My Company, My Life

I feel rusty now. Almost 2 years away from school. 3 months away from work. There are a lot of lessons I put in my heart. A lot of lessons I gave back to my teachers. Not all teachers are educators. I am brought up in a La Sallian culture. I became an educator. I was never a teacher. I was bred to teach minds, touch hearts and transform lives. I am not a saint. I am not perfect.

I have a teacher now. She pushes me hard, and even harder. She is a teacher but not an educator. I know she means well but she never touched my heart. I learn to write a few characters, say a few words but most on my own. It is the people around me that makes me learn better. That is my motivation. They are my educators. They touched my heart and transformed my life. Giving me direction and the motivation to learn. They are the Human Resource Department of my life.

Yes I consider my life as a company. It is true. I graduated from a capitalist environment. I took up Entrepreneurship, Economics and Education. I refer to my double-degree program as the 3 E's. Never I imagined that all were useful to some extent.

In Business, the are 4 main functional areas: (1) Human Resource, (2) Marketing, (3) Operations, and (4) Finance.

The function of the Human Resource Department is to make sure the employees do their jobs and do it well. They make the company run. If motivated they will work for you, fight for you, die for you. They will be forever grateful. Take WalMart for example. The employees are given stock options. They take care of the company because it is theirs. The company made them secure. The company recognized their value. This goes the same as my life. I take care of my friends. I listen to them, help them, love them. In return they love me back. I have been through a lot of situations that people left me. But a lot of them stayed on the lowest low.

Marketing. I market myself to everyone everyday. I sell myself to everyone. Directly or indirectly. Don't get me wrong, I am not a liar. I don't give them what they want to get only. I just relate to them. I have been around. I have been in hell before I reach heaven. I have been broke before I got rich. I am not referring to money. Up to now I don't have much. But my experience, my knowledge and my skills. I may not have the total package but I make up for it. I don't have an 8 pack abs or Einstein's mind but I make up for it. I know my product. I know what I have to sell. I know its strengths and weaknesses. I focus on its weakness and turn them into strengths.

Operations. My office hours is 24 hours. I never closes. As long as I breath, my company is working. I keep my operations as simple as possible. I used to operate in a complex system. My life was like a database flowchart. Yet the database had a lot of bugs. I was like a Microsoft OS. Then I became a Mac. Tried removing the virus. Simplified the ssystem. Operations are now easier. Operations are running well. I live each day as it is. Never plan too hard. I don't make easy things hard.

Finance. Acquire Assets, Dispose Liabilities.Maximize Income, Minimize Expenses. I am not financially wealthy, yet. Money is not real. It is just a piece of paper or a circle metal. My assets are my friends, my family, my loved ones. They are the intangible assets that were given and acquired over the years. I have a few liabilities. I take them to my trash. I don't like to get them back. Once spoiled its dirty. My income is my learning. I learn everyday from everyone, from anything.I gain money, I gain knowledge, I gain experience. I keep my wealth in my brain and heart. This is my bank and no one can rob it. My expenses are my wastes. Time wasted on nothing, mistakes made, errors committed. These piles up to my liabilities. Once i dispatch them I learn and then I obtain income again.

My company is operating not on full capacity but its system improves everyday. It will never close down unless I quit. I am not ready to quit neither am I afraid to quit. When my time comes it comes. Some are afraid. I am not. Don't be. Keep your own company running. Keep it oiled.

DeJa Vu

Never in my wildest dreams I ever thought of being a full time student again until now. I had only 2 jobs, plus my practicum, my whole life. I was a public servant, which was a charity thing because I did not earn any money from it; and a Brand Associate/International Business Developer for Naturale Labs. Inc in the Philippines and Thailand. My practicum is being an Educator.

I dedicated all efforts in my line of work and I learned things the hard way.

Now in China, I decided that I will be a full time student. I will try to relax and focus on Mandarin and enjoy life again as a student. You see, as a college student I was very busy that I never had much free time. I took a double degree course and joined the student council and then party at night. I had to endure the pain of having and defending 2 theses at the same week and consecutive days.

Now in Shanghai, I had too much free time. I have classes at 8 in the morning and finish at lunchtime. After that, I do whatever. Play basketball, watch movies, etc. I am living the life of a kindergarten student.

Then I got bored!

I had too much time that I need to do something other than studying Mandarin. I am a practical person. I was never a theoretical, orthodox or whatever person. I am practical and carefree. I want to do things when I want, what I want and the easiest and fastest way possible.

I also need to be busy. My college days are catching up to me now. Whenever I am not busy, I am restless. I go out. Meet people try to learn from their cultural heritages, their stories, their successes and their failures. I hanged out with a Chinese business man, a Singaporean businessman, Thai writer. These people are more than twice my age. I was drinking with them, talking to them and learning their ways.

