Solitary Confinement

Last October 9 to 13, I underwent a therapy (Radio Active Iodine) at St. Luke’s Medical Center. It was a ‘doctor imposed’ solitary confinement cum therapy to correct the misbehaving cells inside my body. The result of the therapy was positive because the medicine and the misbehaving cells met and are now in the process of challenging each other. The battle will take 3 to 5 months and I pray that the medicine wins the battle.

Let me tell you about the therapy process. A patient has to drink a specific amount of radio active stuff then you have to flush it out of your system as fast as you can. Sounds weird, huh? You drink a medicine that aims to cure you but you have to flush it out of your system asap! You are confined in a room where nobody can visit you until the radiation level is safe for other human beings. Sabi nga nung intern “Sir, how does it feel to glow in the dark?”

How did I keep myself busy for 5 grueling days? I watched TV, prayed the rosary, watched TV, read magazines, watched TV, slept and watched TV. By the way, did I say I watched TV? I watched so much TV that I think I used up the remote control battery. Of course that’s exaggeration raised to the Nth power. I prepared myself to watch TV that I printed out the program schedules of HBO, Cinemax, StarTV, ESPN, Discovery Channel, NAT GEO, et al.

During my last day, the doctor said that I had to stay 1 more day because the test result was flawed and they had to do another test. I said 1 more day in this hospital will drive me nuts so I told him that I’ll just come back the following day and do the re-test. Sheesh! He wants me to watch more TV! I wasn’t prepared for this, I printed out TV skeds until Oct 13 only. Besides I miss my family already so I just had to get out of that joint, pronto!

What do I want to be when I grow up?

Okay, so this question hounded you when you were still studying. We used to write tons of essays about it and I recall writing different responses. When I was in elementary, I wanted to be a boxer. Yes, a boxer ala Manny Pacquiao. So this skinny guy wants to be a boxer, you say?!?! The closest I got to this ambition was a boxing session at Red Corner abt 3 years ago. I wasn’t up to it and the feeling was mutual.

Then I wanted to be an air force pilot. During my time, every kid wanted to be a pilot. I read in the dailies recently that air force pilots are moving to commercial airlines for economic reasons so I guess I made the right choice of not joining the military.

In high school, I wrote in my yearbook that I wanted to be a rally car driver. I still want to be one but more as a hobby or a sport but definitely not a full time career. It’s an expensive sport so I have to earn big time to finance my caprichos. This will happen in time.

At 34 years old, I’m considered a grown up by 65% of the population. I never imagined I’d work for a telecom firm as one of the operations managers. There’s this adage that says “Find a job that you enjoy doing and you’ll never work a day in your life.” At this point in my career, I completely enjoy what I’m doing so it seems like I found what I want to be when I grow up.

Past Cars, Fast Cars.

I have reached the 180 kilometers per hour (kph) mark twice! The first was using a cousin’s 1976 Ford Mustang powered by a 3.0 V6 engine and the second was on a 1993 Mitsubishi Galant MPI that I used to drive. Car aficionados may argue that the stock speedometer is NOT accurate. Well, accurate or not, 1- the speedometer still reflects 180 kph and 2- this is my blogsite so give me a break. The Galant MPI that I had was a bandido car. The set up was completely stock but I’d say it was well maintained for a then 8 year old car. The midnight gray (almost black) color perfectly matches the executive sedan body while the 4 speed AT tranny provided the convenience.

The first car that we purchased out of our blood, sweat and tears was a 1992 Toyota Corolla XE. It was a very practical car; easy to maintain, abundant and cheap parts, fuel efficient and easy to sell. It doesn’t go as fast as the Galant but it gets you from point A to B at half the gas consumption. I recall my fastest run on this car is about 120 kph.

I also had “hand me down” cars from my parents, a 1989 Mitusbishi Lancer GLX (140 kph) and a 1969 Toyota Corolla Sprinter (120 kph). If I have extra money in the future, I plan to buy a first generation Toyota Corolla 2 door (1969 to 1972) and set it up stock. That would be a nice Sunday car.

I’m currently driving a 2002 Toyota Revo GLX. I’m very much happy with my ride. In fact, I don’t intend to sell it and have lined up a couple of business ideas by next year when I’m qualified to get a new one. My top speed in this pseudo SUV is 140 kph.

In conclusion, as you mature (read: as you age), you tend to drive more carefully and less aggressive, focus less on accessorizing the vehicle and be practically in your car choices.

Boracay Bound

Just got back from Boracay with my officemates. This my 7th visit & the 6th straight year that I've been to the place. The trip is mostly work related but not actually doing work. Sounds strange, huh? This year, I took tons of pix just to practice my skill. The posted pix is the best shot for me. Allow me to share my Love - Hate analysis of the island located on southern part of the Philippines.

LOVE:
• Going to Boracay via Caticlan airport
• Boracay Regency Hotel - nice family rooms beside the pool, good food, within walking range from most frequented areas.
• Mountain biking on the beach
• Admiring the beauties of nature
• Powdery white sand
• Snorkeling
• Fact that everybody feels like they are sexy when they are in Boracay

HATE:
• Going to Boracay via Kalibo airport
• Foreigners with teenage partners
• Lousy mountain bikes
• Makukulit na hawkers
• Exorbitant prices of regular products
• Merchants abusive to tourists
• Fact that everybody feels like they are sexy when they are in Boracay

To borrow my college friend Johnny G’s line, it’s not actually the place that makes the place memorable but the people you’re with.

DL’s 4 point expectation: A RIOT of color!

