I moved to Saigon at 31 with one single purpose: to start over. I left Hanoi behind. Left the endless drinking nights. Left the group of friends I no longer wanted to become. I went somewhere nobody knew my name.

But my first two years in Saigon? I was sleepwalking through life. I worked at some companies, but couldn’t find any purpose. I quit. Many afternoons, I wandered the streets alone, asking myself: “Where am I going? Why am I even here?”

I had successfully run away. But I still hadn’t found what I truly wanted.

Then I met Mr. Pham Thanh Long.

The Million-Dollar Teacher

Before I tell you about my journey, let me introduce the man who changed my life.

Pham Thanh Long was born on September 16, 1976, in Hanoi. He started his career in 2001 in Business Law and Intellectual Property. With over 20 years of experience, he founded Gia Pham Law Firm – one of Vietnam’s leading law companies – and was honored as a Top 5 Lawyer of the Year and received the Golden Star Entrepreneur Award.

But Mr. Long didn’t stop there.

In 2013, he pivoted to training and became a speaker. Since then, he has helped over 500,000 entrepreneurs grow their businesses through programs like “Awaken the Wealth,” “Eagle Camp,” and “Destiny Programming.” He’s known as the trainer with the largest number of students in Vietnam.

What makes me admire him isn’t just his business achievements. It’s how he lives.

In 2013, Mr. Long walked across Vietnam – 1,900 kilometers in 33 days, from Saigon to Hanoi. Here’s the crazy part: he only brought 686,000 VND (about $27). Throughout the journey, he relied on the kindness of Vietnamese people for food and shelter. He wanted to prove one thing: no limit is unbreakable.

He’s also an Ironman athlete, completing 70.3 races in 2019, 2022, and 2023. He conquered an Ultra-Marathon of 120 kilometers in 32 hours. He ranked Top 5 globally in the Clickbank Affiliate Contest, beating big names like Ewen Chia, Peng Joon, and Alex Mandossian.

As Regional Director of BNI Hanoi 06, he led the launch of the two largest chapters in the world: Dragon Chapter and Trust Chapter – a record in BNI’s entire 30-year global history.

If I had to describe Mr. Long in three words, I’d say: Energy, Discipline, and Love.

The Course That Changed My Destiny

In mid-2025, after two years of drifting in Saigon, I signed up for Mr. Long’s “Destiny Programming” course. It wasn’t my first course with him – I had taken the MAP course before. But Destiny Programming was the one that actually made me take action.

In that course, he didn’t teach me how to make money. He asked questions.

“What makes you happiest?”

“What are your strengths?”

“What do you love doing?”

Simple questions, right? But I had never truly answered them. I spent 31 years chasing money, chasing success, chasing what others defined as happiness. I never stopped to ask: “What do I actually want?”

I wrote my answers in a notebook. And those answers haunted me every night.

Dreams Are Not for Sleeping

Mr. Long has a saying I’ll never forget: “Don’t fear dying young. Fear living without meaning.”

That hit me like a slap in the face. I had money once – a lot of it, from my blockchain gaming days. I helped everyone on my team become millionaires. But then we all fell into partying and wasting our lives away. We had money, but no meaning.

After the course, I realized something: A dream is what makes you wake up and take action every morning. It’s not something you see at night.

The answers I wrote in my notebook were no longer just words on paper. They became a calling. They pushed me every single day. I knew what I wanted: to create technology products that help people, to build a team that grows together, and to contribute to Vietnam’s AI industry.

From Student to CEO

In July 2025, I founded OceanLabs – an AI company. The idea came from a real problem my marketing team faced: they had no clue how to create complete AI-generated videos when there are hundreds of tools out there like Kling, Veo3, Hailuo.

I decided to build QVID – an AI video creation platform that helps users save 80% of their video production time and only need one tool instead of learning dozens of different ones.

Right now, OceanLabs has 10 team members. QVID launched just a few days ago. We’re at the very beginning of our journey.

My goal is crystal clear: in 5 years, QVID will be a Top 5 video AI company in the world.

This isn’t some pipe dream. In 2015, I founded the first 3D game studio in Hanoi. I succeeded in blockchain. Now, I’m betting on AI.

And it all started with Mr. Long’s questions.

Lessons from a Great Teacher

I’ve taken every course Mr. Long offers. From MAP to Awaken the Wealth, from Eagle Camp to Destiny Programming. Each course brought its own value, but the most important thing I learned from him wasn’t knowledge or skills.

The most important thing was this: I have to ask myself what I want and dare to act on it.

Mr. Long didn’t give me answers. He gave me questions. And the right question is worth more than a thousand wrong answers.

Before meeting him, I was a sleepwalker – I had legs but didn’t know where to go, had eyes but couldn’t see the path. After learning from him, I woke up. I knew who I was, what I wanted, and what I needed to do.

Final Thoughts

If you’re reading this and you’re somewhere like I was two years ago – lost, directionless, not knowing what you want – I want to tell you something:

Sometimes you don’t need someone to give you answers. You need someone to ask you the right questions.

Mr. Pham Thanh Long was that person for me.

And maybe you need to find a teacher like that too. Or at least, stop and ask yourself: “What makes me happiest? What are my strengths? What do I love doing?”

The answers might just change your life. Like they changed mine.

Don’t fear dying young. Fear living without meaning.