Vocation of a Business Leader

 

When people hear the word “business leader”, usually first thing that comes to mind are “CEO”, “Manager”, etc. These business titles share one goal – profit. Traditional business leaders are inclined to do everything they possible can in order to maximize the bottom line of the company: cut general costs, terminate employees to reduce overhead, consider cheaper alternatives that compromise quality, etc. Profit maximization in itself is not bad at all, but we have to consider the type of action in order to meet the goal. If our primary goal is to increase net profit, is cutting jobs number 1 priority to hit the target? If we want to reduce the cost in waste management, is throwing wastes in Pasig river the number 1 solution? Maybe a traditional business leader will consider these options, but for a Lasallian business leader, areas outside the business like environment should also be taken into consideration.

 The new breed of business leaders do not only prioritize the economic (profit) needs, but also the legal, ethical and philanthropic areas as well. As a future DLSU MBA graduate, integrating the core Lasallian values to business practices is a necessity. It’s unfortunate that we lack leaders of this type, which is why a call for transformation is needed in our country.

Work Towards Financial Freedom

Watching Suze Orman’s financial planning tips at Google made me realize that managing your money through proper financial planning is not just about saving, it’s about making smart choices to prepare yourself for any situation that can happen. Suze has pointed out doing what’s right vs. doing what easy. She also mentioned that even though we are earning well, we also need to do something for ourselves to prepare for the future and possibly unpleasant surprises. Although some of her tips applies only to US citizens like investing in 401K, most of them are truly practical and applicable to all of us.

I have listened, read, and researched about financial planning since 2012, as soon as I got employed in P&G.  What I fear the most is not being able to manage my revenue streams properly and could end up full of debt. My family is not really the wisest when it comes to financial management, and I have learned a lot from their experiences. Honestly, I have learned more on what NOT to do vs. what to do. This is why I have this frustration to learn more about money, business, entrepreneurship, and financial management to make sure I won’t commit those same mistakes.

Even after gaining financial literacy, it’s still a shame that I don’t have at least a 3 months’ worth of emergency fund. I had been so aggressive yet careless on where I can invest my hard-earned money. My practical learning from this session is to set-aside a portion of my salary by auto-deducting it from my payslip and put in a cooperative fund. Next is having security against possible serious mishaps. Well-known financial advisors always highlight insurance being a necessity and not a luxury. Even though I already have a Variable Universal  Life insurance policy with a face value of P1M, I still have plans to get another policy to prepare for my retirement even as early as now.  After securing the basic financial needs, then I can start expanding it through investments in mutual funds, UITFs, and other investment vehicles.

It always saddens me every time I talk to a friend, a family member, or a loved one that does not even entertain the thought of getting an emergency fund and insurance. And it gets worse if they can afford a Louise Vuitton bag, a Macbook, an iPhone, but cannot afford an insurance. And every time it happens, I have this urge to explain to them the importance of financial planning and how other investment vehicles can help them achieve their goals in the future. Maybe this is the reason why I decided to become a financial planner of Sunlife. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have made this decision not to make extra money, but because I’m truly sincere about people being financially literate. Perhaps soon I could commit my advocacy to teach people how to attain financial freedom. Could this be my calling? Could this be my purpose? Could this help me achieve self-actualization? I don’t know the answer right now but I know that making people happy to help them attain financial freedom also makes me happy; even when I put the money and the commissions out of the equation.

Work-Life Harmony

 

What am I working for?

What am I resting in?

What am I living for?

3 big questions that made me reflect during our class. The answers to these 3 questions depend on one’s purpose. If a person is a bread-winner of the family, he may be working for money to make sure he can provide at least the basic needs to his loved ones. If a person comes from a well-off family, then financial needs may not be his top priority. He has enough buffers to find and chase his passion, learn from mistakes, and ultimately pursue his calling – may it be baking, photography, dancing, etc.

