Hai Nguyen | Against All Odds: How Wisdom and Mindfulness Helped this Vietnamese Refugee Build a Forbes 25 Small Giant Company

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How Hai adjusted to life in the United States as an immigrant

  • Hai’s complicated relationship with his father, even 20 years after his father’s death.

  • Why Hai left home in eleventh grade

  • Why Hai eventually became his teenage brother’s guardian

  • How Hai started his career in technology and engineering

  • Why understanding his family’s struggles put Hai’s own struggles into perspective

  • How Hai met his future Call-Em-All co-founder Brad Herrmann

  • Why Hai and Brad decided to leave their jobs and start Call-Em-All

  • Lessons Hai learned when launching and growing Call-Em-All

  • When Hai began to think of himself as a leader

  • Why Hai believes a strong, open company culture is essential to success

  • Who Hai’s biggest business influences are

  • Why Hai believes mindfulness in the workplace is incredibly beneficial

  • How Hai is planning to further integrate mindfulness into his company’s culture

  • What Hai thinks of Amazon as a company

  • How Hai first discovered the Small Giants Community

  • Why this TEDx Talk by Phuc Tran about grammar resonated so strongly with Hai

  • How the book Quiet by Susan Cain taught Hai to embrace his introversion

  • Why Hai decided to attend the donothing Leadership Retreat

  • What major realization Hai made during a mindfulness walk on the retreat


Hai Nguyen was born in Vietnam, but at a young age, he and his family fled his home country to discover a new life in the United States. Stability didn’t come easily—Hai encountered many obstacles along his path to entrepreneurship, from culture clashes with his parents to the ups and downs of the startup world. However, through perseverance, incredible talent and a willingness to take risks, Hai ultimately achieved success as the co-founder of Call-Em-All, an automated calling and texting service.

Today, as Call-Em-All’s VP of Engineering, Hai focuses on finding creative ways to help customers by developing smart design and engineering solutions. He’s also committed to building a business for the long haul. This includes supporting an amazing culture which has earned Call-Em-All multiple awards as a top place to work. Hai aspires to continue doing meaningful work well into his 100s.

Listen to Hai Nguyen’s inspirational story that includes his adjustment to life in the U.S., how he created success in the tech industry, why he began practicing mindfulness and so much more on this week’s episode of the donothing podcast.

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Karen Martin | Pausing For Clarity: Mindful Leaders Always Ask ‘Why?’

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Ellie Burrows | From Movies to Meditation: A MNDFLness CEO Creating Calmness in a Nonstop World