Kien Pham shares his life story of overcoming perceived "impossibilities" to achieve success through developing an "inner compass" guided by purpose, passion, and principle. He encourages the audience to find their own inner compass by determining their life's purpose, following their passions, and upholding strong principles. Developing an inner compass, Pham asserts, will allow one to overcome challenges and achieve their goals, as it did for him in being accepted to Stanford Business School despite perceived barriers.

1. Inner Compass: The Difference between Impossibilities and Possibilities
A life of Purpose. A life of Passion. A life of Principle.
Remarks by Kien Pham
at
The “You Can Do It” Conference
Hanoi, June 18, 2011
Good morning. First, I want to thank the organizers of this conference. You are a great group of
people. You are great not because you invited me to speak, but because you are responding to
the needs of those who gather here today. I salute your gift to the society and to Vietnam.
I normally don’t accept invitation to speak in Vietnam. Not that I am shy or don’t like to talk.
To the contrary, I am not a shy person and I can talk so that “con kiến trong lỗ cũng chui ra.”
But I often find speeches so boring to the audience. I don’t want to get up on stage and give a
speech because I am afraid that instead of thinking my speech is boring, you might mistakenly
think I am boring. That would be a disaster to my self-esteem!
Truthfully, when I got the invitation from Diep Bui, I immediately agreed to speak, even though
I did not know what I would be talking about, nor if I could return to Hanoi early enough to
make this meeting. I rushed to such acceptance because of the title of this gathering “You Can
Do It”. I really like that phrase because it is so simple, so affirmative, so positive, and so
determined. Personally, I have lived that phrase all my life. So I said “Yes” and come here this
morning, not to give a speech but to share.
What I want to share with you is a message of three words: Purpose. Passion. Principle. All of
them start with a P! (Isn’t that cool? I made all of that up on the plane ride from Tokyo to
Hanoi.) And I even made up a title for this talk. It is “Inner Compass: The Difference between
Impossibilities and Possibilities”.
Many, many years ago, when I was your age, life seemed like an array of impossibilities. I was
in the U.S. and Vietnam was so far away. Going home seemed so impossible. My English was
so bad and fluency in English was so impossible. I was so poor and a life of wealth appeared
impossible. Going to college seemed impossible. Getting a Stanford MBA appeared doubly
impossible.
But today, I am standing in front of you here: In Vietnam. Speaking in English (with style!) A
billionaire in Vietnamese đồng. A college graduate. And yes, a proud Stanford MBA.

2. So what happened to those impossibilities? Well, my friends, I turned all of them into
possibilities.
I did so because the impossibilities could not paralyzed me. Instead, I became energized by
them. I became somewhat spiritual – I don’t mean religious, I mean spiritual. I spent a lot of
time thinking about my life and what I wanted to become. I examined my motives, my reasons,
my ambitions. And I questioned myself. I asked myself a lot of “Whys”. I wanted to know
from Kien what he will do with his accomplishments, his honors, his money, his knowledge, and
in fact, his time. And time is the most precious possession a person has; we cannot make more
time, you and I both can only have 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
Through that thoughtful and honest soul-searching process (which for sure did not happen
overnight), I built something important that stayed inside of me for the rest of my life. And that
is my inner compass.
We all know that the little red needle of the compass always points to the north, no matter how
we toss and turn. Armed with such inner compass, my life had direction. You might already
know that the course of my life was not a straight line. In my work life, I have walked the large
marble halls of the U.S. Congress, the narrow quiet corridors of the White House, the cushy
carpeted floors of large corporations, the rocky uncharted trails of startups, the dirt roads of
charities, as well as the lofty and idealistic paths of non-profits. Yes, I have made many sharp
turns, but was never lost because at each turn, I always checked my inner compass to see which
way the red needle was pointing.
So how can you build your own inner compass? The answer is the 3 Ps: Purpose. Passion.
Principle. They are the 3 tools that you can have and can use. Let me give you some quick
pointers on each of these 3 tools so you can begin to figure out the size, the shape and the color
of your tools.
First, you must have a life of purpose. Your purpose in life should not be mundane things like a
fancy car or a beautiful watch. Think of something bigger, deeper. So big and so deep that you
should have it engraved onto your tomb stone. I call that the “Tomb Stone Exercise”. Think
about it: What do you want to be engraved into your tomb stone after you die? Think about why
you are here in this world and what impact you want to have. And tonight, you should begin to
write down the first version of your tomb stone statement.
Second, you should know it is fun to have a life of passion. Passion is the rocket fuel that gives
you the vertical push to reach the high orbit of excellence. Passion resides in the heart, so keep
your heart right and gentle. When you want to make a turn in life, use your head to analyze all
variables, but at the decision point, listen to your heart. You must love what you do in order to
become excellent and succeed. And the only way for you to love what you do is to do what you
love. So keep your heart right and listen to it.

3. Third, you should lead a life of principle. This is particularly important because you are young
and you live in a confusing world of gray shades where compromises are easy and often. You
notice that just one minute ago, I twice urged you to “keep you heart right”; to do that, you need
to stay true to your principles. These principles serve as the magnetic field that keeps your
compass needle pointing to the northern direction. Without principle, you will become confused
and eventually aimless.
I hope you realize that I offered no prescriptive solution to you. I am not telling you what your
purpose in life should be, what your passion should be, or what your principles should be. That
is your job to figure out. The answers must come from you. Together, these answers form your
value system and that, my friends, is your inner compass.
Now, I understand that you did not come here to hear my philosophy about life. You come here
hoping that I will tell you how to get admitted to Stanford Business School. Well, I just did! I
just gave you the recipe on how to get to not only Stanford but also many other schools in the
U.S. Let me review what I gave you:
First, I think all of you know what the SOP is. Yes, the famous statement of purpose that will
make or break your chance of school admission. Remember I talked about a life of purpose just
a few minutes ago? If you lead a purposeful life, then writing a convincing statement of purpose
should be natural and easy. I think so many people struggle with the statement of purpose
because they just don’t yet have a purpose in life. If you don’t have a purpose, how can you
write a statement of purpose?
Second, many of you are multi-talented and might face the question of what you should study in
the U.S. An MBA or an MA in science? You probably can do well in either profession. Well, a
few minutes ago, I also talked about passion and about doing what you love so you can excel at
it. If you know your passion and express it well, you will make the right choice and the schools
will want you because they know you will do well as a student and as an alumnus.
Third, if you read the school application materials, you probably notice that the schools look for
people with both intelligence and character. They want men and women of principle who can
help promote the school’s brand name by doing the right things even when it’s hard to do so.
Without alumni with principle, the schools know that they will lose their fame and prestige over
time.
So, to get admitted to a U.S. graduate school, you need to have Purpose, Passion and Principle.
You need to have an inner compass. And you show the school your inner compass by both
words and deeds. And, of course, actions speak louder than words. So live out your purpose,
your passion and your principle, beginning today.
Thirty years ago, I stood facing the impossibility of getting admitted to the Stanford Graduate
School of Business. There had been no Vietnamese admitted to that school earlier. I had no

4. money; to study for the GMAT at Kaplan, I had to borrow $300. My undergraduate GPA was
so-so at 3.2. And I had no work experience. But I had a secret weapon: I had an inner compass.
I knew what I wanted out of life and where I was going. The school saw it and accepted me.
They put a bet on me and I think my life has proven that they made the right admission call.
And now, it is your turn. You, too, can turn impossibilities into possibilities.
YOU, indeed, CAN DO IT, and I wish you well.
Thank you for your attention and I will take three questions from the audience.