🌱THE WHY

From Almost-Kidnapped Kid to Grateful Soul

Jen Vũ Hường was born in the countryside of Vietnam, in a home grounded in resilience, love, and quiet sacrifice. Her parents worked four jobs to raise five children - and later, four. When Jen was just three years old, her youngest sister passed away - a loss that marked her early with a sense of fragility and meaning.

Her siblings became her first teachers in unconditional love and courageous living. They left their hometown to build their own lives, surviving fire, accidents, and hardship. And Jen herself would face three life-threatening moments: a near kidnapping, a serious motorbike crash, and a brush with drowning.

Each encounter brought her closer to a sacred truth:

“Being alive is already a miracle.”

These experiences planted a seed - a quiet fire inside the little girl who refused to be defined by fear.
She chose to live fully, love deeply, and give generously - nonstop, every moment of life.

This became her compass — her unshakable WHY: To live a life worthy of the breath she’d been given.

🌱THE ROOTS

Silent Strength: From a Weird, Impossible Kid to Vibrant, Independent Soul

Growing up, Jen was told her dreams were impossible. She watched as heroes in history went abroad to return and build a better Vietnam, and saw her home’s heroes - her parents and siblings - do the same in their own ways. She dreamed of becoming her own kind of hero: to go abroad, open her mind, and return to help others. A dream no one in her village had ever dared speak aloud.

“It is impossible. Be realistic. You are just a little girl from the countryside. Stay home. Get married. Have a busload of kids.”

That sentence echoed in her young mind. So she kept her dream safe by staying quiet. She didn’t speak much. She studied hard. She worked quietly in the fields.

One night at age five, Jen was punished for not finishing her homework. Her mother made her stand alone in the dark. That night, she made a silent vow:

“I will become independent. I will never let my parents worry again.”

From that day forward, she began deciding for herself - what to study, where to go, how to live.
This fierce independence became both a shield and a solitude. But within that quiet, she cultivated something precious: a deep inner world of observation, reflection, and resilience. These habits would become the roots of her work as a writer, a coach, and a soul messenger.

🔥 THE PASSION

When the Fire Met the Ocean

Leaving her hometown, Jen felt like a fish meeting the ocean. She came alive. Rising early, staying up late, pouring herself into every moment - her roommates called her a vampire, but she had found her place.

In 2009, she co-founded a volunteer community helping students build confidence and speak English. By 2011, it evolved into a social project supporting global personal development.

By day, she worked for Samsung. By night, she built communities. And something awakened in her:

“A passion not just to achieve — but to empower others to believe in and become their fullest selves.”

The HOW to execute her WHY became clear.

Those quiet seeds of purpose and passion were deeply nurtured during Jen’s Master’s studies in Spain and the UK.

There, she turned her impossible childhood dream into reality - not through force, but through faith, devotion, and nonstop effort.

It was during these years that Jen published her first books, launched her first seminar, and stepped fully into global service - as a speaker, trainer, and soul-led leader.

🔥THE BREAKDOWN

The Kindness That Saved A Soul

She was awarded two prestigious scholarships for her Master's studies:

Erasmus Mundus Scholarship in Spain (2013–2014), where she focused on Business Innovation & Technology Management.
Chevening Scholarship in the UK (2016–2017) , where she pursued International Management.

After finishing her first Master’s in Spain, Jen returned to Vietnam in 2014, full of ideas and hope. But doubts, pressure, and family expectations pulled her down. She ran away to Malaysia, working for Dell’s partner, searching for clarity and keeping her dream alive.

There, she joined Toastmasters, re-discovered her voice, and wrote her first book about her mission of being ‘nonstop loving, living and giving’. She made the decision: quit engineering again and pursue her purpose.

It was beautiful. And then it broke her.

Jen went bankrupt - financially and especially mentally and emotionally. She went depressed for 3 weeks, she got a call from her family and heard that they felt ashame of her unstability, she questioned her own existence when making her loved ones ashame and worried of her.

