Sharing entrepreneurial experience – Phạm Hoàng Thái Dương

This article features entrepreneur Phạm Hoàng Thái Dương sharing his own startup experiences. Read it and draw lessons for yourself.

1. Before starting a business, you have probably heard advice about the likelihood of failure. Among hundreds of startups, a high proportion fail: some say 90%, others 95%, and harsh critics say the rate is only 1/10,000.

2. Many entrepreneurs offering startup advice say: You must fail to succeed. Does success really require failing many times?

3. When presenting any project to investors, you have surely heard a question like: What is my exit plan if your project fails?

From the 3 points above, are failures considered important in every startup project? Are they something we must think about before beginning anything in pursuit of our passion? In this article, I want to share my thoughts about failure in entrepreneurship.

I do not know whether you have ever failed. But I understand and feel how painful failure is: it brings not only humiliation and a troubled conscience but sometimes even a loss of the motivation to live.

In 2007, I founded a software outsourcing company with a few friends and was chosen as director. At the outset, we had nothing but a few old computers and operated on the foundations of a previous company that had failed. Everyone worked with great enthusiasm, and we were constantly short of money. At the time, we tried to earn enough salary to live on and reinvest any surplus to expand the company. Sometimes, when the company lacked funds, I approached various people and borrowed on my personal reputation.

After 2 years, the company expanded its space, at times reaching nearly 30 people, and we invested in 2 additional subsidiaries. Many investors were interested, and we gained 2 new investors who committed to developing the company and securing contracts for us.

During this stage, we grew too quickly, conflicts arose, company culture changed, and everyone's ego became too large… Differences of opinion emerged, and when the other shareholders joined together with over 51% of the capital, I was forced to leave the very company I had founded with my 2 hands empty (sounds a bit like Jobs, doesn't it? ^^)…

There is a side story here. At the time, Hà Thân was CEO of Lạc Việt and held 15% of my company's equity. He remained neutral, abstained in the shareholders' council, and did not join the board of directors. After the shareholders' meeting, as I saw him off, he patted my shoulder and said: Start over in IT; find some other friends.

Mr. Hà Thân cared for me greatly. I remember pitching my company to him more than 10 times to seek investment, each time presenting something different. Lạc Việt Company had invested in an outsourcing center in Gò Vấp that failed, so it understood the risks and would not approve further outsourcing investments. His wife also did not want him involved in outsourcing because he was getting older and needed to spend time with family… Yet he still found every possible way to invest in my company and wholeheartedly helped bring contracts to it. More than 1 year after I left, the company went bankrupt. When trouble arose, I felt deeply uneasy and guilty toward Mr. Thân for failing to unite everyone in the company and allowing this to happen.

After I lost the company I had spent 3 years building, my parents were saddened by the news. I later heard that my father had been ill for more than 1 week after learning of it, while my mother was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and her health deteriorated further. This made me feel deeply guilty.

That is why I want to tell aspiring entrepreneurs that FAILURE IS ONE OF THE MOST PAINFUL THINGS you need to avoid, whether it results from objective or subjective causes. It is not a JOKE or an inevitable word of COMFORT about the work you have done; it will take many things away from you.

I then returned to Sài Gòn, where my friends met with me often, mainly to encourage me and help me find good work. Some invited me to their companies with attractive opportunities, others helped me open a new company, and others lent me money to get through this period. Only then did I truly realize how many good friends I had.

So I eventually established a small technology company called VUTCO and the project Hoayeuthuong.com was established; calling it a company makes it sound grand, but at the time I opened it in an old apartment in Thanh Đa, and we all worked together at a dining table that doubled as a desk.

When doing Hoayeuthuong.com, I often had to get up at 3 a.m., put on a windbreaker, and head to Hồ Thị Kỷ Market to buy flowers, arrange them at 5 a.m., and deliver by 8 a.m. to earn a few tens of thousands. I felt exhausted and hurt thinking that I had gone from software-company CEO to manual worker… Then, spending 3–4 hours delivering flowers under the midday sun, I wanted to quit this grueling business. But I could not give up and fail again; I would lose all motivation and be labeled a failure. I thought most of my parents, who at my age rose at 3 a.m. every day to sell coffee and worked until 10 p.m. That made me continue rather than give up.

Currently, Hoayeuthuong.com there are still dozens of difficulties ahead, and we always lack all kinds of things, but we maintain a powerful belief in the future because of our passion for building a fresh flower industry in Vietnam.

From this story, although I do not have extensive experience, I would like to offer young people the following thoughts:

1. When starting a business, if you believe your product or service benefits society, pursue it to the end. Every difficulty can be overcome: change a wrong strategy, find money from different sources… to nourish your dream. The creator of 7UP failed 6 times and revived 6 times under names 1UP, 2UP, 3UP… 7UP, because he believed his soft drink was good for everyone.

2. If you give up because you misjudged the service/product you offer customers and acknowledge failure, be strong and create a better service/product in the future. President Lincoln failed many times in many fields before becoming a great president.

3. When I was an IT student, I coded a difficult algorithm and could not debug it. A teacher told me: As long as you cannot do it, you are still improving. Entrepreneurship is a collection of small failures; when you overcome them, you will be able to do great things later.

4. Knowledge helps you develop a broader project, but does not give you a formula for success. An ordinary person starting a simple eatery may succeed more easily than a university graduate. So besides knowledge, what you need most is dedication to the industry you choose.

5. The power within you is immense, but it needs to be awakened… In every difficulty, calmly think of the best way out… When tired, seek encouragement from loved ones… Your father can offer wonderful advice at such times, and your mother's love will motivate you to keep going.

6. Have “older” friends who are successful in a field advise you. When you face difficulties in business or management, they will provide the most effective advice for free.

7. Reading is a way to gain more energy for business and management.

Some good books to help with your startup this week are:

1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
2. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

If you have any questions about this topic, please leave them in the comments below.

Notes:

– After our former company went bankrupt, some of us had a chance to sit down over coffee. We discussed the unfortunate misunderstandings and resolved to start again together.

– I took this photo and always use it as my cover image with the message: keep your passion and do not give up. You can do something similar to remind yourself.

Collected