Graduating from a university in 2020, when Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Phuong, like her peers, faced difficulties when seeking a job. There were two choices - either become a part-time bank officer and await the opportunity to be fully employed, or work as a real estate broker with no fixed salary, just commissions based on the number of houses sold.

The former was stable, while the latter was risky and the income would depend on the sales. Phuong liked investments and figures, and vowed to earn as much money as she could to help her mother improve their living standards, so she became a real estate broker.

From Berea in Kentucky, where she was living, Phuong moved to Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to take her first job. After paying rent for the first month, she only had $500 left to survive. She felt pressure to sell houses at all costs.

Struggling to live

The real estate firm where Phuong worked specialized in selling houses to investors. The houses were old and far from the center. Investors bought the houses and re-decorated them for lease or sale to others. 

“There were over 30 workers in my company, and there were only two women,” she recalled.

Most of her calls to clients were refused, but Phuong never thought of giving up the job. While her co-workers made 30-50 calls a day, Phuong made 100 calls. One month later, after many refusals, Phuong drew up a list of potential clients and their tastes, and called them when she had products fitting their taste.

Recalling the difficult days, Phuong said she tried to save every penny. She had to eat a lot of white rice and sometimes only had one meal a day.

Instead of taking a bus to the office and paying $96 for bus tickets a month, she rented a bike for $17.

In the second month at work, Phuong began selling her first houses. After three months, she became the saleswoman with the highest revenue.

Asked about her know-how, Phuong said she considers clients as friends. “I took care of customers and tried to understand what they wanted, and I was always honest,” she said.

With good performance at work, Phuong earned enough money and remitted money to her mother in Vietnam.

However, her mother was then diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer.

“The sky seemed to fall under my feet,” she recalled. “What do I live for?”

She vowed to work harder and earn more money to remit to Vietnam to fund her mother’s treatment.

Phuong managed to find the name and email address of the physician in charge of treating her mother – Doctor Le Trung Tho. She emailed the doctor and begged him to save her mother. His reply came just 1-2 hours later. 

Tho promised to introduce her to the best doctors treating cancer in Hanoi. Luckily, her mother recovered well.

Phuong said she has always made every effort to study because she understood that it was the only way to escape a hard life.

“I was not the most clever student, but I was surely the most diligent. When I was a fourth grader at a school in the village, I began dreaming of studying abroad,” Phuong said. “I have no time to mourn over difficulties in my life."

She bought her first house for $500,000 to lease. After that, she joined with a friend to buy 19 apartments in one building, and then bought a house for herself. At the age of 25, Phuong is the co-owner of 21 apartments.

She is now employed as a senior manager at a company providing secured loans.

Nguyen Thao