It's Chinese New Year and I can remember some crazy stuff back in my childhood. Right now though, there are still some Filipinos of brown descent (either Malay or Indonesian) who still have their typical bitter attitude towards successful people. I was reminded of someone who blamed the rich, rather than their poor attitude towards money, as to why she had to work as a working student. There are still some who have their attitude of hating the rich for simply being rich. I don't deny that some rich people deserve hate. But why hate the rich person who has gotten rich through honest gain and hard work? Why not learn from good rich people who can offer sound advice instead of being bitter about their success?
Some Filipinos of non-Chinese origin may feel too proud about their being "Pure Filipino". However, any study of Filipino history will reveal that their brown skin isn't too unique. We can see Malaysians and Indonesians tend to have brown skin. Some of the earlier settlers were from Malaysia and Indonesia. If I'm not wrong, most of the people in Mindanao are from Indonesia. We can think the Spanish occupation, Japanese occupation, American occupation, and Chinese settlers. They may have their "brown pride" which might be comparable to Adolf Hitler's hatred for Jews and obsession with the pure Aryan race. Some people, unfortunately, still carry on that mentality of hating Filipinos of Chinese descent, as if Chinese-Filipinos aren't considered Filipino by Philippine law and international standards.
Chinese-Filipino business empires started out small before they became big
The late John Gokongwei Jr. shared an experience with his maternal grandfather. I wrote about some life lessons from Gokongwei Jr. One of the most memorable quotes by Gokongwei Jr. was regarding his maternal grandfather. I guess even old people will miss their grandparents if they had a close relationship. Here's a quote that I could think about:
I told my maternal grandpa: Gua-kong all these big buildings, they’re so astonishing! I recall he answered me: "All of them started small. They didn’t just became big."
Gokongwei Jr. started out with a well-to-do family, got poor, and then he managed to increase the fortunes bigger than what was lost. I can't be certain when Gokongwei Jr.'s maternal grandfather said it. It's amazing how a grandpa can recall what a grandparent told the way back. The one truth said by his maternal grandfather years back is this, "All of them started small. They didn't just become big."
This would remind me of the story of the late Henry Sy Jr. and Tony Tancaktiong. Yesterday, Sy Jr. started out as a shoe peddler. Back then, Tancaktiong was still selling ice cream. Now, my investment in the PSEi (via index fund) would list both SM Prime Holdings and Jollibee. These two never started out big. Instead, they started out small. SM was called SM because Sy Sr.'s success started with shoes. Jollibee started out as an ice cream parlor before it became big. Today, both SM and Jollibee are considered FDIs in other countries. That's why I'd say what's one's excuse for fearing FDI?
How true are the statements of Gokongwei Jr.'s maternal grandfather to his grandson! Everything big had to start small, right? As Sy Jr. says, "There's no overnight success." The desire for overnight success is really one of the biggest killers. I guess that's why some people would rather invest in cryptocurrency than stocks. I wrote an article about why people would rather go gambling over investing. I guess that's why some people got into the scam called Axie Infinity. I wrote an article where I discussed why I think the Philippines became a huge market for that scam game. In short, they just want to succeed overnight instead of actually doing what Sy Jr. says about hard work, good credit standing, opportunity, readiness, and timing. In short, it's constant hard work in all those areas to develop success.
I'm reminded of Jeff Bezos talking with Warren Buffett. I would agree with what Buffett said about nobody wanting to get rich quick slowly. Investing in stocks long-term is well, long-term. That's why some people would rather do the idiocy called day-trading. I could agree with what Charlie Munger says about it as a speculative orgy. Yet, a lot of money is lost in gambling which includes both day-trading and cryptocurrency. If it's purely speculative then it's really gambling.
The principle of embracing competition instead of the loser mindset
Gokongwei Jr. embraced competition as part of the business. If you fear competition then you have no right to do business. Some people say competition ruins quality and monopoly fixes them. I find such a statement to be rather stupid. Instead, this is what Gokongwei Jr. said about competition:
I have always wondered, like many of us, why we Filipinos have not lived up to our potential. To be a truly great nation, we must also excel as entrepreneurs before the world.
Instead, competition is good for it. The very idea that Jollibee prospered through protectionism is stupid. Instead, we have CNBC which reveals the very ordeal of Jollibee and the Tan brothers, Tancaktiong and his Ernesto Tanmantiong:
In business, there’s nothing like a little healthy competition to keep you motivated.
Only, for brothers Tony Tan Caktiong and Ernesto Tanmantiong, that healthy competition came early on — in the sizable form of fast food icon McDonald’s.
It was then 1981 and the brothers were just setting out on the ambitious dream of creating a fast food empire in their native Philippines when McDonald’s arrived in town and threatened to consume the market with its vast appetite for international expansion.
Jollibee had already grown substantially from what started in 1975 as an ice cream parlor in Quezon City, just outside of the capital Manila. But, with just a couple dozen fast food outlets scattered across the fractured archipelago, it was a small fry next to McDonald’s thousands of branches in the U.S. and international markets.
