A Glimpse of a [Desirable] Future

Delivered at the STI Rosario Commencement 2015 on May 8, 2015

Let me share with you a glimpse of a (desirable future), specifically a framework by which you may set standards for success. You successfully completed one block in a long journey. As you march today, you have officially entered a new block in this journey. The path that you choose and the basic principles that you use to navigate this new journey will define your success. 

Success and Your Future

At this point in your life, the future remains a puzzle, and success a distant future. That is typical. The road to success and a better future are usually long and bumpy. Most often, the end of the road, sometimes even the side of the road, is hardly or not at all visible.

It helps if we can paint a picture of success. Visualize it. Understand it by using a metaphor or symbol.

Imagine a tree. It has roots. It has a trunk and branches. It has a crown. I believe that life imitates a tree. Likewise, success resembles the philosophical concept of a tree. In success, there is a foundation similar to the roots of a tree. In success, there is a journey similar to the branches in a tree. In success, there is a pinnacle similar to the crown of a tree.

Roots of Success

Roots form the foundation of the tree. They keep the tree cemented in the soil, strong enough to survive a storm and a draught.

Success has its own roots. Family, friends, and even places where we grew up can be among them.

In boxing, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Donaire, the Chavez brothers and many more are second generation boxers. They are more successful probably because of the second generation advantage. In basketball, there are many successful second generation players in the NBA and PBA.

In the profession, many successful doctors, lawyers and engineers are second or third generation hold overs. In politics, we have dynasties all over the country. In business, second generation practitioners have found bigger success combining the diligence and pioneering efforts of the past with technology of the present.

Family as a root of success works in a reverse mode as well. My brother-in-law, a German engineer who found success in Australia and grew up in a well-knit family, has retired and spends most of his time doing two things. First, he travels to places around the world which he was not able to visit in his younger years. Second, he painstakingly puts together a family tree that connects his generation to the past and the younger ones.

It is amazing what he has done. He was able to trace his connections in Germany and ours in the Philippines – my mother side and father side -- four generations back and two generations forward. That is a total of seven generations. If each generation is equivalent to 50 years, that is a total of 350 years more or less. Despite his distance, he sends birthday greetings to as many relatives as he possibly can.

Marc Pingris, a PBA player known for his physical strength and ability to defend against much taller players, was separated from his father early in his life. He became a successful basketball player. Probably even a superstar.  At some point, he needed to re-connect with his roots. Probably, he did this to give him the emotional strength to face the bigger challenges later in his life.

A friend who became a successful research and advertising executive volunteered to manage my family’s real estate project in Catbalagon, West Samar after his retirement.

He was separated from his father when he was still a baby. An aunt took care of him. His father got married to another girl and started a family. The father is old and graying and lives in Catbalogan.  With his retirement money, he can live comfortably and well. Yet he opted to go to one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines and postpone his retirement to reconnect with his father.

Education is another root of success -- the years we spent completing our formal education from kindergarten to college. The schools we attended, our classmates (best friends and our mortal enemies), our teachers (those who made us enjoy learning and those who used fear to teach us), and school officials who taught us discipline and compliance.

I have friends whose strongest network of business partners remain their school mates either in high school or in college. While teaching at the Graduate School of Business in DLSU, I was amused to learn that many of my colleagues were either classmates or school mates. The bond among graduates in the Philippine Military Academy is so strong. An officer, when appointed as chief of staff, by tradition and in practice, is expected to appoint his batch mates to key position.

The network of classmates and batch mates is pretty much a reality among the country’s Presidents from PNoy down to Marcos. Kapuso, kapamilya, kaibigan, kaklase.

On your graduation, and as you step out of this school, you and this school become partners to your success -- in perpetuity. I am not exaggerating when I say “in perpetuity”.  This partnership does not end when you get your diploma.  It continues –

o   When you look for a job;

o   When you are considered for a promotion;

o   When you transfer to another company for greener pastures;

o   When you apply for graduate studies;

o   When you apply for overseas employment and even when you travel for leisure;

It continues when you fall in love and you share your school life with your special someone;

o   When you raise a family and you teach the value of Christian education to your children and grandchildren;

o   When you are recognized for your achievements in industry or in government;

o   When you migrate and you submit your educational profile;

o   When you want to teach, full time or part time, and your employer requires full academic credentials;

o   It continues even when you are old and grey and you want to reconnect to your early years;

o   When you retire and reunions start to preoccupy your life; and

o   When you are gone and people recognize your achievements posthumously, and when your possessions and records become museum pieces.  

Your partnership and your linkage with this school will definitely endure and persist. It is part of tradition. It is part of a prescribed management system.  At the same time, it has practical benefits.  However, there are going to be occasions when this partnership would manifest itself for a specific purpose.

Some years back, the Ateneo community, with the Alumni as the lead group, embarked on a program to make Ateneo the UAAP basketball champion. That campaign produced stars like Villanueva, Alvarez, and Gonzalez who are now playing in the PBA. The Ateneo community accomplished this goal after two years, but with much support from the Alumni – training, physical conditioning, financing and many more. It was a vision that involved the active participation of the Alumni. 

