Interview Analysis: Thanh Tran – From Passion to Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is often described as an individual’s journey through passion, resilience, and risk. It’s a story of lingering ideas, turning into a business by taking on both opportunities and challenges of ownership. To better understand this journey, I interviewed Thanh Trung, a Vietnamese American who immigrated over from Germany, is an entrepreneur who owns multiple businesses that include a dance studio, tutoring center, wedding, catering services, and even a social media company. For this narrative interview essay, the primary focus will be on his dance studio, the first business where he started from scratch, and how that later on expanded into his tutoring center. Trung’s  personal story reflects both the opportunities and challenges that an entrepreneur would face while also connecting closely back to the topics alongside concepts that were discussed in chapter 7 of our textbooks. 

From the very beginning, Trung emphasized his burning passion for dance with the foundation to his decision and starting his own business. “If you are truly passionate about something,” he explained, “you’ll have the motivation to push through the difficult times and obstacles. Passion is what keeps you going even when money isn’t coming in yet.” His passion for dance was what pushed him to open his own studio, not simply for his own benefit and profits, but in order to create a space where young individuals could express themselves, build confidence, alongside focus on the little things such as joy through movement. Eventually, his desire to continue to contribute to his community led him to open a tutoring center that combines academic support through artistic development and encouragement. 

Trung has described several advantages of owning his own business. “The best part is being my own boss,” he states, “I get to set the vision, make the decisions, and create something that reflects my values.” He personally enjoys the flexibility, independence, and personal fulfillment Especially creative freedom. Nevertheless, he also acknowledged the difficulties as he shares, “The con is that all the responsibility falls on you. If you slack off or make a mistake, it directly affects your business.” In addition, this aligns with the textbook’s description that starting from scratch is both liberating and pressuring because “it’s all you” (Nickels et al. 220). Trung also expressed some of the biggest challenges he faced was his mindset during financial stress, constant responsibilities, and time management. He believes that it's extremely important to also have a very positive mindset that encourages growth during difficult times.

When reflecting on his experiences, Trung claims that his best experience was seeing his students grow and flourish. “When I see a shy kid gain confidence on stage, or when parents thank me because their children’s grades improved after tutoring, I know my hard work has made a difference.”Yet, his worst experiences were setbacks with struggling to cover costs when opening a studio by himself or facing self-doubt when things didn’t go according to planned. He elaborates, “The hardest part was overcoming my own mindset. Fear of failure is real, but you have to learn to bet on yourself.” His personal experiences demonstrate his strong internal focus of control, believing his actions, not luck, determined his outcomes (Nickels et al. 215).

When asked if he would use the same approach that he did once again if he were to start his entrepreneur journey all over again, Trung says he most definitely would. He states, “I would still do it the same way,” he insisted, “because before you leap, you need to learn. I worked, I studied, I watched others, and that prepared me. Without that, I don’t think I would have succeeded.” Furthermore, his personal advice, elaborate on chapter 7 emphasis on gaining personal experience alongside learning from other individuals as an essential tool for achieving business success (Nickels et al. 230).

Trung’s long-term vision has always been set on expansion. He claimed that in his original picture, he wanted to be able to grow beyond just a single dance studio. Over time, he was able to achieve this goal by branching into numerous other business businesses that include tutoring, catering, and media services. While branching into multiple other businesses, he has developed a passion and found interest that has him to enjoy his work. Trung’s current goal now is to continue to spread the support throughout his community while also maintaining stability while maintaining a healthy balance of stability. “The money matters,” he admitted as he has a family to take care of and bills to pay, “but what matters more is that I’m building something positive for kids and families.”

An unexpected insight that was gained from the interview with Trung was his strong belief in the importance of working for others before starting your own business. He strongly advised young entrepreneurs, or anyone who is interested in becoming one one day to, “Go work for someone else first, especially in a small company. You’ll learn more because you’re closer to the action. Big companies like Google might look impressive, but you won’t gain the same personal experience.” His approach and advice is reinforced by the textbooks' points that experience and also learning from others are a key factor to success (Nickels et al. 229). His takeaway is that you cannot be the boss of someone without understanding and experiencing what it’s like to work for the boss.

Trung’s story reflects many textbook themes. First, his resilience on self resilience connects to personal resources (Nickels et al. 217). Then his descriptions of endless opportunities , such as services and personal connections, furthermore alliance with the textbooks points that a small business tends to thrive on personal connections and customer service (Nickels et al. 218). In addition, he also mentions threats such as setbacks, higher responsibilities, and financial pressure all reflect the textbooks warnings about high risk of failure, in addition to lack of resources. Thus, his personal entrepreneurial journey has perfectly illustrated the textbooks balance of opportunities and challenges within starting a business from scratch. 

My overall impression of Thanh Trung, as a Vietnamese entrepreneur who immigrated over from Germany, is overwhelmingly positive. Trung is an incredible individual who is filled with resilience, passion, and most importantly extremely community driven. He’s not only motivated solely by financial profits and benefits, but has created a positive impact on students alongside their families. His advice to readers is to embrace failure as a learning experience and opportunity. With this, it can help an individual prepare through before starting their own business especially if it’s from scratch, thus it shows both humility and wisdom. From the interview, listening to Trung, I have personally gained a deeper understanding and acknowledgment of how much strength it takes for entrepreneurs to not only chase their dreams and pursue their passions, but to also build, support, and grow systems for their communities.