A Manifesto of our Commitment

I wrote this piece as a Christmas gift and a tribute as well from our MBA class to our Strategic Management professor, Elfren Cruz, a great man who I considered my mentor. This article came out in his column in BusinessWorld dated January 15,2002 under the title, “Why I Teach”. I had since taken this commitment as a pledge to a mentor, a debt that I would repay back in due time.

In the beginning, we all have dreams. It is this dream that led us to De La Salle University and MBA. Because we believed that we lack the skills and knowledge to help us achieve our dreams and we believed that in this institution, we can learn those skills and knowledge. We were willing and bale to endure all the sleepless nights, the pressure of balancing study and work, and braving through the tortuous traffic simply, because we wanted to achieve our dreams and that was all we know. We never knew of a higher calling or purpose until we took up your subject (Strategic Management). Like all of us, you also have a dream or in your business parlance, a vision. Your vision is a Philippines where no Filipino goes hungry or seen begging in the streets. Every Juan or Eva would have a decent job and lived a prosperous and dignified life. Everywhere Filipinos go, they will hold their heads high and proud of their heritage and race and not being look down upon by other races and people. To achieve this vision, you devise a strategy. Again borrowing from your word, reengineer the elite, specifically, the future elite which in this case is all of us, your student. By helping us to develop the skills, you would help us succeed in our career and make our companies more profitable and in the process, we would be hiring more people, generate employment and thus improve the lives of millions of poor Filipinos. By teaching us the frameworks to analyze our companies and making them more competitive, we would be making the Philippines competitive as well, since, the economy is but the aggregate sum of all the companies in the country. For that notable goal, you have our most sincere respect from the bottom of hearts. Before we came to class, we know only our dreams but now, thanks to you we have a vision. For this, we want to offer you, our heartfelt appreciation for what you did for us and for your noble goals, we cannot find a more appropriate response than to pledge our solemn commitment to your vision and to do all we can to improve the performance of our respective companies and in turn contribute to the national economic development. We pledge this with our heart and soul.

From the class of GSTRAMA, 2nd term, 2001 – 2002, Monday class.

My Contract

I wrote a contract when I was 20 years old. Back then; I was young, eager, and restless. It was written in Chinese. The contract I wrote is about a promise. It is a promise to myself, more aptly, a promise to my then future self, 10 years after. In that contract, I wrote that I don’t want to be stuck in my parent’s crummy old factory and watch over it till my demise. Instead, I vowed to use every strength, every courage, and ability that I possessed to remedy the situation in such a way that 10 years after, I would become a man respected for his effort, for his ability and become a leader of a community. Furthermore, I promised my future self that this would not be a dream at all nor would it be a wishful thinking but a reality that I could expect to live in when I am 30. I even signed the contract against my future self to seal the pact. I kept that contract in my wallet to constantly remind me of my task. I have since lost the contract when my wallet was stolen. However, the spirit of the contract lives on in me. I was driven to excel, driven to do my outmost best and when my best fell short due to my lack of skill, I strove to remedy it by taking up further studies, only to find that I already had what it takes to succeed. I only lack the confidence and the mindset to do what it needed to be done. Eleven years later, I have failed to realize my obligation but somehow I didn’t despair rather I felt superbly good about myself. This is because I now felt confident and capable to realize my dream into a reality but I need more time to make it real. The rashness of my youth has given way to the patience of my age. One cannot turn into a billionaire over night. It takes time and patience. Trifles and trials, challenges and mistakes. Rome isn’t built in a day. Nonetheless, I still bound myself to my oath. I renewed my contract last year and this time, I know I can do it and I just wanted to say to my 40 year old self; relax and go get a Caribbean holiday for a job well done.

THE CONTRACT

July 26,2004
(Translated from Chinese)

Ten years has already passed and the obligation stipulated in the contract wasn’t realized as promised. However, the actions and effort taken in the past ten years were not for naught for it had tremendously helped in the advancement toward the realization of the promise and in effect brought the dream closer to reality. More time is needed.
Therefore, on this day, July 26,2004, I (name) again promised myself ten years after that I would exert my greatest effort to become a very successful businessman, to become a leader of the community, a well - respected man whose life would be told as a legend by the great many and not a man who is stuck in a dilapidated factory without hope or salvation till my own death.
Again, I would want to reassure my future self of a reality and not just a fancy dream made during a daytime nap. This I promise to make it happen!

Signed

(Name) July 26,2004

Signed

(Name) July 26,2014

On Being 31

The first 10 years of my life, I wither away my time questioning the world around me, wondering who I am or what I’m going to be, and dreaming what I could be. I spent the next 10 years learning. Learning how to read the treasures of the world. Learning to write what I think, what I feel and count the stars that illuminates my dreams at night. I however, still dream and I still wonder. By the third decade of my life, I wander around to discover the world around me. Learning what still needed to be learned. And I still dream but only by this time, I no longer wonder because my dream has finally taken shape. The road was clear to me now although I still can’t see what lies beyond the distance. At 20, I dream that someday I would be able to enter the sacred hall of great men and women. Perhaps trembling as I walked to that hollowed stage in the center of that great hall surrounded by those illustrious forbearers and submitting myself to their judgment and scrutiny. They would review my victories and my success while studying my faults, my mistakes, and my defeats in great detail. They would question my character and overly criticized my short – comings. They would then weighed whether or not my efforts have serve to improve the lots of Man and bring him closer to his destiny or have I irreparably retarded his progress towards his full potential. And at the end of the day, I would be saluted and applauded by these great audience for a life well lived and they would deemed me worthy to be admitted to their ranks and acknowledge me as their peer and asked me to take my rightful place amongst them in the annals of mankind. That is my dream however improbable but I never thought it impossible. Nevertheless, it is a dream that I must realize and one that I must prepare for. It is for this reason that I need to learn the crafts and skills not only to survive in this world but also to realize my dream. And this is how I spend the third decade of my life. Now I’m entering the fourth decade of my existence and I’m taking my first step towards a journey in realizing my dream so that by the fifth decade, my dream would have a solid foundation and would begin to materialize. And by my sixth decade, my dream would be a reality and the world will look like the picture that I have framed in my mind when I was young. And by my seventh decade, I would be a model for the next generation to emulate and four score years after my birth, I hope to become an example of a worthy life for posterity. And then and only then, I would close my eyes and vanished into nothingness……… Today, I turn 31 and as I looked forward, I see the path of my journey will be wrought with trials and challenges but I can overcome them and I must overcome them. And in the course of my journey, I may waver and I may question my decision as to the path I have taken but I will hold my ground for I need to. Today, I celebrate my journey for the past 31 years and I toast to long road ahead to my dream. Cheers to life and to dreams.

On Being 30

I wrote this when I turned 30 last year.

As I turned 30, I couldn't help but looked back at the past. The past 30 years are the incredible learning years of my life. It was also a time of robbed happiness, challenges, and truimphs. I wish it could be different and better but that was in the past, no use in complaining. Now, at 30, I'm facing the future. Looking forward to what the next 30 years of my life would be. The next 30 years would be the productive years of my life. It is at this years that I will achieve my greatest accomplishments. It is at this years that I will leave behind my legacy. There will be challenges but I can overcome them because I have prepared myself for it in terms of skills and capabilities. There will be trials but I would overcome them because I'm determined to see it through and I will not be stopped by it. Now, at 30, I'm more than prepared for my next 30 years. I'm ready for life. Today I celebrate my birth! Today, I celebrate my renewal! Life begins Now!