I’ve been handling teams of different sizes for the last 11 years and I’ve been guided by this 4 point expectation which I usually discuss with my teammates. I’d like to share it with you.

RESPECT – This is something that is earned and usually takes time. This can’t be done overnight and can’t be mandated. We don’t issue a memo and tell everyone that “This person is your new leader so you have no recourse but to respect him asap.” This is probably the most difficult expectation to measure or achieve. You may have a high respect level at one point and drop to a low level just by a word or a phrase that you uttered. While mostly erratic, the key is to maintain the respect level constantly at a high level and quickly rebound from an incident that presents a low level of respect.

INITIATIVE – The dictionary defines this word as “doing the right thing without being told.” About 80% of what we do is done without supervision. Responsible and mature individuals do not need supervisors to tell them what to do as long as the objective is clear. As one of my former supervisors told me, “give me the end objective, monitor my performance, call my attention if get off track and I’ll see you by the end of the year with a performance that will be mutually beneficial for us.”

OPENNESS – Funny, we work in a telecoms company and we have numerous media to communicate (telephone, email, sms, instant messenger, letters or notes) but this is one department that needs improvement in a relationship. The JoHari window model says that personal awareness is represented by four quadrants: open, hidden, blind, and unknown. The interaction progresses as we moved from one window to another. Read about it in the internet or psych books and learn from it.

TEAMWORK – This is probably the most prominent management tool however the most difficult to implement. Every man is unique. Life is an array of perspectives. The key is to find the common denominator and rally this group of individuals to a common cause. The best acronym of TEAM for me is Together, Everyone Achieves More.

Let’s engage in a quiet RIOT.

JoeLac, BoyLac & DyLac

My grandfather JoeLac recently joined our creator at age 94. I still recall his patented smiling face. He smiles to everybody regardless if he knows you or not. I’m pretty sure he outlived most if not all his friends. He has a cool pet name that my father & I adapted. His friends in Tarlac City fondly call him JoeLac and his real name is Jose Lacsamana Sr. I heard his other friends are JoeTor (Jose Torres) and JoeMac (Jose Macapinlac). Seems like in the early 1900s, parents have a thing about Jose's.

My father is Jose, Jr. and his nickname is Boy hence the pet name BoyLac. My father's nickname used to be a challenge for me when I was still based in Tarlac City. I used to be called, Dylac, "Ang anak ni BoyLac." I wanted my own identity but just couldn’t shake off the tagline.

When we transferred to Angeles City in ‘99, only then did I start to have my own identity. I was called DyLac, "Yung regional manager ng Smt." Oh well, looks like you just can’t easily get away with tag lines. To borrow John Maxwell's words, "You don’t need a title to be a leader." That’s exactly my aim, to be known as DyLac, the [insert appropriate adjective here] leader

Cartoons forever!

I was watching cartoons with my 2 ½ year old daughter MC this morning. I just had to sit beside her for a while before going to work as her “Dads, tabi tayo?” line said in a very, very sweet and irresistible manner had to be acknowledged lest I break her heart.

I remember my Papa BoyLac watching robot cartoons with us when we were young: Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Dungard Ace, Balatac, etc. It was a pretty sight so it was my time to watch Dora the Explorer, Hi-5, Blue’s Clues and Wonderpets!

I realized that you learn a lot from watching cartoons. Some of the management lessons are learned early in life. It’s all a matter of application. In the cartoon show called Wonderpets which features 3 cute animals: Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming, the song goes like this “We’re not to big and we’re not too strong but when we work together, we got the right stuff…What’s gonna work? Teamwork!” and indeed the show is about cooperation or equally dividing the responsibility. Lesson learned: TEAMWORK and EFFECTIVE DELEGATION. In the show called Blue’s Clues, the star of the show Steve picks ups some clues and analyzes them. He goes to the “thinking chair” and sings “Let’s sit down on the thinking chair and think, think, think! When we use our mind and do it one step at a time, we can do anything that we want to do.” It might sound elementary but the key learning here is effective DATA GATHERING and ANALYZING. On one of the more famous shows and my daughter’s favorite Dora the Explorer, this cute and lovely 7 year old Latina always packs a backpack wherever she goes and despite the obstacles that she encounters, the troll or Swiper the fox, she maintains an amiable aura. There was even a show that, surprisingly, it was even Swiper the fox who helped her out of the peril. The key learning here are PREPARATION and always possess an AMIABLE aura no matter how difficult is the person you are dealing with because they may just be able to help you in the future.

MC wt MC! More Cartoons with my daughter, MC!

Typhoon Millennium

I think that at least 90% of the blogging community will write about the recent typhoon that hit our country – Milenyo. I shall confine myself to using the title and this short introduction and instead focus on a fear that I had in college about turning 26 years old. I can’t actually recall why I feared that age or number but it stuck to my mind so I just thought of writing something about that year. Actually, I made a wrong computation. I thought I was 26 years old at the turn of the millennium. Anyway, here’s the highlights my Y1998, the year I turned 26.

That year, the most important highlight was the birth of our B5 in January. JML and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary in June. (Are you good in math? What did you find out?). It was also in that year that Tarlac Telecenter, which I headed, was top in postpaid sales region-wide & top 3 nationwide and acted as an OIC for North Luzon Telecenter Operations for my then superior Bing Payumo.

In conclusion, it was not actually a year that I should fear but more like a year that I should embrace as it was year that jumpstarted a lot of important events in our lives. One of the most important jumpstarts was that the following year, I was chosen to head the spin off Central Luzon Telecenter Operations. That started my now 7 year old experience in regional operations management.