My entrepreneur journey, so far…

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I dream of running a big organization, and living “the” life of a busy business man. So the moment I graduated college I already told myself I will stop working in 5 years. After 12 years in the corporate world I decided to take the leap of faith right into entrepreneur world! Wait let me edit that… I did not decided to do that. I was pushed. You see in October 2015, I was fired from my job. It was a high paying job, so the financial hole was too big to fill. The worst thing was that I did not have enough savings. So I did what I thought I was good at — running a business. I found out that running a business was not easy. It was like having the need to have an eye at the back of my head. It entailed looking at the past, present, and future at the same time.

The first few months saw a lot of trial and error, as well as constant fear... The fear that nothing might work! I remember selling eggs to a grocery chain. Yes eggs! I used to be a tech manager in a software company and there I was selling eggs. To digress, there was absolutely nothing wrong with selling eggs, and yet it was just that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! It felt like I was trying to learn how to walk again.

If you don’t have work and you have mouths to feed, you would do the most logical thing and that is to try and try hard until you get something working. Logic says to try and and continue trying even if you are tired.

Three months in, on December 2015, I was incredibly exhausted. I decided to do what logic told me not to do. I decided to stop trying. I decided to learn how to rest. I reassured myself with the fact that I still had some money to last me and my family until January 2016. I would apply for work by then.

After the new year (2018), my friend asked me if I was open to stay in the beautiful island of Bantayan for a day to chill. Of course I said yes. The next day, I took my family with me, drove four hours to the pier, and took the boat to Bantayan. As I was enjoying a dip in the sea, I began to think that maybe God would reveal to me on the beach what I needed to do with my life. The day ended with no revelation!

So imagine driving four hours from the pier back to Cebu City not knowing what to do next.

On January 2016, my wife’s cousin visited the house. It was a social visit. But during that visit she said that her condo unit was not being used. Basically, she offered to us her condo as an extra space we could use whenever we wanted. But she said she was open for it to be a rental property. I decided to give it a try. So I posted an advertisement online, and on February 1, 2016 someone arrived and rented the place for almost a year. We decided to get more condo units, and even rented some condo units to experiment. My wife, Joyce, and I started dreaming of getting more units. In a couple of months, we were able run seven properties with some profit. This became one of the most consistent businesses that I have been involved in. Right now we are running 12 condo units, and still in the process of expansion.

Don’t be fooled by how seamless I have worded my experience. The first year of operation was not easy. There were so many things that I had to adjust. My thinking and routine had to change. There were times when I had to work 7 days a week without a break. I realized that I needed to grow as a person; that a person’s business depends on how big he is in the inside. The inside man has to mature in order for the business to grow. Entrepreneurship is a word. But inside it means grit (staying power), drive, self-motivation, leadership, ability to handle criticism, and the ability to forgive yourself and to take care of yourself.

I used to feel like I had read enough books to be an entrepreneur. But now I feel like I still have to much to learn in running a business. Here in our country, there is a phrase we use to describe this disposition: “Marami pang bigas na kakainin”. This roughly translates to “still have more rice to eat”, which means I still need to gain more experience.

I used to feel like I know it all, but now I felt like what I know is very little. This experience really humbled me.

When I meet people like me who want to start their business and they tell me, “Good for you, you took the leap.” I just smile and think of correcting them and say, “I did not take the leap, I was pushed.” I am not sure being a business person is for everyone, honestly. Every now and then I think about coming back to the corporate world for an 8-to-5 job and enjoy my weekends. But I think about how much I also enjoy the grind of building a business.

In Toastmasters, we advice people to never to end a speech with "that’s it". But the reality is, that’s it for me. Because there is no other way to end it but to say stay tuned. I hope my story inspired you somehow. If you are like me please let me know. Cheers!

*Joseph was a member of Lexmark R&D Toastmasters Club, and mentor and past president of Dynamic Speakers Toastmasters Club