SEVEN AGES OF MAN by William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shinning morning face, creeping like snail
Unwilling to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. In the sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shrank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

The Martyr Wife

Behind every successful man is a woman. How true is this phrase. I read a newspaper article today about the life of Chen Cuifen, the “mistress” of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern Republican China. The tag “mistress” is actually misleading. It is a western description of the relationship between Madame Chen and Dr. Sun. In reality, pre – republican Chinese men practices polygamy and Chinese law allows concubinage for reasons of propagation of offspring. In essence, mdm Chen is but Dr. Sun’s concubine and not a mistress. The reasons I took interest in her life story is because as a historian, I’m fascinated with her unheralded importance to the cause of the Chinese revolution that led to the overthrow of the Imperial regime and also because as a romantic, I can’t help but praise her devotion to her man in helping him achieve his goal and at the same time, felt indignant and betrayed over her obscure fate and unfair treatment. I couldn’t accept that how could a man of Dr. Sun’s stature would “leave” a woman who he profess to love and who has helped him so much, once he came to power. I guess it is but the expediency of realpolitik. Chen Cuifen was born on September 29, 1874 in Hong Kong. The fourth child of a poor traditional Chinese doctor, she was orphaned at a young age and as a result, wasn’t able to attend schooling and was illiterate throughout her entire life. She first met Sun when she was 19 through a common friend inside a church. Sun then was still finishing his medical studies and was already married by then but the two later on eloped. By the time Sun graduated, he began organizing a revolutionary association and traveled to America and other countries to solicit aid from overseas Chinese. Mdm Chen accompanied him in all his travels. Eventually, both returned to China where Sun started his practice while secretly plot to overthrow the regime while she became his nurse at his clinic as well as his secretary and confidante. She also helped Sun in smuggling guns to the various revolutionary groups all over the country for the eventual uprising since women were considered politically harmless at that time. When the uprising failed, she embarked with her husband to foreign exile, soliciting overseas Chinese support and organizing revolutionary groups. One time, while in London, Dr. Sun was kidnapped by the Chinese consul and was detained for treason. She was the one who went to see her husband’s friends and compatriots in order to appeal the British government to pressure the imperial regime to release Dr. Sun. She succeeded. Soon thereafter, the couple settled in Japan and there she became the gracious hostess to the numerous patriots who flee from persecution and seek her husband’s leadership. While the men plot, she was the one who cook for them, wash their clothes, arrange their accommodation. She even helped print the pamphlets, and organized secret communications. Untiring, patient and never to complain, she is also unassuming. Once, people praised her for her invaluable effort and she is said to reply that she didn’t do much but simply cooks and washes clothes. And what a cook she is, for in later uprisings, she risks her own life to ensure that the patriots are well fed and supported in the battlefield. When the regime was overthrown and her husband came to power, she disappeared from the limelight having left for Malaysia in a voluntary exile. Her husband had divorced his first wife and had just married the eldest daughter of the wealthy Soong family. The Soong sisters, of which the famous Soong Meiling, the wife generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek belongs, are not only wealthy, young, and beautiful but they are also American educated and politically well – connected. They are the things that a new fragile regime would seek. In contrast, mdm Chen is illiterate and doesn’t have a strong political backing. Years later, when somebody protested about her shabby treatment, she is said to have defended her husband saying that she is the one who left him and not the other way around for she is not fit to be his “wife” or more aptly, a public wife because she is illiterate and ignorant of the ways of the world. During her “exile” in Malaysia, the local Chinese took care of her since she was the revered “wife” of the great Sun Yat Sen. Having no child of her own, she adopted a daughter and named her Sun Rong in memory of the precious time she has with her husband. In 1924, upon hearing the news of the death of her husband, mdm Chen broke down in tears and mourned his passing deeply until her demise. Later on in her life, she was brought to Hong Kong and taken care of by Dr. Sun’s son by his first wife. She died in 1960 in Hong Kong in obscurity. I felt ashamed after reading her story because as a historian I should have known better. It is people like her that deserve to be written in the annals, to be praised in the history books, to be a role model for generations to come. But alas, her memory was obscured because of the fame of Dr. Sun’s third wife and because of her lowly status. Lucky bastard (Dr. Sun Yat Sen)! Some guys do have all the luck. If I were Sun, I wouldn’t give her up even for political expediency. I would have kept her at my side and announce to the whole wide world that what a great woman she is. But then again, I’m not him and everything is already history. Behind every successful man is a woman. How true, how true!

My (mini) Library, Part 3

If the books a person read could tell what kind of a person he or she is, then I’m an obsessive – compulsive book buyer who never manages to read the books that I’ve bought. I can’t help it. Just a few Sundays ago, I again bought 2 books, bargain books. “Man or Superman” by George Bernard Shaw and “Consumer Behavior”. I paid 400 pesos for the two books. Nice bargain for books that used to cost thousands. However, I had to slug it out with desperate moms and frenzied teenagers, who are buying books and supplies for school the following Monday. Sometimes, I wonder myself why I buy books and go great lengths in buying books. It is perhaps due to my desire to improve on myself. I know my shortcomings and I know what I lack and I make it up with reading to gain insights and discover techniques to become “better”. Well, that’s for most of my books. Some of my books are purely for my entertainment. Exciting my imagination. Still, other books are there mainly to uplift the level of my intellect and understanding as well as satisfy my curiosity. Business books belong to the self – improvement categories. Let me see aside from general management and marketing books, I also have finance books. These include among others the standard finance textbooks that I used in business school, Foundation of Financial Management, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, Financial Management in Philippine Setting, and Bond Markets, Analysis and Strategies written by Fabozzi, the so – called “Bible” of bonds trading. I bought the latter because I took a course on bonds trading out of “greed”. I’m always fascinated by easy money were made in the financial markets but it is actually harder than I thought. In relation to that, I’ve bought a book on understanding financial news. I also happen to own two books on Philippine commercial banking. I guess I wanted to own a bank someday, which is why I bought it in the first place. Unfortunately, I haven’t read it. Probably, I would if I’m actually running a bank. I also have business law books in my collection. Labor laws, tax laws and contract laws, I could hardly understand those but they are quite handy when it comes to facing tax and labor cases. Most of the newest books I’d accumulate are the operations management books. Let me see I recently bought two quality management books, the Harvard business book, Managing Value Chain, Transforming the Supply Chain, which is a supply chain management book, the book Mass Customization, a revolutionary manufacturing process that I encountered years ago in business school. The gist of the book is how to employ cost effective mass production techniques in producing one unique product. It was an amazing concept but I haven’t read the details of going about it. There is also Logistic and Retail Management, which talks about leveraging logistics solutions in managing inventories of a retail organization. Last I heard, it was the secret to Wal – Mart’s success. Another book, The Call Center Handbook, a step to step guide to setting – up and operating a call center. Similar to this are the books on restaurant management, tourism management, and designing and maintaining a web site. My older books in this collection included a book on warehousing, product designing, and the standard operation management textbooks. It is not only books that I kept. I also have a large stack of magazines, mostly Newsweek, Time, The Economists, Fortune, Entreprenuer, and last but not the least, FHM! I also read three newspapers a day, BusinessWorld, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and World News (a Chinese newspaper). However, I would admit to having a hard time to read all of it. I also manage to download articles from the internet. At the moment, the collection is about 300Mb. There are mostly history articles and about 5 virtual “books” on history. I had histories of China, Rome, Byzantine, Europe, Egypt, Spain, France, Japan, Bulgaria, and Islam plus royal genealogies. I also downloaded health related articles on cholesterol, food pyramids, exercises, and sleeping disorders (I’m an insomniac). I also have books on certain industry statistics as well as economic statistics for business decision purposes. It may seem funny and overly stupid but I still felt that my library isn’t “complete” yet even though that I have so many books waiting to be open much less read. Well, as I said, I had this urge to learn more and improve myself as well as fascinate my imagination. Base on my current evaluation of myself, I still need to “improve” my understanding of the financial markets, which is why I’m tempted to buy Graham’s book on security analysis, dubbed as the “holy bible” of stock investing. Why, even Warren Buffet studied it. In relation to that, I might pick up a book on Warren Buffet, the world’s greatest stock picker. I’m also on a look out for Isaac Asimov’s classic, the Foundation series. I heard that it is many times intriguing compared to Star Wars. I also wanted to buy a book on classical music since I’m into “understanding” classical music. There is also a business book that I’m hunting for. It is about “influencers”. The idea of the book is that there is a noisy minority in this world that dictates what the majority buys, eats, or thinks and how should businesses recognize and “convince” these “influencers” to patronize them. Sounds pretty interesting but unfortunately, I couldn’t find the book anymore. But that doesn’t worry me much because the books that I really wanted to buy are history books. Any history books and they are available but I couldn’t “afford” them. These books costs at least 2,000 pesos up and I always felt that sum is better invested in business books. Hahhhhhhhh……. If I could have one wish, I would wish that I would have enough money to buy me all the books I want even though I couldn’t read all of them and that I would also built a specially dedicated room, a library to house my collection but for now, my bedroom is my library.


