GAMECHANGER

HAPINOY!

MY PERSONAL MANIFESTO, UPDATED

I envision an educated, innovative, and entrepreneurial Philippines - a country wherein people can imagine, act on, and realize their greatest dreams.

In a world wherein knowledge and creativity are the new currency, a new generation of educated Filipinos becomes the all-important bridge to reach new futures. And it is by embracing a paradigm of innovation that we will make our country's tomorrow the brightest it can possibly be.

The time will come when we no longer recycle other people's ideas; Rather, we will begin synthesizing our own --- a mindset-shift and cultural migration from copy-and-paste to invent-and-create. Whether it be addressing needs at the base-of-the-pyramid or designing new solutions for emerging industries and global markets, the Philippines will be a front-row participant in the ongoing process of creative destruction.

Our ideas will go beyond just being ideas; We will live in a permeating environment that cultivates and harnesses the entrepreneurial spirit in each individual. The possibilities will not only be endless, they will also be all within reach.

Myopic? Maybe. Utopic? Quite possibly. Unrealistic? Absolutely debatable. After all, it is a vision of this very future that drives everything that I do today. 

ALL IN

So it's been (3) full years since i gave in my resignation letter. (3) full years since i left from the corporate rat race and leapt into the great unknown. It's been a wild and crazy ride so far, and I probably wouldn't have it any other way.

And just in case you're wondering, there hasn't been a single day that I looked back and regretted my decision. Not one moment that i've longed to go back to the comfort of a safe, stable job.

And while my current state isn't everything i've hoped for, in many ways it's exceeded everything I expected. It most certainly is still the best time of my life, so far. Despite the difficulties and challenges, this is my chosen path. And the honest truth is that this path is only beginning, and it's still a long long long way to go.

So to commemorate, i'm reposting my resignation blogpost / letter exactly (3) years ago :

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“ALL IN!”
May 28, 2006

So I finally did it. I finally resigned.

I’m about to leave the safe confines of the corporate world and venture into the great unknown. Let go of my stable paycheck and turn my back on a career that’s as tempting as tempting can be.

There’s been a lot of talk and speculation about my resigning, so I guess I owe it to everyone to set the record straight. What really happened, what’s going on, what I’m really up to.

In Hold ‘em Poker, if you want to win big, at some point you’ll have to bet big. If you have absolute certainty in your hand, and your gut just tells you that this pot is yours to take, you go all in – bet the farm, plunk in all your chips, no regrets - win or lose. I’m there. I’m at that point where I can finally say “All In!”

You see, I’m part of this community called Life’s Directions. And, as the name implies, it’s all about people finding out what they to do with their lives, and then hopefully going ahead and doing it. If I truly wanted to “eat our own dog food”, i.e. walk the talk --- then I have no choice but to follow what I’ve discerned as my own Life’s Direction.

And when you come to the realization that what you’re doing now isn’t going to take you where you want to go, then it’s time to change the course as soon as possible. Which in my case, means resigning from the corporate life.

When I turned 27 last September 2004 I remember writing “What to do with this gift called life? It’s a question 1. Few ever ask, 2. Fewer can honestly answer, and 3. Even fewer still who can truthfully say that they actually got up and did something about it. I’d like to believe I belong to the second group. But I’m trying as damn hard as I can to fall into the third.”

Fast-forward one-and-a-half years later, I’m finally jumping onto the third category. All in.

IS MONEY LOSING ITS CURRENCY?

The cliche' "Money isn't everything" has never held as much truth as it does now.

You see, it used to be that we bartered and traded goods and services for other goods and services. Badly put, I'll give you ten chickens if you build part of my house.

But when this great invention - money - arrived in the world, it became a neutral mediator, a medium for facilitated trade.

Money allowed us to assign specific values to items and services we wanted to either buy or sell. Hence, this shirt is eight hundred pesos. An iPhone is a few hundred dollars. I will work my ass off for you for X amount per month.

But it is no longer that simple. The assignment of value on purely monetary terms is rapidly eroding. The ability of money to be solely the medium of exchange -- to live up to its definition as currency -- is fading.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't think cold hard cash is on its way out. I don't think it ever will be. But i really believe that an intangible layer is coalescing on top of it. A layer wherein people are assigning value on top of the price tag.

After all, the anecdotal truth is that people are trading goods and services on the basis of more than just money.

Imagine the wide expanse of programmers and resources at Microsoft, spending more than $1b to develop Windows 7.

Then think of the small army of programmers around the world working for free on Linux. For these devoted troops, it's obviously not about the money.

Think of a celebrity actor who would normally charge millions for a film, but will do it for a pittance if he loves and believes in the movie.

Now this is great news for innovators and entrepreneurs : you can harness resources, goods, and services even if you don't have cash.

Closer to home -- Hapinoy, Rags2Riches, Inovent, and WhyNot?Forum have been able to gain so much momentum with relatively little resources. But all of them were still able to mobilize a lot.

