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!