P.S. If you have any books that you want to recommend to me, please email me or if your interested in one of my books, you can ask me about it or if you wanted to know how “good” a book that you’re planning to buy, don’t hesitate email me. I’m more than happy to help out.

The Day of Reckoning - Simply Unthinkable!

I got my blood test results today (I've been getting one every year for the last 3 years). The result showed that I'm healthy and a tad better than last year with threats to worry about. Specifically, I made a test on B.U.N. and creatine to check on my kidney function and they are within limits, e.g., my kidney is functioning normally. I test for my blood sugar with True Glucose and this year, it was an improvement compared to last year when my sugar level is near the critical limit. This year, the value is somewhere in the middle. Transaminase tests are also made (SGPT and SGOT) to test my liver function and my internal organ function showed that I don't have a problem at all. My cholesterol level also improved this year as my result veered away from the critical limits however, the result also indicate that my cholesterol level is still at a high level. However, compared to last year where my cholesterol level is near the critical limit, this is actually good. Apparently, my exercise regime is paying off. What is disturbing is that my lipoprotein breakdown or my cholesterol make up (which I didn't made a test for last year) showed that I have a dangerously high level of VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) and a high level of LDL though the latter doesn't exceed the critical limit. What these value suggests are that I have a high level of bad cholesterol in my blood and although my overall cholesterol isn't high, it is nevertheless not a good sign. Probably in consonant to that, my triglyceride level also exceeds the limit. I remember having an ultrasound last year on my liver and the doctor told me that I have fatty livers. In layman's term, I have a very good chance of getting a heart attack somewhere in my middle age, whatever that age is. Damn! I did make some changes in my lifestyle a few years back and it seems that I had to do more changes. I bought a treadmill at home so that I could exercise anytime in the day without the hassles of going several kilometers to a gym. I started drinking tea. I started to eat less (though still debatable on what constitute as less), I started eating greens like salads, I try to control my temper and de-stresss by listening to classical music and by writing blogs. " ). Now, I think I had to become a vegetarian, which I dreaded too much because I'm a meat lover. Aside from that, vegetable didn't taste that good. Its not that I hate vegetable but I hate bland vegetable cooking style. I like to eat vegetable meals from the local vegetarian food store. Unfortunately, the nearest store is in Chinatown. Also, I had to regularized my habit of tea drinking. Not that I'm complaining but sometimes temperatures are so hot here in the tropics that I just want to gulp a liter of ice cold COKE or eat restaurant meals with Coke. I also have to exercise more regularly. Currently, I'm regularly exercising three times a week for an hour each time. Lately though, I admit to being lax due to heavy academic and work loads and there is also the good old laziness to justify skipping exercise. Now, I think I had to make exercise an everyday affair. I also had to de-stress more effectively than before. Maybe meditation and yoga? Nah, I'll probably take up some "patience" building hobbies like calligraphy or painting. Maybe I should write blogs daily, if it could help reduce the stress. Hah! Imagine me, a vegetarian, yoga practitioner. Simply unthinkable. I had a joke once when I was young. I said that I had to enjoy as much as possible eating meat and virtually "pigging" it out on the couch or bed afterwards because there will come a time when I could no longer be able to do so. It seems that day of reckoning is here, now! Sigh....... Well, I could just ignore it, live the way as it is and let the whole thing run its course in due time but can I? It is not that I'm afraid of death and that I will do anything to avoid it. Rather, I'm afraid of living a meaningless life and dying an unmournful death. I need more time to do what I want to do and achieve what I set out to do. And if I had to be a vegetarian, yoga practitioner to gain more time and live past middle age, which in the end could help me achieve what I wanted, well, I will do it. Except, I still can't imagine myself being a vegetarian, yoga practitioner. Simply unthinkable!

