Johnathan Hạnh Nguyễn gives more than 1,000 future doctors his “sixth flight”

More than 1,000 new medical students received what entrepreneur Johnathan Hạnh Nguyễn called his “sixth flight” at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

At the university’s UMP 2026 freshman event on September 5, Hạnh Nguyễn, chairman of the IPPG Group, recounted his 75 years through five symbolic flights. He then handed the sixth to the future doctors in the room. The program, titled “A Life, A Mission”, ended with applause and tearful eyes.

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I am not standing here as the chairman of a corporation. I am standing here as a father, someone who once entrusted his daughter's life entirely to Vietnamese doctors.

He began with what he called a flight that “takes off against the wind”. As a student from Nha Trang, he left home with nothing, worked various jobs while studying abroad and eventually became a financial inspector for Boeing. “It does not matter how low your starting point is. What matters is how high you dare to fly,” he told the students.

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It does not matter how low your starting point is. What matters is how high you dare to fly.

His second flight centered on Vietnam. In late 1984, while living securely in the United States, he accepted Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng’s request to open an air route between Ho Chi Minh City and Manila during the embargo. He sold his house and car and returned alone. The first international flight from Tân Sơn Nhất took off on September 9, 1985. Later flights brought medicines to Vietnamese people, leaving him with a reported loss of $5 million, which he said he never regretted. “When the nation needs you, do not ask whether something is difficult or easy. Ask whether you dare,” he said.

His third flight represented four decades of keeping his word. From nothing, IPPG brought more than 100 international brands to Vietnam and created jobs for tens of thousands of workers. He also spoke openly about failure, including shelving his airline dream at age 70. “Failure is only tuition. Giving up is losing everything,” he said.

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When the nation needs you, do not ask whether something is difficult or easy. Ask whether you dare.

The fourth flight was one of gratitude. In 2020, his daughter contracted COVID-19 in Europe, and he hired a private jet costing more than 8 billion Vietnamese dong to bring her to Vietnam. She became patient No. 32 and was treated at Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases. “When I brought my daughter home, I placed my complete trust in the city’s doctors and entrusted them with her life. It was absolutely the right decision,” he said emotionally.

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Failure is only tuition. Giving up is losing everything.