Think about the hundreds of chat messages or emails that ping our inbox each day. A flood of information comes. It forces us into a state of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Even 80% of conversations don't relate to our work. Yet, customer orders, project deadlines, tickets, potential leads… these things seem to pop up everywhere but with no single source of truth. That's called operational chaos. This chaos causes our people to panic, and then our processes become disconnected. Even worse, the business is dragged down to a danger zone: customer dissatisfaction and cost of errors.

As business leaders, we are not superheroes. When chaos comes, we have to directly solve unintentional issues. Conflicts between departments arise. Customer complaints increase. Quality of things declines. Driving our business now is like trying to sail a ship across the ocean, but the ship is riddled with holes, and every time you plug one, another opens up. If we, as leaders, are getting down into these kinds of work, we should not be proud of ourselves as "get-hands-dirty" leaders when it leads to burnout and inefficiency. We just eventually wind up plain tired. No more energy. No one thinks of customers and innovation when tired. Then the captains cannot stand at the highest point to overview the whole picture of the ship, scan the horizon, and chart the next course. That's such a big mistake.

A Shift in Leadership Mindset and Motivation

Don't get me wrong in terms of "get-hands-dirty" leaders. In fact, as a founder, I love getting in the weeds on building new things with my teammates. Let me share with you some of the things I’ve learned and built at my company—Standard.inc (widely known for its products Rework.com and Success.net)

To begin with, we have no bosses, only builders. My job as captain is not to micromanage but to continuously build the standards and rules for executing as many specific duties as possible. The reasons are simple. First, the more standards we build, the more consistency we maintain, and the fewer pop-up issues we handle. So we have more time and energy to stay focused on more valuable things. Second, it's part of our growth culture, which we've called: "Next periods will be better than the previous, no matter how much or in what aspect."

Here are some solid foundations we've built (I'll share them in detail in another newsletter):

To keep innovating and aim for new higher bars:

• 3-S loop of innovation: Standardize, Streamline, Simplify.

• Build things as products: We keep versioning our operational design to remind ourselves to improve for the next versions.

• The Starter Team (We call it: The S-team) which contains the experts or top performers in each specific function regardless of management level.

To stay on the right course:

• Ideal Customer Profile as a company-wide objective.

• Customer-Product Love series.

To encourage ownership and accountability:

• "Single Source of Truth" mindset.

• Winning-as-a-team gameplay.

• Pride and ESOP.

And more. We're continuously building and pioneering new methods based on our own challenges and real-world experiences. As leaders, we can learn from and share with each other, but it all starts with our own mindset and motivation.

Take a Moment to Breathe, Reflect, and Imagine

Before the next era of artificial intelligence, where information will be created exponentially, please calm down. It's time to first conquer the ocean of operational chaos. Slow our ship down a bit. Establish a standard operating system—a universal language of business. Many things need to be done to transform our entire business. But let's begin with the end. Pencil an imagination where our ship is transformed. Workflows are built. Orders are tracked. Projects are organized. Tasks are traced. Work rules are established. People take their accountability and then their ownership. Clients are satisfied and then become loyal. And so on.

Look! Every aspect of our operation is well-set by standardizing, super transparent by streamlining, and then optimized by simplifying. The ship is now heading towards the next big things, following its own captain, with confidence in itself.

Is that the most favorite scene in our mind? If this vision resonates with you, stay tuned for the next issue of Winning by Love, where I'll dive deeper into how we're building our own business that sails smoothly through chaos.

Thank you for joining me on this journey! Subscribe to receive Winning by Love—weekly reflections that ignite passion and purpose in your inbox. Have a story to share or want to be featured? Let’s connect—comment below or send me a message!

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If someone told you that: “Selling is easy”, I strongly believe that they’re romantic aliens. In our world, selling is a hard, tough, and easy-to-give-up thing. Let me prove my statement.

I use the words: “Selling Guys” or “We” to include: Salesmen sell their products, HRs recruit talents, Founders find investors, or anyone who sells things.

1. Sales! It’s not a linear game.

Almost all jobs/tasks in our life/work, in the end, have the same formula: In a fixed period of time, We put X resources, and we get Y results. Or if we do it really bad/lazy way, we get 80% of Y, 60% of Y, or 20% of Y. That’s kind of a linear thing.