My (mini) Library – Part 2

I had this professor once in macroeconomics who owns this beautiful house inside an exclusive subdivision. And in a corner of his living room is a chair surrounded by two sides with books. The two walls are filled with something like 500 to 1000 books and none of them are textbooks. I was there during our class Christmas party. Now, when I try to remember the event, I can’t help it but laugh at myself. This is because instead of mingling with my classmates or even just simply admiring my professor’s lovely daughter. I was busy reading the autobiography of the legendary Lee Iococa (I know I sounded like a stupid nerd). Not only that, I was also like drooling over at his collection and in fact, I would admit to being envious of his library. Honestly, I would like to have something of a semblance of his library. Maybe I should transform my bedroom into a library and sleep with my books. Anyway, it was here that I met the legendary Lee Iococa. I only manage to read a few pages of his autobiography but it was enough to convince me that he is a great CEO worthy of my adulation. The story of Lee Iococa was about how he manages to turnaround the bankrupt Chrysler in 3 years and transforms it into America’s third largest auto company. So good was that book that I finally bought it early this year during a book sale (I go bargain hunting for good books). My other books on biographies of legendary CEOs included “Jack, Straight From the Gut”, which was easily one of my favorite books and one that I actually finished reading. I consider Jack Welch as my idol. Who could actually beat a guy like Jack? Jack manages to post double - digit growth every year in his stint as the CEO of GE and manages to grow the company from a revenue base of $13 billion to $130 billion in 10 years (?). He also made GE into the world’s most valuable company with market value of over $400 billion. I wish I could do that or better, beat his record. Then there is the book, “Who Say Elephants Can’t Dance”, a Louis Gestner biography on his stint as CEO of IBM. I didn’t finish the book but I read 75% of it. What can I say? Louis knows his industry pretty well. He is also a great turnaround leader and a great change manager who transform the slow foot goliath that is IBM into what it is right now, a menacing behemoth. Well, rounding up my collection of business biographies are books written by Peter Lynch, “One Up on Wall street”, and “Beating the Street”. Peter Lynch is one of the world’s greatest investor, next to Warren Buffet and ranks alongside with George Soros. His books read like an autobiography of his stint as the Managing Director of Fidelity Magellan Investment but it is in reality a very practical investment guide on picking the next hottest stocks in the market. I only manage to read the first half of one of the books and indeed, it did gave me a practical insight on stock picking. Related to business, I also kept a number of economics books in my library. There is nothing much to say about it except that most of them are my textbooks in my economics class in MBA except for one particular book, “The Philippine Economy: Alternative for the 21st Century”. This book is special to me because it was my companion during my brief confinement in the hospital some 2 or 3 years ago during Valentines week. I read the book for 4 days out of the week of my confinement and it was a very insightful book on Philippine economy. A must read for Philippine businessmen. Situated next to my economics books are my statistic textbooks and management science and research textbooks followed by general management books. Ahhhhhh…. General management books, they are comparatively simplistic by my standard now but I used to gobble up books like that in my pre – MBA years. Then there is the accounting textbooks followed by change management books, “Transforming the Organization” and “Harvard Business Review on Change”, both of which I haven’t touched. I also have the book, “In Search of Excellence”, by Tom Peters. An excellent book except that I couldn’t remember much of the detail. Organizational behavior textbooks are also in my collections. I don’t have much to say about those books except that it wasn’t one of my favorite subjects in MBA. I consider my leadership book collections, “Leadership is an Art”, “The Grand Strategist”, and “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” by Maxwell a waste of my money and my bookshelf space. They are the worst book purchases I made. I manage to read those books within two days after purchase and they suck. What makes it worst is that I paid a proportionately huge sum for something not of great value. I learn a valuable lesson from purchasing those books. Don’t buy a book the first time you see it. Instead, let the initial euphoria die down awhile and if possible, read a few pages of the book or get a book review before you actually purchase it. If my leadership books are a disappointment then my marketing books are something I’m really proud of. Aside from the marketing textbook, I had 2 books on branding and brand management, a book on global marketing, a book on export marketing, a series of marketing books written by the marketing guru Josiah Go, a book by Ned Roberto on marketing research, and last but definitely the best book I had on marketing, “Strategic Marketing Segmentation”, by Ned Roberto. The book profiles the typical Filipino consumer based on their income. This is a very informative book and a must read for marketers. I just got to read this book again sometime. I had another disappointing book purchase and that is “Price Wars”. The book is not a bad reading per se but I bought the book in hopes of finding a new way to compete in a price war. However, I should have known better. There is no magical way to come over the top at a price war. You either differentiate and command a better price and thus be immune from price competition or you drastically cut your cost in order to sustain your price offensive. I had known that fact from my studies in MBA yet I still bought the book in hopes of finding a better way. What a shame for me. Compared to my other book collections, my strategy management books are more up to date and they are the focus of my acquisitions for the past 3 years. I had the bibles of Strategic Management, “Competitive Strategy”, and “Competitive Advantage” of Michael Porter. I also own books on the latest “in thing” of strategic management, “ Strategy Maps” and “Balanced Scorecard” by Kaplan and Norton. Superb concept and yet simple, which makes you wonder why one hasn’t think about it before. I read those books and I’m applying it now. I also have another Harvard business review books on advance business strategy. One of the topics expounded in the book is financial engineering and risk management as a tool for strategic management, which is one of the hottest topics in management right now. I also bought the “in” books of the late 80s and early 90s like Michael Hammer’s “Reengineering the Corporation” and “Reengineering Management” and his latest book, “The Agenda”. Another popular book of the 90s is the “Synergy Trap”. The recent addition of the books in this category includes “Customer Oriented Growth” and “ Branded Customer Service”. I bought the latter book because I was curious on how they brand customer service in light of the popularity of business process outsourcing and the dominance of service in major economies. I mean how would one brand a smile, a courteous attitude, an extra effort service and many other little things that are generic and could be easily copied by everyone. How could one corporation own it and make people remember them when they saw somebody smiled at them? Aside from strategy management books, I also have books on family corporations. “Family Corporation in Transition”, written by an AIM faculty, deals with business family issues using Philippine business families as study subjects. Insightful book. Apparently, for family businesses, raising a family and running a business is an inseparable and closely intertwine endeavor, which makes me wonder how am I going to raise my kid so they could run the business after me. That is of course, if I ever got married and have kids. Another related book, “Asian Management System” introduces me to the various business management styles of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese businesses. They are quite the same actually but with subtle differences. I had another book related to that, “Running Board”. It is a book on how to manage boardroom meetings as much as a book on boardroom etiquette. Again, I haven’t read the book. Well, it’s getting really depressing, when I realize that I had so many good books waiting for me to peel through their pages and unravel the mystery behind their cover of the book. Sigh……… (to be continued….)

