At the workshop “Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among students” held on December 20, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Kim Chi stated her opinion: “Teachers should never tell students that getting rich is not difficult, but that getting rich is too difficult. Students must understand that when starting a business, 90% is failure, 10% is success, but having that 10% is already very successful, and the 90% failure is an extremely valuable lesson. Those are the lessons that help them develop sustainably, create value, and make practical contributions in the future.”
I completely agree with Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Chi's point of view, it's not that "getting rich is not difficult" but "getting rich is too difficult". If getting rich was not difficult, there would be more rich people in the world than poor people.
Only getting rich through embezzlement, corruption, bribery, and fraud is not difficult.
As for legitimate businesses, here are some numbers: in 2023, 172,600 businesses withdrew from the market, on average, nearly 14,400 businesses withdrew from the market per month. In the first 9 months of 2024, 86,900 businesses temporarily suspended operations.
Calling on young people and students to start businesses and be creative is necessary, but never tell students that getting rich is easy, but on the contrary, show them the difficulties and challenges of doing business.
Saying that getting rich is easy will lead to subjectivity. Entering the business world without adequate preparation in knowledge and management experience will lead to failure.
Saying that getting rich is too difficult will help young entrepreneurs always be ready, focus on thinking and being creative, and constantly learn to rise up.
Not to mention, it is necessary to define what is rich.
Of course, being rich is extremely important, encouraging young people and students to start small businesses with high incomes from several hundred million to several billion VND per year is also considered rich. But the country needs people who start businesses with great ambitions, have outstanding successes, and become billionaires in the world.
From 2014 when Vietnam had its first "unicorn", until December 2023, nearly 10 years later, there were only 4 technology "unicorns", which are startups worth more than 1 billion USD.
Over the years, there have been countless startups in many fields, including technology, but there have only been 4 "unicorns". Getting rich is so hard.
We must eliminate the "encouraging" views of the spirit like "getting rich is not difficult", and do not overemphasize small successes, but set goals with great aspirations, reaching high and flying far, in order to catch up with the great powers.
