The Filipino Entrepreneur

Do you know the saying “Find something you love and you’ll never have to work another day in you life?”? it’s all about discovering your passion and make a living with it. Because if you love what you are doing, you feel that you are not working at all and everything, in your perspective will be a pleasure. Although this is one of the requirements to make you successful on what you do, it is easier said than done. Sometimes your passion isn’t really profitable or you can’t make a living on something what you like most so we end up doing on what we don’t really like.

Below are some tips I got from a newsletter which I find interesting although this is nothing new, reading this might refresh your memory in case you already forgotten.

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I really envy those young entrepreneurs who started having their own business early. Especially who succeeded at an early age and haven’t gone through of being an employee. Some are born wealthy with a silver spoon in their mouth and the business was already there all serve in a silver platter. Some are very lucky who encountered less difficulty and boosted their business like a rocket ship with very little effort. But many times I read successful entrepreneurs were first been employed, then when they are given a chance, they chose the road less traveled and pursue that path and continued until they became successful. If the business you are pursuing is connected with your previous job, then it will be a big help for you to manage your business well. But what if it is different from your passion? will you succeed?

I read a success story in the entrepreneur magazine that inspires me and gave me some additional boost in my morale. The man I want to tell you about is Paul Huang, a former top marketing executive of Pepsi Cola International. He chose to retire rather then accepting a pay cut because of the company was having a financial difficulty which resulted of changing of his position. Since he was too young to retire at the age of 41, he was uncertain on which path to pursue. He ask himself if he is going to get another job or to strike out on his own. Upon suggestion of his wife, he attended a course on culinary school which I think was his passion. After that he further enhance his skill by working in Mandarin Hotel for two years without pay. Then he started to build his dream by putting up his own restaurant in Tagaytay (Fire Lake Grill) . The restaurant is doing well as of the article I’ve read.

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Since the title above is really the theme of this blog, it is interesting to understand the question “Why be and entrepreneur?” The easiest way to earn money is get your college degree and work with someone else. Why take the road less traveled? many don’t have the patience, the courage and the heart to go through it. It is embarrassing to say that I myself is afraid to take that road that is why I took the path to employment for many years. The only reason why I did that is because I need to survive when our family business went out of business. But still there is a fire kindling inside me that I have to have my own business because I know what it is to became an employee and to be an entrepreneur. Although running a business is really hard (which is the road less traveled), but the rewards you will reap afterwards is unsurmountable if you succeed and overcome the obstacles.

I remember when I was a little kid watching my father’s workers work day and night just to earn a living. Every week they get their wages in envelopes and many are requesting petty cash just to make ends meet. That scene always makes me think, what if they were terminated? how will they earn? when they get old and retire, where will they get their income? On the other side, when I see my father, he works very hard, goes to his business early in the morning and went home in the evening. He always thinks of his business and it was his life. He is also very stingy and live a very simple life. It’s because he started being a poor worker and learned to cope up with life because of his discipline. Yes it’s really hard specially if you will start from zero or from scratch. And he even told me a story when he was just a little boy. Life is hard then and he even drank the soft drink from a broken bottle and try to remove the broken glass by straining it in a cloth. I guess he is just telling me how to value things and the blessings we enjoy.

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Being your own boss have been a dream of many people specially those who can’t get along well to their bosses or those who aren’t satisfied with their 9 to 5 routine. There are many advantages of being your own boss as well as disadvantages but it all depends on what we really value in life. We read many opinions about this topic either it’s more secure being employed because of all the employee benefits they enjoy, like for example, fixed renumeration or earnings compared to being self-employed. Unlike being self employed, monthly earnings vary from month to month depending on your strategies or sometimes luck. An employee enjoys other benefits too like health care, bonus or performance bonus and recreations. But on the entrepreneurs side, being your own boss is sky is the limit for your earning potential because unlike being employed, an employee will just have to wait yearly to have a salary increase (it will also depends how generous or stingy your employer is) . If you are lucky enough you can be a millionaire in just a few years of even a few months. And aside from monetary potential, you have the freedom not possible to an employee because being an employee, your time is being paid by your employer. You are actually selling your time whether you do something for the company or just wander around the office and pretend doing something.

But on the contrary, freedom has it’s disadvantages on our productivity as an entrepreneur. Being your own boss is a lot harder than we think, in my opinion. Why did I say that? It’s because we are prone to being complacent and procrastinate more often thinking that since we are our own boss we can do everything we want. Have you hear the saying “Man’s greatest enemy is himself?”. It’s so easy for us to fight something we can see, but since we can’t see ourself, what we do or plan to do, we always assume that we are right. So what is the solution? my solution is out of the box and purely an opinion but it somehow relates to other personal development articles you encounter. Since we are our own boss, we should always think that there are two person inside of us. One is an employee and the other is the boss. You should have a mind set that you should always have a deadline to meet and to present your work to your boss (which is yourself). That discipline will help us motivate and minimize procrastination. Very simple and it works for me. Maybe you should also give it a try.

If you ever wondered what the title means, well it just that we are so accustomed on getting a job after graduation. Many thinks that if you don’t have a job, you’re despicable. But the truth is, having a job will only make us like prisoner tied to a 9-5 environment. It’s true that we need to make a living to sustain our needs but the freedom of being self-employed or an entrepreneur is incomparable. Job security to me is just an illusion. How can you be secure on a job with only two words will ruin your means of livelihood? the words “You’re Fired!“.

In my experience on my previous job, I thought being employed will make me secure even temporarily that is why I endured all the abuse of my bully manager. It’s like 10 years in hell with a monster. I became a coward just for the sake of “job security” because I have this stupid idea that being employed and harassed is alright as long as I have a job. But thanks to my boss’ bullying and to my creativity, little that he know that he was motivating me to create a business and helped me provide a residual income and became my safety net when the dreaded sickle of management came along.

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