My (mini) Library – Part 1

I stayed home last Sunday instead going to the weekly food tripping. So, I took the opportunity to “fix” my library. Actually, it is not a library per se but a collection of books that I bought over years since senior high school. Lately, since the formal end of my MBA studies in 2002, I started purchasing books, mostly business books estimated to the tune of more than P50 thousand pesos. And these books are piled up in my table and bedroom floor. Couple of times, my mom wanted me to donate or sell the books but I couldn’t part with my precious and so I decided to drag myself to arrange it. Boy oh boy! What an arduous task it has been. Sorting and arranging the books at the bookshelves, which are located at overhead of my table and consist of 2 levels with 2 smaller side shelves and all the while reminiscing about what the books are about. All in all including my college and MBA thesis papers, my collection amounted to 234 volumes! These don’t include books that are somehow “missing”. I didn’t read all the books in my collection yet and there are some I didn’t even finished reading at all but I did read most of them. Of the total, my and my brother’s engineering books accounted for less than 60 books. The rest are grouped into science fiction, history, general management, marketing, operations management, statistics, accounting, finance, investing, strategic management, philosophy, literature, business biography, organization and leadership, and general interest books. These books are written either in English or in Chinese language. At the top of my book list is the 280 pages business plan that I successfully defended lately followed by my 150 pages college thesis on thermogravimetric analysis of Philippine woods. The thickest book in my collection is none other the 3000 pages (?) of Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook. Actually, it is too big, too thick, and too heavy for a “hand” book but nevertheless I owed Perry (who ever he is) a great deal since I relied on his handbook heavily during my board examination (in which I manage to place 10th overall). The next thickest books in my collection are the historical annals of both the Eastern and Western Han dynasty. These books are written some 2000 years ago and are considered among the 24 Chinese historical classics. Included among my history book collections is Edward Gibbon’s monumental history classic, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”. I bought this book during my senior high school years not knowing that it is a classic masterpiece. The book is not a monotonous narrative but rather it is written in prose form akin to a novel, which makes for an interesting read I would say. Also, Last year, I bought a book titled, “War, past, present, and future”, written by Jeremy Black. This book is about the analysis of war in anthropological, socio – cultural, and historical perspective. It is quite an interesting and informative book since it divorces wars from its political dimensions and as well as from the war technology, battle tactics, war strategy, and military leadership. I also own two books on Filipino – Chinese history in my collection list. They are “Chinese in the Philippine Economy” and “Overseas Chinese in ASEAN”. These books deal with Oversea Chinese in Southeast Asia particularly in the late 19th century until before WWII. It is very informative and it offered me an explain on a lot of things in the Filipino Chinese community as well as provided me a framework in analyzing present issues affecting the community and its eventual evolution. Of course, I definitely have a book on the general Chinese history. I bought the book from Hong Kong and it is first published in the early 20th century. Biographic stories of historical figures make up the rest of my history book collection. Compared to the serious analytical nature of my history book collections, my science fiction collections are more inspiring in the sense that it fueled my imagination since my collections are mostly made up of Start Trek novels, particularly the Dominion war series, Kahless, and The Fury series. Who wouldn’t be inspired to take up the challenge of “to boldly go where no man has gone before”? In tandem to the adventurous nature of my science fiction books are my literature collection, which consists of my college English books and the 4 - volume Chinese wuxia novel, “To Laugh at the World”, The 300 Poetries of Tang, and Selected Poetries of Tang and Sung Dynasty though I must admit that I didn’t finish reading the poetries. I also had Homer’s “Iliad” among my collection. I bought the book in senior high after I learned that it was Alexander the Great’s favorite book. The book forms the basis of the recent movie, “Troy” starring Brad Pitt. However, the book or the epic is the over exaggerated version of the movie with gods and mortals as the main characters. The book is generally boring especially in the middle part where Homer introduces in detail the names of the lords of the Mycenaean army and a brief history of each. The part I like most is the last part wherein Hector drove the Mycenaean army from the gates of Troy to the ships and how Patroculous with Achilles blessing, wore the latter’s armor (which is made by the god, Vulcan) and battle Hector, only to be slain later on and how Achilles avenge his friend’s death by killing Hector and drag his corpse around the city for 7 times. The book ends with the ransom of Hector by King Priam of Troy and his funeral. Quite dramatic and interestingly similar to Star Wars III or was it the other way around. My philosophy book collections consist of ethics book, a general introduction to western and oriental philosophies. One of my favorite ethic books is “Bioethics” written by Timbreza. It made me question my own ethical considerations in genetics and bioscience issues like cloning. However, my favorite book in the list is Richard Bach’s “Illusions”. The book is actually a college book report but I liked the book because it expounded the matrix like ideas (mind conquers everything or everything is in the mind, sounds Platonic) way before the Matrix came out. There is however, a book that I couldn’t get myself to finish reading after all these years because of the depth of its thought. Stephen Hawkings’ “A Brief History of Time” is actually an astrophysics book but the philosophy underlying the theory is so huge and rattling that I couldn’t sleep for a week (back in the early 1990’s) trying to comprehend the thoughts he expounded in the first 5 – 10 pages of the book. I’ll probably read it again if I’m mentally prepared for it. Sun Tsu’s Art of Warfare, the original Chinese version head the list of my general interest books. I read the book a couple of times already and I could memorize the first chapter. What can I say? Sun Tsu is a genius even if he lived 2500 years ago. Included in the lists are “The Cultural Traditions of Fookien” (which I haven’t read), which deals about the traditions of the Filipino Chinese native homeland, Fookien. I bought it because I wanted to understand the cultural genesis of my race. Then there is the “Genomics Age”, and “Food for All”, books dealing with the future of genetic manipulation and its effects on both food and human health. Unfortunately, I haven’t removed the wrappers yet. I also happen to buy way back in middle 1990’s, “The Art of Kissing” and the “Sex in a Minute”. Boy! I didn’t know that there are many ways to kiss and that there is in fact a science or an art to it. Wish I could get to try out some of the techniques other than French Kissing. Let me see there is the Lip – O – Suction kiss, the Wet Kiss, the Upside Down Kiss…… I also bought a time management book more than a decade ago but somehow, I can’t manage the time to read it! I also have a stress management manual but I’m either too stress to read it or that I’m not that stress enough to even bother with it. I also have a book on heart attack prevention, which I haven’t read about it and strangely, I couldn’t figure out why I bought it in the first place since I’m not planning to be a doctor and the obvious solution to preventing a heart attack is eat less and work out more. Maybe, I will donate that book later on. Another book in my general interest collections is “Understanding Body Language”. I bought the book because I’m impressed and amazed with my professor’s ability to “know” a person in just 5 minutes of meeting the person. Apparently, he could “read” a person. Well, I could never do what he does but I did learn something from the book. It is about eye contact and how to read a person using his eye movement. According to the book, eyes don’t lie. Eyes move in a certain direction when it is accessing memory or fact or emotion. If a person is telling a supposed fact but his eye is not in the proper direction, chances are the person is lying. Related to this book is another book that I had but that I couldn’t find, the “48 Laws of Power”. The book is quite popular a few years back. In fact, senator Maceda wrote a newspaper column regarding it. I never get to finish that book as I only read up to the third law and I actually forgotten all about it already. I wish I could find the book and read it. Rounding up my general interest books is my tea book, “Healthy Teas”. I bought this book because I’m interested with the therapeutic properties of teas. But to my amazement, I found out there are actually a great many varieties of teas even though I already knew some of it. In addition to that the author even describe the characteristics of each variety in terms of color and taste and he also provided several tea recipes. In my study of tea, I went to the point of actually sampling the teas and try to correlate with what the author says about it. I already tried Chamomile teas from the local coffee shop, the traditional Chrysanthemum teas, the Oolong tea, the Tiequanying tea, the Japanese Hojicha and another Japanese tea. Right now, I’m trying to sample Earl Grey. Hmmm, maybe its about time I visited the local coffee shop for one. (to be continued…)

Listen to My Wife

Don’t take this wrong. I’m definitely single and haven’t been married yet. Its just I read an interesting article titled, “Listen to My Wife”, written by Matt Miller of New York Times in today’s newspaper (BusinessWorld, www.bworld.net). Well, the gist of the story is that people, especially women struggles to balance their professional lives with their time with families and love ones. Trade offs are usually made towards this end but in the end, something has got give and for women, they usually sacrifice career for the fulfilling role of a mother and wife. That’s reality. Juggling both roles is not only taxing but will have a profound effect on the other role. My father died when I was young and my mom raised my siblings and me. We grew up fine but somehow, I always hear my mother say that she regretted that she didn’t take good care of us when we are young because she needed to work, out of necessity. My aunt too is a working mom and I could also hear her saying that she didn’t take care very well of my young 8 year old cousin (she shuttle back and forth on two territories every week with weekdays spend at another territory and weekends at her home territory). So there’s the dilemma, which one to choose? Career or family? Or in the words of the author, “should people sacrifice meaningful relationship every human craves as a price of exercising their talent?” Lets rephrase that, “should women pay with their career for her to enjoy a basic human relationship?”. To be fair, its not that only women craves for familial relationship and seeks a balance between work and family, men too. However, it would seem to be “logical” for women to give up their work in favor of family whereas for men, doing so would elicit criticism of being “weak and senile”. This is because a child is inadvertently maternal dependent while society view men as the “bread winner” of the family hence the “logical” expectation of gender choices between career and family. But I wonder, aren't women also human just like men? Men could have dreams and ambitions and megalomaniac delusions of grandeur but could a woman have it also? Of course they do! Should they give it up for family???? Some women worked out of necessity due to their economic situation. But for women of higher economic status, the necessity of work is not present. Would working for career be an acceptable excuse? Or better yet, could women have other responsibilities other than family? Responsibilities like running a business of their own or pursuing a worthy cause or interest. Simple questions but things aren't that simple at all. It is basically such questions that led to my breakup several years ago. I quarrel with my ex several times when we are together and one of our “quarrel topics” is what is her role after marriage? (Yep, we went that far) Honestly, I don’t know or more likely, I haven’t thought about it. Ok, I’m a jerk but truthfully speaking, has anybody thought about it before they get married? Very few, I think. I always think or more like, made to believe that marriage is the end all in life and everything afterwards is just a cruise down happyville. You hear fairy tales that ends in settle down, get married, and lived happily ever after. Its actually living happily ever after that has more problems than getting someone to agree to get married. So from the breakup, I came to the conclusion that women indeed have ambitions, have aspirations, have dreams, and even delusions and they shouldn’t be tied down by family. I mean women wanted to hear other people to say, “the talented and beautiful Mrs. Y and her husband, Mr. X” rather than “Mr. X and his lovely wife, Mrs. X or simply Mr. and Mrs. X”. However, this doesn’t mean that women should leave the family matters to men alone. If women could complain and demands that their men spend more time with their family, I only think it’s fair that women should do the same. Furthermore, I think family should not be an exclusive women’s domain but be a conjugal thing. If that is my conclusion, my next question is, is that practical or better yet back to question one, how to balance? Seriously, it’s actually easier said than done. Matt Miller suggest that both men and women should band together and demand corporations restructure jobs to enable the individual both men and women to balance their life and enjoy more quality time with their family. Yeah, great idea but in the meantime, do I have a second option? Frankly, I don’t. But somehow I suspect that I will need my management training to manage the process but other than that I don’t have a clue. Anyway, I’m not married yet nor am I getting married anytime soon, so I could postpone answering that “hard” question until then. However, I do sometimes ponder on the question especially when reading a good article like “Listen to My Wife”.