There will be occasions when this partnership would become more colorful and challenging such as when external factors or policy decisions threaten a University’s heritage and tradition.  I can recall parallel events that happened in other schools. 

o   For example, Bosconians successfully blocked the sale of the Makati campus and the transfer of this campus to another location outside of Metro Manila; 

o   Maryknoll alumni protested when administrators decided to change the name of the school to Mirriam; The name has since been changed but the alumni involvement to this issue remains.

o   Graduates of Mapua Institute of Technology protested the change from Mapua to Malayan Institute of Technology.  

o   University of the Philippines alumni blocked the conversion of the Diliman campus into a commercial center. A new president with a business orientation changed all that.

o   In one national election, the U.P. alumni successfully mounted a text campaign against the re-election of a Senator who, as Chairman of the Finance Committee, cut the budget of the University by a significant percentage. He is now an ex-senator.

In these examples, graduates reconnected with their alma mater for a specific purpose – to protect their heritage and keep the community intact.  They found a common cause to be together and to establish or re-establish their school ties.

On the other hand, schools purposely call on their alumni for support, to attend ceremonies and programs, to participate in major activities and to tap their services for specific engagements and projects.  Schools keep an active file of their graduates for various reasons.

I am also an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines.  Ateneo regularly sends me mailers that inform me about the projects and programs of the University.  I get to learn about the latest professorial chairs, scholarships, sports programs and cultural events. Last month, I received a full-color Easter Card with this message: As you celebrate Easter, may the glory of God’s miracle renew your hopes, your faith and your joy.

These experiences, even if these are my own, tell us that the moment you enter a school, you covenant yourself to a lifelong partnership with that school. Conversely, the school knowingly and willingly binds herself to the same contract for a lasting relationship with the student. 

Journey to Success

Like the branches, your journey to your success will unfold in many mysterious and challenging ways. Some entrepreneurs attempted 100 times to succeed in one. Some lawyers needed to take the Bar two to four times. In these challenges, you need your family. Keep them. You need your friends. Keep them. Make more of them. You need God. Be with Him always.

Success has no shortcuts. Benjamin Franklin said that “the best way to build a dream is by attending to the little things that comprise it. Its foundation is in the little details; its beauty in the fine points.”

Abraham Lincoln once said that “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”

Crown of Success

What type of success should we pursue? How do we measure success? What will tell us that indeed we are successful?

Sooner or later, maybe sooner, you will have to wrestle with these questions and find the answers that go straight into your heart. There are some guidelines or practical tips that we can use. Let me share with you some that I have used when the stakes are high and when the chips are down:

First, and perhaps most importantly, success must be measured in elements other than money. Ralph Waldo emerson, in his poem, captures some of these elements. Emerson wrote --

“To laugh often and much,

to win respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a

redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.”

Second, your success must evolve from acts that make other people successful. A success that is a stand-alone and does not breed success is shaky.  This is not just a tip. It is a must.

Bill Clinton, twice elected as President of the United States and among the most sought after adviser and speaker, once said that “We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.” 

I teach such principle in the class room. I always remind my students in Strategic Management the importance of the external community in building success. I support these with corporate cases and with frameworks written by Harvard and Wharton professors.

The Performance Governance System of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a framework crafted by Dr. Jesus Estanislao to help local governments and national government agencies develop strategies, emphasizes the importance of  managing an organization that thrives by value-adding to the bigger community.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a management framework developed by Kaplan and Norton of Harvard Graduate School of Business, promotes a strategy that is driven by goals other than money such as people, process and customers. Profit becomes an outcome of this strategy.

Collins and Poras, authors of Built to Last, concluded that excellent companies demonstrate sustainability. These are companies that survive the tests of time and remain viable beyond 100 years. Coca Cola, General Electric, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Disneyland are some examples. In the Philippines, we have quite a few. San Miguel, Ayala, BPI, and Aboitiz.

If you run through the list of companies with a market value way beyond their assets, these are the companies that subscribe to the Bill Clinton principle. Does it apply to small companies and individuals? Yes. In fact, it is a principle that evolved from the experiences of small companies which grew to become successful companies.

The latest marketing framework, as written by Bob Gilbreath, suggests that a good marketing strategy is one that is premised on improving people’s lives. By doing so, according to Gilbreath and based on studies done, you succeed.

 A successful farmer, the envy of other farmers, decided to share his seeds to his neighboring farms. Friends of this farmer were alarmed. Why are you helping your competitors, asked the farmer’s friends? The good farmer answered back: If I don’t share my good seeds to my neighbors, their bad seeds will infect my farm.

Success is not achieved by making others suffer. Your success will eventually be measured and judged in terms of how you made others equally or even more successful.

Proverbs Chapter 11, Verse 25 says: He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed” 

For comments, email to Nick Fontanilla @ abfontanilla@yahoo.com