Editor's note: Streamlining the organizational structure along with streamlining the payroll and restructuring the staff is becoming a hot keyword of interest.
This is considered a "revolution" that will develop the country in the era of rising up. It is expected that about 100,000 workers will leave the state sector. Many of the downsized personnel in their 30s and 50s are inevitably confused and worried.
Finding a job or starting a business at this age is a challenge for many people. However, you are not alone, because in fact, many individuals have gone through similar stages as you.
From a female vice president familiar with administrative work, receiving a regular monthly salary; from a principal, a lecturer familiar with the rhythm of teaching from morning to night in each lecture hall... they became typical million-dollar business owners, building their own careers at the age of 30-50, even helping many people.
Dan Tri launched the series "Breaking out of the comfort zone" with the aim of spreading positive energy, which is a suggestion to help many people have more motivation and a new direction for themselves.
In 2015, while he was the principal of a public school in Hanoi, Dr. Vu Thoai suddenly submitted his resignation. His decision shocked many people. At that time, no one thought that a gentle, honest teacher who spent all day doing scientific research would be so bold as to "dare" to start a business at the age of U40.
After 10 years, Mr. Thoai has not only succeeded in being the first person to bring sandalwood - a tree known as the "king tree", "green gold" of India to Vietnam, but also exported sandalwood products researched and produced by him to many countries such as: China, India, Australia, Japan...
He is also the first Vietnamese doctor to take on the role of senior expert, providing technical support for thousands of hectares of sandalwood in two African countries, Kenya and Uganda.
Looking back on his entrepreneurial journey, Mr. Thoai smiled and confided: "Leaving the state environment to step into the safe zone, starting a business at the age of U40, many people warned me that one day I would regret it. Looking back on the path I have taken, sometimes I myself feel that I was... really reckless."
The reporter made an appointment to meet Dr. Vu Thoai on a day at the beginning of the year. Different from the image of a sophisticated businessman with a vest and Western shoes, Mr. Thoai still retains the simplicity and honesty of a true… farmer.
Warmly shaking our hands, the doctor smiled and said that for many years now, in order to have space for research and to indulge his passion for gardening, his family has "left the city and returned to the countryside", moving to live in a garden house on Quoc Oai, nearly 30km from the center of Hanoi.
Talking about his decision to quit his government job and become a principal to "roll up his sleeves" to become a farmer, this doctor said the opportunity came quite by chance.
Born in 1976, graduated with a major in English from Hanoi National University, Dr. Vu Thoai has a special passion for agriculture, especially precious timber and medicinal plants. In 2003, while working at a high school in Nam Dinh, Mr. Thoai was sent to India for research.
Here, he had a chance meeting with the late Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan when he was on a business trip to this country.
Knowing that Mr. Thoai had a passion for agriculture, before leaving, the late Deputy Prime Minister stayed behind and gave a private message: "Vietnam is an agricultural country but there is no tree with high economic value that can be supplied to the global supply chain. You should do your best to research and bring sandalwood trees back to propagate and plant in Vietnam."
Dr. Vu Thoai did not expect that this fateful meeting would create a turning point, changing his life later. In the following days, Mr. Thoai spent time researching documents about sandalwood and was surprised by the economic value of this tree, which is considered green gold.
At that time, in India, 1 kilogram of sandalwood core on the market cost 350 USD (about 9 million VND); 1 kilogram of essential oil cost 4,500 USD (about 1.1 billion VND). However, according to Mr. Thoai: In India, even with money, it is not certain that you can buy pure sandalwood essential oil because it is very rare.
A sandalwood tree after being planted for 15 to 17 years, Indian farmers can earn thousands of dollars, if the tree is over 40 years old, they can earn billions of dong. The longer the sandalwood tree is planted, the higher its economic value.
In the 1980s, Indian sandalwood trees were illegally cut down in large numbers. In 2000, the Indian government listed the tree as an endangered species that needed protection. By law, all sandalwood trees in India are under government control.
