The boldness to dream

"What if I had stopped at cornstarch?"

Seventy-five-year-old John Gokongwei, Jr. sometimes asks himself that question when he looks back and ponder over the 60 years he spent in business. He was a young man of 30 in 1957 when he put up Universal Corn Products on a P500,000 loan from China Banking Corp. and started a corn milling plant that sold glucose and cornstarch to manufacturing companies like San Miguel Corp.

"I would probably be the owner of the biggest cornstarch group in the country today or, just as possibly, be broke," he recently told students at the unveiling of the marker for the John Gokongwei, Jr. School of Management at the Ateneo de Manila University.

"But I chose to live my life unafraid even during times when I was afraid. I discovered that opportunities don’t find you. You find your opportunities," he said.

Opportunity in crisis

"Few people realize that luck is created," said Robert Kiyosaki, co-author of the New York Times best seller, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. "If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‘right’ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip."

The problem with waiting for the right opportunity is that the opportunity may never come or may come too late. "Most people have the opportunity of a lifetime flash right in front of them and they fail to see it. A year later, they find out about it, after everyone else got rich. Often, in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold," he said.

Furthermore, opportunities often pop up during stormy situations, not when the sailing is smooth, according to Alejandrino Ferreria, associate dean of the Asian Center for Entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management. "The greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity. There are more opportunities in crisis than there are in non-crisis times," Ferreria said.

Interestingly, the word "crisis" in Chinese is made up of two characters, "wei ji". "Wei", literally translated, means "dangerous"; "Ji" means "opportunity".

"The traditional businessman reads it from left to right, sees the danger and gets worried," Ferreria said. "The entrepreneur reads it the other way around and sees the opportunity, rather than the danger", and then works out something to maximize, if not eliminate, the risk.

Lessons learned

"Call it trite but, believe me, success can be achieved through hard work, frugality, integrity, responsiveness to change and, most of all, the boldness to dream," said Gokongwei.

That boldness to dream, said Ferreria, is a key element that determines the success or failure of a business. When people inquire about the AIM’s entrepreneurship program, Ferreria has only one question for the entrepreneur wannabes. "What is your source of passion?"

"Passion is that burning desire inside you to get it done. If you are able to convert it into a sustainable business venture, then the business will be sustained by passion even when others would have quit. This is why entrepreneurs form the backbone of the country’s development," Ferreria said.

In his book, Kiyoshi identifies the fear of losing money as one of the reasons why many people remain poor. "The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear."

Gokongwei certainly conquered that fear. "Choose to be an entrepreneur because, then, you create value. Choose to be an entrepreneur because the products, services and jobs you create then become the lifeblood of our nation. But, most of all, choose to an entrepreneur because, then, you desire a life of adventure, endless challenge and the opportunity to be your best self."

Tained by passion even when others would have quit. This is why entrepreneurs form the backbone of the country’s development," Ferreria said.

In his book, Kiyoshi identifies the fear of losing money as one of the reasons why many people remain poor. "The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear."

Gokongwei certainly conquered that fear. "Choose to be an entrepreneur because, then, you create value. Choose to be an entrepreneur because the products, services and jobs you create then become the lifeblood of our nation. But, most of all, choose to an entrepreneur because, then, you desire a life of adventure, endless challenge and the opportunity to be your best self."