John Gokongwei Jr. on the book on his rags-to-riches life & other birthday thoughts

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. — Confucius

Days before his 86th birthday and Summit Media’s launching of a children’s book on his life story entitled Big John, one of Asia’s most brilliant and self-made taipans, John L. Gokongwei Jr., granted Philippine STAR an exclusive interview over lunch at the Seven Corners Restaurant of Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ortigas Center, Quezon City. A second part of the interview was given during his business trip to Singapore.

After the launch of the rags-to-riches saga Big John, authored by Yvette Fernandez and illustrated by Abi Goy, Summit Media plans to release the “Dream Big Books” series of inspirational children’s books with the personal sagas of National Book Store/PowerBooks chain founder Socorro “Nanay Coring” Ramos, and former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

Big John will sell for P125 and part of the proceeds will go to the educational charities of the non-profit Gokongwei Brothers Foundation.

Gokongwei chuckled I told him him that Alphaland CEO Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin said he’s the only Philippine taipan who understands derivatives. Forbes magazine estimates his net worth of US$3.2 billion.

Here are excerpts from the two-part interview:

PHILIPPINE STAR: It’s your birthday on Aug. 11. How do you find the inspiring children’s book Big John about your life story, which was published by Summit Media for your 85th birthday last year as a gift from your kids? I heard it’s now on second printing and will be launched to the public this time.

JOHN L. GOKONGWEI JR. : I was so surprised! It’s wonderful. I didn’t even know my children were doing a book for me.

At what age did you start reading and what first book or titles?

I don’t really remember but I know I started reading at an early age. Aside from books, I subscribe to magazines and newspapers: The Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, Scientific American, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune.

Wow, you read a lot! Who encouraged you to read as a kid?

My mother and father encouraged me to read.

You love to read biographies, history and business books, while your wife loves to read literature and novels. Who among your kids are the most like you and your wife in love of reading?

All of them, but mostly Lance, Robina and Lisa.

How can we encourage the habit of reading among our youth?

Put up more libraries.

Since it’s almost your birthday, it’s good for you to share some wisdom, especially with the youth. What’s your advice to young people on success?

Just follow the Chinese immigrants (laughs). It’s true, just follow their values and work ethic. Throughout Philippine history, it’s the immigrants who built fortunes and in the process helped build Philippine economy.

What has changed in Manila and the Philippines since?

I observed that every 50 years, there’s a cycle of change, new business leaders rise. Even us the present-day business leaders, if we and our families are not vigilant, others will rise to the top. This is true not only here, even in the US, look at the Rockefellers before, they’ve been overtaken by modern-day business leaders like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs of Apple and others. Before over a century ago, there were tycoons like John D. Rockefeller, Edward Henry Harriman, etc.

I think, there’s a cycle of change, every 50 years. When I first came here to Manila in 1949, all the then-famous business leaders, they’re gone, not a single one existing.

It seems you’re so keenly aware of the rise and decline of many family businesses worldwide. Why this awareness on your part since many years ago?

I studied our own family history. Our family fortune was gone not after 50 years, but in only 25 years. My thay-kong (great-grandfather) Pedro Gotiaoco died in 1923, by 1941 and after World War II, the family fortune was gone.

Your JG Summit Holdings seems to be going strong. I heard your Cebu Pacific Air is bullish?

Cebu Pacific Air is soon flying to Australia and the Middle East next year, 2013, so yes, we’re optimistic and expanding.

You seem to be in robust health. You’re even eating lechon (roast pork) again! What’s your secret?

I like to look at pretty girls (his eyes shift to a beautiful young woman who walks pass our table). I guess everybody else does (laughs).

What are your top three all-time favorite foods?

(Smiles) Lobsters…

Lechon?

No, not lechon, but hongba (Hokkien for “red pork,” referring to red braised pork or Chinese-style adobo).

Any dish for your No. 3 favorite?

Fresh clams, which I only eat in America.

You said to me you love traveling, what are your top three favorite places for an overseas vacation?

Shanghai, San Francisco, Honolulu… I also like Geneva very much; I like the atmosphere there, the people and I like the Swiss way.

Geneva? You’ve traveled there often before?

You know, before I got married, I’d visit Geneva every year and each time for a two-week vacation, at least one week or 10 days just to rest.

Favorite books?

I love many books.

Were you into sports, in your younger years? Any favorite sports?