That’s mostly true when we’re taking an exam at the university, fixing some bugs in our products, doing some paperwork, or designing some graphics.

In contrast, the problem of selling is not a linear thing: In a fixed period of time, we put X resources, we get Y results, and sometimes Zero. If we decide to put 2X resources, no one makes sure that you get 2Y results, almost time is still even Zero.

🙈 The Typical Story:

A salesperson tries to reach out to customers by calling or sending LinkedIn messages, they always expect that every call will convert into a deal/meeting. But they do it again, again and again; and they fail, fail, and fail until the 492th call. What the heck of a 492th call? It means they never know what call will win. That burns them out and kills their emotions, day by day. One day, the selling guys become no-emotion people. They sell without love, compassion, and emotion. As a result, either your revenue will go down because of bad customer experience or you have to regenerate or remake your sales team. It surely costs too much time and resources.

That’s tough. That’s ridiculous. But it’s totally true in real life, at least for selling things.

2. We have “No” answers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

🙈 Another typical Story:

❓“Did you register to have a product demo?” → No, I don’t.

❓“Could we have a meeting to discover your challenges?” → No/Not yet. I’m busy!

❓“Is our tailored solution suitable for your company at this time?” → No, It’s not our priority!

Thousands of “No” answers. Every day, Every minute. We could name a multitude of reasons, which is to receive the customer’s objections, such as Generating bad leads from Marketing, Slow adoption of Product, out of SLAs from supporting department (Legal, Accounting), Bad Demo/Closing, etc. But the guys, who are into the war to fight, to take responsibility, and to suffer a thousand slings and arrows, are selling people as usual, regardless of the different root causes.

Nevertheless, as well-trained salespeople, we are sharpened to become self-ownership warriors. Day by day, we consume every pain we get, heal & recover it, and try to be strong the next days.

Almost all Directors/Managers try to soothe the pain by teaching people to take it as obvious when getting “No” answers.

The problem is that "the pain is never completely recovered. They're still there, like scars. So, how many pains did we take? And how many pains can we endure in the future before we become emotionally numb when selling our things?” ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

How could we sell a thing without love, emotion, and curiosity? No way.

See you in the next essays of “Winning By Love” series!

One of the common misconceptions when starting a new business is that we begin from zero. However, this is not entirely true. We never truly start from zero, no matter how much we think we do.

Why is that?

When we founded our first startup, Base.vn, we earned our first paid customer after 5 months. I remember that the ACV (Annual Contract Value) was only $200. Prior to that, we had to pay for various expenses, such as renting a 60M2 office space, employee salaries, and other expenses…

You know what? 200$ was just a small boost that kept us going.

It did not prove we had a product-marketing fit.

It was not that we could grow and expand.

Or Even that we could survive.

Nothing at all. Just a small celebration with a lot of fear.

To be insanely honest, we had three debts to repay:

• First, we were in debt to our investors. We owed them a promise of profit, potentiality, and valuation.

• Second, we were in debt to our customers. We owed them a promise of a great product with valuable features and excellent service.

• Third, we were in debt to our employees. We owed them a promise of an unproven mission.

Although some businesses may have an unfair advantage when starting, I believe that no business truly starts from zero. Instead, they start from negative numbers. I call this starting point "From -1". This means that we must put in 1000% of our effort to progress from -1 to 0.

We have to launch our products as soon as possible, as no one wins with the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It's a loop of customer feedback and complaints that keeps our products alive.

We have to attract more paying customers who believe in the value that we provide through our products and services. Only when our product is acceptable and we are confident about our growth potential, we can truly say that we have reached the starting line.

We have to become a profitable company with the potential for scaling. That proves our mission with not only our employees but also with ourself.

But starting from a negative point is a great luck

It's crucial to understand that starting from a negative point (-1) is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a great motivator to push ourselves to work harder and smarter to reach our goals.

Honestly, it took us two years of hard work, passion, and patience to bring Base.vn to our starting line. But through persistence and dedication, we were able to:

1 - Find a product-market-fit: The consequences of our first 03 products are not the same.

