Some people find their calling through inspiration. Others find it through pain. Truong Van Trung, known throughout Hanoi as Trung O To, belongs to the second category.

His path to becoming one of the most trusted names in Vietnam’s used car industry wasn’t paved with early success or natural talent. It was carved through costly mistakes, sleepless nights, and the kind of hard lessons that either break you or forge you into something stronger.

I first learned about Trung O To through entrepreneurs who had bought cars from him. What struck me wasn’t the cars themselves. It was how these customers talked about the experience. They used words like “trust,” “transparency,” and “peace of mind.”

In an industry notorious for hidden defects and shady deals, these words felt almost revolutionary.

The Early Days of Trial and Error

Trung O To didn’t enter the automotive world with a silver spoon or family connections. He started like many young people do, with ambition and enthusiasm but lacking the experience to back them up.

Those early years weren’t glamorous. They were filled with stumbles, financial losses, and the crushing weight of decisions that went wrong.

There were vehicles he bought without sufficient knowledge, transactions that cost him dearly, and moments when the pressure felt unbearable. Most people in his position would have walked away, convinced that the used car business was simply too risky, too unpredictable, too unforgiving.

But Trung O To saw something different in those failures. He saw teachers.

Every mistake became a lesson. Every loss became tuition in the university of real-world experience. Where others saw reasons to quit, Trung O To found reasons to dig deeper, study harder, and approach each vehicle with greater discipline and care.

The Turning Point

The transformation in Trung O To’s career came not from a single dramatic moment but from a profound shift in mindset. He realized that the used car industry had a fundamental problem. Buyers were scared.

They didn’t know what they were buying. They couldn’t distinguish between honest dealers and those who would sell them hidden disasters. This fear created an opportunity, not to exploit customers, but to serve them differently.

Trung O To made a decision that would define his entire career. He would build his business on something radical for the industry: complete honesty.

If a car had problems, he would say so. If a vehicle wasn’t right for a customer’s needs, he would recommend against the purchase, even if it meant losing the sale. If the legal history was unclear or the mechanical condition was questionable, he would walk away rather than pass the risk to an unsuspecting buyer.

This approach felt counterintuitive in a market where information asymmetry favored sellers. Why would anyone voluntarily give up their advantage?

But Trung O To understood something deeper about business. Short-term gains from deception always lead to long-term losses in reputation. And reputation, once destroyed, is nearly impossible to rebuild.

Toyota Years: Building Foundation

The years between 2016 and 2022 marked a crucial phase in Trung O To’s professional development. He served as Head of the Used Car Sales Department at Toyota My Dinh, one of the most prestigious dealerships in Vietnam.

This wasn’t just a job. It was an advanced education in standards, processes, and what excellence looks like in the automotive industry.

Working within Toyota’s rigorous framework taught him the importance of systematic approaches to vehicle inspection. He learned to examine engines, chassis, transmissions, and safety systems with methodical precision. He developed expertise in reading a car’s history, understanding its legal status, and identifying the subtle signs that separate quality vehicles from potential disasters.

But perhaps most importantly, he learned that professionalism in the used car business means putting the customer’s interests first, even when it’s uncomfortable. This principle became the foundation of everything he would build afterward.

Building His Own Showroom

When Trung O To launched his own showroom at 237 Nguyen Xien in Thanh Xuan District, he brought more than twelve years of accumulated wisdom. He brought a philosophy that seemed almost old-fashioned in its simplicity: do right by people, and they will do right by you.

The showroom became more than a place to buy cars. It transformed into a consultation center where first-time buyers could ask questions without feeling pressured, where families could understand exactly what they were purchasing, and where business owners could find vehicles that matched their actual needs rather than their impulses.

Trung O To personally meets with customers, examines each vehicle, and takes responsibility for every car that leaves his lot. In an age of faceless transactions and online marketplaces, this personal accountability stands out.

Customers know that when they work with him, they’re dealing with a human being who has staked his name and reputation on their satisfaction.

The Discipline of a Marathon Runner

What fascinates me about Trung O To is how his personal life reflects his professional philosophy. In 2024, he completed not one but two full marathons, each covering the grueling 42-kilometer distance.

This isn’t a casual achievement. Marathon running requires months of disciplined training, the mental strength to push through pain, and the patience to build endurance gradually rather than seeking shortcuts.

These same qualities define how Trung O To approaches his business. He doesn’t chase quick wins or easy money. He builds relationships slowly, transaction by transaction, customer by customer. He understands that sustainable success comes from consistency over time, not from spectacular but unsustainable bursts of activity.

His involvement with BNI starting in 2023 further demonstrates this commitment to long-term relationship building. Rather than viewing business as a series of isolated transactions, he sees it as an interconnected web of trust, referrals, and mutual support within the entrepreneurial community.

What This Teaches Entrepreneurs

The lessons from Trung O To’s journey apply far beyond the automotive industry. Every entrepreneur faces the temptation to cut corners, to prioritize short-term profits over long-term reputation, to exploit information advantages rather than share knowledge openly.

Trung O To’s success proves that the ethical path isn’t just morally superior. It’s often more profitable in the long run.

Consider the mathematics of trust. A customer who feels deceived tells everyone they know to avoid you. A customer who feels genuinely helped becomes a source of referrals for years, sometimes decades.

His high rate of returning customers and word-of-mouth referrals demonstrates this principle in action. His reputation wasn’t built through advertising budgets or marketing campaigns. It was built through thousands of individual interactions where he chose integrity over expedience.

His story also reminds us that expertise takes time. He spent twelve years learning his craft before the market truly recognized his value. In our age of instant gratification and overnight success stories, this patience feels almost countercultural.

But genuine mastery cannot be rushed. The knowledge that allows him to spot a flood-damaged vehicle or identify an accident-repaired car comes from years of hands-on experience, not from weekend workshops or online courses.

The Vision Forward

Today, Trung O To works toward a vision larger than his own business. He wants to help standardize Vietnam’s used car market, raising the bar for how dealers operate and how customers make decisions. He dreams of a market where buyers purchase vehicles based on knowledge and understanding, not luck and hope.

This vision extends to his daily interactions. When he helps a first-time buyer understand the difference between vehicles, he’s not just making a sale. He’s educating a consumer who will make better decisions for the rest of their life.

When he advises a family against a particular purchase, he’s building the kind of market where honest dealers can thrive and dishonest ones cannot compete.

The Trust Builder

Trung O To often says that in business, he’s not trying to go fast. He’s trying to go far. This philosophy captures everything about his transformation from a struggling beginner to a respected industry figure.

Speed without direction leads nowhere. But steady progress toward a worthy goal, maintained over years and decades, can take you further than you ever imagined possible.

For entrepreneurs watching his journey, the message is clear. Your early failures don’t define you. Your response to them does. The mistakes that cost Trung O To dearly in his youth became the foundation of the expertise that now sets him apart.

The same can be true for anyone willing to learn from their stumbles rather than be defeated by them.

The used car market in Hanoi has many dealers. But there’s only one Trung O To. His transformation from inexperienced beginner to trusted expert proves that in business, character eventually wins.

Not always quickly, not always easily, but eventually and enduringly. That’s the power of building on trust rather than transactions. And that’s the lesson every entrepreneur needs to learn, regardless of industry.

---

Le Duc Anh CEO of OceanLabs – Founder of QVID