Leap and Do Work You Love
This is a cool review of 2012 for the Juan Great Leap blog!
136 countries! 35,000 views! Glen Macadaeg as most frequent commenter!
Can’t wait for what this year would bring!
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 35,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals
I’ve written a couple of times recently that the amount of startup support that has locally sprouted over the course of just the last 12 months has been amazing.
One recent development has been the rise of the online Filipino startup magazine Homegrown.ph
There are a couple of articles I’ve written on the site (you can check the latest one here), but I highly encourage you to check out the other articles, if you haven’t yet. They are really quite helpful, especially for new startup founders. Topics range from the practical (How to renew your business permits) and strategic (Choosing the right team), to the the compelling (This season of resolutions).
Do check homegrown.ph out!
I arrived at Rockwell. Got dropped off at Estrella Street. Was going to walk to the Power Plant, but this elderly gentleman asked me if I wanted a ride on his bicycle car. I was happy to hop into the contraption, as it saved me from the walk. It was an interesting experience to ride in the bicycle car, while this pleasant fellow peddled along the street.
While he was treading along, a car nearly hit us at an intersection. The man’s bicycle couldn’t keep up with the flow of traffic, but he didn’t fret. He brushed the incident off his shoulders like a true boss. After the 5 min bike ride, I get out of his cart and asked him,
“Kuya, anong tawag ulit sa bike mo?”
He replied with a smile, “Pedicab!”
I said, “Ah tama! Pedicab.”
I forgot about the pedicab. I couldn’t recognize the vehicle when I was riding in it, even though I saw so many pedicabs when I was last here. During the ride on Estrella, I was so preoccupied with thoughts that the term, pedicab, completely slipped my mind.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how the pedicab driver was being left behind with his use of old technology. While I definitely benefited from the pedicab, I feared that it would be phased out and the jolly man, who was so eager to give me a ride, would eventually be out of a job as development in the country continued.
Where would the man end up? What would he be doing, if he weren’t a pedicab driver? Would anyone even give him a chance to work?
That short ride in the pedicab really got me thinking…the experience resonated with something I was reading.
Earlier in the day, I was reading a passage from Startup and Change the World: Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs by S. Dev Appanah and Sunit Shrestha.
In the section about Social Technopreneurship, Appanah highlights Professor Michael Porter’s words on innovation:
“Professor Michael Porter from the Harvard Business School argues that, ‘Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity,’ innovation and technology can help the poor as much as the rich” (Appanah, 7).
Innovation will continue to change the world, and technology is driving that change.
I’m not a techie. I’m probably the polar opposite of a techie, but I do see the vast potential that technology can have on the poor and the development of this country.
While it’s only been a month since I’ve been exposed to tech startups in the Philippines, I can proclaim that the innovation of the Pinoy is outstanding. Pinoys can do so much with scarce resources, and many times, even better than those who have more resources available to them. The talent here is incredible. Countries like the US and Australia can attest to this statement, as big international firms are outsourcing the services of top Philippine talent.
Similarly, there is immense talent and innovation coming from the masses. Their creativity and resourcefulness in daily activities that may seem mundane is a demonstration of innovation at its finest. (You can check out this article I did for juice.ph last year, if you want to get an understanding of where I’m coming from.)
To all you game-changers, I’d like to make this plea: let’s NOT leave Juan behind in the process of innovation. We are a country of more than 90 million. Our greatest resource is our people. Together, we will build our nation.
As Professor Michael Porter points out, “Innovation and technology can help the poor as much as the rich.”
In order to move forward with every Juan, let’s be conscious of where that niche can be filled in a bright and developing Philippines.
Where do you fit?
It usually comes down to one thing, doesn’t it?
It could be finally registering your firm. Or perhaps making that site you’ve been working on live.
It could be doing that big talk with a parent to say your heart isn’t in the family business and hasn’t been for awhile.
It could be deciding to resign from corporate. Or to finally using the savings you’ve worked so hard to accumulate.
It could be deciding to pursue funding to aggressively seize an opportunity for an existing startup, typically foregoing comfort and control.