• The first product didn’t fail but was not enough for scaling.

• The second failed in the first 6 months.

• The third was a rising star. Eventually, we did it!

Although we had to pay off to find the right one, we know that we don’t have enough time or resources to wait for a miracle. We sought it in the darkness every night and day.

2 - Find true builders who have gone through the ups and downs of the journey.

Joining an early start-up is not an easy decision. We are fortunate to find builders who can join, stay, and help grow our business from nothing. Instead of complaining about buggy products, wrong strategies, or broken processes, they got their hands dirty and made things better.

Now, almost all of them have become key people on the board of management and have option plans next journey of going public (IPO).

We could easily find the right talents when having a clear path of what we want to achieve. But it’s hard, especially hard, when nobody knows where to go. If it were easy, we might never have the chance to build great products or find the best builders. Trust me, you will never have that opportunity again.

3 - Finding some big customers who believe in our mission and vision, even if we have no prior wins in their domains.

I will never forget the moment when we demoed our first product: an applicant tracking system (ATS) called Talent.vn (now known as Base E-hiring) to one of the biggest banks in Vietnam. Prior to meeting with us, they had been using SAP SuccessFactors, the biggest player in the HR domain.

After our passionate demo, the HRD - Decision maker stated, "Regardless of whether you are a start-up, if your product is great and helpful for us, you always have a chance. And I believe that your philosophy is right. Let's do it."

They became our loyal customer for 7 years, and helped us build a big reputation, which gave us the confidence to successfully expand into other segments.

Right, we achieved this by strongly believing in our way, mission, and products. We shared our story with love and passion, not with any tips and tricks. They could see it in our eyes, and gave us a chance to prove ourselves.

You know what? Love is sharpened through our most difficult decisions when we had to remake our product twice, and during desperate moments when we almost lost our early customers. It was really hard and painful, but we made it through with our strong faith.

Last words

It is a fact that not all businesses start at the same starting line. Some are born with an unfair advantage and are able to begin at a higher position, while others have to start from a lower position, sometimes even at a disadvantage. The journey may be difficult, but it is in those moments of darkness that we find our inner strength and character. Fortunately, you may encounter people who are supporters, builders, or even great customers. So, even if you start from a lower position, do not be discouraged. Instead, embrace the challenge, work hard, and keep moving forward. Success may take longer, but it will be all the more rewarding when you finally reach your destination.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to send me a "like" if you have read this article. It would give me a sense of fulfillment and encouragement to continue sharing my stories with you.

My response has left everyone surprised and doubtful about my readiness. It's understandable to be afraid of what we don't know, especially when we haven't won before. The world, including the global market, is one such unknown. When my team started True Platform a couple of months ago, I spent a lot of time researching SaaS players around the world - from Tier 01 countries like the US and UK to Tier 02 countries like India and SEA. Everything has changed significantly compared to seven years ago when we started Base in Vietnam/SEA. The market is expanding rapidly and becoming more competitive. It is evident that almost all SaaS playbooks can quickly become outdated, from product development to go-to-market strategy. We now face a lot of giants and disruptors who have proven themselves in the industry. There is no playbook or shortcut to win this game, especially overnight.

However, starting True Platform has been fortunate for two reasons:

1 - This is a 20-year battle, not an overnight battle. You have to have the right & strong motives to live with it.

It may sound easy, but it's not. Our chosen 20-year destiny is a rational and difficult bet. Every start-up founder wants to win the game as soon as possible, but rarely does someone spend their entire life chasing their dreams.

There are no footprints for Vietnamese people to win a globe game within a few years. It was true in the past when we were in the Vietnam War, and it's still the case today. We are taking 20 years because we have put our egos aside and accepted that we are underdogs in this massive and uncertain world.

In the early days of True, I told our first members, "Remember! This is a life choice, not just a career choice. So think carefully before joining the battle, we don’t live two lives”. We spend our entire lives, not just three or five years because we're afraid of losing our dreams, faith, and legacy. All we want is to pursue a dream that will take a lifetime. We build True because True is what truly completes us. Without it, we would never see the complete version of ourselves and never stop questioning.