I felt like I am back in Thailand, doing business with big guns again. People testing my knowledge. People testing my might. People testing if I know what I am talking about. The feeling I love most is when you earn someone's respect. And despite the language barriers, somehow, someway I get it from them.

They do not talk to me like a 23 year old kid. They never tell me you are like my son. They always refer to me as their friend. At the end of each conversation I get a business card. I get their names, contact details and all of those things. Sometimes I don't expect them to remember me since we were drinking but they do. I get a call in the morning from them thanking me for something that I helped them with. It melts my heart to hear such things and even boost my confidence to speak up to these "made" people.

Its DeJa Vu all over again... I am beginning to love it here now... It exceeds my expectations... Good thing I have free time!

23

I never celebrated my birthday away from home. This is the first time. There are some birthdays that I had that sucked. I remember my 9th birthday in 1993 where there was a f*cking typhoon. One of the hardest that hit the Philippines. It sucked so hard since I cannot leave my house since there were roofs flying all over the metro. But the worst of all is that there was no electricity in the whole of Metro Manila.

There are also some birthdays that I had that I wasn't really happy. I thought that this was one of them. I did not tell any of my friends here that it is my birthday. As a Filipino, we usually don't broadcast to the whole world that it is our day. No one does that much.

I went to Suzhou a few hours before the clock ticked 12. A few hours before that, I missed my train. It sucked. I was late. The good thing was 3 of my friends waited for me and then we took the last train from Shanghai to Suzhou. We got there an hour before 12. Usually I had parties on the 2nd of November waiting for the clock to sound and celebrate another year of existence. But this year it was different.

As the clock ticked 12, I got calls from very special people in my life that assured me that this day will be alright. They made me feel that this day was special for me. After that my friends here knew that it was my birthday and greeted me. I felt happy. It may sound like its a shallow feeling but I liked it.

As my day went on I discovered the beautiful sights of Suzhou. We went around, horseplayed a lot and enjoyed each other's company. We even watched Filipino and English TV. Our friends there had cable. Nice!!! We were like mountain people, never watched TV before.

After which, we had dinner. Then these bastards got me a cake. It is a small cake but it felt it was really big as it melted my heart. They sang and stuff. You know the drill...

We went on drinking after that and enjoyed the night. It was a hell of a day for me. I missed a lot of people but I sure was happy.

I Never Lose!!!

I was reading a book... It is very popular all over. The author is not the "best writer" but a "best seller"...

His book makes a lot of sense. So as his thoughts. Learned a lot. Way lot!

In a different perspective, people are always afraid to lose! I am one of them. I am a SORE LOSER up to this day. I never liked the feeling. This is how I felt before. Being turned down to a job, losing a basketball game, fail a class, demotion, being broke, etc.

But then I realized... I never lost! I never lose! Yes you read that right. It is not because I am sour graping again. This is because I learn from my mistakes and they made me who I am today. Sure I make a lot of those mistakes, sure I fall. But then I stand up again. Doing things right the next time. Doing better and better and better.

Now I have a new mantra. I will stick by it forever. It changed my perception on life, on work, on studies on everything!

HERE IT GOES and you can quote me on this:

"I NEVER LOSE! It is either I WIN or I LEARN!"

Chinese Class

I am part of a kindergarten class. Don't get me wrong. I am not a retard like Billy Madison who went back to kindergarten just to run his dad's company. Together with other international students who had no prior knowledge whatsoever in Chinese language or Putonghua, we are schooled like small kids.

Started from tomes up to the pronunciation and further to writing Chinese characters. I feel stupid because now I am illiterate. I do not even know how to write my Chinese name. I am so f*cked to say the least! I see children, real children, walking around speaking and writing and reading while I am trying to figure out how people can understand the words that are coming out of my mouth.

I am now studying and learning. Now I can write my name and a few characters and can order food and be understood by people around me... Well a little bit. I need to practice some more but I will get there. It took me 1 month to learn essential Thai with work as my main purpose. Now, I am in China, a full time student so I guess I can learn faster and better than before.

My classes are sometimes interesting and at times a bore. Some are easy while some are hard. It is not as easy as I imagined. As the days go by, the characters get complicated and harder to write. Plus, they are getting more and more that I cannot remember all of them.

I belong to a class with a lot of Vietnamese, A few Mongolians, 3 Africans, an Indonesian and a crazy South Korean. I am the only Filipino in my university.

I need a lot of help with my Chinese... I want to learn and fast... More on the speaking aspect rather than writing...

It is getting hard each day but we will see what progress I make.

Home Away From Home

I live inside a big university. Well I think it is. There are 3 buildings dedicated to International Students and more for Chinese Students. I live on the 12th floor of this building. The good thing about this building is it is new and never closes!

Usually when I go out, I can just get home whenever I want. Sure there are CCTV Cameras (surveillance cameras) all over the building but nobody cares unless something bad happens.

