Why hasn't Vietnam produced an Elon Musk or a Steve Jobs?

“Why hasn't Vietnam produced an Elon Musk or a Steve Jobs?” Then, “how can Vietnam have a Steve Jobs?”

Then I need to solve an even more tricky question: “Why has America never produced a Tran Hung Dao, a Ho Chi Minh, or a Vo Nguyen Giap…..?”

Every nation grows up in a different historical stream; obviously, not every nation is assigned the same problem, and of course, not every nation leaves its mark in the same way. Comparing the height of a mountain to the depth of a river is already a bit of a mischievous measurement, hehe.

The America of Steve Jobs is an America that has accumulated hundreds of years of scientific, technological, and market capital. The America of Elon Musk is an America that possesses top-tier universities, the largest investment funds in the world, and an ecosystem where even a bold idea with a certain feasibility rate can find millions of dollars to test.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's history is largely a history of keeping the roof from being swept away in storms. There are nations that spend centuries building ocean-going ships, but there are also nations that spend centuries fighting off armies crossing borders. One side accumulates capital for the future, while the other often just tries to hold on to tomorrow.

If we were to place a boy in Silicon Valley and a boy in the Northern Delta of the 19th century side by side, perhaps the surprising thing wouldn't be why one became Steve Jobs and the other didn't. What is even more astonishing lies in the question: “why has the small nation of the second boy still been able to survive until now after centuries of having the world's most powerful superpowers take turns trying to flatten and trample it, and furthermore, his nation proudly stepped into the 21st century with its name completely intact?”

But we should not lull ourselves to sleep with the past because history is an explanation, not a certificate of immunity from responsibility. Today, when the country has been at peace for half a century, the question “when will Vietnam have an Elon Musk?” is still a thought-provoking question. The thing is, perhaps we don't need a second Elon Musk, nor do we need a Vietnamese-version Steve Jobs, because the world is not short of copies; the reason Elon Musk became the Elon Musk of today is precisely because he never intended to become a second Albert Einstein. Therefore, what is even more desirable is “when will a Vietnamese person appear who creates great things that Elon Musk has never thought of, solves major problems that Steve Jobs has never encountered,” and that person carries within themselves the lived experience of this very nation.

Bamboo doesn't need to turn into oak to prove it is as strong as an ancient tree; bamboo just needs to be green and resilient like Bamboo itself. And if one day, from this land, a person appears who changes the world, perhaps the most interesting thing will be: that person will never look like Elon Musk, nor will they look like Steve Jobs.

That person can only be like themselves…..

Source: FB neighbor