easy Knowledge Channel series called “One Cigarette,” where we’ll go through the highs and lows of different stages of starting a business, all within the time it takes for one cigarette to burn down.
So now, find yourself a quiet corner, put on your headphones, grab your cigarette of choice, and start listening with me.
The story I want to tell today is about the trade-offs you make when you start a business — where a single wrong move can cost you everything.
So here’s the thing: last year, when Big E Co. (my own agency) was growing and hit roughly double 2021’s revenue, there was a stretch where I landed contracts with some big names in the market, like MIA.vn (Vietnam’s leading suitcase retail chain — the company that took over the most expensive real estate in Saigon at Ngã Sáu Phù Đ…
But joy never lasts long — a family crisis hit, forcing me to set bigger goals for myself, both to cover living costs and to save up for a wedding with the woman I loved (we’d been together for 2 years, full of ups and downs, and by the end of last year it looked like…
Thinking my calculations would pay off, and that with more money I could support my family and pull off the wedding properly, I put roughly 25 million VND into a forex platform called Sigma Capital.
That turned out to be the turning point for a whole string of misfortunes that followed. At first, my trades were profitable — even hugely profitable — which stirred up greed in me, making me want to earn even more. So I decided to pour in all of Big E Co.’s profits too, hoping for even bigger returns…
At that point, not only could I no longer help my family — they still had to sell their house to cover their debts — I also found myself buried in a debt of around 50 million (since Big E Co. also needed operating capital, so I had to borrow from outside sources too). And, as nature’s law would have it, the woman beside me…
I can’t blame her — looking back on our time together, we had memories so beautiful that I saw her as family and hoped to get engaged. But since she left, that emptiness inside me came rushing back, and at times I found myself thinking I might never be able to feel anything for anyone again…
Has the cigarette in your hand burned out yet? Let me take one last drag and put it out, as if trying to snuff out all the sad things and misfortunes that have happened. Along with a line I recently learned from some multi-talented actor: “Ladies and gentlemen, the startup life is bitter — if anyone here loves money, then…”
And now, here’s what I’ve drawn from this story for myself — I hope it’s useful for young people, as well as anyone else hoping to step onto the path of starting a business:
- Don’t let greed rush you into investing in things you don’t understand and haven’t studied.
- Don’t assume you’re already successful and stop pushing forward — slow down for just one beat and someone else will overtake you.
- At the end of the day, a relationship is just a shared journey for a while — coming together is fate, but whether it leads to marriage depends on your “debt” to one another. Don’t let that drag you down and stunt your own growth.
THE FOOL — EASY KNOWLEDGE CHANNEL