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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Minding My Own Business

Employees like us have this eternally-burning desire to be in business. This we see as the window that will allow us to eventually be our own boss and finally earn income to as much as our perseverance and hard-work can bring us.

But for most, this aspiration remains and dies a dream. By just recognizing and assessing our chances against the known risks, backing out or never even bothering to start, is but a normal recourse. Filipinos, unlike the Chinese, have this pre-occupation with the safe side.

For good reason, I surmise. It’s not easy to simply forego assured income and throw away the comforts of employment. Not directly facing the vicissitudes of the market spares us the trouble of protecting our investments. We may not earn stratospheric incomes, but we still live simple, quiet and unharassed lives. To each his own drama, ika nga.

But I have long been wishing to get out of the mold. That’s why I’m now talking business with some very close friends. And as expected, we’re realizing it’s not for the fainthearted! Just at the planning stage, things could really get bloody difficult. For starters, we all cannot imagine gambling away our meager but sweat-stained savings!

I’m not quite sure if I have the acumen for business. I am convinced some people are born with it and I still have to check if I am in any way blessed with the requisite skills. Through all these time, I can only recall very few moments which can qualify as entrepreneurial ventures. And most of them happened when I was but a kid. I remember being an ambulant vendor of pineapples, pechay, eggplants and other garden produce. I may have earned a lot that time but I never really became passionate with making my own money.

But the biggest dampener must have been this incident which happened precisely on one of my birthdays:

The setting: high school in our hometown. Our teachers tried to train us to become adaptable to both home and farm work, so we exchanged places with our female classmates and had a home economics class. We were asked to prepare a vegetable dish and then sell it.

The cooking part was easy. It was more difficult selling the stuff to the town folks.

Pi-nak-beeeet!….. Pi-nak-beeeet! We shouted as our jolly group peddled around the town.

Midway, we passed by one man. The ever bubbly group-leader-me made his practiced pitch:

“Manong, bili na kayo ng pinakbet”, I coaxed him. “Siguradong-siguradong pampalinaw ng mata”.

After some more tries, he remained unperturbed. So we left him.

But after walking just a few paces away, he called us back! We ran sensing a sale.

But as we got near him, he grabbed me by the back of the neck with his left hand, then his right hand threw a quick upper cut. “Ayan, isang order”, he said.

I was bewildered. As he left, he threw a piercing stare.

There I realized what my fault was.

He was half-blind!

From then on, I never ever peddled anything again.



18 comments:

Gypsy said...

Don't let an upper cut define your future..;) My mom is the business-minded one in the family, and I tell you it's not easy but it has gotten me and my brothers all through school...you never know if you have the acumen unless you try...Cheers!

jaguarpaw said...

daddy said to me to be successful you have to be determined, patient, and courageous. you also have to consider making friends with a lot of people-- assets. he also told me to saved and study things and situations before i proceed with an answer.

you're matalino naman atty. aryo. failure is not trying. you know that.

God bless

ps

God bless is the new good luck.

p said...

goodluck with the business. ;)

Tami said...

at least you've made the first step. =) goodluck on your new venture!

jaguarpaw said...

corrections: contacts not assest.. save not saved

:)

atto aryo said...

Gypsy & JC: I'm determined to try. Bahala na si Batman! :-)

Uy! the Philosophical Bastard visited my humble blog? he he, Thanks po!

Tami: I need all the luck in the world. Kung hindi, sa bangketa na ako pupulutin.:-)

MANDAYA MOORE: Ang bayot sa bukid said...

kasi naman, di kasi kayo gumawa ng study sa target market. hehehehe

MANDAYA MOORE: Ang bayot sa bukid said...

isa pa, may naririnig akong huni ng ibon a. bongga!

Rochelle said...

It sounds like you have one foot in the door of a very successful business! :)

ian said...

[rotfl]

this made my day. the timing of the punch-line was impeccable =]

whatever it is that you'll be selling, just let me know. we'll spread the word. any maybe i can earn off of you pa hehe

carlotta1924 said...

hayy kakalokah! lol =) at least me natutunan ka sa experience na yun na magagamit mo sa bagong business. sige go! =)

atto aryo said...

Mandaya: E anliit naman kaya ng market namin. Ilang kalsada lang. Kailangan pa ba i-study yun? At me naririnig kang huni ng ibon? In love ka lang, he he.

Rochelle: I'm trying to drag my other foot. :-)

atto aryo said...

Ian: Please, tulungan mo ko magbenta. Kaya lang Doctor. Pano mo kaya ibebenta ang pako? :-)

Intsik: Takot na nga ako mag-isip bro. Mas malalim ang isip, mas dumarami ang concerns.:-)

Carlotta: Experience, more so if it is painful, is indeed the best teacher. :-)

slim whale said...

moral of the story: know your customers! you must've been very traumatized! i sympathize with you, but hey, it was quite a funny incident nonetheless. sorry, i had to laugh.

i sold ukay ukay stuff once, too. i even hung a huge placard around my neck: "P20 LANG". It was fun. no uppercuts from half blind men, though. did it for a friend who had renal disease. would you believe, we raised 20,000 bucks just by selling old clothes? maybe that would be a great business venture!

Anonymous said...

hirap talaga mag-business...ako rin papasok uli dyan after a while.

never give up lang nunmber 1 rule dyan :)

Gina said...

Go with your gut feeling Reo!

Best of luck in your new venture (if you push through with it)!!!

Anonymous said...

depende siguro sa negosyo..ano ba naiisip mo...parlor haha! go na!

atto aryo said...

slimwhale: As in napatawa kita? Ibig sabihin, matino na ko magsulat?! he he.
thanks Bro.

Tutubi: Never give up kahit ubos na puhunan? :-)

Gina: Thanks ha. Pautang! :-)

Anonymous: Parlor nga yata. Kasama pati spa! Franchise ng isang French Salon. Ano,sali ka? :-)