Dak Lak boy quits office job, earns a lot of money from a job that many people laugh at

"Get out of your comfort zone"

Tying his wavy hair like an artist, Nguyen Nhat Khiem (born in 2000, Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak) sat at a table with a small wooden embroidery frame. Khiem meticulously threaded the thread and gently passed the needle through the light-colored fabric.

Around the small table were embroidered landscapes, beautifully realistic, as vivid as paintings. If not seen with one’s own eyes, few would believe that these products were made by the young man himself.

Nhat Khiem used to be an office worker. In 2022, the young man looked for a job at home to earn extra income. After trying making dried flowers, crocheting, sewing... Khiem was most impressed with the art of hand embroidery.

The young man researched and realized he had a talent for painting, so he bought some embroidery tools to try. The more he learned, the more Khiem loved this art, so he decided to quit his office job to pursue his passion.

To save money, Khiem did not enroll in embroidery classes. Instead, he learned on his own through social media. The young man watched short instructional videos and embroidery lessons from artisans to learn techniques and gain experience.

The first time he encountered this strange art form, Khiem's ​​rough, clumsy hands did not listen to his mind. He decided to spend 8-12 hours sitting at home practicing by himself.

Khiem embroidered so much that his fingertips were pricked by needles, causing blisters and peeling skin. But when he decided to leave his comfort zone to pursue his passion for needlework, Khiem was ridiculed by his friends, who called him “doing girls’ work”, “a man sitting in the kitchen corner”…

In response, Khiem just smiled and practiced hard. After nearly a year of perseverance, the young man's rough fingers gradually controlled the needle to move smoothly and gracefully following the patterns on the fabric.

Nhat Khiem recalls: “During my embroidery practice, I took pictures and introduced my products on my personal social network. When seeing these products, many people were surprised and interested.

Until now, many people still do not believe that these products are embroidered by me. When they know the truth, they are very surprised, even admire and start ordering me to embroider their favorite paintings and patterns.

Good income

Before and during the embroidery, Khiem often calculates the thread lines, thread colors, and embroidery stitches to make them flexible and harmonious. In particular, the young man has a way of changing colors continuously but softly, not rough or stiff.

Therefore, Khiem's ​​embroidery often bears his own mark with eye-catching colors and layouts, as vivid as paintings or photographs. This helps the young man have his own customer base.

Khiem’s customers are mostly people who love and enjoy collecting hand-embroidered paintings. These people are willing to spend large sums of money to order and wait to buy his unique hand-embroidered products.

Currently, Nhat Khiem accepts embroidery items depicting realistic landscapes, complex decorative motifs, many details, and colors. In addition to paintings on fabric, Nhat Khiem also learns and experiments with embroidery on dry leaves and some other materials.

Depending on the size and complexity of the pattern, each hand-embroidered product is completed by the young man in 1 week or 1 month. These products cost from 1 million VND to tens of millions of VND.

Every month, Nhat Khiem can create and complete 2-3 high-quality products. The job helps the young man earn tens of millions of dong per month.

The young man born in 2000 confided: “For me, hand embroidery is a way to 'draw' works of art with needle and thread.

I love this job. Because it helps me satisfy, pursue my passion, create the works I love. Even happier, this job also helps me have a good income from my passion."