Sports, I engaged in everything when I was in school, but I wasn’t particularly good at any (chuckles).

Which sports were these?

Swimming, baseball, I used to play baseball as a kid in school.

What about the Philippines’ most popular sport of basketball?

Not basketball…. I also played ping-pong.

Do you like music?

Yes, I like classical music.

Who do you listen to among the classical composers?

Tchaikovsky… I just like to listen to classical music.

Interesting, your choice. I never knew that you were into music too.

I played the piano as a boy for six years, from the time I was six to 12 years old. My piano lessons ended when my father died, because our family had no more money. I used to have a mestiza teacher, she’d come once a week to teach me piano lessons and she’d bribe me each time with an apple, otherwise I wouldn’t play.

Do you think if your dad had not died early, you would have become a great pianist maybe?

No, I wasn’t a good pianist. My ability ever since I was a kid has always been in math and science, but music, no.

Where do you think this aptitude or talent for science and math came from?

I think it’s from our genes, like look at my son Lance, he’s also very good at math. My younger brother James Go also. It’s in the genes.

In the past at your birthday dinners, you used to jokingly complain about having so few grandkids. How many grandchildren do you now have?

(Smiles) I think I have 12 grandchildren.

What advice do you give them?

I don’t know, they’re still too young.

You don’t seem to hold birthday celebrations every year, why?

Yes, I usually celebrate every five years. Five years is long enough I think.

After all these decades of hard work and competing in business, can you comment on your toughest rivals? Who are your toughest competitors?

No comment on my competitors. Less talk, less mistakes (smiles).

Going back again to your health, what are the foods you don’t eat or you try to avoid nowadays?

My wife Elizabeth doesn’t like me to eat too much, or to eat a lot of pork, that’s all.

Your hobbies?

I love visiting museums.

Which are the museums you love the most?

The French one, the one with the design by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei… the Louvre.

Other museums you really admire?

Well, I like the New York City museums, like the one along Fifth Avenue, the biggest museum in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I admire the Shanghai Museum in China, (though) it is not yet that good… I also like the one in England, the museum in Trafalgar Square which I always visit when in London, I like viewing the whole thing. I really browse around. I spend all day in museums. I even eat my lunch in the museum and I take a nap for one hour there. I’d look for one of the lounges there, get a chair, it’s very comfortable and air-conditioned (smiles).

When did you first visit a museum?

It was during my first trip to America in 1953, that’s when I learned to visit museums. I was then 26 years old. When I travel, the first thing I dzo is to visit museums. When I go to New York City, I usually go to Broadway to see the shows.

Do you remember the first Broadway show you watched?

I think the first Broadway show I ever watched was something about Hawaii, if I remember right. That was in 1953.

The first museum you visited in your life?

The one in New York’s Fifth Avenue, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that was also 1953… Also, one of my favorites is the Science Museum in New York, I think it’s called the Museum of Natural History. It has a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt riding a horse in front of that museum. It talks about history, the development of civilization, oil drilling, etc.

If you were not in business, what profession would you want to be in?

To be an archaeologist. I want to dig and explore the past anywhere, from the ancient civilization in China to the Middle East. I really love history.

Three people in world history you’d love to invite to dinner at your home?

(Smiles) Too many interesting people.

By the way, many years ago in one of our conversations, you told me you dreamt of being a fighter pilot?

Yes, that was when I was 13 or 15 years old.

Perhaps your daring venture into the airline business was due to this teen-aged dream of yours to fly fighter jets?

(Smiles) I really believed that the Philippines needed an airlines to help connect all the islands, and at affordable fares. Look, now even the maids go back to their hometowns in the provinces by plane and there’s no need for them to stop somewhere overnight along the way — we offer faster and cheaper transportation.

Have you ever flown a plane yourself, like Philippine Airlines’ new CEO Ramon Ang?

No, I’ve never personally flown a plane.

But have you been inside the pilots’ cockpit area of a plane?

Yes, many times, our own Cebu Pacific Air planes, the AA320 jets.

So, being a fighter pilot is no longer your dream profession?

When you’re a teen-aged kid, I really wanted to be a fighter pilot then.

What did your late father John Gokongwei, Sr. teach you?

He taught just by example.

Unforgettable memories of your dad?

I remember he brought me to Manila when I was 12 years old. We stayed at the Great Eastern Hotel along Echague Street. I still remember the hotel had a barbershop called Kokens.

