Here is the full transcript of Trang Thach Nguyen Phuong’s talk titled “How I Built My Life From Scratch” at TEDxFPTUniversityHCMC 2024 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, I’m Thach Trang. I’m a YouTuber, content creator, video editor, photographer, makeup artist, and stylist for myself. Yes, I built her from this person to this person. This one five years ago, no one knows, but this one, some of you sitting here might know me.
And most importantly, this one is standing here on this stage. And thank you so much for letting me be here today; it’s such an honor to be on this stage. And thank you so much for letting me tell you the story of how I start small. Or more specifically, how I built my life from scratch.
Belief in Self-Reliance
I always believe that when the worst things happen to you, you are the only one who can always be there for yourself and pick yourself back up. That seems like a harsh thought, right? But I feel so safe and reassuring when I know that I am the only one who can count on myself. And with that belief, I strive every day to build myself stronger, to be smarter, to get better every day, so that I’m wise enough and strong enough to guide myself through every hardship in life.
Starting from Zero
When I first came to Germany, my life started from zero. I have zero friends, zero acquaintances, and zero money, except for the money that my parents gave me, but that’s still not my money, so… And at that time, I haven’t even gotten into any school yet. So technically, I belong nowhere.
I’m not part of their society. I’m completely on my own. And at that time, life opened up to me like a blank book. It’s very scary, and it’s also very tiring to know that I have to fill it in, little by little. But it’s also very inspiring to know that you are the one in charge now. Not your parents, not your teacher, but you are the one who’s going to decide how this story starts and how it goes.
The First Chapter: Student College
So my first chapter was when my life started in Student College. That is like a preparation school for students from abroad. So I have to stay there for a year before going into university.
When I first got in, I was the only one student from the waiting list. So understandably, I am the one at the bottom of the class. Other students might understand like 80% or 90% of the lecture, but me, I only understand like 0% to 10%.
I’m clueless. And at that time, my logic was, okay, if they understand 90% at class, at home, they only have to study for another 10%. But me, I have to somehow put another 90% in my mind for the next day so that we can all start at the same position going forward.
Refusing to Fall Behind
And with that logic in mind, I refuse to fall behind. Every day, I went home at around 5 p.m., had dinner, and then started studying from 7 p.m. until midnight, constantly translating, memorizing, mapping, summarizing everything. And there’s a picture of my dorm room at that time.
This is the picture of my dorm room at that time. And the only decoration that I have on the wall was lecture notes. That goes on for another six months until I realized that, well, my life in Germany starts to get better.
You know, when you don’t understand the language, you always feel so scared, you always feel so passive, and you always feel like you don’t fully understand your surroundings. But six months later, I start to understand a lot of my surroundings, what happened around me, what the teacher said in class, what my classmates said to me.
Gaining Confidence and Success
And I start to gain my confidence. And before I knew it, another six months passed by, and I graduated first of my class with the score of 1.3. And the highest score in Germany is 1. I got 1.3, and I graduated first in my class. And that event, from a student who was at the bottom of the class at first, I went to graduate first in my class. And that event was so reassuring to me.
I proved to myself that whatever I want to achieve, whatever I want in life, I have to do it for myself. And I can do it. So after my life got a little bit easier, I understand more of the language, I got into university, and I start to think of, now I want to make money.
Mini Jobs and Mini Stories
So I went through a lot of mini jobs. I was like an interpreter, I was a tutor, I was a bartender, what else? I was a cashier. And yeah, I worked also at McDonald’s as a server.
And at that time, I collect, through those mini jobs, I collect a lot of mini stories to fill in my book. And from those mini stories, I will pick one out to tell you today. That is a very funny story.
That is, McDonald’s was the most memorable workplace for me. At McDonald’s was the first time that I had to clean the public toilet. I didn’t even clean my own toilet, but I had to clean their toilet.
The McDonald’s Experience
And then also at McDonald’s, it was the first time that I had to work the night shift, and went home at around 3 a.m. amongst drunk people. And it was also at McDonald’s that I got my first job interview rejection. At that time, it was a very dumb story, I’ll tell you more about it.
So at that time, I wanted to switch my workplace to another McDonald’s near my dorm room.
So I went for an interview. And they asked me a very general question: “Why do you want to work here?” I told myself, yeah, why? I just want the money. I just need the money. But I tried to be smart.
A Lesson Learned
And I tell them, “You know, life in university is very stressful for me, so I want to find a job where I don’t really have to think that much.” Yeah. Yeah. That is the answer that I gave. That’s the dumbest thing that I can say for such a general question. But I said that.
