Pinoy Business Coach

By: Joey Concepcion , ASK GO NEGOSYO
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Last Saturday, I was emotionally affected after reading the paper. There was a photo of a father holding the hand of his 12-year-old daughter. She was stabbed to death by an ex-con who was convicted of rape and robbery. He stepped out of prison three years ago because he won presidential clemency. Other than the 12-year-old girl, he also killed a teacher and a grandfather who tried to shield his granddaughter.

Two weeks ago, the mother of a friend, Arsenic Laurel, passed away while dancing during her Velada. A couple of months back, the wife of one of the architects I work with passed away with their unborn baby daughter. Talking to him the other day made me realize that life is short and that sometimes we take our blessings for granted.

A material world confuses us to the point that we don’t see our real blessing in life. Sometimes, as entrepreneurs, the quest to succeed can be at the expense of so many things in life.

I see many marriages of successful people crumble due to temptation. Some are even good friends of mine. Even though some people justify that mistakes do happen, one mistake can lead to the destruction of a marriage and a family. This has been a very frequent discussion among my friends. Over dinner, couples discuss as to what extent one will forgive if he makes that mistake. Of course, the men expect the wives to forgive. It’s a never ending debate.

When you see the life of people close to you end, it does pull you back. You tend to examine and rate yourself, taking into consideration many things that should be part of life’s success. You tend to ask yourself – Am I an 80 percent work, 20 percent family, and zero percent on spirituality and health? We may be on top and wealthy with all the material possessions, but at the expense of losing our family, our spiritual life and even our health. “Do the people I love, love me as well?” – quoting one of the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet.

Every day, we are challenged to balance our life, but we have to find ways to do it. Many of us who are blessed with a family and who do not need to work overseas just to survive are fortunate. And yet, there are those who take it for granted. They lose their families.

In last week’s column, I saluted Mr. Mang Inasal for his success. The column drew a lot of praises. Three billion pesos for a young man like Injap in seven years is remarkable. We saw him grow. From the first time we awarded him in Iloilo, he is still that same person today. A very young man with all that money can easily fall into temptation. But, he is still a very humble and simple person who flies back weekly to Iloilo to be with his family. Many say that “ang suwerte niya”. But, with great wealth, great responsibility comes with it.

Last month, Bo Sanchez gave a talk in our Youth Entrepreneurship summit. He and his companion, Alvin Barcelona, corrected the notion that being rich is bad. They delivered the important message that it is not bad to be wealthy and we must strive to do our best and become successful, so that we may be able to help others. Bo’s message basically punctuates what we have been saying in this colum.

*Business creation is the more difficult part but is the way to go!