One Year after Graduation

I've tried...

To anyone feeling lost and uncertain about their life after graduation, you’ve got this. Kudos to us for trying ❤️

I.

On this day last year, I was in San Francisco, graduating and celebrating the end of an era with my friends - the end of our 4 years journey hopping around the world, learning, and growing together. I owe a big part of who I am today to this community, who holds me dearly as I explore and navigate changes.

Our class hiked together in San Francisco the night before graduation.

After graduation, I stayed with two friends in an apartment in San Francisco (which we called our Powerhouse:), trying to motivate one another to land a job in a month or two so that we would not be kicked out of the country. I remember grinding so hard to find a job, grow my blog, branding, and network, and maintain my startup on the side. Days after days, no one was hiring. Rejections kept coming in. Not having a CS degree and a tech background made me feel so insecure and imposter all the time in SF.

I remember walking along the streets in SF wondering where life and the universe will take me. It felt like the path in the US then would not work out.

And it didn’t.

I packed my bags, went back home, and told my cofounder that I wanted to try committing to MỞ full-time. So we figured out the finances, business plan, and logistics so that we could make our full-time startup life happen.

A year has passed. I am now living in Sai Gon building my business full time, learning to feel a bit more comfortable with uncertainties.

II.

The journey after graduation has been both challenging and rewarding.

It has been too fast to wrap my head around the fact that a year has passed. In many ways, I am living a life completely different from the one first-year-Fuong had planned out. I used to imagine myself working for some tech companies in San Francisco and living with my friends from college (😅😅😅).

Perhaps compared to the life I ‘imagined’, this entrepreneurial path is much more unstable and uncertain. But it has forced me to get in touch with myself and understand what I truly want and care about.

Work and friendships have been two recurring themes of my reflections over the past year and I would love to share them with you ❤️

Work

I am glad that I took a leap of faith to build MỞ full-time despite not having a lot of personal branding, capital, or network. The only assets I had at the time, and still to this day, were (1) my consistency to try and learn and (2) my ongoing curiosity for this business. In many ways, ignorance of the challenges ahead was such a blessing, as it prevented me from feeling too scared to take action.

Building a business forces me to sharpen my thinking, improve my business acumen, learn to work better with people, and approach every puzzle with a beginner’s mindset. My team and I have to learn and unlearn every piece of the business, from marketing to product to management to customer service.

Entrepreneurship has taught me the resilience in facing and dealing with uncertainties and challenges.

Entrepreneurship has taught me that long-term success doesn’t occur overnight. It takes a lot of commitment, patience, and consistency.

Even if at some point in the future, this business has no more potential to grow and I have to go find other opportunities, I’m proud of myself for taking this leap of faith a year ago. I am proud that I’ve tried my best to provide value for our customers and figure out a business model that works.

Friendships

Returning home and being separated from my closest friends after graduation left me very lonely. We had spent four years building our lives together, only to be torn apart eventually. Although we managed to stay in touch through occasional calls, the void was definitely there.

There were times I did get tired of maintaining long distance friendships. However, the absence of my friends by my side has only reinforced the profound importance of friendships in my life.

I had held onto the notion that one could only have a handful of truly close friends, as frequent interaction was paramount to me. However, I've come to realize that life is a serious of chapters. Throughout these chapters, we encounter people with whom we deeply connect and love. Yet, we may eventually have to part ways and cross paths with new spirits in the next ones.

I cannot expect my current friends to remain constants in my life forever, nor can I anticipate that the friendships I hold dear today will endure indefinitely. What I can do is learn to forge new connections and cherish the friendships we have while we're together.

Just like any relationships, friendships need work and time. The friendships that I’ve built at Minerva remind me that I should try putting the same amount of effort and love into the people in the future chapters of my life.

III.

Last week, when re-reading Tim Urban’s article “How Covid Stole Our Time and How We Can Get It Back”, I was reminded of this life-path graphic.

To explain the graphic, Tim said:

We think a lot about those black lines: the roads not taken, the opportunities missed, the ones that got away. But most of us greatly underestimate the size of the lush green tree of possibilities that lie ahead of us.

Over the past year since graduation, I've occasionally found myself pondering the roads not taken – the myriad "what-ifs" that surface whenever the current path seems hard. But just like Tim said, by choosing to commit to this road, despite its challenges and external influences, I have started seeing the lush green tree of possibilities.

I have encountered fellow founders in Saigon who are grappling with similar struggles, mentors upon whom I can rely for guidance, and individuals who share my passion for online learning.

Even though clear signs of growth in my entrepreneurship journey are not apparent yet, embracing this path has led me to connect with similar minds and supportive humans and better understand the life paths that I could design for myself.

Embracing this path has also challenged me to think about the role of relationships in my life and how I will prioritize them alongside work in the next chapter of my life.

Big big thanks to my past and current self for making it this far and thanks to all my friends, teammates, and family who support me on the path after graduation ❤️

To more adventures and learning together,

From your Internet friend,

Phuong.