Brilliant but unemployed

As a “Motivational speaker” and “Seminar trainer”, I often find people who have a hard time switching mind set from “employee” to entrepreneur. For some it’s just hard to imagine why they should consider giving up the security of a regular paycheck or a job.

Last week, while speaking on the topic of “changing mind-set” I found the perfect reason for people to start considering being their own boss with their own business. It’s called “force of circumstance”.

Based on actual studies, a majority of entrepreneurs or “tinderos and tinderas” in the Philippines are such, by force of circumstance. They have very little education and are therefore unemployable. They do all the work and run their business by themselves. They do not generate employment for others nor do they generate substantial income or profit to finance growth or expansion. Even as entrepreneurs, they are at a “hand to mouth” level.

In short, they had no choice, no know-how, and very little capital. They are generally the Filipinos living below the poverty line. In certain ways, they are the millions of Filipinos who rotate goods or services that ultimately keep everybody alive as long as the chain and the system remains constant or normal.

In the ideal setting, they should be the “employees” who mind the store or run the business because they can be trained to do well and to perform a specific set of responsibilities without the extraordinary burden of following business plans and financial management, which they know nothing about anyway.

In contrast, we have a different set of people who are also in the reverse order of things. Studies now show that, the people with the best training, skill-set and finances are the last and the least to go into business or become entrepreneurs.

They are the ones with the training and the ability to promote and expand from “Mom and Pop” stores to medium size establishments. Most important of all, they are the ones who are well able to create multiple employment opportunities. Obviously they also have better access and choices where to get business capital.

These perfect candidates for entrepreneurship are none other than our children.

Imagine the millions of pesos we invest in their education as well as all our prayers that they will one day become great leaders and visionaries, only to pursue a lifelong career of being “employed”.

I’m not knocking being an employee, but I am challenging the logic behind a major financial investment to send kids to private schools and universities only to settle for “salaries” that is only equivalent to the interest payments for the entire educational cost of that person.

In short, our best assets at creating jobs are tied down to jobs!

But what happens when things get disrupted. What happens when world economic conditions disrupt the supply of OFW padala or fund transfers? What happens when there are no jobs because foreign investors pulled out due to economic, political or environmental instability?

In other words what happens when the jobs disappear?

When Martial Law was declared in 1972, the first casualties of unemployment were Journalists. Not only were you out of a job, some people of evil went out of their way to make sure you stayed unemployed by harassing would-be employers not to give Journalists any job even if it did not involve media.

My Dad Louie Beltran soon realized that just like the Philippine government, you eventually run out of assets to sell. We were now by “force of circumstance”, forced to find another way to earn a living.

We soon fell back on our “pets” and hobbies to carry us through. For many years Cockfighting was my Dad’s favorite hobby and pastime. He was never much of a “betting man” but more of a breeder. But like most hobbyists, you tend to just breed more, feed more and collect more.

Alongside our “Gamecocks” we also had a collection of Dobermans, Boxers, Pugs etc. For the longest time they were guard dogs and house pets. But when Martial Law came, they all became an important part of a chain for our survival.

It did not take long for us to realize how you can easily shift a hobby into a “temporary” or even long-term livelihood. Instead of aimlessly caring for pets, we purposely cared, fed, bred and sold the chickens and the dogs. As a consequence my brothers and I learned about improving the stock, maintaining facilities and the nuances of networking, sales and marketing.

 We did not make bundles of cash but it certainly kept my parents from giving up hope. That “force of circumstance” eventually led us from circumstance to opportunities. It took us from little businesses to learning opportunities, from survival to mind set.

While speaking in Tuguegarao City, I had the opportunity to say something that people can or will rarely ever say. I told the crowd: “I have been unemployed for a very long time”. I don’t have an office. I don’t have job security.

I am a “product”. I am the “goods and services”. I am the enterprise. I am an entrepreneur.

By God’s grace this life style allows me to make: God first, family second and life third. It is no longer about wealth creation but the quality of my life and others.

Being an entrepreneur challenges me to apply what I have learned from the sacrifice and investments of my parents and mentors. Being an entrepreneur allows me to create jobs and invest in others. That is where the true profit of the true entrepreneur is found. Not in pesos and centavos, but in discovering our collective wealth and increasing it for all.