So you enjoyed that first visit to Manila in 1938?

My father brought me to eat good food. You know when you’re brought from Cebu to visit the bit city of Manila at age 12, that’s unforgettable. It was also the first time I ever rode an elevator, in that hotel.

I heard Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile first rode an elevator when he first went to his father’s Manila office, that he was first unsure how it worked.

Yes, I read he was already about 18 when he came from Cagayan to visit his father.

Any comments or suggestion on how our government can best handle our territorial dispute with China, to promote peace and focus more on trade?

I don’t comment on politics.

Yesterday afternoon, Philippine Ambassador to Washington, D.C. Joey Cuisia told me China’s economy will surpass that of the US by year 2020 according to economists. Do you agree?

I think year 2025, I think by then China’s economy will be No. 1 in the world. However, China’s population size will still be four times that of the US, but maybe PPP will already be double that of the US.

You told me years ago that your immigrant self-made maternal grandpa Pedro Marquez Lim also showed you around Manila when you were a boy?

Yes, that was in 1942, when he visited my paternal grandfather in Soler Street, Binondo, Manila and I was there.

You told me an anecdote that you were awed by pre-war Manila’s buildings then?

Yes, I told my maternal grandpa: Gua-kong, all these big buildings, they’re so astonishing! I recall he answered me: “All of them started small. They didn’t just became big.”

That was your only tour of Manila with your gua-kong?

There was another trip after World War II, my maternal grandfather brought me to the wake of the late immigrant tycoon Carlos Palanca in 1946. He was Carlos Palanca Tan Guin Lay, different from the famous 19th century immigrant tycoon Carlos Palanca Tan Quien Sien who was also his godfather.

How do you remember your dad?

Our father was good-looking. He was also the friend of everybody.

What made you, as a young entrepreneur, decide to move from Cebu to Manila?

Why? Well, that’s where the action is, Manila.

You think you wouldn’t become as big if you had stayed on in Cebu then?

Yes. How can you get very big in Cebu? Even the Aboitizes had to leave Cebu too.

Of all your diverse businesses, what is your favorite?

My favorite is the food business, because that’s where I started in manufacturing.

Speaking of food again, I can see that you really can eat. Are there no foods you can’t or wouldn’t eat?

(Smiles) Up to now, there are no restrictions or limits. I eat everything, just not too much pork.

One thing you told me many years ago still intrigues me. You mentioned that you hade a big crush on the daughter of a hotel owner in Lucena City, Quezon province.

Yes, I think it was the best hostel in Lucena. I was a trader then and I always liked to pass by there on my way from Cebu to Manila. I had to stay overnight, then I’d ride a truck to Manila. I remember that hotel had a bakery.

You said she was probably Cantonese? How old was she and how old were you?

Yes, she must be Cantonese. I was 16 or 17, she must have been 15 or 16. She was very pretty…. I think if I research or look for her, I can still find out where she is. That was in 1942… 75 years ago. If she’s still alive now, she must be in her 80s too.

From Cebu to Lucena, you said you rode the so-called batel boat? How many hours was the sea travel?

Not hours, days… It depended on the winds, it could take from three days to maybe even a week or 10 days. The fastest was three days.

Did you have to stop at some isles along the way?

Yes, sometimes we had to park for water and to buy vegetables and chicken to eat.

Did you cook them in the boat?

No, we bought them already cooked.

How big was a batel? How many people can ride there?

Maybe 20 to 30 people, but we slept like sardines. I think I was able to sleep inside.

In your past birthday celebrations, you’ve donated a total of half a billion pesos to the Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University. Is the University of the Philippines next?

Maybe in five years we can consider, we have to look at our budget. We get our donations from JG Summit Holdings dividends earned by our Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, which is P100 million per year.

Who are the business people you admire in the world?

Li Ka Shing of Hong Kong, Rupert Murdoch, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, the founders of Google, also the old tycoons like John D. Rockefeller and the DuPonts.

Last question on your possible health secret. Maybe you regularly drink Chinese tea like many in Asia do?

Yes, every morning after breakfast, I drink thi-kuan-yin tea.

You told me before that your mom used to have you drink that type of high-quality tea when you had fever as a kid?

Yes, we used to drink that tea. Also, my late mother used to often cook pe-bok-di (white fungus) for me to eat in the mornings, but that was when our father was still alive and when our family could still afford that.

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