Letter to the pandesal boy: Poverty is not your destiny

MANILA, Philippines - Whether as professionals or entrepreneurs, I believe all of us can overcome this wrong notion that economic subsistence or even poverty is our “fate;” we can and should change our destiny through hard work, indomitable dreams and perseverance.

For those dreaming of a business, how can ordinary folks without capital and previous entrepreneurial experience start and sustain a small business here in the Philippines? These are questions readers often ask me via email, through my accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Allow me to share some practical, first-hand, non-textbook suggestions by using the actual, poignant example of a young pandesal vendor robbed of his meager P200 worth of sales and his single mom, a Grade 6 graduate and laundrywoman.

Their sad story was recently big national news due to a video that spread all over social media, eliciting an outpouring of emotions and help. But the last report I read on Oct. 21 by Philippine STAR journalist Rey Galupo quoted police saying the robbery claim was probably a lie all along.

Nevertheless, I still wish to write this letter to Brian and his mother, sharing my suggestions on entrepreneurship, because I personally met this pandesal boy and his mother on Oct. 18 at ABS-CBN 2’s DZMM radio station. During that joint interview in DZMM, I gave bread, offering some to the boy and his mom. I offered her a job at the 75-year-old Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City, which I had acquired in December 2013 as part of a real estate deal.

Carl Balita invited me to meet the pandesal boy because he saw me on Oct. 12 receiving Quezon City’s highest award for Kamuning Bakery from Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. However, the pandesal boy and his mom never texted or called me back after that DZMM encounter, when the news came out that their story was allegedly a hoax. Still, here’s my letter to the pandesal boy:

Dear Brian, how are you, your mother and your other siblings? I have not heard back from you and your mom ever since we were all interviewed at DZMM radio by kind-hearted host Carl Balita, who wanted to give your family free seed money to start your own bakery (which you said was your dream for your family) or your own sari-sari store (the second option was your mom’s preference). Whatever has happened to you and your mother, I still wish to share some of my personal suggestions, and I’ve started businesses all from scratch so these are not textbook theories.

1. Have a business or service idea. For example, your mother is now a labandera or laundrywoman; actually that can be a good start. Instead of using up all the cash gifts from the Caloocan mayor and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), why not invest your money in a washing machine and start a laundry business? If you want to put up a neighborhood bakery, I suggest your mother work first at a bakery or seek technical training from TESDA under Secretary Joel Villanueva (your mother can ask all the politicians contacting you ever since your story became big news to arrange for TESDA vocational education, or I can assist, too). Starting your mom’s dream of a sari-sari store is easier; you can start right where you live now.

2. Register your business. Usually, small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs undergo the excruciating and often exasperating bureaucratic process of securing the required permits from the barangay, City Hall, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), etc. Seek non-tax benefits from your barangay, which politicians told me they’ve legislated for micro-entrepreneurs. Though this might sound politically incorrect, it is a sad reality of life that we ordinary folks should cough up what the bureaucrats euphemistically call “pampadulas” or lubricants in the form of small cash bribes to speed up most permits.

3. Seek capital from kin and friends but not from usurers. For capital, borrow from family or friends. I have nothing against lenders who take huge risks on no-collateral loans and therefore charge high interest rates, but some of those lenders or pawnshops tend to charge exorbitant rates. Tell your mother to go to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with microfinance operations. They offer high but not exorbitant interest rates. Also try church organizations in your neighbourhood or I can refer your mother to microfinance entities. Avoid usurers like the Ebola virus, if you can.

4. Seek out a mentor in your business. Get any trustworthy and experienced businesswoman or businessman to be your mentor. Share the conditions of your business and your challenges; never be ashamed or afraid to seek the advice of others. Even accomplished entrepreneurs and tycoons continuously seek advice, ideas and analyses from others.

