EARN YOUR FIRST 1 BILLION VND FROM BECOMING A WRITER, KOL AND WRITING JOB…
….That’s my story, Gari, a pen name that means “Little Warrior” in Egyptian.
For a girl who is not outstandingly beautiful, not born into a powerful family, and does not have any relationships, perhaps, I am a person who deviates from the standard “First relationship – Second money” when starting a career. I never thought I could earn 1 billion VND so quickly, when I turned 23.
I started my writing career at the age of 9, when I first submitted a rough essay to a newspaper called Under the School of Dong Nai province. The royalties for the article were only 50,000 VND, but for me, that was a huge motivation and a milestone that nurtured my passion for writing from then on.
When I was 11 years old, I began to write the first pages of a book, on A4 paper, and then sent my first works to the publisher, but what I received in return was silence, without any response. A dozen years ago, few people had the opportunity to use the Internet and delivery services were as developed as they are now, so I had to accept that the opportunity would come late, but I did not let go.
At the age of 17, I passed the entrance exam to the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, secretly rode a motorbike to Saigon and started a new life in the city, sharing a room with my sister. It was not until a few weeks later that I dared to come home and confess. At this time, I finished my first literary work by typing on the computer, then 13 publishers rejected me… until Phuong Nam Books read the manuscript and decided to sponsor the printing of this book because they encouraged me: “I see something in you, I believe that one day it will shine, the little girl of one day will grow up”. It seemed like a boost, but that book became a “dead book” when it only sold 1,500 copies.
After that, I still regularly published 1-2 books every year, simply because life had given me too many experiences, losses in love, family, life and work. Every day, I regularly went to school, went to work at the company, and slept only about 3-4 hours because at that time I was young, did not know how to cherish health, and did not know what fatigue was, so I just kept working hard. To earn money, I went from writing books, writing stories, writing advertising articles, to doing internships, working as a copywriter at advertising and media companies, Mobiistar phone company, PR specialist at VNG corporation, gradually moving up to Project Manager of First News book company…
I moved 3-4 places continuously, simply because… I lacked money and was afraid of wasting gas to go to school & work. Sometimes I rented a dilapidated hotel, sometimes I rented a place in a crime-ridden area on a street in Phu Nhuan district, surrounded by four walls, with no light at all, sometimes I rented a very “heaven and earth” apartment in district 11…
At that time, I did not have an outstanding appearance, just looked bright, and had a quiet personality, so I was often misunderstood as “unapproachable”, “snobbish”, so no one dared to love me, friends did not dare to talk to me, so the person I talked to the most after my family was… my boss and business partners at that time.
Until 5 years later, when I was 22 years old, I had published 5 books, “Lost or never” was reprinted after only 10 days and “Just smile, ignore life” suddenly became a phenomenon among young people, especially girls, in just the first 2 weeks, “Just smile, ignore life” was published. life” had more than 6,000 pre-orders, then 13,000 copies. Then, 10 of my books were published, reprinted and continued to reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands until now. At the age of 22, I had about 500 million in hand. After that, I continued to be featured in a series of American and Canadian newspapers such as NBC2, The Culture Magazine, Yahoo! Finance…
At the age of 23, I started my first company, GARI Content Agency, the business was favorable despite many obstacles in the legal field because at that time, I was not good at accounting, too young, did not have much experience, but all of that still helped me have a decent income. At the end of 2018, when I was 23 years old, I had my first 1 billion in hand. But gradually, I invested that money in stocks, plus start-up projects of friends, so the amount of 1 billion came to me very quickly, but also very gently “flew” away because I quickly invested my money in other projects. I remember, at that time I had enough money to buy a Mercedes but did not decide to buy it because after buying it, it was like “eating dirt”, not enough money to buy a house or survive in Saigon.
However, life is not like a dream, after 2 trips to the US to visit relatives in 2019, because of Covid-19, I started to “go bankrupt” because my partner in the Hospitality industry kept terminating the contract because he also went bankrupt, so I was unable to pay for employees and offices. Not only that, investments in start-up companies of friends also failed because of Covid-19. I went from having money to buy a Mercedes to
empty handed in a snap.
At that time, I started over again, working hard to find more partners to work with, learning about various types of investments such as stocks – bonds – cryptocurrencies, doing the smallest things, after 2 years, in 2021, I paid off all my debts, earned back large sums of money, signed 2 more contracts sponsored by publishers to print books, wrote the 13th book, continued to write with partners in the financial industry such as banks, cryptocurrency projects, continued to invest financially.
