How John Gokongwei built his business empire
-ohn *okongwei -r. is one of the main faces of Philippine business.
%ut most importantly, the successful business tycoon that he s known today is a pride of &ebu ² of the &ebuanos.
-ohn is &ebu¶s pride for many reasons. Among them is the fact that he named the airline he founded ² &ebu Pacific, now the country¶s largest budget carrier -- after the city he loves.
-ohn, now 9 , started his humble beginnings in &ebu, his hometown, working his way up to building one of the biggest business empires in the Philippines today.
-* Summit +oldings, the conglomerate that he founded, now controls the biggest corporate names in the country &ebu Pacific (airline), 8niversal 5obina &orp (food), 5obinsons /and (property), and 5obinsons %ank (banking), among others.
%ut looking back, -ohn had a fair share of life s challenges before he became one the country¶s richest businessmen.
%ased on the 0 )orbes list of billionaires in the Philippines, -ohn is the third richest )ilipino, having a net worth of . billion.
EARNING HIS FIRST FEW PESOS IN CEBU
%ut before he was able to build his wealth, -ohn earned his first few pesos in &ebu.
t was a riches-to-rags-toriches-again kind of tale for the billionaire businessman.
-ohn began his life born privileged. +owever, a variety of circumstances pushed his family to lose everything.
+e was only when his father died, forcing him to work to help his family get out of debt.
+e relied on his wits, intelligence, hard work, and perseverance to pull himself and his family out of despair.
+e started selling roasted peanuts to his classmates in &ebu. +e also eventually sold soap, thread and candles in the public market.
":hen I was years old, my father died, leaving me to take care of my mother, my four brothers, and my sister," -ohn said in his speech when he recently received the /ifetime Achievement Award from the 8niversity of San &arlos last Oct. at the Summit *alleria &ebu.
"At the time, my youngest brother, -ames, was only nine months old. I took care of them all. %ecause the family has always been my priority," the 9 -year-old taipan recalled.
"It was here in &ebu that I first earned my first few pesos. I used to wake up way before dawn to ride my bicycle to the public market many kilometers away," said -ohn, a father of six.
/ooking back, -ohn would set up a little table at the market to sell spools of thread, bars of soap, and candles, earning about P 0 a day by working longer and harder than everybody else.
"%ut it didn¶t matter since I really loved my work. I loved being an entrepreneur," the chairman emeritus of -* Summit shared.
:ith the profits he was making, he went back and forth to Manila to sell his products in a bigger market.
+e ventured into trading and eventually manufacturing.
"And so all through the years, I stayed as an entrepreneur, loving what I did and working hard. And always learning from the school of life," he said.
Today, *okongwei, -r. s conglomerate has interests in various industries locally and overseas.
'I STILL LOVE TO LEARN'
1ow 9 , the inspiring businessman still loves what he s doing and even keeps himself updated about his company.
"Today, I am 9 years old. I still wake up early and I still love to do what I¶m doing. I still know everything what is going on in my company," he said.
"I still love to learn and am always reading books, and now, online stories in this new digital age. I always tell my children, my grandchildren, and my colleagues /ove your work. :ork hard for it. /ove your family. /ove your country. 1ever stop learning," -ohn added.
In the mid- 9 0s, despite already being a successful businessman, -ohn went back to school to finally earn his master¶s in business administration from 'e /a Salle 8niversity.
"It took me four years since I was a working student. :hen I got my diploma it was one of the proudest moments of my life. Then I went to +arvard in 9 for weeks to take the advance management program."
In his primary and high school years, he went to the 8niversity of San &arlos. "I was valedictorian in grade school, and I was number one in my class in high school. %ecause of that, I received free tuition at school."
In 00 , *okongwei also received an honorary doctorate in %usiness and Enterprise 'evelopment from his alma mater.
-ohn s story teaches us some important life lessons that he believes into.
ON WORKING HARD
":ork hard. If you don t work, you don t eat."
:ith so much hard work he put in his business through the years, -ohn believes that money is earned and not given.
ON SUCCESS
In the book /essons from 'ad, -ohn *okongwei -r. launched in 0 , -ohns only son /ance *okongwei also writes about his dad¶s thoughts on success “To be successful, you have to be willing to try out many ideas. Some of them will succeed, some won¶t. 'o five or ten things, and one of them will work.´
ON LOVING YOUR WORK
"<ou have to love your work. <ou have to save money instead of spending all of it. /ook for areas you can compete in. :ork damn hard. Most importantly, you have to love it.´
ON CHALLENGES
"The important thing to know is that life will always deal us a few bad cards. %ut we have to play those cards the best we can. And we can play to win."
More than a successful businessman, -ohn is a man of values and substance.
+e is a man that every aspiring entrepreneur or even anyone who aspires to be successful must follow simple, hard working, frugal, prudent, disciplined and bold.
And his inspiring story is a living proof to this.