Moved to Vietnam with $6,000
The Story
After graduating from McGill, Trung moved to Vietnam in his early twenties with about $6,000. His motivation was partly to maximize his partying budget.
He couldn’t even get a job teaching English. Employers preferred Caucasian instructors, so despite being Vietnamese-Canadian, he was turned away from the most obvious expat job.
He ended up working as an equity analyst at a Vietnamese securities brokerage while pursuing his real passion: comedy screenwriting. He spent two years developing a script. He co-wrote it with Eric Gershoni and Michael Gray, describing it as “The Fugitive meets Harold & Kumar” set in Southeast Asia. They received guidance from Vincent Ngo, who wrote the Will Smith movie Hancock.
Fox International optioned the script. Then it got stuck in production hell and was never made.
Lesson for Creators
The years that look wasted in hindsight are building something you can’t see yet. Trung’s Vietnam stint gave him screenwriting skills (story structure, punchlines, tension and release) that became his hidden advantage on Twitter a decade later. It also gave him the source material for “Early Risers,” a TV series he later produced. Nothing is wasted if you keep creating.
Related
- Moved to Rural Japan for Love — Moving across the world for personal reasons and finding unexpected professional growth along the way
- Fox Optioned His Script. It Never Got Made. — The direct continuation of the Vietnam years, where the screenplay he wrote there entered production hell
- Quit Banking, Got Sued, Paid €15,000 — Leaving a stable career path for the unknown, risking financial security to pursue something more meaningful