Welcome to my new website, thewill.net! My name is Will Nguyen also known as “The Will.” I’m well known in the fighting game community thanks to Willvolution. I have been part of the FGC since 2000. I also love to cosplay, watch anime, martial arts, travel and love to challenge myself to do different things. The difference between this website and my old website, Willvolution.com is that this will be more of my personal view rather than representing a whole community. It was difficult because I couldn’t express myself and had to carefully watch what I do and say. Anything I do and say, some people will assume the whole community does and say the same thing. I ran Willvolution.com for over a decade and did everything by myself. I was the website manager, photographer, video editor, forum admin with 10,000+ members, tournament organizer, finance manager, advertise manager, etc. Yeah…I was a one man army. Lol! In 2014, I ghosted and pulled a Dave Chappelle. I never explained myself why I did it to the public and a lot of people were upset. I had to do what I had to do otherwise I wouldn’t be alive today. In this blog, I will finally explain to the world of what happen from 2014 to current.
The best way to describe the Willvolution days was a true roller coaster. At one point, I was on top of the world and then I hit rock bottom. 2014 was the worst year of my life. I desperately tried to keep Willvolution afloat by working with anime conventions but got screwed at the end. I couldn’t find a Retail full time job due to Obamacare. Retail didn’t want to give out full time positions otherwise they have to pay for the employee’s insurance. I couldn’t find any venues to run tournaments and the Willvolution website was on a terrible decline. On top of all that, one of my close friends passed away due to the Moyamoya disease. I was severely depressed and was almost convinced that there’s nothing else to do in this life…so why continue it? I acted very irrationally on social media but nobody got the hint that I was planning to commit suicide. However, a few people did reached out and asked if I was okay but I never responded to them. August 15, 2014 was the planned date because that’s the 10th year anniversary of the Willvolution website. When the time came, I didn’t have the courage to off myself. I continued my life waiting for an excuse to kill myself.
UFC 178 happened in September and it was a great card. It featured the UFC Debut of Eddie Alvarez and Conor McGregor was fighting Dustin Poirier. I was expecting a dog fight between Conor and Dustin but Conor quickly TKOed him in the first round. I was shocked and watched a bunch of interviews after the fight to hear his point of view. Conor mentioned something about the Law of Attraction. I had to look it up and it’s basically positive thoughts attract positive events and negative thoughts attract negative events. I thought it was a joke at first. Like, do I think about a million dollars and then I get million dollars?! I quickly dismissed it.
My birthday was a month later and my father gave me $300. I was in complete shock because it’s like a free bi-weekly check from my old job! My father had a sad look in his face and gave me that father and son talk.
My father asked, “How’s your job?”
I replied, “Not good. I have been promised to be promoted for a year and nothing happens.”
“Why don’t you find another job?”
“I don’t know where to go. I have been working retail since I was 16.”
“How’s the gaming thing?”
“There are no more opportunities for me left. I’m bleeding money because of my website.”
“Why are you keeping your website?”
“I don’t want to let anybody down. There are people that still use my website.”
“Son, it’s hard to say but you are not taking care of yourself. But I assumed that you’re happy because you never asked me for anything. You don’t care for material things and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just that your focus is to make people happy and you’re hurting yourself in the end. I’m not going to make you change. You need to make the decision yourself. I’m always here if you need anything. “
One week later, I had an issue with the Assistant Manager to point where I quit my job. The black cloud was looming over my head and I truly felt that this is the end for me. I tried to do the right things…do things in good faith, but nothing went in my favor. I decided to break the news to my father when he got home from work. I’m always a proud man and don’t like to get help from anybody but I’m running out of options.
“Hey Dad. I just quit my job.”
“Oh! What are you going to do next?”
“I don’t know.”
“And the gaming?”
“The anime conventions I worked with didn’t call me back. I need help.”
“Do you have money saved up?”
“I probably have enough to pay my bills and website for the next 2-3 months.”
“The owners are opening a new dealership in January 2015. Let me see if they have a spot open. The thing is that you don’t know anything about cars so you need to learn very quickly.”
I went back to my small room and remember lying down on my bed thinking, “Is life more than just paying bills and eating food?” I wasn’t too sure if I’m up for the job change. I’m worried about failing and making my father look bad. He’s been working with the company for over 30 years. I also thought about Willvolution and see how to monetize it so I don’t go broke paying for the website. During that time, live stream has been on the rise but at the fighting game side, people were uncomfortable donating. They will look at you some kind of way if you ask for donations. Being the proud man that I am, I never received any donations for my website. Then I thought about the whole Law of Attraction thing. I visualized how cool it will be if I own a house, drive a fancy car and own my true business. Will I ever get to that level? I decided to do this Law of Attraction thing and keep my mind positive but anybody with depression will tell you that it’s a difficult thing to do. The next day, my father told me that they need a Parts Counterman and I immediately said, “Yes!” I shocked my father a bit because I was a bit emotional the day before and now I’m happy as hell. The next night I went to my friend’s house and told the news to everybody that I’m going to be working at a car dealership in 2015 and my plans in the next 4-5 years.
One of my friends was like, “I’m going to be real, Will. Nobody can get a house and a fancy car in less than 4 years especially when they don’t have money to begin with. I wish I can win a lottery. It’s not going to happen.”
I replied back, “I believe I can and I will make it happen!”
“Sure thing, Will. Are you getting a Yacht, too?”
“All that matters is that I believe I can achieve my goals. With hardwork and dedication, it’s going to happen!
To be continued…