Again, i'm not saying that money was never part of the equation --- after all, cash is still the lifeblood of any enterprise.

But it's not enough to just have a healthy cashflow. Every business nowadays must have a soul.

Call it goodwill. Label it rallying people behind a cause. Or building a movement.

But it's a clear recognition that people are beginning to devote themselves more and more to things that go beyond the moolah.

You can pay somebody to do a job ahd he will perform it, mechanically. Or you can get somebody on board as a believer, married to a vision, working day in and out incessantly for the dream.

Welcome to a world where the new currency is of values and ideals

Dialogues@Starbucks Features WhyNot?Forum

365 DAYS TO CHANGE

See you all tomorrow night for 365 Days to Change ... todo na' to!

For the benefit of the Movement for Good Governance and ArtistsRevolution,

INTERNATIONAL SPORTS VIEWING 2.0

I wasn't able to watch the Philippine-unifying, crime-stopping, Manila traffic-eradicating Pacquiao-Hatton boxing match live last Sunday.

It wasn't showing live on Cable. Free TV's time-delay was a joke ... something like 3, 4 hours.

But i WAS still very much in the know ... thank you Web 2.0.

Let me repost my facebook status message after the dust had settled, with PacMan proving he's really the world's best P4P boxer :

'... so i got updated on the pacquiao fight real-time via twitter search, celebrated with people all over facebook, then finally got to watch it on youtube (while local TV is still squeezing out every ad minute they can from the pre-fight). welcome to international sports viewing 2.0.'

WHYNOT?FORUM 6.0 VIDEO RECAP

Thanks to all those who went to yesterday's WhyNot?Forum!

It was definitely an awesome and eclectic mix -- everything from inspiring, thought-provoking speakers to impassioned tribes. There was something for everyone - pursuant visions, borderline obsessions, extreme hobbies, incessant ideas, rallying causes.

While we're still working on getting the videos up on our website --- http://www.whynotforum.com -- here's a quick video recap of the highlights to whet your appetite :

See you all in WhyNot?Forum 7.0! This time we shift gears again, and ask Why Not ... hmmmhh, now you really didn't think we'd give that away just yet, did you? :)

Catch you all in cyberspace! - facebook, itunes/podcast, multiply, twitter and our official website --- www.whynotforum.com

The WhyNuts :p
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Think New Thoughts. Share Big Dreams. Do Brave Things.
The WhyNot?Forum : Inspiring Filipino Ingenuity

WHY NOT BE TRUE?

Sharing with you WhyNot?Forum 6.0! ...

BUSINESSWEEK's MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2008

BusinessWeek just released their annual lineup of Most Innovative Companies of 2008. The ranking is done via a collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, using a mixture of survey methodology and analysis of business results.

Here's the list :

1. Apple (no surprise here)
2. Google (again, no surprise)
3. Toyota Motor (in the era of the near-bankrupt auto companies, definitely a clear winner)
4. Microsoft (still holding its head up)
5. Nintendo (the Wii and the DSi have established momentum, but what's their next big thing??)
6. IBM (i love the new smart planet campaign -- a great way of harnessing opportunities from the global crisis)
7. Hewlett-Packard (has definitely reinvented itself under Mark Hurd's leadership)
8. Research in Motion (blackberry has no plans of quitely bowing out to the iphone)
9. Nokia (world's # 1 cellphone (and camera!) company stays on top)
10. Wal-Mart (undergoing a period of reinvention)
12. Procter & Gamble (AG Lafley, i'm a fan, despite being an ex-unilever alumni)
13. Tata (a model for developing countries on trickle-up innovation)
14. Sony (slipping, slipping ...)
15. Reliance Industries (another model for developing countries)
16. Samsung Electronics (definitely on a warpath)
17. General Electric (ecomagination and imagination breakthroughs, anyone?)
18. Volskwagen (yum!)
19. McDonald's (can't say that i have a lot to say about this ...)
20. BMW (the ultimate driving company)
21. Walt Disney (with the recent acquisition of Pixar, continues to 'make people happy')
22. Honda (...)
23. AT&T (that iphone deal was a kliler)
24. Coca-Cola (opening happiness everywhere)
25. Vodafone (...)

Where's ...

Facebook? (maybe when it turns a clear profit model ...)
Starbucks? (has fallen out of favor with the business world ... instant coffee as the recovery strategy ?!?)
Target? (has Wal-Mart won?)
Amazon? (i'm craving that Kindle ...)
Cisco? (...)

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Just a parting thought.

The most intriguing thing about this report is something i find very telling, although slightly off-tangent.

You see, the Innovation report this year wasn't THE front cover of BusinessWeek. This has happened for the first time since the list started coming out a few years back.

No doubt about it, this whole global crisis has really dampened enthusiasm for the i-word. In fact, an analysis from a related article in the report qualifies it.

Everybody's on short-term keep-our-heads-above-the-water mode.

Hmmm. Can't say i'm happy about that.