The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker

Note: This article may contain some clues and depict some scenes about the movie Star Wars Episode 3. If you want to be surprised, don’t read this article and just watch the movie lest it spoils the fun.
Today, May 19, 2005 is the opening day of the movie, Star Wars, Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith and tonight, I went to see the movie. What can I say about the movie? It is spectacular but not that powerful because I was only moved during the battle scene between Obi Wan and Anakin as well as the last part when the Skywalkers hold the baby Luke and looking into the choreographic sunrise of Tatooine. The movie is like the classic George Lucas films, few simplistic words bereft of emotion and more action and even more spectacular special effects. Well, in this movie, the words are still few but convey more meaning and emotion. The action is simply awesome especially the light saber duels and what can I say, Yoda still rocks! The special effects are unimaginably incomparable. Just watch the space battle in its full breadth, Star Trek can’t simply compare. Sorry, Gene (Roddenberry) but don’t worry I’m still a Trekkie fan. The overall plot is somehow illogical and inconsistent at best. For in its effort to link up with the original Star Wars episodes, the plot has been severely bent to twist in order to fit with the popular legend. Somehow, all of it seemed illogical conjectures and force fits. Another thing that I couldn’t understand is why Obi Wan kept on referring Anakin as his “brother” when it was made clear in the previous episode that Anakin treated Obi Wan as a father figure. Could George is trying to superimpose a “Cain and Abel” type of conflict into the movie? Another point in the movie is the not so subtle Bush bashing and the treat of subversion of democracy in favor of a strong dictatorship. Sounds like Marcos and strangely, the sith Lord, the Emperor Darth Sidius looks like Marcos. Anyway, the part that I was move is during the light saber duel between Anakin and Obi Wan. I just can’t get myself to believe that how could two people who are so close to each other to the extent of risking each other’s life for the other would eventually turn against each other with such fury and anger and hatred. The other part that touched me is the last scene, which conveys a ray of hope of the eventual salvation after going through all the darkness of the human’s soul. In essence though, this movie is not about the revenge of the Sith rather this is about Anakin Skywalker and its metamorphosis into the “evil” Darth Vader. I wasn’t really appalled or “scared” of Darth Vader rather I felt a genuine sadness for Anakin. For no matter how powerful he is, he is just a victim of fate much like everybody else in this world. He struggled with fate. Tried to conquer it, tried to master it, and tried to control it but in the end, fate overwhelms him. He was just a mere pawn among those who resides in Mount Olympus. His sin was not in pulling out the light saber and tip the balance of the duel between Mace Windu and the Emperor in favor of the latter nor was his ambitious and impatience nor was it in his fear of loss of his wife, Padme as seen through his perminission. Rather, his only sin is that he is too human possessing all of its strengths and promises but equally wrought with its own frailties. This Darth Vader is not the same Darth Vader of the original Star Wars. The original Vader is a fearful, subservient, obedient, cold ruthless killing “machine”. This Darth Vader is an ambitious, emotional, and frail man, desperate of whats going to happen because he can’t do anything about it. So human, so helpless and so futile…. This movie sounds more like a Greek tragedy rather than a modern space romance or adventure. Which is why I propose to rename the movie, “Star Wars Episode 3: The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker”. I enjoy watching the movie and I wish you too would also enjoy the movie.

A Quote and A Historian’s Rumbling

I read a great quote today in my newspaper and it made me think. This quote is attributed to John Maynard Keynes, the father of modern economics and could be found in his book, General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. The quote is "The difficulty lies, not in new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify into every corner of our minds". The reason this quote got my attention is because for so long, I believed that the reason people resist changes is because of new ideas, which are so revolutionary and contradictory to what they held and believe. It turns out, people resist change because the old ideas define who they are. It is a part of their lives and a core foundation of their existence. The source of their capability that worked so well for them. To even think that it is wrong would tantamount to a denial of their existence. Interesting, for in the larger world history, this denial is expressed in the form of a struggle between an emergent idea, an emergent system, an emergent future civilization against what is current, against what is proven, against what is the way it is. It is the eternal clash between the new and the old manifested as a revolution that influence the course of history.

Sorry for the Tears

A friend of mine sent me a text message the past 2 nights about her latest heartbreak. Though the text message is emotionless, I could feel the pain and sorrow being sent to me via the airwaves. My friend didn’t part ways with her love because of some silly irreconcilable differences over virtual nothing rather they separated because he is leaving for a foreign land. She is crying, she is hurt and she is in terrible pain. She is asking me what to do? Honestly, I don’t know what to say to comfort you. I don’t know what to do to ease your pain. I’m stump!!! I don’t know the guy. I don’t know what he did, why he is doing it and I don’t know what he is thinking. I don’t even know what to say as an excuse in his behalf nor should I say anything in his behalf at all. Except that maybe for this one. In behalf of all men who walked in this Earth, living and dead and yet to be born, who loves a woman such as you and still somehow manage to be stupid enough to break your heart, I just would like to say “ Sorry for the tears and thank you for your love”. We don’t know what got into our heads; we don’t know why we did it. We probably are as confused as you are but believe me when we say this, “we never intended to make you cry nor we ever wanted you to be sad”. We always wanted to see you smile, to see you laugh because that will make us happy too. We felt so lucky to be loved by somebody as special as you. We may not admit it now nor want to believe in it but we know that the day we say goodbye to you is the day a part of me died and never to be revived again. We somehow know someday that we will regret this but……… Forgive us for our stupidity, for being a pompous ass. Forget about me and move on, for we are not worthy of your memory but we will always cherish you for the rest of our lives. We are sorry and we ask for your forgiveness. We ask you to move on and forget us, if you must. Again, thank you for your love and save that tears, for we couldn’t live up for each drop.

Another Murder of My Generation and I’m Angry!

