Life’s Lessons

I received an email from one of my officemates early this afternoon. Though I have heard part of it before, I was still inspired and I would like to share it to everyone.

John Gokongwei , Jr.
Ad Congress Speech
Nov 21, 2007

Before I begin, I want to say please bear with me, an 81-year-old man who just flew in from San Francisco 36 hours ago and is still suffering from jet lag. However, I hope I will be able to say what you want to hear.

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Thank you very much for having me here tonight to open the Ad Congress. I know how important this event is for our marketing and advertising colleagues. My people get very excited and go into a panic, every other year, at this time.

I would like to talk about my life, entrepreneurship, and globalization. I would like to talk about how we can become a great nation.

You may wonder how one is connected to the other, but I promise that, as there is truth in advertising, the connection will come.

Let me begin with a story I have told many times. My own.

I was born to a rich Chinese-Filipino family. I spent my childhood in Cebu where my father owned a chain of movie houses, including the first air-conditioned one outside Manila. I was the eldest of six children and lived in a big house in Cebu’s Forbes Park.

A chauffeur drove me to school everyday as I went to San Carlos University, then and still one of the country’s top schools. I topped my classes and had many friends. I would bring them to watch movies for free at my father’s movie houses.

When I was 13, my father died suddenly of complications due to typhoid. Everything I enjoyed vanished instantly. My father’s empire was built on credit. When he died, we lost everything-our big house, our cars, our business-to the banks.

I felt angry at the world for taking away my father, and for taking away all that I enjoyed before. When the free movies disappeared, I also lost half my friends. On the day I had to walk two miles to school for the very first time, I cried to my mother, a widow at 32. But she said: “You should feel lucky. Some people have no shoes to walk to school. What can you do? Your father died with 10 centavos in his pocket.”

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Tags: business, entrepreneurship, John Gokongwei, Jr.

Here’s a list of my experiences/events in my life as far as I can remember. I will update this in the coming days…..I cannot recall all of it in just one sitting.

1) I was wearing polka dots A-line dress when my younger sister Carol was born when I was more than 2 years old.
2) I started going to a Day Care center when I was three.
3) The first poem Mamang (Ilocano word for Mother) taught me was “Ang Nanay Kong Iniibig” (My Beloved Mother) and we recite it before going to bed.
4) I went to school by myself when my mother had a miscarriage when I was five.
6) At 6, I was not accepted as a 1st grader because I cannot reach my left ear by my right hand over the head.
7) I was not vaccinated (I don’t know what vaccine is it) when I was 7 because I’m afraid of the needle.
Daddy taught us to dance cha-cha by outlining the steps to the floor.
9) I had my first horseback riding experience with my Uncle during our vacation in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur (my father’s hometown)….going down the hill and crossing the river.
10) My first bath in a river was also in Pagadian City.
11) I first saw colorful, beautiful sea creatures in Dao-Dao beach in Pagadian City.
12) My first ride in a ferris wheel was with my Mother (pregnant to our youngest that time), sister Carol, and with our puppy, Ron-Ron.
13) Me and my cousins enjoyed playing and bathing in the water pump at our grandparent’s place.
14) We also tried swimming in our canal when it rains so hard (hehehe….)
15) Everytime Mamang buys things for me and Carol, the designs are the same. It only varies in color.
16) I love Sundays a lot because Mamang buys us our favorite food for our merienda (for the Sunday school).
17) I did not allow my sister to open her red umbrella while we are walking home from school because I believe lightning will strike it. Hence, she was drenched in rain.
18) I never experience going to school (during my elementary years) wearing slippers or sandals.
19) Mother taught me how to cook one summer.
20) Daddy taught us (w/ my sister) to butcher a chicken (or duck). We are obervers at first and then hands-on the next session. We are so nervous because we should memorize the proper way and order of cutting each part…it’s passed or failed!
21) At 7, I was taught by my mother the proper way of washing dishes.
22) My first laundry session was when I was 9. Mother taught me how to wash, what part of the dress should I focus more, and how to hang it in the clothesline….must be in ascending or descending order according to the clothes’ sizes.
23) I had my ironing lesson when I was in grade 5.
24) I learned to use typewriter with the help of Daddy. But I can’t do it his way because he’s expert in using it.
25) I have tried riding in a Carabao’s back with my cousins.
26) I and my cousins enjoyed going to the rice field during harvest time….to earn money…hehehe.
27) I washed diapers when our youngest was born (diapers are not disposable that time).
28) I am afraid of the needle. Thus, it took almost an hour before the nurse was able to do skin test on me.
29) My first travel without my parents was when I was in grade 5.
30) Daddy taught us the song Philippine Geography by Yoyoy Villame.
31) Mamang taught me how to cook spaghetti and macaroni when I was in high school.
32) I also had sewing lesson with Mamang….only simple stitches. Sad to say, I never learned how to sew using a sewing machine.
33) I experienced taking a bath in an irrigation canal to accomplish a team’s task in Girl Scouting.

34) My first ride in an elevator was so scary….we went 7 levels down the ground in the Agus 4 hydro electric plant in Lanao.

35) The very first waterfalls that I saw is the famous Maria Christina falls in Iligan City.

36) I used to sell candies, roasted peanuts, polvoron, etc. in school when I was a grader. That’s how early I learned entrepreneurship.

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Tags: experiences, Life, Memories