Me and my friends in school usually drink downstairs, near a pond. Or just hang out. Everyone minds their own business. I can play basketball anytime I want or run at the track and field oval whenever. There is also a gym inside campus and stores as well.

The only thing bad about this school is it is far from the nightspots and the busy areas. It will take at least 45 minutes to get to the nice shopping centers, bars, clubs and the like. But if you want to get peace, chill out and relax, well this seems a good place to get away from it all.

Ebony, Ivory and What...

When I first set foot to this country, I was not exactly sure what I was going to expect. The environment, the culture, the trials and all those other things that a man will face once he sets foot in the first time to a place unfamiliar to him.


I had encountered the same when I was in Bangkok but the thing about this place is, I did not have anyone with me on my first trip. When I was in the place which they referred to the "City of Angels" in Asia, I was with my former superior and friend. Now I am all alone.

I did not have any leads. So I have to really start from scratch. I entered the school without expecting anything. On my second day I met my first friend here in China. He was half Jamaican-half Ethopian. He helped me shop and introduced me to people. He is like my brother here. He is the one on the lower right of this picture. The one beside him is the guy who lives beside me, the third person I knew in China. It took a few days and I knew a lot of people around campus; blacks, whites and Asians.

After which, a good friend of mine gave me contacts of Filipinos here in Shanghai. This made me feel like I am home. Like I never left. Once again I am living the same life that I was living in Manila, belonging to different groups of people, knowing more and more everyday and learning in and out of the classroom...

The Shanghai Experience Day 1 (090207)

Today marks my journey. Another new country, another set of challenges and another chance at life.

I came of my going away party where some of my closest friends were they to bid me farewell. High school friends, college friends, friends from work and others that I met after my school life.

We partied until the wee hours of the morning. Then I realized how unprepared I was in leaving the country, in facing a new challenge. As my party ended, I have yet to pack my stuff, I don’t know where I am going to stay in Shanghai, I forgot to buy a few necessities, I don’t know where I will go as soon as I land, I don’t know when I will start school and more.

After all of my friends left, I started to pack my stuff. I picked up a few clothes here and there and some things that I think I need to bring. I did not think twice on leaving a few stuff behind. All I know is I have to bring some things that I have to bring like my acceptance letter, the laptop that was lent me, my notebook, and some things that would make me feel at home.

I slept for 2 hours, got ready and then left. Once I got in the airport, I was called by a few people whom did not able to make it in my party. I was touched that these people remembered and cared. I was dropped of by my parents and my girlfriend and turned my back at them sadly yet somewhat looking forward in tackling a new challenge.

Upon waiting for my flight I sat near the gate and met two Filipinos who are based in Shanghai. A Quality Control Manager in a plant in the outskirt of Shanghai and an English Teacher. They gave me a few pointers and offered to help me when we land, and indeed they did.

I was contracted by a Chinese man for my transportation. I brought a sim card and a phone card. Although I know that I paid more than the normal rate, I still said yes. The driver took me to the school campus. He can barely speak English and was pissed since we cannot understand each other. He dropped me off inside the campus as I searched for an answer to my concern of my lodging set up. I talked to a few people. They were clueless. Some had harder times in terms of understanding me.

Finally, a guy from Nepal helped me to the administration office. He told me that he had been in China for 5 years. He can speak Chinese very well. He helped me secure my room. My room is somewhat better than I pictured. I have my privacy. I do not have a roommate. It is air-conditioned, furnished with a television set, has hot water and newly constructed. I even have my own veranda. It is a small room yet I am very happy to stay

Introduction...

你好!

Welcome to Downtown Chinatown...

I've been here for almost 2 months now. I have struggled, met new people, survived and adjusted...

This is a new beginning, a new journey, something that is interesting, challenging and surprising. Initially I had no plans of going to China. I had been working for more than 1 year. 3 measly days after graduation. I worked in a very aggressive company that sent me to places, endured some pain and equipped me with a better knowledge of having a business...

I was sent to Thailand where I became more independent and learned how to live alone. I dealt with big people, people who were twice my age. People who were more experienced. People who can crush you if you are weak.

I earned their respect, their trust, their hearts. I earned a lot from my job. I was on top. I was unbreakable, at least I thought I was. Then it all went down. I have to go back. Some circumstances, people that I never thought would screw me did. But I am man enough to accept my fate. Everything happens for a reason. I continued to work, I did not complain. I moved on...

After a few months, an opportunity came knocking at my door. That opportunity brought me to where I am today. The most developed city in whole of China, Shanghai. I took another risk in my life. Give up my job, leave my comfort zone and go to somewhere where I have zero knowledge about the language, culture and place. I did not even know where to go, how to get there. What weather they had. Sure I asked around but it was never ever enough...

But then, life is always full of surprises. I just have to leave every day as it comes. It will be a hell of a ride! What will happen, I don't know. Nothing is certain...

We will both find out...