big fish in a small pond

my father taught me this lesson from early on in my life:

"be a big fish in a small pond - not a small fish in a big pond."

back then, as a kid, i never understood what he meant. ofc it was some metaphorical imagery, but the meaning behind those metaphors - it was a little too much for me.

then, middle school, i got to experience that for the first time in my life.

i went to tran dai nghia high school for the gifted - at that time, it was arguably the #1 middle school in the entire country.

6th grade, i ranked #3 in gpa, so i was selected to be in the "gifted" class the following year. yes, the gifted class in the gifted school. it was such a special moment for me as i'd never thought of being selected to study in such a unique and privileged experience.

but, things started to fall off for me.

7th grade, i was surrounded by the beasts of academics and extracurriculars. one person had been holding the position of "class president" for the past 7 years of his life, one person had been coding since he was 6 years old, one person had been part of the city's math team and was on track to participate in the national team in the upcoming years, another person was a physics mastermind and had been holding chairs in the school's physics club for the past few semesters as one of the youngest members ever.

i felt short (lol literally, too).

i struggled the first half of the first semester. every kid around me had this sort of aura - always volunteering to answer questions, always showing up to classes full of confidence, always willing to take part in activities to light up their aura even more.

that was the moment i decided to look into some sort of "niche" path that light up my aura too - that path that nobody ever looked into or cared about: business, the one skill that i'd honed in ever since i was a kid.

ngl i never realized it was a "skill" or an attribute that i could use to be different, but looking back, ever since i was a kid (like 6-7 years old, no meme intended), i learned how to sell old newspapers and metal tools to collect money. there used to be these ladies who would collect those tools to sell to second-hand or refurbish sites (yah think of it like the middlewomen of collecting stuff). every week, i would collect, on average, 60,000 vnd. not much for an adult lol, but for a 6yo kid at the time, it was the world for me.

business was an activity, but the skill that i'd been proud of was my ability to seek opportunities and come up with amazing ideas anywhere, anytime. over time, i learned that it was a "gift" that god has given me - the gift of being so visionary and ideationary all the time. thanks to that gift, i was able to spot a trend of my friends wanting to use and collect notebooks.

i decided to start a tiny venture with my cousins - finding scrap wood, turning it into wooden covers for the notebooks, drawing and photoshopping the covers, hand-making the products, and hand-delivering them to customers. the first 3 months, we sold more than 50 notebooks and made around 5 million vnd - an insanely huge amount of money for a 12yo kid at the time.

eventually, i became the big fish in a small pond - a pond with only a few number of fish also doing the same thing i was doing: building a small venture, selling items to friends, and collecting money.

after 8 months, our business brought in around 50 milllion vnd (around $2k at the time). though having so much fun making money, i decided to pause to focus on studying.

ever since then, i learned the concept of "big fish in a small pond" way better than anyone else in my class - despite being the small fish in another pond of a different game my first semester in that class. i've been applying that concept and philosophy to so many aspects of my life, from academics to business, from extracurriculars to living styles.

those decisions came to fruition - i got to travel to yale and compete in the finale of an international scholars competition; i got to travel to a few countries with my school for exchange programs; i got accepted to a small boarding school in the usa for high school with an exceptionally high scholarship; and i got to achieve a full-ride for college.

now, i'm in my final year (and final run lol) of college. over the past years in college, i've been super active in building projects and startups, and participating in different schools' entrepreneurship activities. it was that philosophy that drove me into the direction of startups, as the majority of my friends and people around me would never consider being an entrepreneur something serious.

i'm choosing to build in the fintech and banking space - and while so many people around are starting to focus on ai, ai native, ai agents, and ai stuff, i choose a more unsexy, traditional startup industry: banking for international students. partly because i've lived with this problem before being a 14yo kid studying abroad with no guardians or family around, but also i truly believe in the "big fish in a small pond" philosophy that i have kept and practiced over the years - the philosophy that has allowed me to thrive in a condition that could be sort of less resourced, less hyped, but so hyper-focused personally and being away from the trend.

that, for me, is my personal realization and admiration for the concept of "big fish in a small pond." it's still good to acknowledge what the other big ponds are, where they are, and how they operate, but, it's always best to play your own game and be in that small pond where there are not so many fish trying to take over your portion of the pond.

img source: mozaico