Introduction
In today’s digital age, we’re bombarded with stories of overnight success. Tales of young entrepreneurs striking gold with a single idea or investors doubling their wealth in a few months are all too common on social media. However, beneath these sensational headlines lies a fundamental truth: true, lasting financial success is neither quick nor easy.
In this blog, I’ll share my personal journey from humble beginnings to financial independence, highlighting why building wealth is a long-term endeavor. Whether you’re just starting or looking to elevate your financial status, understanding that wealth takes time and effort is crucial for achieving sustainable success.
My Journey: From Humble Beginnings to Financial Independence
At 17, I left home with big dreams but limited resources. By 19, I was fully responsible for my finances. My early years were fraught with challenges. Without a work permit in the Netherlands, I took on various under-the-table jobs to make ends meet—waitressing, babysitting, cleaning, farming, and even illegal weed harvesting. My modest goal during those times was to save €500 for the rainy days.
It wasn’t until I landed a legitimate job after completing my bachelor’s degree that I began to see a glimmer of financial stability. Transitioning into white-collar roles in marketing and campaign management, I eventually ventured into entrepreneurship, owning several businesses.
Could I have envisioned becoming a millionaire in my early thirties, especially in the Netherlands? Honestly, no. While I dreamed of a comfortable life, the idea of achieving millionaire status through entrepreneurship seemed far-fetched. I wasn’t a standout student, spoke Dutch poorly, and faced legal obstacles regarding my stay in the Netherlands. These hurdles made such a dream seem improbable.
I share this not to boast, but to illustrate that success is achievable even without extraordinary advantages. No matter where you start, perseverance and determination can help you forge your path to success.
But this also does not mean we should underestimate or take away the credit from those who have a better start or stronger foundation. Anyone who has achieved success understands that while an advantageous start or a bit of luck can help initially, everyone must eventually face challenges and prove themselves.
Those with a better start might not have to worry about money from the outset, but they still face the difficult task of learning resilience, hard work, and patience later in life. Growing up with everything at your fingertips can create a harsh reality when you discover that success requires more than just having resources.
I’ve experienced both sides of the spectrum. I was born into a wealthy family, enjoying a life of luxury that others could only dream of. My father was a successful businessman, and while other kids my age—my classmates and neighbors—were learning essential life skills like cooking, cleaning, and helping with daily chores, I was sheltered from those responsibilities. My world revolved around studying, drawing, and indulging in a privileged lifestyle.
But everything changed when I left Vietnam to live on my own. My father’s business went bankrupt, and soon after, he passed away from a series of strokes, leaving our family burdened with an overwhelming mountain of debt. Suddenly, I found myself at rock bottom, ill-prepared for the harsh realities of life. The skills I had neglected to learn as a child became crucial, and I had to acquire them quickly, paying a steep price for my earlier ignorance. This dramatic shift forced me to adapt, building resilience, self-reliance, and determination in the face of adversity.
In the end, success is a fair game when viewed from this perspective. Regardless of our starting points, we should celebrate each other’s achievements rather than undermine them or dismiss the hard work involved. Every journey to success is unique, and the effort behind it deserves recognition and respect.
Now, I no longer sweat over making a few thousand euros like I did in my early twenties. Experience has made making money feel easier, but achieving great wealth and success is never simple, no matter how experienced you are. It always requires hard work, consistency, resilience, and patience. Anyone promising you overnight success or big gains in just a month or two should have their integrity questioned.
Wisdom from the World’s Wealthiest
To underscore this point, consider the wisdom of some of the world’s most successful individuals. Their views on the importance of hard work, time, and patience resonate with my experiences:
- Warren Buffett (Investor, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway): “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
- Bill Gates (Co-founder of Microsoft): “Patience is a key element of success.”
- Jeff Bezos (Founder of Amazon): “Overnight success stories take a long time. You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.”
- Steve Jobs (Co-founder of Apple): “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”
- Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX): “It’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
- Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group): “There is no quick way to success. It takes years of hard work, dedication, and determination to build a successful business.”
- Oprah Winfrey (Media mogul, founder of Harpo Productions): “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”
- Mark Zuckerberg (Co-founder of Facebook): “Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. But it takes time to build a brand.”
- Jack Ma (Founder of Alibaba Group): “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure. Remember, a great company is built on years of hard work.”
- Larry Page (Co-founder of Google): “Lots of companies don’t succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future. But that’s not just about predicting it; it’s about working for it consistently and patiently.”
The Dangers of the Quick Riches Mentality
The reason I felt compelled to write this blog is that I’ve noticed a worrying trend, especially among younger people. There’s a growing belief that wealth can be achieved quickly and easily, without much effort. The internet is full of stories that make it seem like everyone is getting rich overnight—NFTs sold for millions, skyrocketing crypto investments, and meme coins making headlines. You can follow my blog series here for all types of investment mistakes I have made.
These rare occasions make headlines precisely because they’re uncommon. If they were typical, they wouldn’t be newsworthy. Yet, they create the illusion that making money is fast and easy. I once met a young couple who were expecting their second child. The husband took all their savings and invested it into VeChain, convinced it would continue to rise and that he could cash out soon. His wife was understandably upset and furious that he had invested all their savings without consulting her first. Unfortunately, the market crashed in early 2021, and it didn’t recover until 2024. Sometimes, I wonder if they’re still together and if he learned his lesson.
