[Reading level: B2 – Upper Intermediate]
Hanoi – Despite being the chief engineer at a Singaporean IT company, earning several thousand USD, Đinh Thanh Phong still felt unhappy. So, he decided to quit his job to “play” with leather shoes.
One afternoon in October, within an hour at his store in Đống Đa district, 38-year-old Đinh Thanh Phong welcomed five customers who came to have their shoes polished and designer bags maintained. “After nearly four years, I believe my decision to leave IT for shoe polishing was the right one,” he said.
Since childhood, Phong had a special passion for shoes. Nguyen Thuan (his mother) recalled how, at five years old, her son was first given a pair of shoes. The boy treated them like a treasure, only wearing them while walking around on the bed. “He refused to wear them outside, saving them for the Lunar New Year,” she said.
As a college student, his mother gave him 1.5 million VND to buy clothes for the school year, but Phong spent 1.2 million on a single pair of shoes. Later, as an IT professional, he always appeared everywhere dressed in trousers, a shirt, and leather shoes.
Not trusting anyone else to handle his beloved shoes, Phong ordered shoe polish, soap, and brushes from abroad and taught himself how to care for them.
Back then, Phong viewed leather shoes simply as a hobby, while IT was his main source of income. However, his high-paying job didn’t bring him happiness.
“The work was so stressful that my hair turned gray at 25,” he said. Phong started planning a career change as soon as an opportunity arose. His first step was moving to a Singaporean IT company, where he had weekends off.
With more free time, Phong often went to coffee shops. The shop owner, aware of his passion for leather shoes, suggested he start a business. “He advised me to sell shoes, but I thought about shoe care because there weren’t many professionals in that field,” Phong said.
In 2017, on weekends, Phong would bring his shoes to the café to polish. Curious people would ask about it, and he’d offer to “take care of their shoes.” From then on, he spent his days working and his evenings polishing shoes to return them to customers at the café, without charging a fee. With words of mouth, and soon even strangers started seeking him out. Phong began seriously considering shoe care as a way to earn money, researching professional techniques on international websites.
He frequently filmed videos and took photos of the shoes he restored, posting them on social media. The growing number of online customers gave him the confidence to open a shop at his home in Long Bien, while still maintaining his IT job. Phong also partnered with a renowned luxury store in Hanoi, providing maintenance services for their customers.
In 2019, he decided to quit IT altogether and devote himself full-time to shoe care. At that time, the trend of “wearing suits while polishing shoes” was booming in Hanoi. To carve out his own niche, Phong targeted a specific market: luxury brand users. He closed his store and proposed working behind the scenes for high-end stores, earning a monthly salary while learning more.
From being a chief engineer with weekends off, Phong now worked without any days off. “I felt so confined that I had to take a road trip once a month,” he recalled.
Caring for items worth tens or even hundreds of millions of VND was stressful. Once, he cut the wrong size leather strap for a Gucci bag or made a mistake on a customer’s Chanel bag, which he had to compensate for. “I was so anxious I couldn’t sleep. Even when I did, I dreamt about my mistakes,” Phong remembered.
However, he accepted these challenges as part of the learning process, saying, “Everything requires a price.” Phong still recalls when a VIP customer asked him to paint the edges of a Louis Vuitton bag. Not understanding the bag’s structure well, he had to sand and paint it over the course of a month. Later, with experience, he could do it in just a day or two.
Three years of working in high-end product care gave him valuable experience in repairing and maintaining shoes and leather bags. He also learned how to run a store, understood the tastes of luxury product lovers, and gained marketing skills to attract customers.
From April to September 2020, Phong worked for a handmade leather goods store to deepen his knowledge of leather materials.
Nearly four years of learning and working gave Phong the confidence to start his own business. But just as he was starting out, Covid-19 hit. His store opened, but he and his staff spent the entire day without a single customer. “If no one’s going out, who would need their shoes polished?” he recalled.
The pressure of making a living reminded Phong that he couldn’t just sit idly by. When lockdown restrictions were eased, he and his staff headed to a friend’s café in a luxury apartment complex and started polishing shoes.
Hoang The Manh, 34, one of Phong’s employees, said, “At first, I felt a bit embarrassed, but Phong was calm and persistent.”
Phong charged 100,000 VND per pair—10 times more than street-side shoeshiners—making it even harder to attract customers. But every weekend, Phong and his team sat there, meticulously transforming old shoes to look brand new. Slowly, customers began to take notice. “Gradually, people even started driving their cars over to bring their shoes to me for maintenance,” he said.
On weekdays, Phong handled online orders. Some customers requested house calls for shoe repairs. On one occasion, after traveling nearly 20 kilometers, he realized the shoes were too damaged to fix. The customer let him leave without a word of thanks or even covering his travel costs. Another time, a customer called him after a late-night shift to pick up shoes for repair. Despite the cold winter night, Phong got out of his warm bed to collect them.
Seeing her son leave a high-paying, stable job to painstakingly build a clientele in a field that few pursued, Phong’s mother, Nguyen Thuan, felt both concern and sympathy. “But I understand that success always comes with a price, so I’ve always supported him,” she said.
As the pandemic passed, customer demand began to recover, providing a boost to Phong’s career. In 2022, with the rise of TikTok, Phong actively created promotional videos showcasing his services and offering professional shoe cleaning tips, attracting a large number of customers. By the Lunar New Year of 2023, his revenue skyrocketed, and he was overwhelmed with work.
Currently, Phong operates two stores, providing jobs for more than 10 employees, with a monthly revenue of around 400 million VND.