That day, she felt like nothing left in life - she walked to the coffee shop where she often wrote her book as her daily habit. She couldn’t pay for the coffee but people knew her so they let her in. She went to her favourite spot where nobody would sit there because it was sunny but on that day when she had no more hope - there was a stranger sat there. A thought hit me ‘even the seat was not for me’. The last light in the tunnel gone.

But in that darkest moment, something miraculous happened: a man in a coffee shop gave up his seat for her. That tiny act of kindness cracked her open.

She thought, “Even this seat isn’t for me.” Then she realized: everything is for her. From ‘Even her family didn’t undertstand me’ to ‘even the stranger understands my passion and my family has been always there for me’.
She chose to stay. And live. And create.
Jen made it to be able to get her first project creating an experienced program for educators and students of a Belgium NGO…

She then earned her second Master’s degree in the UK, where she entered a powerful new chapter of career and service immersion. There, Jen founded the Empower You seminar — her first public platform to guide others through inner clarity and purposeful leadership. She also published several of her books during this time, fully stepping into her role as a messenger and mentor.

🌱THE LEADERSHIP RETURN

All The Dots Connected - The Innovation Incubation

As a full-circle return to the dream she held as a child - to go abroad, expand her horizons, and come back to serve - Jen made a life-shaping decision in 2018: Vietnam would become the home base of her mission.

After nearly a decade of crossing borders, studying, working, and healing, she came back not just as the girl with a dream, but as a woman with a calling.

She deepened her commitment to community building, founding programs like: CSpeaking Gym (voice & leadership), Entrepreneurial Leaders Community (which evolved into HEC – Hanoi Entrepreneur Community) and continued developing Empower You seminar (inner clarity & purpose).

Soon after, in 2020, she joined BK Holdings (HUST - her university), first as a Community Program Director, and later as an Incubation Director. And the years she spent as an engineer - the logic, systems thinking, and international training - clicked into place.

It all started to make sense.

Jen’s daily mission became helping leading researchers, educators, and startup founders connect with the entrepreneur and leader within, and to bring their ideas into real-world value.

She co-created and led two groundbreaking national programs: Lab2Market – a university-based incubation model that helped 50+ research projects commercialize their innovations; SIC – Sgrowth Innovation Coaching – where she helped train 50+ innovation coaches to international standards.

Jen also began her PhD program in Finland, focusing on professional identity development for leaders in education and business, with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Through it all, her essence stayed clear: To bridge the inner world and outer impact and To help others rise - not just professionally, but soulfully.

🌱THE REBIRTH

2022, At 34 Year-old and Rebirth

But in 2022, she hit another wall. Her body began to collapse. She was 34 years old.

Her energy drained. Her liver failing. She was diagnosed with dangerously high liver enzymes, bordering on cirrhosis. She had to stop. Rest. Surrender.

"The hospital — a place I associated with death — became the place of my rebirth."

In that stillness, she let go of everything that no longer served her. And chose, once again, to live.

🌱THE CREATOR

Author & Book Publisher ‘Jen Books’

Jen has written 7 books: 'Nonstop loving living and giving', 'The Goal Achiever: 9 tư duy nền tảng giúp bạn chinh phục mục tiêu' (Women Publishing House, Vietnam), 'Unleash Your Passion', 'The YOU journal: 30 ngày thay đổi thói quen' (Alphabooks Publisher), 'Leadership development journey' (Business Expert Press, the USA), ‘Under the iceberg of success: Dưới tảng băng của sự thành công’ (Women Publishing House, Vietnam), Re-birth: Everyone needs a C.O.A.C.H (Tái sinh: 5 Thói quen Tự huấn luyện lãnh đạo bản thân) (Jen Books).

Her books are backed with science, practical data - and that were the inputs for her 2 International research papers: customers satisfaction, motivation, attitude, service quality and loyalty in Innovation Teaching journal (2015); Leadership development journey in Small and medium business journal (2022).

