01 · Take a seat and enjoy your [journey in a] train

the train may bring you to the CTO position

If you've never taken a train before, give it a try. I mean the kind that runs on old-fashioned tracks, like in the days of steam engines, not the high-speed electric trains we have now.

The feeling of your body swaying in all directions - up, down, left, right - with your ears filled with the clattering and clunking sounds of the wheels hitting the rails, and the loud clicks as the train crosses the slightly misaligned stones beside the tracks, is unforgettable.

I still remember, it was a day in June 2016, a trip like any other trip, the train was as noisy and grumbling as ever, and I became a CTO.

phone ringing …

Me: Hello, Thinh's here.

Ga: Thinh, how's the trip going?

Me: Yeah, it's fine, we've been running for a few hours, seems like we're reaching Binh Thuan.

Ga: Ok, let's be quick. When you get back to the office, you will be the CTO of Lozi.

***

Lozi, in the years 2015-2016, was a 4-year-old tech startup, raising millions of dollars[1], with a young, talented, ambitious team, renowned in the Vietnamese startup community.

At this time, we were conquering the Vietnamese market with our second product, an e-commerce platform. With millions of users, hundreds of thousands of transactions running through the system monthly, this could be seen as a highlight. Thanks to our pioneering technology and the product's appeal to domestic users, expansion was quite easy. Simultaneously, the leadership was preparing for the next funding rounds to increase financial resources.

Things were going well, weren't they?

As you can see, it would be pretty great if I were the CTO of Lozi. I mean, if we talk about job positions, being a Chief Technology Officer can be considered a top title in the tech field.

Of course, you have to want it first.

Like running with a 4-minute km pace[2] in a 21km Half Marathon, but it doesn't matter if you just want to run leisurely to the finish line. Running fast is also a great goal - but who cares, it's not your goal.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE CTO"

By this point, some of you might think things were really tense, expecting me to emphasize each - word - like - this to refuse the offer. In reality, there was no bolding or lightening, no uppercase or lowercase, no heavy or light emphasis at all. A meeting took place at Lozi's office on the 6th working day, three days after the call, when I returned to Ho Chi Minh City from the trip.

"I understand! But I don't want to be CTO, I want to focus on technical work, specifically Mobile[3]. How about we hire a person to be CTO?" - I said.

To give you more context, the departure of a CTO from a tech company is really serious, especially for a company that needs to grow like Lozi. And, Lozi's current CTO had resigned. At this moment, someone needed to step up to take on the role, to stabilize the team, and continue the mission of developing technology products, meeting demands, setting directions, and keeping pace with the speed the company had set. If not? Your company will be left behind, slow down, and stop. You can imagine what comes next.

Simply put, like in a marathon, "don't stop" is the mantra you must remember if you want to reach the finish line. And what runner starts without wanting to finish? In business, you can't stop - machines must run, workers must work, and when you're in a startup, even more so.

After a meeting that lasted more than 2 hours, we reached a consensus. Something that today, a day 7 years later, I still believe and know was "a decision, a journey worth living."

"I am the CTO of Lozi."

***

[1]: Lozi's funding, traction & operation

[2]: Running 1km every 4 minutes, equivalent to a speed of 24km/h - for comparison, the average cycling speed is around 14km/h.

[3]: Developing applications for mobile devices, this were my personal development direction at the time.

What is valuable?

What you know is choosing train A, choosing a seat, and sitting down, knowing that you want to get to city Z. What you don't know is whether this train will be able to take you exactly where you need to go, or somewhere else.

But what does it matter, you'll never know 100%. So have a goal, take steps toward that goal, and the important thing is always being ready for changes.