It could be something as deceptively simple as writing someone an email or scheduling a meeting or talking to your boss.
It’s precisely THE ONE action which would push you to start things up, or to push your startup to the next level
I call it the Fulcrum Moment – because once you are able to cross this moment, it invariably, permanently, tilts your fate in a certain direction. It’s life-changing.
My big one was finally leaping from corporate a couple of years ago. Starting this blog was another. I’ve got another big one I want to tackle in 2013.
But alas, like the proverbial smitten teenager getting tongue-tied asking the girl out, we often find ourselves failing rise to the occasion. We KNOW how potentially awesome the moment can be for us, but we talk ourselves into thinking it is quite rational to delay things. We think of a thousand reasons how it could explode in our faces. We allow ourselves into thinking the negatives outweigh the positives. Why?
Because we perceive this moment to be peppered with risk.
Let’s get this out of the way: nothing great is ever done without risk.
Nothing.
This goes double for startups. Think of your entrepreneurial heroes.
Jobs, Zuck, and Gates gave up the traditional college route to pursue their passions.
I think ALL of the renowned Filipino Taipans have great stories of how they started. Every single one of them took massive risks at particular junctures in their careers.
ALL the successful startup owners I know now ALSO have great stories to tell. The stories all become great because the protagonist always faces something uncertain and scary and risky. They faced their Fulcrum Moments head on and lived to tell the tale, ALWAYS for the better. Did they always succeed? No. But that’s part of it. But they persevered. And learned. The learning which happens is worth much more than the price of admission. It is precisely the learning that leads to success.
So you know what? I’m throwing the gauntlet to start 2013 off.
I challenge you to finally face your Fulcrum Moment. Start the year the best way possible by finally tackling it.
Look at it straight in the eyes. Grab it by the horns.
2013. January.
Conquer it!
Christmas can be a very busy time of the year, especially here in the Philippines. In the Philippines, Christmas is not just a one day celebration, but rather a series of celebrations that starts weeks and sometimes months in advance. Here, Christmas is a marathon of celebrations.
I attended my first Christmas party at the end of November and started exchanging presents at the beginning of this month. It’s been non-stop since then. Just thinking about all the Christmas parties I’ve attended makes me exhausted.
As I stop to think about how my Christmas has been spent, and is being spent, I’m starting to realize that I’ve been very selfish this Christmas. I’ve received so much, but given very little.
I’ve been blessed with so much. Blessed in coming here to the Philippines. Blessed with technology that enables me to connect with loved ones back home (though I haven’t taken the time to effectively use it, but thank you Lord for the time difference!) Blessed in celebrating Christmas with so many: friends, relatives, officemates, street kids, passionate entrepreneurs, and just plain good and wonderful people! Blessed with good work, health, food, and shelter! It all so beautiful!
Christmas is a beautiful time! Time to rejoice, be glad, receive and accept all the gifts that God has given! Emmanuel!
It’s never too late to have a Merry Christmas!
Lets live one everyday! MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS 🙂
I spent a twelve years in corporate, from one company to another.
Across these dozen years, I have bounced around in different firms.
Christmas is celebrated more or less the same way:
A big “Christmas” party is planned
The party starts with a token prayer (typically by the HR guy)
The CEO starts a speech, usually beginning with something like “Hey, I know you guys want to party, so I’ll keep this short!” (he usually doesn’t). It’s on dreaded Powerpoint. It’s filled with graphs about the company, how it performed, how next year would be even more amazing.
Then the CEO ends the speech with something like a “KAIN TAYO!”
Food and drinks are served
A raffle ensues. Some games.
A band starts playing, people start dancing, and getting drunk.
There is nothing wrong with this per se.
But why call it a “Christmas” party at all?
Just call it a “Year-end company party”, since there is no mention of Christ anywhere but the token prayer. Not one of the CEO’s I’ve witnesses have ever mentioned Him. It’s all about those graphs and things.
To those of us building firms, we have a chance to do much better than this.
Let’s celebrate, but then let’s also remember why we are celebrating in the first place.
I started out my day with 50 pesos in my pocket.
