Global Entrepreneurship Week 2017
“If you feel like failing, fail forward! Fail in order to succeed.” This year’s Failing Forward Conference in celebration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2017 was held at the Miriam College last November 18, 2017 with the theme “Responsible Entrepreneurial Leadership”. This kind of celebration is celebrated not only here in the Philippines but in the whole world so it is really a privilege that the Entrepreneurial Students Society as the PUP YES Chapter was able to sent 6 students to attend the said conference. The program is divided into two: the morning session for the workshop then plenary was held in the afternoon.
The workshop seminar was led by Ms. Charlene Velas Reyes, owner of a marketing communications company that started way back 2011. She emphasized her talk on championing the local brands in winning the world competition. As per our local products, not all can compete globally but there are many and it is quite a challenge for us to recalibrate the mind sets of entrepreneurs in developing the products to be able to compete with ASEAN countries then the world as a whole. I know most of you have heard of Vita Coco? At first, we all thought that this drinking product was produced locally based on how it looks, but we’re all wrong. It’s a global product based in New Zealand that started year 2004. The source of its coconut water is here in our country. Who would have thought that our coconuts can dominate the world? Yes it can! Same with the Philippine Cacao which is quite famous as of now and is known to be one of the best in the world. See? Our local products can compete globally. She also said that in looking for partners and suppliers research and explore our country, ditch online researching, grab your bag, travel and observe, visit market places and know the situation. Do not rely on convenience, be inclusive, connect and collaborate. The morning session was ended by a Venture Pitch participated by each schools.
The plenary was opened by the speeches from Maria Luisa B. Gatchalian, the Over-all Moderator from the Miriam College and Cristina Buenaflor from YES Philippines. The owner of Omagosh and Revamp, Ms. Hershey Hilado started the learning experience. Ms Hershey is quite famous and beautiful as well, as her life was featured in MMK and became an inspiration to many. Ms. Hershey worked her
way up and experienced a lot of failure and “this failure is a standard you’re setting yourself and it is said to be prerequisite of greatness”, she said. Your vision is uniquely yours and 10% of your decision is affected by the people around you and the environment as a whole and the 90% will focus on what will you do and how will you deal with it.
From a fashion company owner, we were next inspired by a social and creative entrepreneur herself, Ms. Celia Alamo, owner of the Brownroots Creatives and Coworking Space.
She first shared her rule in life “I can, I will, end of story”. She is known as one of the Great Women empowering other women on remote control areas. Just like Ms. Hershey, Ms. Celia struggle first before she earned all of this as she started her career as an OFW and go back here in the country to pursue business. She said “Fall 7 times, stand up 8, dapat lagi kang may naka-reserve na pang tayo”. As a creative entrepreneur she shared some useful and free sites we can all explore and try like Canva, Trello, Invoice by Wave, and Fiverr. We can unleash our inner creativeness in here so you guys can check it out. Ms. Celia ended her talk by sharing with us her formula for success: passion + purpose + plan = success. We all have passion and purpose in life, we just have to find it and when we do, plan ahead because if you’re not planning, you’re planning to fail.
“Loser” that’s how our third speaker defined himself before. Some of us have already experienced being called loser or feel it somehow. This story was told by an Entrepreneurship graduate from UST, Mr. John Michael Lu. He started his entrepreneurship career at a very young age. During his college days, he already earned a hundred thousand through buy and sell of cameras and at the age of 21 earned his first million. He failed in his subject Math of Investment, but who would have thought that he will have his own investment company now, Beyond Properties. “I choose not to lose, it’s either I win or I learn, and if I win, I learn”, Mr. John Michael said. Let’s choose to always win, you always lose when you quit.
After the three inspiring stories, a forum was held to entertain questions from the audience. When asked about the importance of collaboration and mentorship, Ms. Hershey said that you need to have mentors that disagrees with you, keeps questioning you for you to have better decisions. Share your story because that’s a trust factor, then you will see whoever is aligned with what you wanted, Ms. Celia shared. Mr. John Michael has mentors and clients in one. He said that mentors can be people you choose to learn from and not intentionally a mentor. Collaborate and learn from people with experiences.
Inspired and motivated that we got to experience this kind of learning opportunity. And as future entrepreneurs let’s always remember that failing forward is the essence of entrepreneurship as Ms. Hersey Hilado have said. We all have our own goals and desires, but it’s not enough to wish for it, work on it. Always revisit your goals and always look back why you want to succeed.
Now it’s up to you!Is it going to be a period (.), comma (,) or dot dot dot (…) Your choice!