What am I working for? I see work as a career. I need to work to provide for myself and for my family in the future. I need to go up the corporate ladder to have a sense of fulfillment and be respected. I need to work to earn more money. But is it all about money? At this stage, maybe it is. But I know I need to do something more meaningful in the future. Bridging the gap between work as career and work as vocation could be challenging and would require more psychological and emotional maturity to realize it, but as early as now, I already have my plans. I truly believe that my calling is to be an entrepreneur. At age 40, I see myself retired from the corporate world to pursue my future business full time. At that stage, work will not be all about myself anymore; it will actually rely more on being a leader to my future employees as well as considering the welfare of the whole organization.

What am I resting in? I see leisure as utility. Rest is just another means to sharpen the saw. Outside work, I rarely go outside to have fun with friends anymore. Taking up MBA, being a part-time financial planner of Sunlife, and leading a small team to build a mobile app sure doesn’t sound like amusement. I’m now in a stage where I need to be productive even outside working hours; and when I say productive - I mean making more money (or at least will have a bearing to my future career). Bridging the gap between leisure as utility and leisure as contemplation may be very challenging as well due to time constraints. However, as a proud member of Iglesia Ni Cristo, even with my tight schedule, I still strive to attend worship services twice a week. I know it’s not enough but I have a plan in the future to be more active in the church organization.

What am I living for? Currently, I live to achieve. Achievement is key in order to meet my financial goals to prepare for the future. Integration between work and leisure may turn out to be self-centered for now, but I’m aware that it also goes along with life stages. Time will come that building my own integrity will be the top priority by giving and receiving – resolving while maintaining humility.

The St. John Baptist De La Salle of the 21st century

 

I studied in DLSU Taft for 4 years and had a chance to study in DLS-CSB for 2 terms before transferring. When we hear the word “La Salle”, first things that come to mind now are: “school”, “university”, “college”, “prestige”, “high tuition fee”, “top 3”, “luxury”, “conyo” and etc. Even after graduating college, I was still guilty of not having known the saint to whom our school was named after.

I’m not here to talk about the life of St. La Salle as explained in the movie. What I would like to talk about is keeping his legacy. How can I, a future DLSU MBA graduate, live up to St. La Salle’s principles?

In class, we discussed St. La Salle being: a risk-taker, an innovator, a servant-leader, and a mentor. Being all at once is not easy to achieve even in a lifetime. But for St. La Salle, pursuing his passion, helping others, and ultimately achieving self-actualization became part of his journey. And I would like to take on the same journey with my loved ones.

Being a risk-taker would take one person a lot of courage to take a certain leap of faith. For me, the biggest risk I could possible take is to take on the path of entrepreneurship. This will entail losing my financial security from my current job in order to achieve higher purpose. I just have this feeling deep inside that I’m truly destined to be an entrepreneur, that’s why I decided to take up MBA. Though I may not have a solid business idea yet, I know God will take me to the right path one day. And when that time comes, I will be more than willing to take that big leap of faith.

 

Innovation is all about thinking out of the box. And I have learned that innovation is not just about creating your original idea; it’s also about meeting the consumers’ needs by creating a solution to resolve the gap. Nowadays, the global trend towards technology is geared towards mobile apps (e.g. Uber, Spotify, Grab, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.). I mentioned this because my dream is to have my own tech start-up in the mobile app space.  And my personal commitment to myself before I turn 30 is to come up with, at the very least, an innovative idea that can resolve a specific problem trough a mobile app.

Being a servant leader and a mentor would take one person to make sacrifices for himself in order to serve other people through leadership. Mentoring is still closest to my heart as I had a great experience to teach in DLSU as well for 1 term. Due to financial needs, I needed to look for a corporate job to earn myself a living. I had sworn to myself that when the time comes where money is not a problem anymore, I will continue my passion to teach in DLSU, even as a part-time professor.

These are the commitments I have for me in order to keep St. La Salle’s legacy. Though it may not be 100% related to education, I guess these commitments are good enough not just for me achieving altruism but ultimately to contribute to the society as well, one step at a time.