The Will to Get Rich of a Catholic Youth

(Baonghean) - 29 years old, parishioner Tran Minh Thiem (Hamlet 13, Quynh Thanh, Quynh Luu) has in his hands a complex including a phone repair shop, specializing in installing computers, anti-theft cameras, a coffee shop, plus a model of raising breeding birds, meat birds, ornamental birds, catfish... creating jobs for 3 regular workers, 4-5 seasonal workers. Total income is approximately 1 billion VND/year. What makes us admire this young Catholic man is his will, determination, and ability to rise up after failures...

Like many young people in the countryside at that time, after finishing high school, Tran Minh Thiem once cherished the idea of ​​enrolling in a vocational school to have a stable job later. However, due to family circumstances, Thiem finally decided to go abroad to work, save up capital, and then return to his hometown to start a business. However, after encountering a fraud ring, Thiem could not leave the country and had to lose the money he had paid. Thiem had to go to Saigon to work as a wedding waiter with his brother. After much deliberation, he decided to return to his hometown. Having a passion for phone repair, he went to Hoang Mai to learn the trade, then opened his own shop.

Mr. Thiem and his wife take care of the pigeons.

In 2009, Thiem got married. Thiem discussed with his wife about borrowing money from relatives, investing in opening a coffee shop, and supplying coffee to shops in Hoang Mai, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau... After a while, Thiem handed the coffee shop over to his wife. He switched to the Internet service business, at that time, Thiem invested in 20 computers to serve the needs of people in the area. But after a while, the demand for the Internet was saturated, most families had their own computers, so the business was at a loss. However, it was the Internet that opened up a new business direction for Thiem, through the Internet, Thiem got to know a young man named Phung in Bac Ninh who had a French pigeon farm, with a total income of more than 2 billion VND/year; the beauty of this model is the form of selling online, then delivering the goods by car to the provinces. Talking with the farm owner, Thiem realized that this was a career path suitable for today's trend.

Thiem decided to borrow money from the bank to open a farm to raise pigeons for meat and breeding. Thiem had the advantage of having friends to help him with choosing breeds, providing breeds, care techniques, cage models, and proper hygiene... Initially, Thiem bought 30 pairs of breeding pigeons and started to raise them on a trial basis. All beginnings are difficult, in addition to the phone repair shop, the couple divided the work to take good care of the flock of birds. However, all the efforts of the young couple were not as expected, 3 months later, Thiem's ​​30 pairs of French pigeons gradually died...

Thiem confided: Remembering that day, I was extremely disappointed and confused. Before that, after many failed businesses, I still owed 200 million VND... If I stopped because of failure, where would I get the money to pay the debt? Then I calmed down and thought a lot, why did others succeed but I didn't? My wife and I sat down to review the breeding process, to see if our care was reasonable, or if the coop was not clean, not windproof, not warm enough for the pigeons... to find the cause of the failure. And I decided to start over, this time, she carefully consulted many different documents, re-planned the coop and invested in buying 50 pairs of pigeons to raise. However, after 3 months of raising, all 50 pairs of pigeons died. That time, I lost 50 million VND.

Not willing to accept being left empty-handed, in 2011, Thiem decided to borrow 150 million VND from the bank, invested in 150 pairs of mother birds, and success came to Thiem when 3 months later, 150 pairs of mother birds gave birth to 100 pairs of baby birds, this was the first batch of breeding birds after many failures. Now recalling the day the couple sold the first batch of breeding birds for 300,000 VND/pair, Thiem said: “The feeling at that time was hard to describe, sister, both happy, emotional, and sad because my pursuit had caused my wife, children, and family to suffer. However, if I did not have passion, if I did not try my best, I would not have been able to do anything. And Thiem gradually achieved success thanks to the patience, perseverance, hard work, and unflinching spirit of a young Catholic man who “respects God and loves his country”, because he believes that “with hard work, iron can be turned into needles”.

Currently, in addition to 600 pairs of French pigeons, Thiem's ​​farm has also expanded its scale of raising other bird species such as pheasants, Japanese pigeons, lion pigeons, American pigeons, etc. Every week, Thiem's ​​farm sells 400 pairs of breeding birds, meat birds, and ornamental birds of all kinds to the market. Customers are mainly from Vinh City, Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa. They order online or by phone, then Thiem sends the goods by car and customers will come to pick them up at pre-arranged addresses. By doing so, Thiem has gradually expanded the market steadily. Thiem's ​​current concern is: "supply still cannot meet demand". If he has more capital, he will expand to raise 3,000 pairs of mother birds, only then can he meet the customers' orders.

Along with raising pigeons, opening a coffee shop, distributing coffee, trading, repairing mobile phones, installing computers and cameras, Thiem also built a pond to raise 5,000 catfish, selling them once every 3.5 months, with about 3.5 tons of fish, earning 100 million VND.

In addition to the hard work of the couple, Thiem also hires 3 regular workers with a salary of 4 million VND/person/month. On busy occasions, he hires 4-5 seasonal workers to help with delivery, cleaning and taking care of the birds and catfish.

Saying goodbye to Thiem and his wife with a firm handshake and wishes for more and more prosperity in business, Thiem smiled brightly and promised: "Next year, when you come, my farm will have 3 thousand pairs of birds". I believe Thiem will be able to do it, because with the difficulties that Thiem and his wife have gone through, the future ahead is no longer a dream.

Thanh Thuy