"Sandalwood is both a timber tree and a medicinal plant, providing raw materials for the cosmetics industry. Parts of the tree such as leaves, wood core, roots, and seeds all have high economic value. Not only in India, but the demand for sandalwood in other countries, especially the European market, is very large and always in short supply.
If sandalwood can be brought to Vietnam to be planted, it will contribute to changing the value of the country's agriculture. In addition, this tree is green all year round, with oxygen levels 6 times higher than normal trees. Covering sandalwood with green leaves also contributes to combating climate change," said Dr. Vu Thoai.
In 2012, Dr. Vu Thoai invited a group of Indian and Australian experts to Vietnam to study the soil and climate of areas with potential for growing this precious tree. The first trip was more successful than expected when all international experts agreed that Vietnam is a very suitable country for growing and developing sandalwood.
However, the biggest difficulty, according to this doctor, is: How to bring sandalwood seeds back to the country. In India, seeds for planting are only taken from mother trees that are at least 12 years old.
Of the thousands of new trees, about 100 were selected to form good cores. However, of these 100 trees, through the process of monitoring and screening seedlings, only a few dozen trees qualified to be mother trees. Considered a royal tree, India does not allow commercial export of sandalwood genetic resources abroad.
To bring sandalwood seeds to Vietnam, this expert had to cooperate with a research institute in Bangalore, India. During the past 3 years, Mr. Thoai also traveled to major sandalwood growing regions in India such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka... to learn from experience.
"A sandalwood tree in India costs tens of thousands of dollars, people value the tree like gold, so theft happens all the time. In large sandalwood growing areas in India, tree protection is very strict, people not only put barbed wire around the trees but the gardens are also equipped with guards with guns, almost no strangers can enter.
Luckily, I approached it as a scientific researcher so everything was more favorable," Dr. Vu Thoai recalled with a smile.
The initial research on sandalwood in Vietnam by Dr. Vu Thoai and experts has shown very promising and positive results. However, there is still much work to be done to establish sandalwood growing areas in the country. At this time, Dr. Vu Thoai is the Principal of Hanoi College of Economics and Technology.
He was faced with an important decision in his life: Should he quit his job to focus on agriculture, growing sandalwood trees, or focus on investing in his education career that was on the rise?
After thinking for many days, Mr. Thoai wrote a resignation letter. His family and friends were surprised and tried to dissuade him, saying: He had a stable career, in a position that many people dream of, and that others could not even get, so why should he give up?
A friend of Mr. Thoai also sincerely advised: Sandalwood is a tree with high economic value, but it is a new variety, so there are too many risks, and it is still unclear how to develop and make a profit. Before Mr. Thoai, many experts experimented with this type of tree but all failed.
"At that time, I thought that if I stopped building sandalwood growing areas in Vietnam, my research results would remain on paper forever. How long would it take for my million-dollar aspirations for this tree to be realized? If I didn't try, didn't take risks, didn't dare to do anything, there would be no new things, and I wouldn't be able to make a difference," said Dr. Vu Thoai.
Thinking is doing, Mr. Thoai gathered all his savings, borrowed from friends and relatives with an initial capital of 10 billion VND. He established the Vietnam Institute for Research on Sandalwood and Rare Plants, gathered scientists, and laid the foundation for long-term research on planting and developing this tree in Vietnam.
"I bet my whole future on this gamble. If I fail, I will have nothing left. I only have one thought: I must succeed, I must do it," said Mr. Thoai.
Coming from a government environment, accustomed to the safety zone, going to class in the morning, coming home at night, receiving a salary at the end of the month, struggling to go out, everything was more difficult than Thoai imagined. Investing in agriculture is not like other fields where you can make quick money; everything has to be methodical and certain. In the beginning, Thoai mainly spent his money on research.
There were years when Tet came and after paying bonuses to his employees, Mr. Thoai only had a few hundred thousand left in his pocket, enough to buy a peach blossom branch to display in the house.
"Riding my motorbike from Hanoi to my hometown to celebrate Tet with my parents, I felt very sad. I thought, if only I had been a principal, I wouldn't have to work so hard like a real farmer now?", Dr. Vu Thoai recalled.
