An IT Engineer Quits His High-Paying Job to Become a Shoe Shiner - Vietnamese News

Dinh Thanh Phong, a young man from Hanoi, had what many would consider a dream job. For three years, he worked as a chief engineer at a Singaporean IT company, earning thousands of dollars each month. However, despite his professional success, Phong felt something was missing in his life.

Even with a high-paying job and a promising career in the tech industry, Phong wasn't happy. He began to question whether this was the path he truly wanted to follow. After much thought, he made a bold decision that surprised many: He quit his job.

But what would he do next? 

Phong decided to pursue an anunusual passion - working with leather shoes. This dramatic career change might seem strange to some, but for Phong, it was a chance to follow his heart and find true satisfaction in his work.

In October, Mr. Dinh Thanh Phong's, 38 years old, Shoe Shine and Luxury Bag Maintenance Shop in Dong Da district served 5 customers within an hour.

"After nearly four years, I realized that the decision to quit my IT job and become a shoe shiner was the right one," he said.

From a young age, Phong had a special passion for shoes. Phong's mother, Mrs. Nguyen Thuan, recounts that when Phong was 5 years old, she bought him the first pair of shoes. The little boy treasured them like a precious jewel, only walking on the bed to avoid dirtying them. "He absolutely refused to walk on the ground so he could save them to wear for the Lunar New Year," his mother said.

When he was a student, his mother gave him 1.5 million VND (about $59.61) to buy clothes for the whole school year. Phong spent 1.2 million VND ($47.69) on a pair of shoes. Later, when he worked in IT, he always wore trousers, a shirt, and a leather shoes everywhere. Phong didn't trust shoe repair shops to take care of his favorite shoes. So, he bought special shoe care products from foreign countries. He learned how to take care of his shoes by himself.

At the time, Phong saw leather shoes as merely a hobby, while the IT industry was the career that supported him financially. However, the high-paying job did not make him happy. "The demanding work caused my hair to turn grey at 25," he said. The young man planned to change careers when he had the chance. The first step was to transfer to an IT company in Singapore, which allowed him to have Saturdays and Sundays off. With ample free time, Phong often visited coffee. The cafe owner, aware of Phong's passion for leather shoes, suggested he start his own shoe business. "He advised me to sell shoes, but I considered the maintenance professional instead, as it was a specialized field with few skilled practitioners," Phong explained.

In 2017, on weekends, Phong would bring his shoes to a cafe and shine them. When curious people asked, he offered "bring your shoes here and I'll take care of them." From then on, after work in the evenings, Phong would shine shoes to return to the cafe the next day, without charging a fee. Word spread, and strangers started seeking him out. The Hanoi man began seriously considering shoe shining as a way to earn money, and researched the craft on foreign websites. 

He often makes videos and takes photos of the products he maintains, then posts them on social media. The number of online customers who find him is enough to make him feel confident about opening a shop at his home in Long Bien, while still keeping his IT job. Phong also works with a very well-known luxury store in Hanoi, maintaining products for their customers. 

In 2019, he made a big decision.

He quit his office job to become a full-time shoe shiner. At that time, the trend of "wearing a suit while shining shoes" was becoming very popular in Hanoi. To find his own place in the market, he focused on a special group of customers: people who use luxury goods. He closed his shop and asked to work behind the scenes for luxury goods stores. He agreed to get a monthly salary, which allowed him to learn more about the business.

After completing a 3-year vocational program in SPA and Luxury Goods Repair, he gained expertise in fixing and maintaining high-end shoes, bags, and other leather products.

Phong recalls some early challenges in his career, like the time a client asked him to paint the trim of a Louis Vuitton bag. Since he didn't fully understand the bag's construction, it took him an entire month of trial and error to complete the job properly. But over time, he became more skilled, able to restore even the most delicate designer items in just 1-2 days.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Phong's shop had to close for a while as no one was going out. To keep his business afloat,  he and his staff started offering mobile shoe shining services, setting up in the courtyard of a nearby high-end apartment complex. While the luxury shoe shine service was 10 times more expensive than regular street shines, customers gradually began seeking them out, even bringing their car interiors to be cleaned. Phong remains dedicated to his craft, patiently restoring old shoes and bags to pristine condition.  He's proud that his expertise and hard work have allowed him to build a successful small business, even in challenging times.

When her son quit his well-paid, stable job to do a different kind of work that not many people do, Mrs. Thuan felt both proud and worried. "But I understand that success always has a price, so I always support my son," she said.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, customers started coming back, which helped boost Phong's career. In 2022, the social media platform TikTok became very popular, and Phone made a lot of videos advertising his services, including detailed tutorials on how to clean shoes. This attacted many customers. By the Lunar New Year in 2023, his business was booming and he couldn't keep up with all the work. Currently, he has opened two stores and employs more than 10 people, with a monthly revenue of around 400 million VND (about $15895.12)

Looking back, Dinh Thanh Phong believes that passion is an important factor that helps people find ideas and stay motivated in the first few years of starting a business. However, to succeed long-term, one needs patience and to develop enough practical skills through experience.

Mrs. Thuan is secretly happy that her son dared to give up stability to follow his passion. "My husband and I used to just focus on studying hard and getting a stable job, we never left our comfort zone, but my son has done that," Mrs. Thuan said. Now, sometimes customers at the cafe during Covid still come to her son's shop to get their luxury items repaired. But instead of calling him a "shoeshine boy", they call Phong an "artist."

Source: Adapt to the post on "Bài học cuộc sống" on Vnexpress, Oct 19th, 2024, [https://vnexpress.net/ky-su-it-bo-viec-luong-nghin-usd-theo-nghe-danh-giay-4805683.html]