Some of you might be wondering how did I start? Or who I am before I become an entrepreneur. Here’s a short write up of 2005 onwards. Back when I graduated, worked as an employee and introduced to the term ‘entrepreneurship’ and onwards.
In my early years I was a highly paid IT professional and had worked in different companies. I began my web development career after I graduated in 2005. I was one of the most workaholic guys you’ll ever meet and even pagtulog, kinatatamaran ko. I feel sayang ang oras. (I find sleeping as laziness and unproductive so I get very short sleep time)
Through brute force, hard-work, sleepless nights and hungry for opportunities, I was able to reach the middle managerial level, team lead or system analyst at a multinational company and had opened many doors and offers to become Vice President of a start up company. Some would say, “something to brag” but for me I’m just a very typical guy who is overworked and underpaid. Yes underpaid because of the stress and pagod that I experienced.
Despite all of those achievements, I have zero financial literacy knowledge and I was deeply in debt. I bought many new gadgets, pc upgrades, clothes, travel and dinner and many more. I maxed out my credit cards and I don’t care much because I thought I’m earning big and I can pay all of my bills with my monthly salary. If you know me before, I’m the guy whom you’ll say “ang ganda ng dating pero wala talagang datung.”
Image downloaded from https://UIHere.com
However, I realized my finances are in total mess and I felt I was in hopeless state. My house was full of stuff that I bought which depreciates in value but my wallet, my savings account is in really terrible shape. My credit cards and bills are also on red-alert. If something happens to me, I wouldn’t stand a chance (thank God nothing major happened to me and to my family at that moment up until now).
My dire financial situation prompted me to look for opportunities. On October 11 of 2011, I happen to drop by at an office in Makati to check out a part time “business opportunity” and lo and behold, I was introduced to what I thought “networking” or some others call “MLM”. I got into a few hours of presentation and guys believe me, I was very skeptical, unprofessional and unethical. I interrupted every slide with my side comments, look at my watch to give a signal that I’m wasting my time, even laugh and tell the presentor if we can just finish it since I’m not interested and so many sorts of negative tactics. I think I did a great job of giving them an impression of “let’s ditch this guy!”
Why was I like most people, skeptical? It’s because I thought these kinds of businesses are “scam”, get-rich quick and the associates will just take advantage of you, get your money and they will leave you behind. I also heard from the news about so many companies that closed and the hard-earned money of the people who invested were gone.
But to the surprise of many, I signed up the day after without even giving a deeper thought I decided when the person who invited me followed up on me. The things running on my mind were “Why not? Kung gadgets, dinner, travel na walang balik push, bakit sa ‘pwede daw yumaman’, hindi ko ita-try?” and “walang wala na nga ako eh, wala na mawawala sakin”. I used the remaining balance on my credit card to swipe to purchase the initial inventory.
And that simple decision has literally changed my perspective and mindset to different things. Fast forward to 2020, I was transformed into a better person. I now read books, invest money and time in personal development, became closer with God. I think in longer terms, I am more responsible with my life, I become more risk taker and risk adverse, I also learn about leading people, speaking in public. I also learned how to sell and many more. Big thanks to our community and support group, XTRM One Eleven Inc. because it molded me to the person who I am right now.
My business has enabled me to transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur, take control of my time which I believe is most important and experience passive income.
You may see what happened to my business in here.
Lesson and realizations:
It’s been 8 years and so far I have experienced so many ups and downs, majority were downs but those mistakes, disappointments, setbacks and challenges made me a better entrepreneur. I think 8 years of experience is enough to share my gained wisdom and experience for those who are new to the direct selling industry. Expect that I will be filling up many articles here that will guide you.
To those aspiring to become an entrepreneur but are afraid to take a leap, you will find some of useful gold nuggets as resource as I will be documenting my journey and I hope you will find lesson and discover some pitfalls that you can avoid and make your business grow faster.
Praying for you for your journey!