Starting at age 19, now more than 10 years later, 30-year-old Tạ Minh Tuấn has an astonishing entrepreneurial “résumé,” twice honored by Forbes among Vietnam's Top 30 most successful and influential young people. He was later also named among Asia's most successful young people creating breakthrough social change. Tạ Minh Tuấn exemplifies young people who dare to commit themselves and use science and technology to create positive social change.
Starting a business from a father's illness
At 19, University of Technology student Tạ Minh Tuấn began doing business with an event-based social networking project. When it failed, he shifted to the idea of building a home doctor business model, aiming not only to create economic value but also to positively impact the community. The idea emerged from the belief that most illnesses could be completely prevented if people practiced prevention, maintained healthy lifestyles, and received regular health checkups. In 2009, he and a group of friends turned the idea into reality.
This is Vietnam's first “Personal Doctor – Healthcare at Home” model. After one year of operation, Help International raised 14 billion VND from investors. Help International's initiative to develop a family doctor system using the advantages of science and technology earned Tuấn recognition from the British Council, CSIP and The One Foundation as one of Vietnam's 15 outstanding social entrepreneurs in 2011. Making the most of the benefits of the internet, Help International now serves more than 10 thousand customers nationwide with only a few dozen doctors and nurses in Ho Chi Minh City. Through this model, Tuấn has helped many patients take an active role in their own care and opened a modern direction for the country's healthcare.
Tạ Minh Tuấn (Photo provided by the subject)
Looking at the resounding success of this personal doctor model, few people know that he began his entrepreneurial journey because of his father’s cancer. Striving to overcome his own pain, Tuấn wanted to do something to help people live healthier lives. ‘Because of my father’s cancer, I wanted to work in healthcare to care for and help patients like him. My father’s cancer was a source of “pain” for our entire family. I started a business because I wanted to address that “pain.” This is my motivation, my reason, my answer to the questions: Why must I do what I am doing? Why must I start a business?’ Tạ Minh Tuấn shared.
Honored Twice by Forbes
Tạ Minh Tuấn has a distinctive view of experience and failure: “Experience earlier. Fail earlier. Succeed earlier. Contribute to the community for longer. Live a more meaningful life.”
So he always allows himself to take on challenges in different fields. Now, having just turned 30, he is chairman and founder of more than 10 organizations across fields from business to social activities. He believes each person's most valuable assets are health and wisdom. Therefore, his projects are all built on 3 foundations: physical strength, intellectual strength, and inner strength. Besides the ‘Personal Doctor – Home Healthcare’ model, in 2011 Tuấn became President of BNI Master Chapter, part of the global business networking organization in Vietnam (BNI – Business Network International, currently the world's largest business networking organization), and the youngest chapter president in BNI's history. That same year, he founded YUP Education to train and support entrepreneurs in Vietnam. In 2013, Tuấn founded and led JCI Central Chapter in Vietnam (Junior Chamber International), currently the world's largest federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs. In 2015, he became National Training Director of JCI Vietnam.
With that impressive entrepreneurial record, in 2015 Tuấn was selected by Forbes, the world's leading business magazine, among Vietnam's Top 30 young people with the most notable success and influence. More surprisingly, the very next year, Forbes again selected him among Asia's most successful and influential young people. That same year, he became Chairman and CEO of TMT Group. In 2017, Tuấn appeared on the list of ‘Influential Entrepreneurs in Vietnam and the World’ announced by UNESCO at its congress in France. Also in 2017, he was one of 8 global healthcare leaders selected by healthcare corporation Johnson & Johson to attend the One Young World Global Summit. He was also the only Asian representative on that list.
Inspiring Young People to Start Businesses
Having ventured out very early, Tuấn has profound experience of entrepreneurship and a business's development lifecycle. He is therefore regarded as Vietnam's number one entrepreneurship training expert.
To strengthen intellectual and inner capacity, Tuấn founded YUP Education in 2011. Its mission was to inspire young people, help them start businesses confidently and create startup models that could not only “survive” but also contribute positively to the community. On average, each year YUP helps more than 2,000 young people apply the experience Tuấn and his teammates have gathered. This helps young CEOs reduce wasted money, time and effort.
Not stopping there, this young man full of ideas and energy created another “brainchild” after visiting the home of Israel's founding prime minister, to spread a passion for reading and discovering knowledge among young people. That project is hanhtrinhsach.com – Journey of Book (J.O.B). The project immediately received support from many young people.
Explaining why he created this Journey of Books project, Tuấn said: “No one can go through this life alone. Neither can I; every journey needs a companion.” To Tuấn, books are cherished companions that offer many interesting philosophies of life.
Tuấn not only brings good books to young people aspiring to start businesses, but also writes books himself to share, from the heart, his “secrets” to overcoming difficulty and succeeding, and to encourage them to begin early. At the end of 2017, aged 29, Tuấn published an autobiographical book about his experiences of success and failure, titled “Darkness Always Precedes Dawn.” Asked why he wrote an autobiography so early, Tạ Minh Tuấn said: “I am not old enough to think about death. But if we are intelligent enough, we must think about death now to live as though we will die tomorrow. Who knows what will happen tomorrow…” Tuấn also shared that he wrote the book for his little daughter, for young people starting businesses, and for anyone who wants to read about early success and early failure…
| If all you make is money, do not call yourself an entrepreneurIn his autobiography, Tạ Minh Tuấn writes these poignant words for young people aspiring to start businesses: “Entrepreneurs must make money, but if all you make is money, do not call yourself an entrepreneur. Starting a business must provide a livelihood, but if it is only a livelihood, it is not entrepreneurship. Your reason need not be exceptionally grand, but it must reach beyond yourself. You are great because you choose to live a great life. Whether your dream is big or small does not matter; what matters is whether you can grow while living that dream. I have observed that no country in the world taxes dreams, so if you dream, make it meaningful…” |
Hoàng Hương
Original article on Tuổi Trẻ Thủ Đô: https://m.tuoitrethudo.com.vn/bai-32-chang-trai-hai-lan-duoc-forbes-vinh-danh-n2046506.html
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