In 2023, Jen Books was born to support Jen’s books publishing and Jen’s partners. The first foreign author Jen Books supported is Dr Ramesh.

“Jen Books” was founded by Jen VuHuong in 2023, after Jen’s journey of self publishing her books and helping her friends/partners who are foreign entrepreneurs share their startup stories through publishing books in Vietnam. “Jen

Books” has the mission of helping domestic and foreign entrepreneurs create knowledge works through summarizing their own practical and theoretical experience journeys.

As of 2024, “Jen Books” has had the first Vietnamese Author “Jen VuHuong” with her Habits and Coaching books and the first foreign Author “Dr. Ramesh” with the work “The big Jump into Entrepreneurship” in Vietnamese “Khởi nghiệp - Bước nhảy vọt”.

RESEARCHER & Scholar

PhD Researcher Doctor of Philosophy (Education) at the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University (2024-Now);
Scholar of 2 top world scholarships: Msc. International Management in the UK (2016-2017) with Chevening British Government scholarship (And achieved Best performer award); Business Innovation and Technology Management (2013-2014) in Spain with Erasmus scholarship;
Winner of sustainable startup idea ‘EcoHub’ in YSEALI (US government’s program) in Laos (2019).

International Speaker

15+ years of speaking experiences with audience coming from 50 countries
Tedx speaker (2 times);
3-time National Champion of International Speaking (2018, 2019, 2023);
Champion of the US Embassy speaking contest (2018);
Regional Champion of Evaluation (2023);
Speaker at events of UNESCO, WorldBank, Embassy of Vietnam in India, British Council in Viet Nam, the Ministry of Education and Training, the UK Embassy, the US Embassy, European Union, Block71 Singapore, Harvard VIET program, AIESEC…

international Trainer

Founder and Trainer of EmpowerYou Seminar starting in the UK (2017);
Trainer of 844 Project of Ministry of Science and Technology, Hanoi Investment and Planning Department; Trainer at Leadership program of the US Embassy; organizing more than 1000 training and events for people from 50 different countries over the last decade;
Training for leaders and lecturers at different key universities in Vietnam: Vinh university, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hue university…
Training for companies: Yraining Center Fushan technology Vietnam company, Bac Ninh (2019); Managing change and innovation at Vietinbank (2020); Creative high-performance team at Minda (2021), Team empowerment and planning at Viettel (2022).

CoacHING, MENTORING, TRAINING

Coaching business owners, serial- entrepreneurs coming from 50 different countries; Training and coaching 50+ leaders, influencers of Vietnam to become coaches in innovation and entrepreneurship
Mentor: Mentoring more than 100 different startup programs & projects

People & Sport lover

People lover: Building communities almost 15+ years to connect people in over 50 different countries
Sport lover: Winner of an arm wrestling competition at university; Marathon runner in Penang, Malaysia; Third prize winner at Dragon Boat racing organized by Hanoi Government; Top 5 female trail runner 100km in Angkorwat (2025).

FEATURED IN

TEDx, Chevening British Government, The UK Embassy, The US Embassy, India Embassy, Erasmus Mundus, National TV ‘VTV1, VTV2, VTV6, VOV1’, UNESCO in Vietnam, Techfest of Ministry of Science and Technology, AIESEC, Harvard-Viet (HVIET), Toastmasters International Champion, Shortlisted Women of the Future Awards South East Asia, Top 50 Asia Pacific Kindness & Leadership, ASEAN Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network, European Mentoring and Coaching Council

WHO JEN SERVES TODAY

🔹 Educator-engineer-background founders who want to turn passion into career
🔹 Soul-led leaders, experienced souls navigating breakdown to re-birth
🔹 Global changemakers looking for harmonizing purpose, passion, performance and public speaking

#International Speaker and trainer#

(2 times Tedx speaker, National public speaking Champion, US Embassy speaking Champion, Speaking and Training at US Embassy and UK Embassy leadership workshops and other stages in the UK, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain, India)