Last Friday’s plenary session with Willy E. Arcilla, Open For Business’ consultant for business mentoring, was a showcase of big dreams, big hearts and high hopes.
Twelve of the applicants for business mentoring made it to the event, while two were scheduled to be hooked up via phone and instant messenger. Unfortunately, my MacBook was not up to the task because the owner was not tech-savvy enough (sorry) so the interview with Rica would be scheduled this week instead. Two of the applicants found out about the event too late, but would still be included in the short list.
It turned out so well that I could sense Willy didn’t want to have to choose only eight from the 14 businesses that made it to the shortlist. But we had to limit the number to eight, so I’m afraid some of those who came will have to be dropped from the year-long business mentoring activity. 
On the bright side, at least they had one plenary session to remember, and a free invitation to a Marketing For Entrepreneurs seminar at the Hotel Sofitel, courtesy of Willy, who was a speaker at the event.
As I said, it was a showcase of big dreams, big hearts and high hopes. Most of the business owners who attended were very young. In fact, we had a 26-year old who dreamed of being chairman of a national water company before he turns 30! Talk about big, exciting dreams.
We spent the morning listening to an inspiring message from Willy, and hearing from the business owners in an eye-opening session that brightens the future look for the Philippines despite the political brouhaha going on. More details to follow, but here are some photos of the event.
Willy gave us a reason to love being entrepreneurs, and helped us understand that entrepreneurship is more than just operation headaches, sprucing up sales and managing people. It is, more than anything else, a way to achieve our dreams and the proud destiny of our nation.
We tried to be formal and proper…
…but couldn’t resist showing our true colors!
It was a super fun morning. The applicants all ended up calling each other ‘classmates’ and looking forward to their first real class with Willy. More to follow, including videos and voice files of the event.
Batch 2008!
February 27th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Dear Willy,
I’ll give the name of this entrepreneur in private thru Salve.
How I wish it were me! But I’m not a billionaire (just a billionaire wannabe)
I’m not joking when I said maybe one of your ‘students’ in Batch 2008 will become a big entrepreneur. 8 yrs. ago, I helped 3 young entrepreneurs develop the expansion plan to grow their small family owned company. Now I’m happy to see the plan realized. The company will have its IPO. The underwriter valued the shares held by their family at P1.8 billion. They will soon make it to the Forbes 40 list, the 40 richest Filipinos. That’s a big dream come true!
Best regards
February 27th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Dear Pinoy Investor,
Wow! What a story of the government employee — that is exactly whom we need to promote and extol given our bureaucratic obesity with 1.5 MM government employees. One of my dreams is precisely for public servants to become entrepreneurs, e.g., outsourcing government jobs initially so they capitalize on their talent. I would love to meet this person — maybe it’s you?
Thanks for your comment about the Feb 15 Economic Briefing. It’s sad to realize that our top economic managers have no plan for the country except to react to global events, e.g., OFWs filling up requirements of other countries or the peso rise ravaging our export industry; the BPO boom which can be short-lived given the business model of such companies seeking lowest costs globally. We need entrepreneurs, but they are not enough. We also need farmers and fishermen because we have fallen behind in food self-sufficiency — which will be the downfall of the country. We also need big industrialists who can produce the first Filipino cellphone, white appliances, TV, MP3, bicycle, motorcycle, car, van, truck, ships, etc. We need steel magnates — like Lakshmi Mittal of India — because no country can achieve 1st world status without an integrated steel mill. We need to allocate our scarce resources efficiently.
God bless and Mabuhay!
Willy Arcilla
February 26th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
salve,
Big entrepreneurs start from big dreams. I know this entrepreneur who started as a rank and file government employee. He was poor and disabled. But that didn’t stop him from working hard and dreaming big. He became an entrepreneur and now owns a P7 billion group of companies engaged in construction, property development and banking. Maybe the next big entrepreneur will come from Batch 2008.
willy,
Keep up the good work! Our country need more entrepreneurs.
I saw you last Feb. 15 in the economic briefing at Shangrila. I think the good cabinet secretaries did not answer your question on the value of OFWs.