D.B.A. – 2

LAST Sept. 11, 2018, I had the opportunity to speak to about 500 students from Immaculada Concepcion Colleges who came up to Baguio for an educational tour.

While touring the city might have been the primary objective for most of the senior high and college students, the school wanted it to also be a learning experience. Thus, it included a 2-hour educational seminar for them.

Ms. Jamie Yaneza, a very competent fellow Toastmaster, handled the “Communication and Personality Development” portion.

I took care of the Entrepreneurship portion. To help them remember my sharing, I used the acronym D.B.A.

D for Dream.

B for Believe

A for Act.

Actually, whether one aspires to be an entrepreneur, a doctor, a nurse, an engineer, a hospitality professional, a farmer, or one chooses to pursue any other career, the three words are a helpful guide.

I shared 4 little “dreams” that were in my subconscious during my younger years:

1. Empanada – When we were young, my 2 brothers and I would “dream” of buying empanada from the old Kayang Restaurant. It was a big deal for us to be able to save up 25 centavos to buy one piece and share it among the 3 of us.

Thus, I “dreamt” of being able to afford buying them whenever I wanted to, and perhaps make our own someday.

Dream No. 1 came true.

2. Self-Service Grocery – When I was in U.P. Diliman, I would frequent the U.P. Cooperative Store located in Area 1. I would go there not necessarily to buy, but to see shoppers picking up items from the shelves and have the cashiers manning their two check out counters service them. Our grocery was not self-service at that time. My siblings and I were helping out gathering items as customers pointed them out to us, or after they handed their shopping list to us. We would then manually compute their total bill. It was quite tedious and labor intensive. How I wished our little grocery could be made a selfservice one.

Dream No. 2 came true.

3. Mobile Ice Cream Parlor – As part of our marketing class in college, we prepared a feasibility study for a mobile ice cream truck, much like the Food Trucks that are in vogue today. I was hoping I could see children and adults licking ice cream cones and other cold desserts after buying from us. I tried having a scooping station at Sunshine almost 20 years after college. But it did not work out well. It was converted to the Matley Food Stop, which now serves cooked viands and sells food by the “bilao”.

However, when McDonald’s came out with the concept of having Dessert Centers selling ice cream, I lost no time in establishing them. Dream No. 3 came true. (with a variation)

4. Office Work Signing Checks – When I was working 10 to 12 hours a day for almost 20 years in the bakery, plus work in the grocery and pursuing some other small business endeavors, I wished and prayed that I would just be sitting down in an office signing checks and feeling like an executive.

Dream No. 4 came thru. But how I wish I was more specific in asking the Lord for check