Doan Nguyen Duc in Vietnam is a well known businessman, but he is better known in Vietnam as president of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club, and is called ‘bau Duc’ (soccer boss), or Boss Duc.

Nguyen Tu Quang, CEO of BKAV

Meanwhile, Quang, who runs a large technology firm, has a passion for technology.

The price for passion

“My passion costs me a lot of money. I have spent no less than VND2 trillion for my passion over the last nearly 20 years of developing the football club,” Duc said at the opening of the 100th coffee shop of Ong Bau (Promoter) coffee chain some days ago.

VND2 trillion is a huge amount of money, and the annual spending of VND100 billion a year is equal to the lifetime assets of other businessmen.

What about Quang? He said at a meeting with the local press that over the last 10 years since the day he decided to make smartphones, BKAV has spent VND1 trillion. This means that the corporation spends VND100 billion a year on research and development of Bphone, which he calls the ‘pride of Vietnamese technology’.

However, VND100 billion is not all what Duc and Quang have to pay for their passions. They also have to bear pressure from the public and face doubts.

Stubborn men with dreams

Doan Nguyen Duc, chair of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, and Nguyen Tu Quang, CEO of BKAV Corporation, each have spent VND100 billion a year over the last two decades on their respective passions.

In 2015, several people around Quang were interviewed by Forbes and described Quang as a man who has extreme passion for technology and cherishes dreams to a near-disease like level.

He nourishes aspirations more romantically than any romantic person who devotes themselves to technology.

Quang has the strong belief that Vietnamese people can create products that can compete equally or even have higher quality than products created by the world’s leading technology firms.

Quang has never given up the strong belief even though when the public makes sarcastic remarks about his products, from BKAV anti-virus software to smartphones.

“Vietnamese brands are always put at a disadvantage because they are not highly appreciated in the global technology community. However, I will develop our Vietnamese brand all over the globe and change the way the world thinks about Vietnam,” Quang said, adding that he wants to create a smartphone industry in Vietnam that is not just for BKAV products.

As for Duc, he also cherishes the dream of developing Vietnam’s football and making it have "international stature".

From his buying Kiatisak and building the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Academy to train young footballers, to his seeking a chief coach for the national soccer team and paying the coach with his own money, Duc has shown how strong his enthusiasm is for Vietnam’s football.

Chi Mai

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