Looking back on his journey, Đinh Thanh Phong believes that passion is crucial, helping people come up with ideas and stay motivated during the first two or three years of a startup. However, to go the distance, patience and the accumulation of practical skills through real experience are necessary.
Phong’s mother, Thuan, never said it out loud, but deep down she was happy that her son dared to give up stability to pursue his passion. “My husband and I followed the old path of studying hard and finding a stable job. We never dared to step out of our comfort zone, but my son did,” she said.
Now, some of the customers who visited the café during the Covid days still seek out Phong’s shop for luxury item maintenance. But instead of calling him a “shoeshiner,” they now refer to Phong as an “artist.”
Source: https://vnexpress.net/ky-su-it-bo-viec-luong-nghin-usd-theo-nghe-danh-giay-4805683.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawF_4FlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHX74vY9pOcYnu_ipybNnFKVEhzk63AXsrSAke41q2HaCVxHOeBYSkXfGfA_aem_YTzIGp5ZGDrE8rcyZ55LKw
WORD BANK:
chief engineer /tʃiːf ˌen.dʒɪˈnɪr/ (n): kỹ sư trưởng
leather /ˈleð.ɚ/ (n): da
polish /ˈpɑː.lɪʃ/ (v): đánh bóng, đánh giày
designer /dɪˈzaɪ.nɚ/ [B2] (adj): thuộc về hàng hiệu
treasure /ˈtreʒ.ɚ/ [B2] (n): báu vật
curious /ˈkjʊr.i.əs/ [B1] (adj): tò mò
words of mouth (idiom): lời nói truyền miệng
renowned /rɪˈnɑʊnd/ (adj): có tiếng
luxury store (n): cửa hàng đồ hiệu
altogether /ˌɑːl.təˈɡeð.ɚ/ [B2] (adv): hoàn toàn, hẳn
carve out a niche /nɪtʃ/ (v): tạo ra một chỗ đứng riêng
high-end /ˌhaɪˈend/ (adj): cao cấp
confined /kənˈfɑɪnd/ (adj): bức bối
strap /stræp/ (n): dây, quai đeo
compensate for sth /ˈkɑːm.pən.seɪt/ [C1] (v): đền cái gì đó
edge /edʒ/ (n): cạnh, rìa
sand /sænd/ (v): mài
deepen one’s knowledge (v): tìm hiểu sâu hơn
sit/stand idly by /ˈaɪd.li/ (v): ngồi yên, đứng yên (không chịu thay đổi)
ease sth /iːz/ (v): nới lỏng cái gì đó
embarrassed /ɪmˈber.əst/ [B1] (adj): xấu hổ
persistent /pɚˈsɪs.tənt/ (adj): kiên trì
street-side shoeshiner (n): người đánh giày dạo
meticulous /məˈtɪk.jə.ləs/ [C2] (adj): tỉ mỉ
painstakingly /ˈpeɪnzˌteɪ.kɪŋ.li/ (adv): tỉ mỉ, siêng năng
clientele /ˌkliː.ɑːnˈtel/ (n): nhóm khách hàng
revenue /ˈrev.ə.nuː/ [C1] (n): doanh thu
skyrocket /ˈskaɪˌrɑː.kɪt/ (v): bùng nổ, tăng mạnh
accumulation /əˌkjum·jəˈleɪ·ʃən/ (n): sự tích lũy
deep down [B2] (idiom): sâu thẳm (trong tâm trí)
step out of one’s comfort zone (idiom): bước ra khỏi vùng an toàn
ỦNG HỘ READ TO LEAD!
Chào bạn! Có thể bạn chưa biết, Read to Lead là một trang giáo dục phi lợi nhuận với mục đích góp phần phát triển cộng đồng người học tiếng Anh tại Việt Nam. Chúng tôi không yêu cầu người đọc phải trả bất kỳ chi phí nào để sử dụng các sản phẩm của mình để mọi người đều có cơ hội học tập tốt hơn. Tuy nhiên, nếu bạn có thể, chúng tôi mong nhận được sự hỗ trợ tài chính từ bạn để duy trì hoạt động của trang và phát triển các sản phẩm mới.
Bạn có thể ủng hộ chúng tôi qua 1 trong 2 cách dưới đây.
– Cách 1: Chuyển tiền qua tài khoản Momo.
Số điện thoại 0947.886.865 (Chủ tài khoản: Nguyễn Tiến Trung)
Nội dung chuyển tiền: Ủng hộ Read to Lead
hoặc
– Cách 2: Chuyển tiền qua tài khoản ngân hàng.
Ngân hàng VIB chi nhánh Hải Phòng
Số tài khoản: 012704060048394 (Chủ tài khoản: Nguyễn Tiến Trung)
Nội dung chuyển tiền: Ủng hộ Read to Lead
Lớp luyện thi IELTS online
Bạn đang có nhu cầu thi chứng chỉ IELTS cho đầu vào đại học, đi du học, xin việc hay xin cư trú và đang phân vân chưa biết học ở đâu?
Nếu bạn đang tìm kiếm dịch vụ luyện thi IELTS online với giáo viên uy tín và chất lượng, cũng như học phí phải chăng, thì thầy Trung và Cô Thủy (Admin và dịch giả chính của Read to Lead) có thể là một lựa chọn phù hợp dành cho bạn.
Hãy liên hệ (nhắn tin) tới trang Facebook cá nhân của mình (https://www.facebook.com/nguyen.trung.509) để tìm hiểu về lớp học và được tư vấn cũng như được học thử nha!
