Not just another successful OFW-turned-entrepreneur

An INQUIRER.net feature today from MoneySense magazine tells the story of an overseas Filipino worker who has successfully jumped into entrepreneurship back home. Being a woman myself, and someone who is often faced with the temptation of working abroad or migrating, hotelier Annabella Wisniewski wowed me when she terrorized someone claiming to be part of the mafia in New York with, well, her bluff on the Asian mafia. An absolutely tantalizing moment. Here’s an excerpt:

I worked in Hilton, Marriot, and Scotts, did international consulting for Horwath and HOSTS, and developed The Ascott (of then Scotts Holdings), the first successful luxury service apartment concept in Singapore. This made me the first Filipino and first woman on the board of directors of that company. I also helped my mother with her business.

I learned that not only are foreigners more competitive, but they’re also more exacting about standards. You have to make it on your own merits, and that makes you more professional.

Yes, there’s discrimination but I’m sure I never really felt it. I said then, “I’m not going to let anyone bring me down because I’m a Filipina. I’m going to use my uniqueness to my advantage.”

One time in San Francisco, we took over a property that was in bankruptcy. We could have evicted them but they were still running the restaurant. They were behind in payments. One of the partners of that property disliked me. That time, discrimination issues were really hot.

“That Annabella, I don’t like her already,” he badmouthed. He followed me to the garage. I stopped short and said, “Okay, you want to go on? Just remember, I’m female. I’m Asian. You want to go on? You want to harass me some more? It’s going to be big. Be my guest.” I outsmarted him.

And there’s the glass ceiling. Women in my industry then were mostly relegated to executive housekeepers or director of sales, PR, or marketing. They will never be managers unless they own a substantial chunk of the company. I figured, “I have to prove that I’m better. Gender doesn’t matter. Nationality doesn’t matter.”

It was never smooth sailing climbing to the top especially in the US corporate world. It all boils down to dollar and cents. They can be ruthless. When I was the general manager in a hotel, the management company did things that I didn’t think were correct. I quit to protect the mother company. They threatened me. It was an old boys’ club.

Another time, when we were going through takeover procedures, the previous owner came to my office and threatened me. He was implying that he was an Italian, so goes the mafia. “So what do you want to do? I hope you also heard of the ‘Asian mafia.’ We can also be ruthless, you know.” Two days before that, there was a shootout with the Vietnamese mafia. Of course I had nothing to do with that. I just used that to bluff him.

Read the rest of the article here: http://business.inquirer.net/money/personalfinance/view_article.php?article_id=97437

FoodParks

Discovery Suites.

Annabella Wisnieweski in a Cornell University alumni event.

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