From ‘business-business’ to real business

I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world

Life in plastic, it’s fantastic...

Imagination, life is your creation. - AQUA

When I was small, I had a big shelf taller than me filled with all kinds of toys. Among my favorites were a fuchsia pink Barbie corvette, a play dough kitchen, a ballerina in a pink tutu, a Mickey Mouse magic wand and a pretty carousel. I gave all these things away to a neighboring orphanage but I saved two memorable toys: A Cartier attaché case and a 386 computer which I now use as a small table. As a child, I would walk around my room with my bag pretending to be a big shot businesswoman. I made greeting cards and posters using the print shop program and printed them out with my dot matrix computer. I had a price list and I gave out itemized receipts that even had a duplicate copy in my booklet. I forced family and friends to buy my P5 and P10 products.

Years went by and I showed no inkling of becoming a businesswoman. In college, I took up BS Management major in Communications Technology Management. The course fell under the Ateneo School of Management but I really chose it because it tackled my two favorite fields, Communication Arts and Computers. But looking back now, I guess I still held on to my childhood dream of owning my own business someday.

I remember my friends making fun of me during project defense or oral exams because we were required to wear suits and mine were either too colorful or sparkly. What could I do, my mom singer/actress Zsa Zsa Padilla bought all my outfits back then. The jokes made me feel a little bit inferior but even though I knew I would never end up in an office, I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of making it in the corporate jungle. My bragging right to this day is the fact that I got a B in accounting. I have three copies of my college transcript of records that I never used for work applications just to prove it.

Recently, my college blockmates were unintentionally making me feel like I was the only one who wasn’t making full use of my education. Two of my friends opened boutiques in Serendra, my best friend kept talking about investing in the stock market, someone received international advertising awards and another friend moved up the corporate ladder. To top it all, Dingdong (Dantes, my boyfriend) set up an investment and production company while my mom opened a salon in Makati called Razzle Dazzle. In a conversation with my mom, I wished for my own business and “poof” the opportunity came along a couple of weeks later.

But the “poof” is a story that is actually years in the making. I was only six years old when my parents had a very public separation and I have only recently moved on. Late, yes but there was a lot to be learned and I took no shortcuts. The journey began when my angel, my mentor and Universal Records label head, the late Tita Bella Tan-Dy was confined in Cardinal Santos for cancer. When I visited her, I met Tita Maribi Mapa-Garcia, the one who would guide me through my healing journey. Tita Maribi and her group the Bethesda Springs of Hope have been known to specialize in both cancer healing and healing of the family tree. She was praying with and praying for Tita Bella. Tita Maribi produced an album for Tita Bella called Presence based on her best-selling prayer book and I was one of the singers.

Tita Maribi invited me to sing in the Life and the Spirit seminar. It wasn’t new to me because I had done it back in high school. The Bethesda members would pray for me as a “thank you” token which made me very uncomfortable because I never opened up about my family problems, not even to my best friends. When I finally realized that I was stuck in “denial stage,” I attended a one-on-one family healing session and prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

I attended healing Masses once in a while especially when I felt bad. I was no longer embarrassed about my feelings and I remember crying during a Mass. I became very open to forgiveness and the other necessary steps of this journey. Little by little, after a span of about two years, I felt happy and healed.

And then one day, I had a relapse. I couldn’t believe it. I was so angry. I had done everything I had to do and yet I was cheated of the results. It was not fair. Since I was now feeling half-skeptical of the whole healing process, I asked Dingdong to call Tita Maribi for an emergency meeting. I also asked him to accompany me because I knew I would chicken out and cancel our meeting. I did chicken out, we rescheduled and I still didn’t want to go. But Tita Maribi has her secret weapon, she feeds me well and knows I can’t resist eating at her restaurants. She invited me to her newly opened Mini Shabu-Shabu restaurant at high street. It was the newest business venture of the Garcia family. After we discussed my problem, she armed me with four sets of prayer books that she wrote, for me, for Dingdong, and for my parents. My detour was over and I was right back on track.
Then, Tita Maribi mentioned that their next venture would be another restaurant called Circle Café and a 19-room videoke bar called Centerstage KTV in the heart of Tomas Morato on the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City. Dingdong seized the opportunity and since he was thinking on his feet, he asked straightaway if we could be partners in the business. And that is the very long and beautiful story of how a problem can be transformed into a lovely gift.

And now, armed with the same childhood confidence I had when I was playing “business-business” (derived from a childhood game called bahay-bahayan or “house-house”), I smile whenever one of the Garcias who have long been in the restaurant business introduce me as Karylle, their business partner.