For me, it was an extremely meaningful journey, giving me many lessons and a fulfilling life when my passion took flight. Currently, although I have been living and working in the US for 4 months, I still maintain writing work for partners (also in the financial industry) in Vietnam and improve my daily investment work. I realized that as long as you know how to correct your mistakes, always maintain a positive spirit and Be positive, always believe that “you can do it” with your passion, everything will surely come true. My motto in life has always been: “No matter how life changes, live a kind life” – Be kind in taking care of yourself, in relationships and always be kind and grateful for life.
| Gari Nguyen | #Gari
PROFILE GARI NGUYEN
Real name: Nguyen Thi Yen Phuong, born in 1995.
Gari, in Egyptian means “Little Fighter”.
Wrote 10 books for young people. Reported by more than 140 American and Canadian newspapers such as: NBC2, MarketWatch, MorningStar, Culture Magazine.
From the age of 18 – 10 books gradually appeared on the shelves: Close your eyes, see the whole sky (2014), Broken age 20 (2015), Have existed, have loved (2015), Is it lost or never had? (2016), Just smile, let life be (2017), Try Love (2018), Listen to Me (2018), What Does Growing Up Take Away (2018), Life Is Short, Don’t Cry, Put On Lipstick (2019), See You in Another Life (2020).
Gari hopes to inspire readers with a realistic, flexible, and optimistic fighting spirit despite many setbacks. The characters in Gari’s works are young people who have been in the depths of despair but still keep hoping.
Dr. Tran Vinh Du – Partner of Ernst & Young Vietnam, Former President of Vietnam-USA Vocational College (VATC), President of the International Center of Broward College (USA) in Vietnam commented: “I belong to a different generation, very different from Gari. The 7x generation often thinks of the 9x generation as if they are frivolous, impulsive, and pragmatic. However, Gari shows that her way of thinking is very different from that of the 7x generation. Her book is like a door that helps even people like us understand what the 9x think and thereby appreciate this pivotal generation of the nation more”.
In 2018, Gari was in the Top 3 Vietnamese authors on Facebook ranked by Social Bakers after Nguyen Nhat Anh and Trang Ha. In 2020 & 2021, she still maintained this title alongside authors Nguyen Nhat Anh and Gao.
Currently, Gari is a freelance writer, investor and founder of GARI Content Agency
• Has 385,380 followers on Gari Fanpage, 24,000 followers on Instagram, 10,500 followers on TikTok.
• Has been mentioned in 140 American and Canadian newspapers such as NBC2, MorningStar, Culture Magazine, etc.
Career journey.
2012 – 2013: Graduated with 12 years of Excellent students. Graduated with Excellent high school. Won 3rd prize in the Dong Nai Provincial English Excellent Student Competition. Passed the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Block D with 24 points and Passed the University of Law, Faculty of Criminal Law, Block A with 18.5 points.
2013 – 2017: Working as a senior copywriter, Project Manager. Become the youngest Project Manager of First News Book Publishing Company
2018: Established the start-up company Gari Content Agency (Founder & CEO). Worked and collaborated with many companies and corporations in the Content Marketing field: T&A Ogilvy, Publicis, Phibious, First News, Heineken,…
2019: Additional activities in the field of financial investment.
2020: Lecturer of Vietgrow, Droom.vn, Speaker at Tedx Talks, Moments of Life – HTV9, Vietnam Web Summit.
2021: Continue to maintain book publishing and financial investment. Participate as a speaker at Van Lang University, National Economics University…
Currently, Gari is living and working in the US, Gari’s main job is still writing, writing books and financial investment.
Having “conquered” awards in the advertising and communications industry: Top 9 Young Marketers Warm – Up Marathon (2014), Top 7 Vietnam Young Spikes (2015), Top 14 Vietnam Young Lions (2016).
Has been and is collaborating to become an influencer for many brands: Heineken, Shopee, Laneige, Grab, Fahasa, Tiki, Epson, Soy Secretz, FreeC, The Coffee House, Lip On Lip (Rohto), Hiruscar, Shopee, Fahasa, Lazada, Nike,…
Other interesting things that few people know about Gari:
Having achieved an excellent Bartender certificate at Netspace center
Having achieved a Certified Digital Marketing Professional certificate from the Digital Marketing Institute.
Graduated