ST & LT Goal

Goal setting should be an eternal exercise. When I was in college, I dreamed of owning a Daihatsu Feroza by age 20. I didn't meet the Feroza goal and got my own ride which we bought out of our own blood sweat and tears around age 26. I'm turning 36 this year and since our first car, we've had 4 car replacements, two of which are brand new. That's an average of a new ride (not necessary brand new) every 2.5 years. While I didn't actually meet my Feroza goal, critical to the experience was the goal setting and planning factor.

ST
ST may mean a dozen things, for generations 90s movie buff ST means Sex Trip, for presidential aspirant Manny Villar, ST means Sipag at Tiyaga but for this blog entry, it actually means Short Term goal. My short term goal is to Learn Chinese (Mandarin). Why? Aside from actually being 1/4 Chinese and having strong Chinese features, learning the language is a critical tool for business. I actually got a 50% discount from my full blooded Chinese surgeon just for saying that "I'm Chinese, don't speak the language, but plan to do so." I reckon he would have given me a 75% discount if I spoke the language or even operated on me for free.

LT
Hearing the acronym LT, only one thing comes to mind - Lorna Tolentino. She's the Filipina actress married to DaBoy, Filipino action star Rudy Fernandez. For this entry, LT means Long Term and for me my LT goal is to retire comfortably in Tarlac City at age 55. To quantify it further, we should be earning in the neighborhood of p200th per month in passive income from various sources. That covers the financial aspect. For the mental aspect, I should be teaching any management course at least 2 times a week at the local university. For the social aspect, I should have my own foundation which focuses on granting college scholarships to qualified students interested in an entrepreneurial course. Lastly for the spiritual aspect, I should be a lay minister.

How's that for goal setting? I'm nowhere near my LT goals but what's important is I start laying the groundwork for my 20 year timeline. As to my ST goal, enrollment is within the next 2 months. Zai - Jian!

SEMPCO : It’s show time!

It’s official! I won a seat in SMT Employee Cooperative (SEMPCO) board of directors. I decided to run only last April 20, the last day of filing. The election campaign period was from April 21 to 24 and election was last April 25 to 30. Technically, I was only able to campaign aggressively last Apr 21 Saturday because we were off to HK the ff. day until Apr 26. It helped that I asked the endorsement of my fellow managers within and outside our department. Kapalan na rin ng mukha as I texted our Mancom members and asked for their endorsement.

My platform (DSL’s FOUR EYEs platform) includes the ff:
1. Increase number of members
2. Increase member benefits
3. Improve loan packages
4. Increase cooperative profit

To put the platform into play, initially, I have the ff. projects in mind:
1. Travel Lite
2. Club Tie Ups
3. Primera Segunda

I joined the foray to expand my network, load up on experience and try to inject what I learned within and outside Smart in a different setting.

The Sun @ TSU

One of my dream things to do is to be a guest speaker during Tarlac State University's commencement exercise. When I used to head Tarlac City wireless center in my early twenties, I was invited to speak in a conference of college of business & economics graduating students. The topic was about careers after college. I recall speaking about how I got the job, my job responsibilities and my advice to these people who were about to join the workforce. During the Q&A portion, the funny question that was asked and was not a bit related to the topic is if I'm already married. The answer then was I was "young, free and single." If asked now, the answer would be "happily."

Hult!

I got a pleasant surprise tonight (March 27) though not much what I had hoped for. I got an international call from a representative of Hult International Business school, based in Boston, MA and they were following up 'my application.' They said they reviewed my profile and it fits their requirement. They asked some questions like if I took my GMAT already and when I plan to take my MBA. I sensed that they were a bit disappointed when I told them in 3 to 4 yrs time. They said that tuition fee is $70,000 and I can apply for a loan if I have a US based relative.

I'm definite they got my name from the World Tour MBA exhibit and seminar which I attended in July last year. I was shopping for something to do and their newspaper ad lured me to check it out. The tour had about 14 exhibitors and one of them was Hult. They have an intense one year MBA program. A typical MBA class is composed of: South America 25%, North Asia 25%, Europe 20%, Southeast Asia 20%, North America 8% and Africa and Middle East 2%. One of their known alumnus include Moon Yong Kwon, the mayor of Gangnam district, Seoul, South Korea. They are top ranked one-year MBA in the USA ranked by the economist.

It sounds grand but the ultimate dream killer is the $70,000 (P3,5M) pricetag. They said you can apply for a loan but a loan is a financial obligation that you have to pay within an agreed timeline. I was hoping that the call was to tell me that I was qualified for their scholarship program. Earth calling DieSeL!

Double or Nothing!

When I was in college, I read a book which was specifically for teenagers about setting personal goals. You must center your efforts, skills & competence building and actions towards the attainment of your objective. When I was in my teens, a goal that I set was to be the Mayor of Tarlac when I reach 40 years old. I’ll be 40 in 6 years time and I don’t see myself close to that goal at least financially. There are also other factors I have in mind that makes me say that the goal is unrealistic at this point. But who knows, funny as it may seem, I might just give a shot at it in Y2013!

I’m setting a more realistic personal goal, that by Y2010 our supplemental earnings should be equivalent to my monthly salary. As of this writing, one supplemental source of income is the agri-farm in Tarlac which merely gives around 5% of my current salary. At least, it’s better than zero. How do I plan to achieve my new goal? Through small business franchises, partnership with friends or relatives, maximizing existing resources and trading. Too general for the reader? Check my laptop, the details are all there. The question now is if the ideas will work. Then again, I wouldn’t know if it will work if I don’t try.

Just in case my superior reads my blogsite: Don’t worry boss, I won’t let my performance down. And I know better than not using the resources of the company to meet my goal.

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.

What do I want to do when I retire?

When I’m 65 years old (that’s about 3 decades from now) and the word retirement is a reality that I have to face, I’d like to be in social class upper B at least and live an amazingly simple life. I look up to people who are secure about their financial position in society that they don’t have to hide behind their brand new cars, big houses and branded clothes and tell the world how rich or successful they are. After reaching that financial objective, I’d like to teach management to college students.

As my son B5 put it during his Preparatory Graduation rites, he said; “when I grow up, I want to be a teacher” even if he said previously that he wants to be: 1- the President of the Philippines, 2- a bus company owner, 3- a doctor, 4- a priest and a 5- a barber. As for me, when I grow old and have to face retirement, I want to be a teacher. Sana kunin ako ng Tarlac State University as a lecturer pag tanda ko teaching management subjects. The salary would be the least of my worries kasi nga I should be financially stable by then. Pang gasolina ko na lang yun sa BMW X5 ko. :) The teaching aspiration is my way of giving back to the community what I learned and will learn in the years to come. Young people sometimes only realize the value of what they learned years after somebody taught it to us. My mother used to teach at College of the Holy Spirit so it’s “in the genes.” Also, being an effective leader, something that I’d like to believe I am or at the very least, I’m on my way there, one of the key traits that you should possess is to be a good teacher.