And we call it a 20-year battle or 20-year destiny.

2 - We got lucky because of valuable lessons from our journey at Base (Our first start-up). That shaped our business philosophy to start True’s journey.

Business philosophy matters! You can’t acquire it just by reading books. It is compounded of pay-off lessons gained through hard work and consistency. We, The founders, started Base in our 20s when everyone was young, penniless, and inexperienced. We learned from scratch how to create Facebook/Google Ads accounts, build useful applications, and train our salespeople to become in-love warriors. Now, we’re having ~ 10k customers and 400 employees. Without that experience, we would not have had the confidence to do things subjectively based on what we believe, even if others do not agree.

• Example:

One of the business philosophies that I follow at True as a foundation of marketing is value-led growth.

We believe that no matter what distribution channels you use, whether it's Google, Facebook, SEO, or any other, you need to tell a story that is actionable and practical. It's even better if you have personal experience. This means that I don't hire content marketers who only write faceless blogs that are only good for Google's algorithm, but rather storytellers who create content with meaning for readers and truly help them in their work. This is not an easy task, as most blogs I read while searching on Google are only focused on hitting traffic targets or converting me into a qualified lead through some tactics. This only benefits the marketing team in hitting their KPIs, but neither the business nor the readers gain anything. Moreover, it seems like writers are hesitant to include anything entertaining, friendly, or human in their content for fear of being perceived as unprofessional. However, I believe that this is the wrong approach.

Our business philosophy is that we can’t establish without experience at Base to know what is right or wrong. We want to write valuable content, but we are afraid that Google or Facebook will not accept it. Therefore, we have compromised and adjusted our content which looks strict, rigid, and boring.

…

We learned lessons from the Base journey, from -1 to 10M ARR. If you've had your own business, you'll know that it’s hard to remake your foundation when your business starts scaling. To correct them, you'll have to pay a high price for sure. Now at True, we reflect on every decision we've made in the past, from product and marketing to sales and service. It's similar to reviewing your poker hand in the last pot. You may have won the pot, but it wasn't the maximum value one. You need to do better in the next hand in similar situations, regardless of your previous win.

It's not about right or wrong, it's about better.

Last words

Yes. We got lucky. But we create it through the groundwork we lay and the attitude we adopt when entering the battle. This is pure EARNESTNESS. This is the foundation of our thinking and choices, whether in product development, marketing, sales, or service. It means both that they're doing something for the right reasons (20-year destiny), and that they're trying as hard as they can (to sharpen our philosophy as well).

During the initial conversation, when my friend asked me a question, I replied "I don't know" because the world today is different from what we saw yesterday, and tomorrow will not be the same as today. We must be ready for the battle, and we will find our way through tears, blood, and lessons we learn along the way.

Again, this is our Earnestness.

2021 đánh dấu lại hơn 5 năm khởi nghiệp cùng Base. Tôi không dám hồi tưởng về quãng đường đã đi qua vì có cảm giác nó như là câu chuyện của 15 năm trước vậy. Nhưng có 3 món đồ biểu tượng của tôi mang theo suốt hành trình chưa bao giờ bỏ ra một ngày nào: Đôi giày, Cây bút chì, và Cốc cafe.

ĐÔI GIÀY - Ngày xưa gặp anh Hùng Phạm (Founder & Base) thú thật là cũng chả biết ổng định làm gì. Chỉ thấy bảo rằng anh muốn làm một sản phẩm world-class để người Việt Nam được ngẩng cao đầu .... (đoạn sau thì không nhớ gì nữa). Đúng thứ mình tìm nên dại khờ về sắm ngay “Đôi giày” mới. Nghĩ đơn giản là chọn một con đường mà chưa ai đi thì chắc “Đôi giày” là quan trọng nhất. Để nhỡ đâu đường có khó đi quá mà đôi chân không bị rộp thì vẫn còn đi được tiếp. Sau này mới thấy may thật, ngày đó không mang theo giày thì giữa đường nhẫm phải gai hoặc đá nhọn chắc toang. Vinh quang chưa thấy đâu nhưng khó khăn vậy chắc bỏ cuộc lâu rồi.