And the manager, he looked me straight in the eye. And he asked me, “So you mean us working here, we don’t have to think?” And I was like, I bit my tongue. I don’t know. I don’t have anything to say.
And of course, I got rejected. They never called me back. They didn’t even tell me that, “OK, we’ll call you sometime.” No. I just went home and that’s it. But if you ask me, did I regret? Did I regret it? Did I regret going there, answer that question like that? No, I’m not.
Because it’s just simple. We live and we learn. And after that mini job and so many mini jobs later and so many experience later, five years later, I’m standing here, graduate.
Career Opportunities
And a lot of marketing companies in Berlin, in Germany, offer me jobs. So what I want to say is that you just have to be brave enough to start. Because there’s a saying in German: “Es gibt nichts Gutes, außer man tut es.” Nothing good will happen if you don’t do it.
So just do it. And after I went through a lot of mini jobs like that, I asked myself again, “OK, what’s next?” What is the next thing that I can do? And that’s when I start my YouTube channel.
Starting YouTube
At first, I don’t even have a proper phone to take a good picture or film a good video. So I decided to invest in an iPhone. My first iPhone ever. It’s so luxurious to me. The iPhone that I have to pay for for another two years. And one fun fact is that after my channel hit its first 100,000 subscribers and I have my silver button in my hand, I haven’t even paid off that phone yet.
And it was four months in. Only four months. You might think that, oh my gosh, YouTube success come to me so easy and so fast. But it was not like that. My first few videos got like 100 or maybe 200 views if that week my parents have more free time. So I understand.
I understand that it’s hard to be seen at first, but it’s also hard or even harder to maintain people’s interest in your content for the long run. And when we first doing YouTube or TikTok, we always expect it to go big. But for me, there is like a lot of things that can stand between what you love to do and you actually do it.
Overcoming Obstacles
You don’t have enough time. You have to study. You have some mental struggle. You are worried about what people might think about you. You worry about what your friends might think about the dumb thing that you do on the Internet. Or you are just tired of your own expectation.
There is a thousand things that can stop me after that one viral video. But again, I decided to take small steps and be consistent with what I do. I produce one video a week, always review my progress, listen to my audience, and most importantly, be excited about what I’m doing.
Consistency and Excitement
Five years later, I’m standing here and I’m still very excited about my next video. And that excitement and that consistency have brought me here on this stage, I believe. So, when you first start doing TikTok or YouTube, as I said, we tend to want to make something big.
We want to be having big collaborations, meeting important, famous people, be friends with them, attending glamorous events, or at least you feel like you have to achieve those things because other people look so successful doing that. But I know that success looks different for everyone. And for me, I have people, strangers, who laugh with me and cry with me through my videos.
Defining Success
And I have strangers who have never met me in real life, but still want the best for me. And that, to me, is success.
And when we are young and we are passionate about something, we tend to want to make it big or impress everyone. But you can have your vision, you can have your big dreams. But when we actually do it, I think it’s actually better to start small.
Starting Small
So that we have the space and the time to grow and to adapt to the situation, and also to not overwhelm ourselves. And us young people, we used to have, I know we always have this problem of FOMO, you know? Fear of missing out.
When people around you are achieving success left and right, and you are just here taking small little steps, sometimes it feels very frustrating. But you won’t feel like that anymore if you know where you are heading. Because one last example is that I graduated pretty late.
No Regrets in Life
Others people graduate around like 22, right? But I’m 25, just turned 26, and I just graduated. But if you ask me, do I regret anything?
No. All the experience that I’ve gathered, all the stories that I’ve gathered, everything that I went through, I know that I’m on the right path. And I regret nothing. So if you are a student of SPD University, you might have seen the statue of a self-made man. What I understand is that we choose our life and we build ourselves.
Building Yourself
Every one of us has our own potential, has our own space, and we have our own priority in every step in life. So it doesn’t necessary to compare yourself to other people. The most important thing is that you have a plan. And it doesn’t have to be a big plan until you are 90 years old. No. Sometimes it’s just simply one moment of sitting down and think, and really think, what is the next best thing that I can do for myself?
And just what I want to say is that just think of the life that you want to live. Think of the person that you want to be. Think of yourself. Draft a plan. See the requirements. Which requirements do I have to fulfill to get there? Which step I can take to get there? That’s it. And take up the hammer and carve out your own self.
