How a Near‑Death Experience Made a High‑Earning Executive Quit Her VND200 Million‑a‑Month Job and Open a Vegetarian Restaurant

In the summer of 2012, during her second trip to Tibet, Ngoc Diep suffered a severe health crisis. She experienced shortness of breath, facial swelling and a squeezing sensation in her head, and for almost three weeks she relied on oxygen masks and intravenous drips administered by local monks and nuns.

Before the trip, Diep had spent years in senior management at large corporations, earning over VND200 million a month. She lived a lifestyle many would consider enviable, yet the illness forced her to confront human fragility. "There were times I thought I wouldn't survive," she says. "I suddenly realized that such a high salary means nothing in the face of death."

Back in Vietnam she kept her corporate job, but she switched to a strict vegetarian diet and began meditating more seriously. In early 2018 she woke up with a clear conviction: she no longer wanted to spend another minute in an office. Her superiors offered unpaid leave and promised her position would be waiting, but she declined and chose to pursue a restaurant instead.

In May 2019 Diep opened her first Shamballa vegetarian restaurant on Trinh Van Can Street in Ho Chi Minh City. She named it after the Tibetan concept of Shamballa, a realm of peace without suffering, reflecting the spiritual shift sparked by her health ordeal.

Just seven months after opening, the Covid‑19 pandemic hit, causing a sharp drop in customers. To keep the business afloat Diep had to dip into her savings and even borrow money from friends. "I almost emptied my savings, and even had to borrow from friends," she says.

The restaurant survived the crisis and later expanded to Da Nang. In 2025 and again in 2026 the Da Nang branch earned a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand recognition, highlighting its quality food at reasonable prices.

Diep’s journey illustrates how a near‑death experience can reshape personal values, prompting a high‑earning executive to leave a lucrative corporate career and launch a purpose‑driven venture that promotes plant‑based eating.

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How a Near‑Death Experience Made a High‑Earning Executive Quit Her VND200 Million‑a‑Month Job and Open a Vegetarian Restaurant

How a Near‑Death Experience Made a High‑Earning Executive Quit Her VND200 Million‑a‑Month Job and Open a Vegetarian Restaurant

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