Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We all have known by heart this saying: Tiên học lễ, hậu học văn – First learn propriety, second learn knowledge. This order means propriety is more important than knowledge.

Propriety is the way we treat and deal with each other; knowledge is the academic subjects we normally learn in school.

Propriety talks about our attitude and behavior toward one another in the society. Our attitude and behavior stand on the constant values of honesty, respect, understanding, caring, gentleness… These values are what make us behave in the way that shows our respect for people and, therefore, people respect us.

Propriety, thus, is the key to our success in life. Propriety helps us be good in diplomacy, in teamwork, in selling, in advocacy, in politics, in business, in everything we do with people in life – simply because we respect people and people love us.

With propriety we win, without propriety we lose. That is the self-evident truth.

But today, society doesn’t focus on propriety. Society teaches only academic subjects.

You can have 10 PhD degrees in your pocket, but if you don’t know how to deal with people, you will be unemployed for life, my friends.

We live with people and work with people. If we don’t know how to deal with people, we’re out.

Pay attention to propriety.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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