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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Guest Entrepreneur - Arch Bong Zuniga

Ateneo Professor on Entrepreneurship




We were all focussed on the guest entrepreneur Arch Bong Zuniga of AZAP.  He was the guest of  Group 2 courtesy of Mel Silverio.  Her father is the friend of the guest;  her father encouraged Bong to be on his own (By the way, he said that the father of Mel should be the guest;  her father owns a building)

The two other guests were not able to make it;  there was flooding and heavy traffic

Bong who happens to know one of my friends, Manny Dimaculangan  (who drives a Porsche and now architect of PNOy) started out by telling his stories of hardships:  riding the jeepney on the way to school,  having no car, being the driver of classmates to parties, having only two pairs of shoes, working up to 12 midnight at Far East bank, being heavily indebted to moneylenders, his wife selling sandwhiches just to make ends meet.... driving a car that loses the wheels or stall at Megamall...

"Mahirap maging mahirap "  (It is difficult to be poor)

HIS RESOLUTION:  never ever be poor again.

HIS INSPIRATION:  rich dad, poor dad.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS:

l.  Be frugal  -  live simply.  low overhead, avoid splurging, outsource.  He keeps staff level to l0.

2.  Focus -  on your business.  His main business is the architectural firm.  The blueprinting and resort business is run by his wife.

3.  Dream big -  the Audi A4, the Amaya cove rest house.

4.  Hard work  (the same advice given by JY Campos to to his staff at Unilab which included me)  He had 5 secrets of success and they all consisted of two same words) While architect for Far East bank, he goes finishes work at l2 mn and was working on 50 projects, at P13t salary.  That is hard work.

I hope even Arch Risha was inspired.

He said that the father of Mel, was a runner, a messenger.  But he learned the furniture business and became very rich beyond expectation.  Mel's father own a building now and leases a space to East West bank which Bong is doing. Mel's father did not pass the board;  he did.

Other stuff:

l.  Have passive (rental properties) and active income (his AP firm)

2.  Be generous to your employees.  If you must splurge, it is on them

3.  He doesn't believe in swerti.  You make it happen.


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