I came back to the office after lunch today and started to read the day’s paper. I found out that a young Filipino - Chinese couple was murdered yesterday as a result of robbery. Personally, I don’t know the victims but nonetheless, anger is brewing inside me like a volcano ready to erupt. The reason? The couple has the same demographic profile as I am and for the past few years, a number of my generation has been brutally murdered, one of them a year or two ago was my friend in college. He died because he struggled against his so – called barkadas who tried to kidnap him and extort money. Fate could be so cruel and unfair. My friend doesn’t deserve to die like that. He is a jolly fellow and always cheerful. He is a good Christian and always ready to help. Never the one to say no to a friend, he would help his friend even if is to his detriment. I warned him in college that he shouldn’t give too much to his friends and keep some for himself but he would have none of it. He is a boy scout both literally and figuratively speaking and he is active in civic engagement. He is a great friend to be with and one you keep for the ages. It is not right to take him away and he deserves better. He should be allowed to get married and have kids and even grand children. He should have die in a hospital at a ripe old age due to some lingering sicknesses surrounded by family and friends and not like that. I never attended his wake for I don’t want to see him like that. I don’t want to see him because I don’t want to see myself….. To my friend and others like him of my generation who have been brutally murdered, I mourned, I grieved, and I’m angry! They and their likes are at a time when it is the beginning of their golden age, where they become a productive member in society. They are the future face of our people and its success, the forthcoming bearers of our nation’s pride and dignity, and they are the country’s hope. How could I not mourn? One good guy down, one hope lost and the lost is irreplaceable. The future has got darker. How could I not grieve? To take it all away at once, so sudden, so unthinkable, so ……. How could I not be angry? I then remember my father and the anger and pain becomes all the more unbearable. I ............... Right now, I just want to end this monstrosity and hunt down those bastards myself. Stalk them like a mad hunter that doesn’t rest. Always behind them, ready for the kill whenever they let their guard down. I would cut their head off, tear their limbs and eat their flesh but this is not enough, not by a long shot. If there is hell and an afterlife, I would bring their soul to the deepest part of hell and I will dig an even deeper hole for them in hell and bury them there. Then again, my friend and others like him and my father as well couldn’t come back to life even if I had done that. I’m angry, I’m mourning and I’m grieving. This got to stop somehow!!!

Approval Addiction - An Analysis

I went malling last Sunday and as usual, I spend the entire afternoon leisurely walking in between the aisle scouring the books. And in my “drunken” wander, I noticed a peculiar book nestled among the shelves. The title of that book is “Approval Addiction”. I am tantalized with the book partly because I never heard of the term, “approval addiction” and partly because I seemed to agree with the concept but with reservations. So I read the brief description of the book at the back and I found out that the book is somewhat a religious – psychology – self help book of sort, which is not my kind of book. Even though I didn’t buy the book, I kept on thinking on the concept even on my way home. I was thinking is there approval addiction at all? It seemed to me that there is no such thing. I mean the entire society that we lived in is based on approval and we practically grown up on the system. When we are young, our parents practically cultivated our “addiction”. We are rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad ones and as such, we craved the reward and practically seek their approval every chances possible. As we grow older and gone out in the world, we seek the approval of our bosses, our customers, our friends, our peers, and our relatives and why not? With approval, comes the reward except that candies no longer satisfy our rewards, we seek approval in other form, specifically, psychological. Funny, for in a corporate setting, approval is a complex process. An approval takes time, several signatures and reviews and a lot more people. Could all this whet our appetite all the more? Extending this reasoning further, this cultivation of approval addiction is crucial to the survival of society. Our notion of good and bad, our concept of morality, our thirst for knowledge, and our productive and creative are developed using this addiction. We seek other people’s approval and so we learn and grow. I also remembered my behavioral science class, the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. Isn’t psychological satisfaction a higher need and hence, a motivational factor? Peer approval is one such motivational factor. Given all of this, I wonder, is approval addiction an issue at all? We encourage it, we cultivate it so why the big fuss? Well, approval addiction is a real issue and important simply because we are humans, reek with emotion however irrational it maybe and not some cold calculating logical machine. We couldn’t control ourselves and we let our emotions, particularly fear gain the better of us at times. It is not just a psychological issue but rather it also a socio – cultural – political and ethical issues as well. Drug dependents craved peer approval and that is why they take drugs. Government nowadays behaved “irrationally” because of approval addiction. In fact, government spent countless sums to finance opinion polls to understand the “will of the people” in the vain hope of maintaining their approval rating. They sacrifice long – term stability in favor of short – term gains. Corporations also do the same with their investor. Great men in history in their moment of truth always think about how history would judge them and in effect seek history’s approval of their action. Approval comes when they are praised, acclaimed, saluted, and remembered in history on their decision or else they are simply vilified. It seems that concept of right and wrong is no longer relevant and even ignored. Approval addicts just simply aim for that psychological satisfaction of approval and they value it so much that everything else is irrelevant. Sometimes, I simply couldn’t understand why. Could it because I’m a loner and I don’t give a damn to what other people say? Maybe, I’m just being practical. I wonder if the approval addict has two different sets of people he or she would want to get approval from, how would he or she choose? My guess is that he or she would to weigh on whose side has the most reward to offer, in materialistic term or in psychological terms. And this is where my conclusion comes in. There is no such thing as an approval addict because even though humans are emotional, we are still logical. The so – called approval addicts simply made a trade off between seeking approvals and the psychological benefits and rewards it could get. If the reward isn’t lucrative enough for them to seek approval, he or she wouldn’t seek their approval at all. In this case, everybody is an approval addict. The only difference is in what they value and how high a premium they placed on in.

The Purpose of Life – A Reply to A Friend

A few blogs ago, a friend of mine emailed me regarding the article, The Sand Castle. Her question was what do I think is the purpose of life? She asked this question because she didn’t quite agree with what I wrote. Actually, I have been asking the same question for a long time now and every time I stumbled until a few years ago when I discovered the “answer” that I’m looking for. I was eager to write a blog about it but somehow I couldn’t because my view is somewhat controversial and could be quite disturbing. I was thinking of a better way to say it. It took me quite sometime but I think I know now. So here it goes. What is the purpose of life? Thomas Aquinas once said, the purpose of life is the pursuit of “Summum Bonum” or “Ultimate Bliss” whatever that means. However, I don’t believe that everybody is convinced. Well, to me, the purpose of life is what we wanted to be as we choose or better yet what we wanted to believe in. One could live a life base on the gospel truth that one has faith in. However, I like to stress here that what is important is not what we choose rather why we choose or choose to believe so at all. The simple reason is because we wanted to have a meaning in our life. We don’t want to get up everyday, do our daily rituals in life, eat three meals a day, and work our butt off to pay for the meals and go back to sleep only to repeat the same routine tomorrow, day in day out until the day we die. Instead, we wanted to have a meaning greater than the sum of the parts of our lives and a purpose beyond our short – lived existence. Whatever that purpose is, it should justify our existence. It should make us MATTER in the elaborate scheme called life. It should make us believe that the world will be a better place because we are alive! So my dear, believe in the purpose you want to believe in and I’m not going to convince you that yours is wrong and mine is right or that somebody else has a better purpose. Instead, I ask you to hold steadfast to your belief and lived according to it. Because if that purpose you believed in gave you the meaning of existence and makes you believed that you can make a difference with it, then that is the “right” purpose of life for you and nobody should say otherwise. Rene Descartes once concluded after a deliberate analysis, “ Cogito ergo sum”, literally, “ I think therefore I exist”. Well, I say “I exist therefore I should matter”. And what makes me matter is my belief in my purpose of life even if, it were a short – lived sand castle.

