Keep Calm & Read My Story

A message from Quang Huynh:

Keep Calm Mortgage On isn’t my first business, or even my first passion (don’t panic!) but before I tell you about how I came to be your best friend when it comes to getting a loan, I thought it would be good to tell you a little bit about myself and show you how I embarked on this life journey.

I came to Australia after spending my first birthday in a Cambodian prison – literally.

My family was fleeing from the civil war in Vietnam and as part of the ordeal, my mother and I were detained by the Cambodian Coast Guard.

With me strapped to her body, she escaped the prison, climbing over barbed wire fences and fleeing in the night.

Eventually, we would be reunited with my father and brothers when we arrived in Australia, with the sponsorship of a truly kind and generous Church group and the humanitarian program offered by the government.

Why am I telling you this?

As I grew up my family began to tell me of the harrowing ordeal we went through to escape the Vietnam war.  As I learned, I also came to understand the great generosity and exceptional kindness humans are capable of.

People will extend themselves to help those in need, regardless of the differences that divide them.  As my family is Buddhist and the Church group that sponsored was Christian, they still came to our rescue despite the differences in our religious beliefs because we shared something universal: our humanity.

This lesson had a profound effect on me.  No matter where life would take me – and it has had many twists and turns – I knew that everything would work out for the best, as long as people continued to look after each other.

My Mission: Grow Business

That has become my Mission at Keep Calm, Mortgage On: To look out for my clients and make sure that they don’t get into serious financial trouble.  So yes, sometimes I do have to deny people for a loan application.

Unlike a bank though, I provide tools, tips and solutions to help my clients improve their situations so that they can come back to me and get approved after they’ve taken my advice.

This is why my clients love me.

It’s amazing to me what happens when I can approve a business owner for a loan.  The joy they experience is genuine and I’ve developed a fantastic relationship founded on integrity and trust.

These clients are now able to go out into the world and continue to earn their own living.  Growing their business, being productive.

My Vision: Seeing Yellow

When it was time to go to University, I made a foolish commitment: I was going to be an architect.  At the time I wasn’t being foolish, of course, I was making the perfect decision and I couldn’t do anything wrong.  Who doesn’t think that when they first get started?

It took me about a year to realize that this was not the right path for me and it was time to re-prioritize.

I started thinking about what I wanted from life and as a result, I created an analogy: Life is a Colouring Book.  It’s approximately 100 pages long and each page represents one year of your life.  As you go through your colouring journey, you colour the pages with essentially two colours.

The first colour represents the hopes, dreams, expectations and demands of others.  For me, this colour is black.

Then there is the colour that brings represents my own desires, hopes, dreams and ambitions.  That’s my favourite colour and in my case, that colour is yellow – it brings illumination, vibrancy, brightness and growth.

For the longest time, my pages were being coloured black, I wasn’t colouring based on what I wanted to do but based on what was expected of me.

After I left University, I began to colour my pages yellow and from that point on, I made sure to always have a yellow crayon in my pocket.

My Values: P.A.T.

After leaving school, I embarked on the entrepreneur’s lifestyle.  I went into business for myself and I began to learn at an early age what my business owner clients go through daily.

My first venture failed, of course!  Most business owners know this feeling all too well and just like most business owners, this put me in a dire financial situation.

As I watched the funds drain from my bank account, I realized it was time to reach out to mom and dad.  I needed to move back home.

I should not have felt as guilty about this as I did but I was reeling from my recent flop and I needed support in order to re-calibrate and dust myself off.

Spending time at home with my parents opened my eyes to an entirely new side of them I had never known.  Now I saw them as adults, and they, in turn, treated me like an adult.

For the first time ever, we had deep conversations about the important things in life, such as Meaning, Happiness and Success.  From these conversations, I was able to distil my own personal Values, the guideposts to use moving forward so that I could better position myself for success, not just in business but in life.

The story by which I came up with the acronym “P.A.T.” to characterize my Values is laid out below:

“P” is for Ping Pong

To this day, even in her 80’s, my mother plays ping pong.  Given the traumatic experience of leaving a war-torn Vietnam in her 40’s, she rarely found time to enjoy this passion.  When I moved back in with my parents, I had the opportunity to ask my mother what she thought was the secret to being successful.

She had me string up a ping pong ball from the ceiling, making me think that this exercise would somehow impart a profound nugget of wisdom on my curious brain.  Boy was I wrong.  Instead, she told me that she just wanted to be able to practice the skill at home.

Frustrated, I went outside to find my father.

“A” is for Aloe Vera

I found my father out in the garden, he always had a green thumb.  I told him the story of my experience with mom and he smiled.  Then he asked me to cut off a leaf of aloe vera for him.  Of course, I did this and I got a wonderful handful of thorns for my trouble.

When I presented the leaf to my dad, he asked me to massage the oil onto his scalp.

This was confusing, so I asked him what for.  He explained to me that aloe vera is good for hair rejuvenation and it would prevent him from losing his hair.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  My dad had been bald for as long as I can remember, save for 4 thin hairs that he combs across his scalp.

“T” is for Three Cups of Water

Exasperated by both my parents, I decided to turn my attention elsewhere.  I thought about a tradition they always practised as part of our Buddhist heritage.  It is customary to begin every day with three cups of water.  One cup represents the past, one for the present, and the last represents the future.

In the Buddhist tradition, you drink away and empty your cups because only when you empty your cup of the past, present, and future are you able to receive more from the universe.

In other words, start every day with a clean slate and be open to receiving all of the opportunity the universe has to give you.

From these little anecdotes, I learned to form my Values: Dream, Hope, Open-Mindedness.

I learned the importance of keeping your dreams alive, as my mother did with ping pong.

I learned to never lose hope, as my father did by rubbing aloe vera on his scalp.

I learned to have an open mind, by draining my three cups of the past, present and future.

So What Does This Have to Do with Loans?

By bringing my Mission, Vision and Values into my business, I can focus my energy on making sure you get approved for the right loan product at the right time. 

I am not interested in just writing you a deal and sending you on your way. 

I value you as a human being and I understand, especially if you’re a business owner, what it takes to build success. 

I have been gifted plenty of advantages in my life, relying on the support of others when I needed it most. 

From learning more about me, I hope I have shown you how you can rely on me, when you need me most, to help you grow a successful business through the help of a business loan.