Mission

Ten years into my career in Corporate HR, I felt stuck, miserable, and trapped. During my first few years, I thought I loved it. I loved talking to different people and taking care of them through what I did in HR. I even took a Master’s Degree in the field. But after a few more years, I just knew it wasn’t for me. Work had become a chore. I hated Mondays and spent the whole week dreaming about Fridays. I managed to hit most of my personal work objectives and achieved the “Car and condo” dream a lot of my peers were also working for. I should be happy. Was I being weird?  I looked around and talked to people and realised most of the people I worked with felt the same. Ganoon talaga, trabaho lang yan. Which just felt even more depressing. What caught my attention then as an HR practitioner was that benefits were all the same for most people in companies – and this was a big problem. I dreamt of forming a startup to try and remedy that. I decided to do try to do that as a side-hustle. I LOVED the work I was doing. I read books on it for both pleasure and learning, I spent my free hours working on the project, time just WHIZZED by when I worked on it. After 2-3 years the thought of going full-time with my startup started to haunt me. I have a family to support and bills to pay – I can’t just leave my career and start over in another field! Can I? Long and very dramatic story short, I took the leap, quit corporate and founded my first startup, STORM. It was the best professional decision of my life. Instead of being a side-hustle, I did what I LOVED full-time. I was so enthralled by the experience that started blogging about it here in Juangreatleap. When STORM, my other engagements, and my number of kids grew exponentially, I stopped blogging and writing altogether. My excuse was the proverbial life got in the way. That was a mistake my soul would regret. Writing was a passion I just needed to do. As the years went on, that subtle whisper to go back to writing just became an unbearable call to get back in it. And now, I’m back writing. And now I just KNOW I can’t quit it  – God wrote it in my DNA.

JuanGreatLeap 2.0

When I first started this blog in 2011, I called it “The Philippine Startup movement” And yes, I will still be writing about startups, entrepreneurship, and all I’ve learned on the topic these past few years. But I think JuanGreatLeap can represent a movement to help people accomplish a broader, bigger LEAP. I think most people are NOT working to their fullest potential. It’s not because of their fault. You could be a CEO of a big corporation making millions with a big house and a bunch of cars – and still be extremely unsatisfied, still not be doing work which you LOVE. I know because I’ve met a number of people in crisis mode like this. And you know what? The work you produce when you LOVE what you’re doing, when you’re doing what you’re MEANT to be doing, will just pale in comparison to uninspired work. Even if you’re working hard. This blog will be about doing THAT leap. Not necessarily to do a startup, or to be an entrepreneur, but perhaps to be a freelancer, or to change industries, or to do a side-hustle you love. Can you imagine a world where everyone is doing truly soul-filling, joyful work? That’s what JuanGreatLeap wants to will into existence. One person at a time.