It’s time for the push you need
From IT employee to champion of The TVFACE: MC Trọng Hiền on the push that took him out of his comfort zone and past the average trap that years in a job can set.
This photo was taken while I was hosting a live broadcast at the Ho Chi Minh City Television Theatre — the same stage where I became the champion of a reality show about the craft of hosting. I realised one thing: the most valuable part of that journey was getting to know, to connect, to learn, to talk, to share, to teach, to feel and to experience my way into growing up.
I never thought of the final result as a full stop; it was the capital letter that opens a new journey. The further I go, the more I understand that every stage demands we be stricter with ourselves than before, so we can step past the “average trap” we set for ourselves after years of working hard at the same job.
Experience can let things slip
On a game show about tour guiding, one contestant said: “After decades in the job, leading a group feels like a habit and giving commentary feels like a reflex. Even after more than ten years, I think I need a catalyst to find the fire I had as a tourism student.” Experience can make a job easy, but if we do not renew ourselves, that same job can easily slip through our fingers.
By contrast, a student who did not yet know what a tour guide actually does also entered the contest, and realised: “Wow, a whole new ocean, and a young fish like me has no idea which way to swim.” That may be no bad thing — at least the “fish” has now felt the cool, salty water, and understands that in the next few years it will need a compass to find its course. Both of them, clearly, needed a push — a force strong enough to make them discover new things from a perspective of their own.
Why do successful people still choose a challenge?
On the game show Em Xinh Say Hi, Trấn Thành once said to an artist: “You have almost everything it takes to be a star, so why are you still hovering in the middle?” That line set off a flash in my mind: why do people with experience and achievements still choose to join reality shows?
Perhaps because they, too, need a push to leave their own comfort zone. A reality show, however harsh, is exactly the environment that forces people to grow. There, you no longer have the right to put things off. You only have deadlines, pressure, the spotlight, stronger opponents… either you are out of your depth, or you are out of the game.
My push
I used to be an IT employee with a stable job, a good income and a safe life. But deep down I always longed to tell stories, to stand on a stage, to have each breath of mine fall in with the heartbeat of the audience. Yet every time I thought about changing, I reassured myself with a familiar phrase: “I’ll think about it tomorrow.” And that “tomorrow” stretched on, day after day, week after month, until I watched friends move far ahead while I stood in the same place, full of regret — real peer pressure.
I realised it was not a dream I lacked, but a push strong enough to make me act. So I chose The TVFACE. The day I walked onto the casting stage holding a microphone, I looked confident and was full of doubt. But the moment the lights came down on me, I knew there was no going back. The TVFACE did not just give me a chance to appear on television; it made me face my fear, learn to speak as naturally as breathing and command the stage like a heartbeat. From then on, I have believed my core value is the work of hosting — standing in front of an audience is no longer a dream; it has to be an identity.
Not everyone is born a flame; some of us are born a matchstick. But with the right catalyst, a matchstick will blaze!
P.S. AI could have written this post in 30 seconds, but because I wanted to “commit” to writing it myself, it took me 2 hours.
— Trọng Hiền