Starting a business

The class reunion is moving. Twelve years have flown by since the friends graduated. Each has a family, a situation, a livelihood and concerns of their own, and they chatter away without stopping. They begin with college romances and gradually turn to starting businesses.

Bình swirls his glass of beer and says:

"At this age I know that the dreams of our youth were romantic, but not realistic at all."

Lân says:

"Back then I planned that within ten years I'd have a chain of farm supply stores. I'm still a technical staff member at a company."

Hương adds:

"Pretty much none of us reached our goals. So why on earth has that bastard Bằng done so well? Make him tell us."

Everyone turns to Bằng. Bằng says shyly:

"Friends, when we graduated we had a party. That day you each told your plans for starting a business, each one different, all very grand. I was lost and didn't understand any of it. But I vaguely felt that something was wrong with your plans, because I heard only what would benefit you and nothing about what you would do for others.

So I first thought about how to benefit the world. In the end I took on processing plastic waste to help protect the environment. I studied more chemistry to understand plastics. Then I took many samples of plastic waste, analyzed what they were made of and looked for ways to recycle them. It turned out plastic waste is not simple at all, which is why few people enter this field. There are so many kinds of plastic, with different chemical formulas, and printing ink contaminates them, so they are very hard to process. Once I understood all the problems of plastic waste and had worked out a recycling process, I called for investors. Capital was small at first and the operation small, but the direction was right, so the company slowly grew.

Now when you walk down the street you hardly see plastic waste, and walking along the shore you hardly see any, because my company's demand for it is so strong. Many people make a living collecting it and cleaning it to sell to my company. The products made from plastic waste are so many that they have beaten back imports of new plastic pellets and cut the country's imports.

My only dream was to benefit the world, so I chose environmental protection, and I never expected life to give me so much in return."

The friends all cry out:

"Why didn't you ask us to put in money back then?"

"Because I heard you all had such lofty plans."

"Why, when you heard how wrong we were, didn't you scold us, so you wouldn't be rich all alone now? Boo hoo..."

Everyone has to start something when they enter life, but the motives and goals differ, and so do the results. Most people think of their own benefit when they start out, and few choose the goal of benefiting the world. The law of cause and effect is fair, and a person with an unselfish heart is repaid in full.

If the whole of society started businesses with unselfish motives, the country would advance by leaps and bounds. Relations between people would be good too, and the marketplace would no longer be seen as a battlefield. All businesses would naturally support each other and no longer compete with each other for gain.

With an unselfish motive, we are devoted in our research and exploration and often discover original things. Many famous people became so only because they began their careers with a dream of benefiting the world.