The Art of an Entrepreneur

The Art of an Entrepreneur

by: Kendrick Chua, The Wealth Warrior

This was the profile article I wrote for my writing assignment.

“Entrepreneur is not for the weak of heart. There is no easy path to success. You will need to work harder than your employees, to keep your mind sharp, and to face your inner fears,” says John Gokongwei Jr. For a man who’s worth $680 million dollars and ranks as the sixth richest Filipino, it may seem that he’s words are ominous to those who wish to venture the path of entrepreneurship. It might seem ironic for a man who has been an entrepreneur for the past 60 years to discourage others to be entrepreneurs; but then again, maybe not. After all, his life story is inspiring enough.

Gokongwei’s fame may not reach far and wide and most people may not even know about him. Yet, his businesses thrive all over Philippines and even Asia. As the Chairman of JG Summit, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, he has stakes in enterprises that produced household brand names such as Sun Cellular, Jack n’ Jill, Cebu Pacific and publications FHM, Cosmopolitan and Yes just to name a few. His businesses are so diverse that Forbes listed his source of wealth as “diversified”.

But for him to reach this level of success and wealth, Gokongwei had his fair share of, not failures for he wouldn’t agree with that, but difficulties and heartaches to go along with them. Once, when he was still a boy, his father’s creditors immediately seized their assets after the senior’s untimely death. He was barred from entering the biggest movie house in Cebu which his family once owned. Being young then and no consciousness of what was happening, he was humiliated by the experienced.

To make things worse, his mother, was forced to send his siblings, all five of them to China to be cared by relatives. No money and family, any lesser man would have bucked down under extreme pressure and tragedy. But Gokongwei was undeterred; abiding by the Confucian values of filial duty, frugality, respect for elders, humility and industriousness her mother taught him.

That was the year 1939 and Gokongwei was dead-set on becoming a businessman so he could bring back his siblings home. At age 15, he set about doing trading, peddling soaps, thread and candles as his initial inventories with the aid of his trusted bicycle.  It was at this point that the young Gokongwei felt a great sense of accomplishment and would eventually catapult him to where he is today.

He would graduate from bicycling his wares to travelling from Manila to Cebu with all his goods via the batel, a small sail boat just big enough to accommodate a few people. He vividly recalls the incident when the batel he was sailing sank after hitting a rock. The passengers grabbed on to the rubber tires he was supposed to sell and used them as make-shift life savers. Had it not been for those tires, many people would have drowned and ironically, had it not been for those people who grabbed on his tires, he would have lost them in the open sea. He and the passengers were very happy!

Ultimately, Gokongwei would venture into the manufacturing business by establishing the Universal Robina Corporation (URC), the makers of brands Jack n’ Jill, C2 and Great Taste. Unlike the characters in the nursery rhyme, his company “did not came tumbling down” but instead, kept climbing up and little did he know that URC would become his flagship company, generating more than P20billion in sales in 2009.

Later on, he joined the real estate industry by establishing the Robinson’s Land Corporation with interest in property development, hotel management and retailing. He then dared to compete with the giants of the telecom industry dominated by Smart Communications and Globe Telecom by establishing Digitel Telecommunications, producer of Sun Cellular network.

Despite earning billions, Gokongwei still had in him the frugality of the Chinese, the corner stone for every financial success. Once when it was freezing cold in Europe, he was forced to buy a pair of ear-muffs because his ears were hurting from the cold. He was saddened by the fact the he paid more than $100 dollars for it. That just shows how billionaires like Gokongwei don’t do careless spending despite having the money to do so.

At times, his frugality would go to the extreme. After a game of golf, he shared a bowl of lomi with his good friend and former Central Bank governor Gabriel Singson. The latter recollects, “If a billionaire and a central bank governor can share a bowl of noodles, then there is hope for the Philippines.”

Indeed the businessman believes so. With the goal of harvesting the talents of the Filipinos, he donated to both De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University. The former would then launch the John Gokongwei College of Computer Science the the latter, John Gokongwei School of Business. Gokongwei, together with his brothers, founded the Gongkonwei Brothers Foundation aim at improving the quality of education in the Philippines.

While it is true entrepreneurship is not for the weak of heart and it requires dedication and commitment far greater than anyone else, Gonkongwei concludes, “In the end, entrepreneurship is not only finding opportunities to create value in the business sense, but also finding the opportunities to be your best self.”

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