5. Always try to save money. There’s a Tagalog saying: “Maraming paraan kung gusto, maraming dahilan kung ayaw,” or  “There are many ways to do it if one really wants and there are many excuses if one doesn’t want to.” This is almost the same situation when it comes to saving money; there are many ways to forego or delay wants, “needs” and other personal gratifications, but it is imperative to always try to save money at the end of each day or week.

One of the best things you and your mom can do is to go to the nearest bank in your neighborhood and open your first bank account. Ask the DSWD or your public school teacher to accompany you to a bank if you’re hesitant to do it. The best and true freedom in life is not the political democracy our politicos debate about in the news; it is economic freedom from poverty and uncertainty. Open a bank account now and take control of your future.

6. Never stop learning. You, as a 12-year-old kid, should focus on your studies at public school instead of receiving dole-outs from politicians, the DSWD and other Good Samaritans touched by your story. Do not be hesitant to ask them for full scholarships instead. Do not be ashamed, because I believe that access to a good education is a basic human right of all children and not a “gift” from our demigods in politics.

Please tell your mother that although she stopped schooling at Grade 6, that doesn’t mean she can’t learn anymore.  Learning also doesn’t mean only textbook or classroom learning; you and your mother should open your eyes, ears, minds and hearts to all the things around you, for one requirement for any entrepreneur (or any person in whatever profession) is to never stop learning.

7. Persevere. Statistically worldwide, the majority of entrepreneurial ventures eventually fizzle out and only a small percentage survives. It is not true that all people should make themselves entrepreneurs, but for those who really have the passion or predisposition for it, we should learn perseverance.

Persevere not only through the long working hours and nonstop challenges, but also through small profit margins. A weakness of many entrepreneurial ventures in the Philippines and elsewhere is the impatience of many people for “big profits” or “big deals.” I believe there are no shortcuts to success, whether in entrepreneurship or other professions.

8. Be flexible and creative.  One of the needs of entrepreneurship is resourcefulness. Always be flexible and resourceful at all times to satisfy and delight customers!

9. Dream. Even those of us who are not super-rich can dream. Dreaming is free. As long as we are alive, no matter what our present circumstances or troubles are, never stop dreaming for a better future.

10. Have indomitable faith. Whether you go into business or excel in various professions, do not believe people who spread the fatalistic idea that it is okay or noble to be poor, because supposedly in the afterlife we can achieve liberation in paradise. That is a blatant lie they’ve been spreading for centuries to forever psychologically, economically and culturally enslave the masses of the earth! We can attain economic liberation in this life.

Believe in yourself and your boundless potential whether as entrepreneur, professional, farmer, artist or homemaker. Believe that you and I are born into this world with a birthright to success, then do everything you can to achieve this destiny!

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Philippine Star columnist, college teacher and realty entrepreneur Wilson Lee Flores on Oct. 29 won his 12th Catholic Mass Media Award (CMMA) at the GSIS Theater on Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City. Flores won this CMMA for “Best Opinion Column” for his Sunday columns entitled “Will Soon Flourish,”making him the journalist with the record highest number of CMMA Awards in the 36-year history of this award-giving body.

He has also previously won two CMMA Hall of Fame Awards, including for “Best Business Column.” He thanks his editor Millet Martinez-Mananquil for publishing his essays ever since his college years and the newspaper’s readers for this award. Flores has won three Palanca literary awards.

Flores also recently received Quezon City’s highest honor, the “Manuel L. Quezon Gawad Parangal Award,” from Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte for the iconic 75-year-old Kamuning Bakery, which he acquired and revived last year. Flores received this award along with the children of the bakery’s late founder Atty. Leticia Bonifacio Javier — Beth Javier Africa, Ted Javier and Marcelo “Elo” Javier, Jr. The awarding ceremony was held during Quezon City’s Diamond Jubilee celebration at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

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Thanks for your feedback! Email willsoonflourish@gmail.com or follow WilsonLeeFlores on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and http://willsoonflourish.blogspot.com/.