Holding the book “Start Up Today, Go Broke Right Away”, you may wonder what author Vũ Tuấn Anh says about Vietnamese entrepreneurship—currently a hot topic—under such a compelling title.
Vũ Tuấn Anh is a familiar name in Vietnam's startup community. He currently heads Hoa Sen Group's Community Startup Project and serves as Executive Director of the Vietnam Institute of Management.
The book brings together various articles divided into three parts, including Understanding entrepreneurship; Preparing for entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Lessons; recounting 20 years of entrepreneurial experience and the author's views on issues ranging from micro to macro in Vietnam's current startup community.
If you are exploring entrepreneurship or aspire to start a business but still feel unready or that something is missing, this book may be a useful reference.
In the book, you will encounter distinctly Vietnamese stories, such as The entrepreneurial journey is very lonely; What Must Be Done to Create the ‘Startup City’ Envisioned by Đinh La Thăng?; or, as the concern Should students from the provinces start businesses…
Let us begin the reflections in this book with the story “Should Students from the Provinces Start a Business?” This is a real concern for many young people. It is understandable when entrepreneurship is so widely discussed and students are encouraged to start businesses boldly. Naturally, most university students come from different provinces and cities across the country.
But should students from the provinces start businesses?
Instead of giving specific answers, the author offers analyses to help young people see the whole picture, believing that each individual should make their own decisions. Some passages read like an older brother confiding in younger people, such as “You need to consider that the likelihood of a startup failing is very high. If you become unemployed, what safety net will you have? You cannot become a burden on your family back home if your startup fails. It would be unfair for your family, after supporting you emotionally and financially through four years of study, to have to bear the consequences of your failure as well. The first principle of responsibility is never to make people who are not responsible carry a burden they did not create.”…
Suppose you have passed your student years, started working, gained experience and seen the glow from startups are shining, and you long to shine the same way. Such desires propel people forward, sometimes without knowing whether they are ready. Understanding this, the author offers 11 questions to ask yourself to avoid financial ruin from rushing into entrepreneurship in the article “A Successful Startup: Begin with These Questions” on page 66.
For those with an oversized ego who have never failed, question number 7 and its accompanying analysis serve as a reminder to remember and be cautious: “Do you listen, reflect, and admit when you are wrong? … You may deceive yourself into believing you are right. Money, however, is perfectly clear on the financial statement at the end of the month. If you always believe you are right, that is the shortest path to closing your startup. Carefully consider every piece of feedback, even when it is harsh or even wounds your pride.”
At various points in the book, you will encounter articles with potentially controversial titles, such as a pair of articles Vietnam – A Dead Zone for Startups or a series of three articles Only dodgy startups need capital. Please read on; you will see that the author is not entirely unreasonable.
At various points in the book, you will find advice in bullet points or numbered lists. It may seem dry, theoretical and so familiar as to be clichéd. Yet try reading section III, where the author devotes 74 of the book's 174 pages to recounting Entrepreneurship Lessons from your own experience and observations. When you see that someone has undertaken 7 startup projects, 5 of which failed, you may change your assessment.
What is interesting about the failed projects the author shares is that you not only learn important lessons but also gain fascinating background knowledge about the fields the author worked in.
Take an example from the article www.banhtrungthu.vn – An inexplicable failure – Startup attempt 5 on page 132. Although the author writes: ‘Among my failed ventures, the mooncake business remains the biggest question mark, and I still have no answer.’ but from the article, we understand that the author faced problems with cash flow management and the market's readiness for online services (Market timing).
Alongside this understanding, we know that discounts in the mooncake market vary widely, for example from 40–45% for general distributors, decreasing to 32, 25, 20, and 15 for smaller agents and shops. Looking back at changes in customer purchasing behavior, 2001 marked an important transition. Before then, most mooncakes were bought to eat rather than give as gifts. Later, positioning campaigns by major brands shifted mooncakes from food to gifts.
With twenty years of experience condensed into fewer than 180 pages, there must be many things the author could not fully express; and of course, readers will certainly disagree with some of the author’s perspectives. But that is fine, because everyone has different experiences, so differing views are normal. More importantly, those differences can sometimes be the catalyst that prompts people to look back and rethink their way of thinking.
Chương trình liên quan tại YUP Education: X-Startup – khóa học khởi nghiệp «Khởi Chánh Nghiệp» · The Journey – lộ trình phát triển doanh nhân