To Neverland and Back Again – On Growing up and Being a Kid Again

Last Sunday, I happened to go to the movies and watch Finding Neverland, which is a life story of Sir Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. It struck a cord in me because basically I’m a serious guy and I could relate to the young boy Peter, who lost his father and then later his mother. I lost my father when I was young and for sometime, there is only but hatred and anger in me. I wanted to grow up as soon as possible before and I wish that it could be done in just a few seconds. I wanted to grow up so that people that I deal in business and in life would take me seriously and not view me as a boy who doesn’t have any credibility. I wanted to grow up immediately such that, people wouldn’t treat my family and me as nothing because I don’t have a father. Eventually, I did up grow up and I matured earlier than most of people at my age although it takes a lot longer than just a few seconds. It came to the point that I could relate better with old timers rather than young people even that of my age. It got to a point where I looked older than my real age. Being serious has its toll on looks I guess. And that is where the movie kicked in. I sometimes wanted to be a boy again replete of responsibility and full of excuses. I could say that I shouldn’t be doing this because I’m a boy or I shouldn’t be knowing this because I don’t had to. However, reality bites and it bites so hard that you bleed profusely. I could turn a blind eye to everything. I could choose to ignore what is happening, pretend that I don’t know, assume that the truth doesn’t exist but who am I fooling? In the end, it is me that got smacked in the face and nobody else. I learned a long time ago that life is not to run away from. I had to face life when I’m ready and I still have to face life when I’m not. I had to decide with all the pertinent facts at hand and also to decide without the details as well. There are times that I had the courage and the attitude to face life but there are also times that I have neither the courage nor the attitude to face life but life still knocks on my door and I have to answer it even if I’m not prepared. Life is like a conveyor belt that brings you to places you never expect nor you want to be much less you choose to be but you still have to face it. However, it is not entirely a hopeless case. I can still choose how I’m going to face it, either with dignity, sanity and logic or entirely in a stupid manner. I cannot avoid making decisions but I can delay the inevitable by a few moments until at least I think I’m prepared even if not thoroughly prepared for the consequences of my choice. Best of all, I could choose the conveyor that I’m riding in. It takes foresight to choose and one has to think it well over. Control over emotional impulse is a necessity although cold logic is tasteless, dull, and sometimes cruel. Choices. Never choose the choice given to you but instead work for the choice that you will eventually choose. That is my motto and one that I never mastered it or could ever master. Choices are hard, life is even harder but sometimes I liked being a kid again along with all the privileges of being one even for a fleeting second. Hahhhhhh…………. Where is Neverland? Could anybody point me the way for me?

The Person That I Want to be With Now

6 months! Its been that long that I toiled myself in doing my masteral paper and finally, I successfully defended it last Friday, April 15,2005. The first thing that I did after the defense was to call up all the people that are dear to me and a few of my classmates to share with them the good news. I rested awhile enjoying the moment before I drive home. The traffic seemed benign to me although it is in fact quite congested. While driving, I was “dreaming” about the future and what I should do and what promises that it hold now that I’m free from my academic burden. I was also thinking whom I’m going to call or inform next about my success. I called my mom and told her to get dress so that we could go out and celebrate at her favorite pizzeria. After the call and out of the blue, I said to myself, “Pa will definitely be proud of me, what will he be doing if he knew what I’ve achieved?” Then and there, my eyes got wet. My father was murdered when I was 12 years old. I remembered that I was alone when I walked the stage during my elementary graduation. I remembered that I was alone when I walked the stage in my high school graduation. Only the principal and the teacher were there to pin the medal on me for graduating with honors in my Chinese class. I remembered that my mom was with me when I got my diploma in college and she was the one to put the medal on me during the ceremony for the board exam passers and top notchers. My father was not there to see me and definitely, he is not going to attend my graduation this time around either. I wished that this is just a bad dream that I’m going to wake up someday and there he is but I learned a long, long time ago that this ain’t a dream, it is as real as you can get. My father would probably brag me to his friends and call up his relatives to tell everyone of them about me for I’m the first in my father’s family to graduate college and the first in my father’s and mother’s family to got a master’s degree. He will probably give me a pat and say that I’m a good son and that I make him proud to be my father. Simple deeds and simple words you here other people say that it becomes a cliche of sort but my father is not here to do so or say so. It is quite funny because when I was 12, I couldn’t wait to grow up but now that I’m old, I wished that I was still a boy being patted on the head by his father. I’m not a spiritual or religious guy and therefore I can’t make myself to believed that he is “here” watching me and be proud of me nonetheless. He is dead and that’s the end of it, period. Nothing nostalgic about it. As I near home, I parked my car on the roadside trying to compose myself. It takes awhile but I manage. I need to compose myself because I don’t want to remind my family about the loss. I need to compose myself also because nobody should see a man shed tears. A man could cry privately if he feels the urge to do so but a man cannot be seen weeping in public. It is simply not what a man should do. It maybe hard to grow up into a man without a man to teach you how to become one but I somehow manage and I’m not just going to give it away by simply being weak. As I got home, I give my mother a hug and my brother a high five as I relate to them the entire story of my successful defense. Afterwards, I excused myself and went up to the ancestral prayer room and lit 3 incense sticks and tell my father that I’ve passed my masters and that I hoped that he is happy about the news and that I hoped that he is proud of me. As I leave the room, I noticed the slowly rising fragrant smoke from the incense sticks carrying my message and maybe just for that night, I want to believe that my father would be able to hear me and see me from wherever he is.

Rites of Initiation

There was once a young boy who came knocking at the doors of the Temple hoping that one day he would become an esteemed master in his own right. For years, he labored under the guidance of experienced masters. Training vigorously to perfect the skills he needed to answer the challenge of a competitive world. Toiled long and hard to acquire the knowledge to face the realities outside the secluded walls of learning. Sacrifices are made to achieve such goals. Then, all the sudden, a point has arrived wherein everything that seemed real for him would come to an abrupt end. However, he knows better. This is not an end but a beginning. This is the point in one’s life when one must prove that he is ready to face reality on his own. This is the initiation. It is actually a test to initiate the examinee to the real world. It is the point in time when all one have learned is put to a test. It is a test no different from the previous tests and by no means, this is the last of the test that one would face in life. However, be it maybe, this is no ordinary test. This is one of the few points in life where there is a clear break marking the past and the future, a demarcation line between hardship and promise, a transition point from memories of the journey to dreams of endless possibilities. As the boy walks down the familiar halls to the hollowed ground where the judges sit, a peculiar rite common to all who walks down the same hall is performed. He feels anxious, constantly trying to rehearse every skill he had learned and to remember every word he had studied. He experiences hope, knowing that the sacrifice he made is not wasted at all and that the future holds great promises to him if he were to passed this little test. He also experienced fear, worrying what the judges might think and the uncertain path that lies before him after the test. All of these he feels and experienced in a matter of minutes and then the door opened and he entered. The test has begun without a bang signaling the start. Suddenly, time seems to play tricks on him. For he swears that, the hour seemed to take eternity to pass and that the years were suddenly cramped in just an hour or so. Then finally, the verdict came and jubilation, relief, and howls of victory followed. The future for which the test is all about became unimportant to him. It doesn’t matter now for he is ready. As he left the temple and traced back the winding road that he traveled years ago in search of help, he swing his pack on his shoulder and placed his sword on his waist, chin held high. He exclaimed, “Get ready world, here I come!!!” He disappeared among the crowd and years later only his name would be heard and whispered among the crowd. Today, April 15, 2005, I passed my initiation. Today, I became a master and someday, I would become a whispered name.