This reminds me of another entry I wrote about Jollibee as a worldwide MNC. The Tan brothers didn't fear competition. Instead, they faced it and it was through competition with McDonald's that they figured out what they had to do. They wanted to create American fast food with a Filipino twist. Now, Jollibee even has 150 branches in Communist Vietnam.
The loser mentality never achieves anything. The moment I hear somebody say, "Why will you let foreigners invest here? Only they will get rich! They will buy the Philippines and we Filipinos will be slaves and squatters in our own lands!"--I raise my eyebrows and tell them to tell that to Singapore. That's why I even challenge them to tell that to the Singaporean-Indian, Kishore Mahbubani. It's what the late Lee Kuan Yew called in his book From Third World to First a third-world mentality. That's the kind of mentality that "thought leaders" like Teodoro A. Casiño and Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna and Sonny Africa of IBON Foundation promote. If these guys are so great then haven't they actually even provided jobs for Filipinos? Instead, I only feel that they have this obsession with cash handouts as well as asking for companies to sell at a loss. Selling at a loss means that they're asking companies to raise salaries while lowering the prices of goods and services. That's just bad finance since cost accounting shows salaries are part of the means of production.
What has blaming the rich done for people anyway? Do you think those successful people got rich by blaming the rich? Tancaktiong could've continued to blame McDonald's for any failures he had. Instead, Tancaktiong slowly but surely established Jollibee until later, it became an MNC. Sy Sr. sold shoes as a start before he opened Shoe Mart or SM. Those who still keep blaming the rich, rather than learning how to make the best of their money, haven't done anything. All they tend to do is whine, say the rich are evil, the poor are oppressed, there must be a classless society (via the struggle of the working class), etc. Such nonsense never worked. Just think about how Mao Zedong's China failed and how Deng Xiaoping's China succeeded. Mao was going by the loser mindset. Deng decided that some competition would force Chinese businesses to do better.
It's because of competition that we have Jollibee. It's because of competition that the supply and demand gap fills in. Monopolize everything and you're going to get bad services. The real reason is that supply will be too low and demand will be too high. That's why I wrote about why I'm against the nationalization of utilities mixed with protectionism. That's why I'm in favor of the privatization of as many services as people. It's because debt is never solved by government spending or printing more money. That's why Maoism failed--it tried to do everything on its own. Lee Kuan Yew later called Deng a great man even if the latter was a socialist in some way. The successful Chinese-Filipinos understood these principles and placed them into practice.
Not everyone can be rich but they can be financially secure if they follow certain lifestyles
Sure, I've been mentioning Warren Buffett in this blog. I think I'm going to think about these successful Chinese-Filipinos and their investing habit. Not everyone who got out of poverty became rich. Some are simply living comfortable lives where they don't have to worry about financial insecurity. It's because one can simply think about what Sy Sr. said, "There's no such thing as easy money." As Sy Sr. would also say, "There's no substitute for hard work." Gokongwei Jr. also said, "You have to love your work. You have to save money instead of spending all of it."
If every business empire started out small then every high-ranking employee had to start low. Every good manager had to climb up to the positions that they were in. Just think of this quote, "He who can't obey can't command." Nobody should dream of instant promotions or instant money. Instead, one has to think of developing financial discipline. Nobody ever gets rich with that idiotic mindset of trying to impress others or being materialistic. Instead, it's all about learning to budget the cash and invest it.
One of Gokongwei Jr.'s life lessons is never to stop learning. I made the bad mistake of trying to stop learning. Instead, I realized that I was never taught Buffett's lessons in school! I had to Google the lessons of Buffett. Gokongwei Jr. may have graduated valedictorian but he never stopped learning. Values that got Gokongwei Jr. the valedictorian slot weren't thrown out of the window. The difference between some honor students who are failures today and Gokongwei Jr. is about continuous learning. Gokongwei Jr. never got complacent after he graduated with an impressive track record. That's why I'm now writing this blog and doing research. That's why I decided to read more about Buffett and the stock market. I even think about it that I never learned cost averaging into equity funds, index funds, and the like in school! I'm even thinking I feel so stupid even if I never bought my degree!
An article I wrote was about the "just add sugar if it's bitter" mindset. If one has the mindset to just add sugar to the bitter--they'll just keep running away from their problems than solve them. I believe that such a mindset is keeping many Filipinos poor. It's pretty much like how the paycheck barely lasts a day. It's because of the mentality of just having a good time all the time. It's no wonder they become burdened with debt. When Christmas arrives, they even wasted their 13th month pay and Christmas bonuses then realize, "Oh no! I have no money for noche buena!" Then when Christmas Eve dinner is over, they realize, "Oh no! I have no money for New Year!" Their mentality of adding sugar to the bitter only increases their problems later on.
Basic financial and economic advice from successful Chinese-Filipino businessmen isn't hard to understand. Rather, it becomes hard to do for people who want to have nothing but a good time, to those who want easy money, and those who simply want to take the easy way out. I don't even need a doctorate to understand some basic financial advice. It's a matter of mindset. Are you willing to learn from successful people or will you continue living in hatred of them?
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