By 5pm, I had 1 peso.
I had food waiting for me at home. True, I didn’t have any more expenses for the day, but I still needed to hop on the MRT to get home. Good thing, I had a stored value card to get me there.
On the journey home, I was drunk with excitement. I felt liberated without the resources that would usually shield me from hardship. I was ready for any obstacle because I literally had nothing to lose.
The only thing on my mind was to get home to food and shelter, and I knew I’d get there someway, somehow.
While this romanticized anecdote is a product of my own recklessness and negligence, I savor that 1 Peso Moment. It reminds me of the rewards that come from making do with less. In this instance, I was pushed to the limit because I was down to my last peso and I was provoked to push back because I had to survive. In contrast, an excess of resources could do the complete opposite.
In the startup scene, they say that when a company acquires funding it actually increases the company’s likelihood of running out of funds. I see the concept play out in my own life.
When I’ve got a couple of thousand pesos. The money exits from my pocket without attachment. I can barely remember where it goes when I have more of it. Money, in this case, has less of an impact because it’s dispensable. Since I don’t value the money properly, I don’t foresee any consequences until I’m down to my last peso.
If I were to apply the principles of startup methodology into my own life, as I transition from life in a developed country to life in a developing country, I would say that bootstrapping is the way to go. I’ve heard so many stories about how funded startups fail because they get investors too quickly or how founders lose control of their businesses by giving up majority of their shares. The list seems to go on and on, but aside from the many reasons, I’d like to put emphasis on this Juan Great Thought:
If you’ve only got 1 Peso in your pocket, you stay hungry.
When you don’t have any money for a basic human need like food, you will work at any cost to fulfill that need. That need to live is what will ferociously drive you to great measures, and that determination opens the doors for great rewards.
I’d like to work with that hunger to survive day in and day out. In days of doubt and despair, I will always remember that moment when I had just 1 peso.
Back around 2007, I remember being thoroughly underwhelmed by the CEO of a multinational company our startup competed with. Our companies were summoned by a client in a joint meeting to compete for a bid.
I distinctly remember telling Pao: “The guy didn’t say anything and just wrote down notes. He was so unimpressive.”
Little did I know that not saying anything and taking down notes were quite strategic in one on one sales, so much so in B2B sales. Stubborn that I was, it took me a year or two to incorporate the same strategies in my own sales meetings.
Back then, whenever we did sales pitches, people would always react at how young we were – and this always felt like a hurdle in the selling process. (as the years went by, losing hair and gaining pounds remedied this – ah, the perks of baldness!) This, plus our being rookies in the industry, made me feel a gap in credibility.
So in the back of my mind, whenever I’d go to pitches, I thought – “I have to prove to this person how capable I am.”
So my pitches early on became exercises in hearing all about how great we and our products were.
One BIG problem: clients don’t care about how great you are. They only care about how you can help them out.
I remember seeing this in their faces before: they WANT to say something but I was so busy wanting to blurt out my “piece” that sometimes I didn’t let them get a chance to.
HUGE mistake.
The whole pitch has to be about the client. How can the product help them out? What’s in it for them? It only becomes a great product if they can see how it helps THEM to be great.
Listening and writing down notes are great visual indicators that the client’s needs are precisely what you are prioritizing. I’m not talking about putting on a show though – you really have to listen. Authenticity is pretty easy to sniff out. The client’s needs HAS to be first.
A client who is excited, talking, and feeling good about herself and her company is a much more likely sale than the one who is repressing herself to listen to someone saying how great they are.
Putting themselves first is a great temptation especially for new entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs precisely because they have a lot of confidence in themselves. They also usually have a chip on their shoulder – a great need to prove something to the world. Inviting them to talk about their passions could easily turn into a couple of hours of monologue.
Overall, this is a good thing. Entrepreneurs need this to go through the roughest cycles of the job.
Just remember to rein it in sales meetings: just give a concise, well-thought pitch…
And then shut the hey up.
Growing up, I was always told that it is through consistent, regular effort that we make great things happen.
Experience has taught me that this isn’t always the case, moreso with a number of “great” things.