CÂY BÚT CHÌ - Cũng chỉ vì lỡ đi con đường khó, ai cũng gàn, ai cũng can. Nên đi đâu cũng phải mang theo cây bút chì và ít mẩu giấy. Trước là để ghi lại hành trình, sau là để tính toán mỗi khi gặp khó khăn. Đấy là phỏng vậy chứ thực tế từ lúc cầm Bút chì thì toàn dùng để vẽ. Khi nào khó quá hoặc không biết đi đâu thì lại lấy bút để nguệch ngoạc ra những viễn cảnh tươi đẹp. Lúc đầu vẽ chưa đẹp lắm nhưng may trên đường gặp cụ Dũng Trọc (Founder of MOG Vietnam) có lớp chuyên dạy vẽ nên ghé qua học tí nghề. Ai ngờ sau đó vẽ đẹp lên trông thấy anh em ai xem cũng khen. Từ đấy trở đi làm gì mình cũng vẽ, đói thì vẽ đồ ăn, tắc thì vẽ đường đi, mệt thì vẽ sông hồ, chán thì vẽ cây cỏ hoa bướm. Túm lại là thiếu gì thì vẽ đấy. Cũng may là có món này nên anh em đi đường khó không nản, ai cũng vui vẻ hừng hực khí thế. Đường đã khó rồi mà còn... không biết làm gì thì đúng là ngoài khó còn chán cùng cực.

CỐC CAFE - Ngoài việc ăn uống, ngủ nghỉ thì trong 5 năm qua không ngày nào mà mình không uống Cafe. Ban đầu uống để nhắc nhở rằng lúc nào cũng cần tỉnh táo, tập trung và không được lơ là. Sau này mới ngộ ra là Cafe còn giúp mình rèn luyện “vị đắng”. Nếu ai đã từng uống Cafe đen, đặc biệt là hạt Robusta của Việt Nam thì sẽ biết rõ nó đắng như thế nào. Và thường là đa phần mọi người uống cafe sẽ “Give up” việc tận hưởng nó sau một vài giây đầu tiên. Cũng chính vì vậy mà phần ngon & ngọt nhất của Cafe lại bị tuột đi trong sự ruồng bỏ. Mình được giác ngộ sự ngọt của Cafe trong một lần 3 4 năm trước được thưởng thức ly Pour Over by V60. Sau này vì biết hóa ra bản chất Cafe nó có vị ngọt nên mình uống các thể loại cafe thường vượt qua đoạn đắng ngắt một cách nhanh chóng để tận hưởng sự ngọt dịu đằng sau. Luyện một thời gian quen dần nên đi đường không còn thấy khổ nữa vì biết là “Khổ trước thì Sướng sau”. Đấy hóa ra đi con đường này không chỉ Khó, chỉ Chán mà còn Khổ nữa.

Đó là 3 người bạn của mình trong suốt hành trình hơn 5 năm qua. Nói một cách bớt sến súa là vậy nhưng thực ra ĐÔI GIÀY là Niềm tin bất diệt, CÂY BÚT CHÌ là sự cải tiến và sáng tạo, còn CỐC CAFE là khả năng vượt khó, chịu khổ. Hành trình đã qua thật đáng khắc ghi với muôn vàn bài học nhưng cũng nhiều điều tự hào. Base chinh phục được những cột mốc lớn, lớn đến mức trước đây chưa từng nghĩ. Và chắc chắc con đường 5 năm tới còn nhiều giấc mơ cũng cần được viết lại: Make in Vietnam, Go IPO, Empower Enterprises & Make the world better.

Chúng tôi lại tiếp tục khởi hành

Với niềm tin ngây dại, đặc quánh

Như những ngày đầu của tinh khôi

Nắng, gió cứ vậy mà sôi nổi

Vì chúng tôi biết

Cứ đi mãi đi riết

Như những giọt mưa rơi

Cứ rơi mãi rơi mãi

Rồi cũng sẽ vỡ ra

Chỉ mong nơi mặt đất khô cằn sẽ nở hoa.

(4 câu cuối mượn của anh Đen Vâu vì thực sự chưa nghĩa ra được hình ảnh nào đẹp hơn vậy)