Pinoy Business Coach

One of our readers, Alex made a comment in one of the articles in this site about their concern about making a business plan and (I think) finding that experienced business person to which they could discuss the plan with.  A mentor is a person who has enough successes and failures to be able to know what to do and more importantly what NOT to do and who can guide others through the process of business success.

It is quite strange in our country to have a sort of mentorship to the younger generation.  While I am a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, they seem to be more concerned with policies, laws and other things that they forget that the true wisdom of Entrepreneurship is in nurturing others so that they would possess the needed skills, 'business eye' and attributes to become successful business people.

We all talk about the crab mentality- a rampant attitude among the Filipinos.  This attitude is learned and it is not imprinted in the genetic code of each Filipino being born every second of the day.  The crab mentality states that "if anybody progresses in life then it is time to pull him down."  What a way to build a country!

If we as a people are to rise to our greatness, it has to start from within the soul of each person after which ,naturally extends to helping his neighbor.  For the laws of God are indeed true to the laws of man.  Only when we love our neighbors as ourselves, then shall we attain true freedom as a people. The process of giving up this attitude of being 'makasarili', 'tuso' or 'manloloko', in my opinion are stems and leaves of the crab mentality.

What on earth does this have to do with mentoring?  Well, if our successful business people would only reach out to those who are starting micro-enterprises, to those who are willing to learn how to manage risks and guide them in the path towards success then that would slowly dispel the crab mentality attitude.  It is one to be successful in his own right, it is another to rejoice in the success of the other.

Entrepreneurship does not have to be a lonely journey.  I am sure that there are also others who are willing to share and teach.  Being a student of business, I am also willing to impart what little I know for the benefit of those who would want to pursue opportunities.  We can all do it together as a nation. In the world of mentoring, there is no "I" in "We".

Tonight, I had an opportunity to walk around a shop in one of the malls of the city, searching through "Angry Bird" products and items which my son is an avid fan of.  While conversing with the sales clerks, the owner/manager came in to check on the store.  Knowing a little Fookienese, I could tell by her heavy accent that she had a hard time conversing in Cebuano and was engaging her sales clerks in the little Cebuano words she knew, mixed with sign language. And then, it totally hit me... This Chinese woman had decided to leave her country in China and venture into free enterprise because she knew the rewards that would come from it.  Not knowing the language was not a hindrance for her to engage in business and to see profits come in while many of our kababayan's are mindlessly shrugging off the possibility of creating that one business entity that would see their lives through.  That should give us something to think about. 

I am glad there are movements like GO NEGOSYO, which is aimed to elevate the mindset of the Filipinos to a different level of thinking.  Others are catching the vision, the question is: ARE YOU?