For example, the people I know who have undergone uber-dramatic (and lasting) weight loss did it by doing something drastic in the beginning – like a month of little to no carbs coupled with really small portions. For those of us who love eating, you know how difficult this is – a truly supreme effort. In a month, results became obvious and motivated my friends even more to see things through.
For these friends of mine, “slow and steady” efforts over years never yielded the results they wanted.
True progress only started after a relatively short period of intense, concentrated effort. Results are obtained. Maintenance, as everyone reports, is much easier afterwards.
There are examples all around.
I know certain people who have carved out successful careers out of working their tails off in landing ONE humongous account.
Law and medical students studying the lights out for one exam which will dictate the course of the rest of their lives.
Slow and steady doesn’t always apply because life itself isn’t slow and steady, right? Life is composed of seasons -peaks and valleys. Times of abundance. Times of scarcity.
Times of varying degrees of opportunity.
Opportunity doesn’t come from a slow and steady stream, doesn’t it? It just presents itself.
This is where intense bursts of effort trump steady distributed effort nearly every time. When the opportunity comes, you usually have to be able to exert a great, drastic effort to grab it. The great effort will usually allow you to grab a foothold – something that slow and steady effort might not have allowed you to do so. Then, in a lot of ways, it becomes just a bit easier.
This is very very true in startups – especially in the early stages.
Looking back when I was starting, this was so true in so many ways:
Recruiting the right partners – and casting a large enough net to do so – for STORM required me to spend almost all of my weeknights for around a month talking to people.
Landing that first client in as a B2B firm (so crucial to get a first reference) required a great, drastic effort on our part.
Finally leaping from corporate required a great burst of sacrifice, planning, and work. (and prayer)
Want to put up a startup? Your slow and steady approach might not cut it (and for some of us, I know it’s been frustrating)
Do something drastic in a short, concentrated burst of great, grand effort. Focus this intense effort on the fulcrum issues which are causing your startup to stall.
Need funding? Reach out to 100 strategic individuals. Give yourself 5 working days to do so.
Need a co-founder? Arrange 8-10 interviews a day for a full week.
Need an idea? Need to validate with the client? Need to build a prototype?
Instead of spreading things out, try bursts.
Oh, you’re doing this part-time? Just take your 5 “vacation” days off and do the exact opposite. Plan these 5 days out carefully – what you’re going to be doing for your startup in every hour.
Try bursts.
How many times have you been called crazy? How many times has someone told you that you couldn’t do something? How many times have you had a good idea and let it disappear into nothing? How many times have you despaired? How many times?
I’ve been called crazy for thinking I can change the Philippines, so many times.
I’ve been told that it’d be impossible to start a business at my age, so many times. I’ve let ideas disappear, so many times. I’ve despaired too many times. So many times… and yet I’m here.
Yes I am here, and so many times people have asked me,
“Why are you here?”
What I want to tell them is:
“I am here because I choose and want to be here. I see a brighter future for me in the Philippines. I love the Philippines. I am Filipino and I know God made me Filipino for a reason.”
Ask me how many times I’ve actually articulated this.
Why can’t I say it more times?
It’s a lot to live up to and I see myself as no one to speak in those terms.
But how does a person define one as a nobody? Dapat bang maging sikat before one is recognized for existing? Are one’s thoughts, values, and actions worth more if you are more popular?
Why not be crazy, if you have a persistent itch…be unreasonable, if you have a clear vision..be stellar, if you’re gifted?
No matter what they think of you, why not just be your best self?
Giving it your all is how you’ll see the path that’s truly made for you.
“LET IT SHINE! LET IT SHINE!”
Do you feel me?
The truth is, no matter how many times I fail to articulate with conviction, I know what I want. I want to be a successful entrepreneur, and in my own way, help build the Philippines and its people to new heights.
I’m still finding the exact steps as I work towards my end goal, but the opportunities are endless, I am telling you. The more I am exposed to, the more my horizons are stretched, and the more I see that impossible IS nothing.
It’s just a matter of believing and seeing the light in a bright and beautiful Philippines.
JUAN GREAT LEAP 