Way Back Then

Everything is still fresh how it all started. Don't know if it was coincidence cause i believe it was meant to happen. That was the start of my destiny that i must pursue.

I was in my second grade where at that very young age of 7 I realized life seemed not fair. My mother was a plain housewife while my father worked hard with his old tricycle earning enough to feed us and pay our bills. My mother found ways to earn a little by selling home-made snacks in the school canteen, retailing products or accepting "Labada" (dirty clothes to wash) from our close relative. While my father still considers driving as his lifetime job, my mother got promoted from being a "labandera"(dirty clothes washer) and "tindera"(seller) to Brgy. Secretary and now a government employee. But still quite not enough to feed six-growing omnivores in our two-room home.
Back to where it started, I was a simple kid who wears shorts and slippers in my public school, so lucky that the school wasn't that strict with proper uniform. I only get 2-peso baon(allowance) a day, enough to buy a peso of food and a peso of drinks. But one day, I decided to save a peso out from my two and made a coinbank through an empty bottle of a baby powder. And the story began when a friend approach me to borrow my saved peso one day. I never consider to have it lent as I'm planning to buy something new like a shirt or pair of shoes by the end of the school year as a gift for myself since my parents find it hard to provide most of our needs. But out of nowhere thought, I let him with the agreement of paying it double. I don't know how I got the idea but he agreed. So, I got my money with a 100% interest the next day. He borrowed again and paid until I had enough money to start a small business which is selling a pack of candies. A pack cost 4 pesos that time and a candy cost 25cents giving me a small profit of 2 pesos. So small to think but it got bigger from one pack to two of different flavors and more like biscuits and junkfoods. Surprisingly, I had bought my new shirt from my very pocket.
I continued selling during classes and even let them 'utang' (they eat and pay the next day). I noticed then that some of my classmates were selling too but i keep going. Considering how a bit busy i was counting that small figures, considering profits from brand to brand, listing and collecting payments, I did not set aside my grades and was able to graduate with flying colors on my sixth grade.

High school was a bit hard. Though my baon increased to 5 pesos, still not enough specially when i have no vian for lunch. I wanna start back my small business but something stopped me. I felt ashamed of doing it again maybe because I'm turning to a man, a kid no more. But i must for my simple needs, for my necessities. So i continued saving 3 pesos out of 5. And the selling? I still did through my 'lola's' (grandmother's) not that big 'sari-sari' store. I learned to cook home-made candies like 'tira-tira'(made of sugar) and 'yema'(made of condensed milk), pulvoron and fried peanut. During college, i did selling of prepaid load and longganisa and chorizo, and tried 'pautang'(money lending). Glad my scholarship application was approved that lessened my bills with a semestral allowance allowing me to buy things for myself and for my siblings. But only a part of it as i have to contribute for my bills.

When i was still young, i really look forward to get 18 since it's the legal age. When I'll be 18 i can join nationwide raffles for some product brands and of course applying for a part time job. I had my entries for the raffles but never won even consolation. I applied, had passed exams but every time they see me during interview they have doubts if i can make it. I can't blame them, i was skinny. I was about to land another one when i joined a contest for DJ-to-be in a radio station but don't know what happened, it was stopped. But on my last year in college i land a part time in a cafe as encoder.
For the moment, I'm enjoying my very first job as an office guy doing customer care and sales rep. And my attachment to the business world? well, it keeps on. That's why i really have this belief that business is my forte. I'm into a new world of doing business though not that big time but bigger than my small ventures before. It's more exciting and i can say promising. Just this year when i had invested my savings for it. You may want to know but I'll tell you soon about it.
So, one point in this introduction is to clarify one thing. Don't mind the title as I'm not all through out be talking about business instead it's general though there'll be more of business. I'm a business minded guy so be it and welcome to my business world slash life in general.