Formula for success

The incident stemmed from Mr. Nguyen Thanh My's inspirational speech at the opening ceremony of the 2025 academic year of Ho Chi Minh City National University with the theme "Aspiration for innovation for a strong Vietnam", which took place on October 25.

He was born in 1955 in Tra Vinh. In 1974, he passed the Organic Chemistry exam at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. His family was so poor that he had to do many jobs to earn money to go to school, from being a bus conductor to selling things at the flea market and playing soccer for hire.

After graduating in 1978, he could not find a job in his field of expertise, so he applied to play soccer at a plastic factory. After many opportunities, he went to Canada in 1979, working as a dishwasher, then a kitchen assistant, then a head chef to earn money to send home to support his family.

After a period of supplementary English study and 6 preparatory courses, he entered Concordia University in 1984. By the end of 1990, he had completed his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees and then started working at the Canadian Centre for Materials Science and Energy.

He said that when he was in school, every day he was at school at 8:20, concentrating on listening to the teacher and taking notes. In the afternoon, he worked in the lab and then worked as a waiter at a restaurant from 5:00 p.m. The work ended at 1:00 a.m. the next day, he went home to write his lab report and then slept until 4:00 a.m.

He successfully defended his doctoral thesis in energy and materials science at the INRS Institute (Canada) in 1990, worked as a researcher at IBM Almaden Research Center (USA) and technical manager at Kodak Polychrome Graphics (USA).

On a flight back to his hometown in 1997, he decided to start a business to earn money to fulfill his old dream. This Doctor founded the company American Dye Source (ADS) at the age of 42. After founding the company, he researched digital offset printing technology, earning 300 million USD in 20 years (2000-2020) from copyright leasing. Next, the invention of 3D printing ink technology brought Dr. My 1.25 million USD from copyright sales in 2000. These are just two of more than 700 patents throughout his career.

In 2004, Mr. My returned to his hometown Tra Vinh to establish Mylan Group - the province's first high-tech company. Since then, he has founded and co-founded 13 high-tech enterprises, of which 6 are operating locally. He is the founder of the Nguyen Thanh My Foundation, which has sponsored more than 62.5 billion VND for scholarship activities, infrastructure construction and community health care.

In front of hundreds of new students at the opening ceremony, Dr. Nguyen Thanh My shared his journey to success. According to Mr. My, success is made up of 8 main factors: health, right thinking, effort, knowledge, perseverance, opportunity, luck and circumstances. Of which, although only accounting for 15%, the first factor in the formula for success is health. The factor that contributes the most to success is effort (accounting for 25%), followed by knowledge (accounting for 20%).

Meanwhile, according to this typical scientist and businessman, the factors of initial advantage (circumstances), luck (random support), and opportunity (external factors) contribute to success but only account for 5% each.

His “Formula for Success” board quickly attracted public opinion. Many startup forums and many websites of young people groups were actively discussing it.

But is there a standard formula for success? In a discussion about the journey of building success for young people, 8X director Nguyen Anh Dung, founder of SBOOKS, currently CEO - Chairman of SBOOKS, author of many best-selling startup books, had many thoughts from the perspective of a young entrepreneur who is steering his business every day in the face of the economic crisis.

For Dung, the first thing to have is “Correct Thinking”. Young people need to think correctly about the nature of business, the nature of finance, the nature of success, and importantly, the business philosophy and business ethics. However, when starting a business, young people need to understand “Social Responsibility”. An entrepreneur or business with high social responsibility and ethics will always be recognized by society and will be associated with it for a long time. If the entrepreneur or business is selfish or deceitful, it will only be a temporary and unsustainable profit.

With today's rapidly changing market economy, the factor of "Innovation - Creativity" is always a prerequisite for operation. In any period, society, market and need, people always seek better and more abundant benefits, so entrepreneurs must constantly innovate solutions to meet the changing needs of people in each period and society. Even when innovating, "Correct thinking" in business and "social responsibility" are always emphasized.

Everyone dreams of success, but if you don’t create a “Business Philosophy”, it’s easy to get lost. That’s an important factor that helps the business succeed and create its own mark, it’s also called the business ethics of the business. It’s that business ethics that makes the business develop and last.

But according to Nguyen Anh Dung, no path to success is the same. It all comes from our own learning, effort and perseverance. It can be seen that 2 generations of successful businesses with their own success formulas and thoughts on the journey of building a business all have their own "Success Criteria Table".

However, the most obvious is personal conviction. It is we, not any formula, that can make us successful. Everything can change in this ever-changing era. The only constant is our desire to succeed. If we keep it burning in our minds, we will find the key to adapting to this ever-changing journey.