On 10 May 2026, I crossed the finish line of VNG IRONMAN Vietnam – Da Nang 140.6 in 12:36:02. It was my first IRONMAN under 13 hours and my personal best. I am also deeply grateful to have been honored on the “Bảng Vàng Marathon Việt Nam” (Vietnam’s Best Marathons) golden board.
Swim 1:28:10. Bike 5:50:01. Run 5:06:47. Behind those numbers is one long day in the water, on the road and under the sun. And the further I went, the more the race reminded me of business.
There are no shortcuts
An IRONMAN 140.6 means a 3.8 km swim, a 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km run. There is not a single meter you can skip. Every stroke, every pedal turn and every step has to be your own.
Before Da Nang, I finished IRONMAN Hokkaido, ran the Chiba 100 km ultramarathon, completed many full marathons, and summited Mt. Fuji twice. None of them offered a shortcut.
Business is the same. Customer trust, team capability and a company’s reputation cannot be bought with a shortcut. GLOBALIZE now works with more than 2,500 partner companies and has supported more than 7,000 candidates because we finished one small task after another, properly.
Pacing over a long day
The hardest part of an IRONMAN is not going fast. It is holding your pace for more than twelve hours. Burn everything in the swim or the first part of the bike, and you will pay for it on the run.
Leaders need pacing too, for themselves and for their teams. A company is not a 100-meter sprint; it is a journey of many years. There are times to push, times to hold steady and times to recover. Knowing which is which is part of leadership.
I have also learned that a leader’s pace becomes the team’s pace. A leader who is always rushing wears the team out. A leader who stays calm, steady and clear gives everyone the strength to go the distance together.
Discipline carries you to the finish
Motivation can get you to sign up for a race. Only discipline gets you to the start line and across the finish. The training sessions nobody sees, the days you go out even when you don’t feel like it: that is what decides the result.
Work is no different. Motivation rises and falls, but discipline stays. Strong organizations are built on good habits repeated every day, especially the ordinary ones. To me, discipline is not a restriction. It is a promise you keep to yourself, and keeping it teaches you how to keep your promises to customers, partners and your team.
Step by step: KEEP MOVING FORWARD
In the final kilometers of the run, my body was exhausted. I stopped thinking about how far the finish was. I thought only about the next step. Then the next one.
KEEP MOVING FORWARD. You don’t have to be fast. You just have to keep going.
That is also how I got through the early days of my business, when I had no customers and nobody trusted me. Instead of staring at the distance and losing heart, I focused on doing the task in front of me well. Small steps add up to a long journey.
IRONMAN did not make me extraordinary. It showed me that an ordinary person with discipline and persistence, who refuses to give up, can go a very long way.
Wherever you are in your own race, just starting, halfway, or close to the finish, remember that the next step is always yours to take. KEEP MOVING FORWARD.