Another friend borrowed money from a short-loan institution to invest in crypto. He was confident because he had already made some profits. His plan was to use crypto to afford the down payment on a house. I wonder if he managed to get out before the crash.
I also know people who lured others into a crypto pyramid scam, as well as those who, driven by the desire for quick and easy money, were willing to invest millions. The former ended up disappearing from all types of social media, trying to erase their traces, and now face ongoing lawsuits, dealing with constant anxiety attacks. The latter lost millions of their hard-earned money, along with the savings of their spouses, siblings, and parents. Surprisingly, many victims are experienced professionals or successful entrepreneurs, not just naive novices.
I’ve also met many people who wanted to start an e-commerce or dropshipping business during its peak in 2020. They saw others making huge profits and thought they could quickly achieve a successful business with $5k-$10k in net profit per month after just a few weeks. They assumed that setting up a website, buying products from China, and having them shipped directly to customers was all it took. Easy, right? Not quite.
In any quick-riches domain, the pitfalls are similar and lead to misguided decisions and unrealistic expectations. Here are some specific dangers of this mentality:
- High Risk of Financial Loss: Chasing fast money often involves high-risk investments or ventures that promise quick returns but lack stability. This can lead to significant financial losses, especially when individuals invest without proper knowledge or understanding of the risks involved.
- Lack of Long-Term Planning: Those focused on quick riches may neglect the importance of long-term financial planning. This mindset can result in poor financial decisions that prioritize immediate gains over sustainable growth, leading to financial instability in the future.
- Increased Vulnerability to Scams: The desire for quick wealth makes people more susceptible to scams and fraudulent schemes. Scammers often target individuals with promises of easy money, leading to potential loss of hard-earned savings.
- Unrealistic Expectations: The mentality fosters unrealistic expectations about how wealth is created. When quick success doesn’t materialize, it can lead to frustration, disappointment, and a sense of failure, causing people to give up on sound financial practices.
- Neglect of Personal Development: Building true wealth involves acquiring skills, knowledge, and experience. The quick riches mentality often overlooks the importance of personal and professional development, which are crucial for long-term success.
- Emotional Stress and Instability: The pursuit of quick wealth can create emotional stress, as the constant pressure to achieve rapid success can lead to anxiety and instability. The inevitable setbacks that come with high-risk ventures can exacerbate this stress.
- Short-Term Focus: A focus on immediate rewards can lead to decisions that are not in one’s best interest long-term. For example, selling off assets or taking on unnecessary debt in the hope of quick gains can be detrimental to financial health.
- Ethical Compromises: In the rush to make quick money, individuals might compromise on ethics, engaging in dishonest or even illegal activities. This can have long-lasting repercussions on one’s reputation and legal standing.
- Missed Opportunities for Sustainable Growth: By focusing on short-term gains, individuals often miss out on opportunities that could lead to more substantial, sustainable wealth in the long run. For example, they might avoid investing in education, starting a business, or other long-term growth strategies.
- Dependency on Luck: Those with a quick riches mentality often rely on luck rather than strategy and hard work. While luck can play a role in success, it’s not a reliable foundation for building lasting wealth.
Often, none of these individuals take the time to learn and analyze the markets. Instead, they rely on advice from YouTubers, financial influencers, or so-called ‘guru’ friends, seeking quick and easy results. They chase financial gain without putting in the necessary hard work. But the truth is, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if you get lucky once, that luck won’t last. Sustainable success demands effort, knowledge, and perseverance.
The Truth About Success
To achieve significant financial success, you must be prepared to learn, fail, and invest time—this isn’t advice that everyone wants to hear. Many people don’t want to accept that it might take months or even years to reach their goals.
The internet makes many success stories seem like they happened overnight, but that’s far from the truth. Take MrBeast on YouTube, for example. People think he was always successful, with millions of views from the start. In reality, MrBeast started his YouTube channel at the age of 13 in 2012. For years, he produced content with little recognition. It wasn’t until 2017—over five years of relentless uploading, learning about the platform’s algorithm, and refining his content—that he began gaining significant traction.
Elon Musk is often seen as a sudden tech and business mogul, but his success came after years of hard work, early failures, and intense personal investment in ventures like Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla. Musk’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance and long-term vision.
Similarly, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, is sometimes viewed as an overnight success. However, his journey to success was anything but quick. Durov began his entrepreneurial journey in 2006, faced immense pressure that forced him to flee Russia, lived in various countries for his safety, and finally launched Telegram in 2013. It took years before Telegram became the major success it is today.
You see, the journey to financial success is neither short nor quick, despite what some might believe. While success is defined differently for everyone, one universal truth remains: achieving it requires consistency, patience, and hard work.
The bigger the success you want to achieve, the more effort you have to put in. As the saying goes, “Bigger waves need stronger captains.”
So, while it’s tempting to chase quick money, remember that true, sustainable wealth takes time. Start small, stay consistent, and embrace the journey—because that’s where the real growth happens.
Conclusion
Achieving financial success is a marathon, not a sprint. It demands patience, dedication, and a willingness to learn and grow over time. While the lure of quick riches is strong, remember that sustainable wealth is built through consistent effort and smart decision-making.
Every small step you take today lays the foundation for your future success. Embrace the journey, celebrate your progress, and stay committed to your goals. Ultimately, the time and effort you invest will bring not only financial rewards but also profound personal fulfillment.
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius
