This is the question I was asked during a talk I gave to Seed the Future Program organized by Shinhan Future’s Lab Vietnam.
Question: Thank you, Mr. Hung. And now this is from… I have a question that when you decide to become a founder, what is your ultimate goal? Do you have any specific goals that you need to achieve, such as a certain amount of personal aspect or the value of the company or the investment?
Watch the full talk here: 8 + 1 ENTREPRENEUR THINGS TALK.
Answer: To tell you the truth that I don’t have that at that point of time, actually. I don’t have that concretely, but we do have a few things that are very, very clear. The first thing is that we are three of us and we are close friends. We used to be ex-coworker in the former company. So we have great relationship at that point of time, though we are not working in the same company anymore. And then after a while, then we are reunited at one company. But then we’re not happy, because we cannot contribute. Because of the culture, about the setting, whatever the things. But we cannot change the culture of that one company. So we sat on the beach one day and we tell ourselves that why don’t we create our own company? If we are confident enough, then why don’t we just create a place where we are happy to come in and come out each and every day? That’s the very clear thing that we want to do at the very first moment. The next thing is that we are clear that we need to start. We don’t know, I mean, actually, we don’t have the number, we don’t have the goal, we don’t have anything, but we know that we need to start on our strengths. So all of the things we know at that moment is about software outsourcing service. And then we start from that service. And till this moment like 12 years later, that service is a lot, I mean have a significant ratio in the revenue of companies still.
So we start from our strength. So we follow strength based philosophy. And then in the first one or two years, then we thought that we would grow up the company to 300 people. And that’s enough for us to have money, so that we can start investing into building software products. And that’s true. After three years and we got into the point that 300 people and we have money to invest into a few software product ideas. And some of them failed. One of them got big success, it is called, I mean, the company is called QASymphony and got acquired by Tricentis recently. But then at that third year, when we have that 300 people and we look at each other and we said that, why do we have to stop here? We can just let it grow up. And that’s how it’s grown up into 1000 people. And still now, I’m not in the management team, so I don’t have a clear picture of where it’s going next, how big of that. But then, things got change, right? And then you, based on your wisdom, based on your experience, based on your reality, then you need to revise your goal or whatever the things every time, every five years, every ten years or every three years, something like that. So but at the very beginning, we only have the trust in each other and the confidence that we can do something good. So that’s to answer your question.
Viet Hung | A Happiness pursuer | Author of The Happiness Journal, Tản mạn về Hạnh phúc and NGẪM CAFÉ
Sách tôi dịch: Thiền cho người mới bắt đầu, Nổi loạn và tự do, Bài chú giải Kinh Mangala Sutta, Sức mạnh của sự hoài nghi và thiền chánh niệm (vipassana), Những nguyên lý để sống hạnh phúc
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