In 2014, after many years of research, Dr. Vu Thoai and his colleagues succeeded in creating a method to stimulate natural germination of sandalwood seeds, creating standard varieties using organic methods. This is considered a major turning point, helping Vietnam to proactively supply seedlings without having to depend on imports from abroad.
The first 100 hectares of sandalwood were planted on a pilot basis in Dien Bien and some northern provinces. In the following years, Mr. Thoai also transferred the technology to farmers in many provinces across the country such as: Phu Yen, Dak Lak, Nghe Tinh, Thanh Hoa...
Sandalwood grows and develops well, suitable for Vietnam's soil, but a new, more challenging problem is posed to this expert: What is the output of sandalwood products? Will they fall into the cycle of good harvest, low price, and have to call for rescue like many other agricultural products?
Through a friend in India, Mr. Thoai connected with a big man in the sandalwood industry in this country. They agreed to go with him to Vietnam to conduct a survey.
In one week, the group of experts went to Dien Bien and then returned to the Central Highlands. Wherever they went, they expressed surprise when the quality of sandalwood was assessed as… very good, not inferior to Indian sandalwood. The trip had not yet ended but immediately a contract to purchase all products from Vietnamese sandalwood was signed.
In 2019, the first shipment of sandalwood seeds worth 100,000 USD (about 2.5 billion VND) was supplied by Mr. Thoai to India. Not only collaborating with farmers to expand the sandalwood growing area, Dr. Vu Thoai also collaborated with many Vietnamese scientists and experts to research and bring to the market products from this tree such as: Skin cream, tea, essential oil, incense, wooden bracelets...
Up to now, the annual revenue from these products is 25-50 billion VND. In addition to supplying domestically, Mr. Thoai also exports to major markets such as: India, Japan, China and European countries; creating jobs for more than 40 workers; transferring technology and techniques to hundreds of farming households in provinces and cities across the country.
According to Dr. Vu Thoai, according to calculations, in just a few years, Vietnam's sandalwood growing areas will begin to harvest wood. If meeting standards, each tree can produce about 20-25kg of core wood, the purchase price at the garden is about 1.5 million/1kg of core wood that meets the standards. Many sandalwood growers can change their lives and become millionaires.
Currently, Mr. Thoai has signed contracts with farmers to provide seeds for all sandalwood plantations, and is committed to purchasing output products at stable prices. Recently, Mr. Thoai has also cooperated with a large Vietnamese corporation to plant 10,000 hectares of sandalwood to open a factory and deeply process the products.
This expert aims to make Vietnam one of the five countries with the largest sandalwood growing areas in the world within the next 20 years, and the sandalwood industry will also generate millions of dollars in revenue for the country.
After 10 years of quitting his job and leaving the government environment to start his own business, this doctor said that the greatest success he has achieved is overcoming his own limits and stepping out of his comfort zone.
His wife - Master Tran Thi Hieu - from strongly opposing and doubting her husband's decision, also turned to support. Like him, she boldly wrote a resignation letter from her job as a lecturer at a public school in Hanoi to focus on "plowing the land and farming" with her husband.
"I quit my job not because of the benefits, but because I wanted space to develop myself. I think that only working in a public sector environment is successful and can contribute to the country. We need to get rid of the mindset of finding a stable job, receiving a salary at the end of the month, and waiting for a year to increase salary according to rank.
In the private sector, competition is fiercer. If people do not create value and do not try every day, they will be eliminated immediately. I think the policy of streamlining the apparatus is something that should and must be done, and we should have done it a long time ago.
To achieve the goals of socio-economic development, the state apparatus must also keep up with the development of the world. If 10 years ago I also thought that I only needed to have a job and a stable monthly income, there probably wouldn't be a Vu Thoai today...", Dr. Vu Thoai shared.
Content: Ha Trang, Pham Hong Hanh
Photo: Nguyen Ha Nam
Dantri.com.vn
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