HOW MUCH IS YOUR 1 HOUR WORTH?
This is a question that has always been on my mind since more than a decade ago, when I started setting goals for my desired income.
At that time, my mother was just a worker. Personally, her salary is only a dozen dong before taxes, but on the contrary, in another world, when we look at famous singers, why can they earn millions of dollars by just singing a song in a few short minutes – money that many people cannot earn in their lifetime?
Is life really so unfair?
Similarly, today’s life is the same, why are there people who have to work as shippers regardless of sun, rain, or wind to earn thousands of dollars, while there are people who just sign a few words in an air-conditioned room and leisurely earn millions, tens of millions every hour?
Even in the same profession, colleagues and doctors in Vietnam are only on duty overnight. 50-100k, standing in surgery for hours on end only earns a few hundred thousand in wages, but in the US, the amount of money a family doctor working overtime earns is $200-$300 ~ 5-8 million VND, not to mention specialists, whose salaries are much higher.
So why are there such large differences?
I still remember watching a Ted Talk video of LUIS VON AHN – the father of Duolingo – the hottest platform to help people learn foreign languages today. When talking about his reason for founding Duolingo, Luis said:
“I decided to found this platform when I realized what is the fastest way for a person to increase their income.”
“Watch a waiter, if that person If they do not know a foreign language, their salary will be at a certain range (in Vietnam it will be from 15,000-25,000 VND), but once they know a foreign language, their salary can increase 10 times.”
So what is the difference here?
Our value and the amount of money we earn depends greatly on the person to whom we “sell our labor”.
If you are a waiter, your waiter skills are good but you do not know a foreign language, then you will definitely be limited in your customer base. These local people have an income of 10-15 million per month and have the habit of spending only 25,000-50,000 VND for each cup of coffee.
So where do you get your employer to pay you 300,000 VND per hour of work?
On the contrary, if you know foreign languages, you know English, you can expand your customer base. From normal coffee shops, you can change your workplace to fine dining restaurants, 5-star resorts, places for the upper class and foreign guests, where there are full of “rich men” and “rich women” willing to pay, your income will certainly be much higher.
Back to the story about us doctors, the thing we can see most clearly is If a doctor knows a foreign language, for example English, his or her income will increase a lot, even if you live and work in Vietnam.
If you go one step further, you set foot in another country, such as the US, Canada, Australia,… and you are allowed to practice as a doctor then you can easily easily integrate into the community, the living environment, and the economy of that country.
This will be a lever that will increase income tens or hundreds of times.
Indeed, what determines your income and the value that society recognizes (through salary) is not necessarily your skills and expertise, but the customers you serve.
Why do doctors in the US get paid hundreds of times more than doctors in Vietnam? Is it because they are a hundred times better than Vietnamese doctors? Absolutely not.
I work as a doctor in the US but I have to admit that it is not certain that doctors in the US will be better than doctors in Vietnam.
There are many doctors in Vietnam who are very good. They can do many things that doctors in the US cannot do, and there are also many patients from the US who fly back to Vietnam for medical examination and treatment. Vietnam’s healthcare system also has many things that America needs to learn and acknowledge.
Actually, working as a doctor in America, I have met many doctors and medical staff whose skills are very weak and very weak. But what they have better than you is that they live in America, so their salary and standard of living are much better than yours.
There are many doctors in Vietnam who are very good but still struggle with life, while doctors in the US can not only live comfortably for themselves, but some also have the financial ability to take care of their families in Vietnam and do many volunteer works.
A watch in a vintage market is not worth much, but on the contrary, if it is in a glass cabinet of a store selling antiques and collectibles, its value will immediately increase a lot. It’s the same watch, but why is there such a big difference?
It’s because of environmental factors.
If you put yourself in a place where you are valued, you will be valued. On the contrary, if you accept being in a place where you are not valued, you will never be valued.
So, how much do you want your hour to be worth?
Dr. Christina Nguyen, MD, FAAFP
The Phoenix Medical Academy
