PASSION is overrated. And just like the word “amazing,” it has become one of the most overused and abused words by a lot of millennials.
Long ago, the word “passion” was used only in relation to exceptional situations and bizarre persons, but now the word is everywhere—people are either talking about their passion; or telling other people to find and follow their passion, as if it’s some holy grail to happiness and success.
I think they’ve forgotten that it’s also the word used to describe the last hours in the life of Jesus—ever heard of the Passion of Christ?
Our discussion about passion was one of the highlights of my recent conversation with Jet Yu, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Prime Philippines, one of the biggest real-estate consultancy firms in the country.
“When people ask me what is my passion, I answer it this way: It depends on what you mean by passion. Passion can refer to a strong and barely controllable emotion, or a strong desire or enthusiasm to do something, but people tend to forget that it originated from the Latin word ‘passio,’ which means ‘suffer.’ “A lot of young people nowadays often get so hyped and make decisions in the heat of the moment. They are willing to turn their backs on everything in the name of passion—not even thinking if they are ready to suffer and make sacrifices to pursue it.”
Jet says he often based his advice on practicality. “If they are the breadwinner of the family, I’ll them to keep their jobs rather than risk it in business, since they have little room for failure, because if they fail, their whole family suffers.
In his experiences with Prime Philippines, Jet says they have worked with a lot of small start-up business. “Out of the 100 leasing transactions, about 60 percent will shut down in less than a year (mostly food and beverage). The ones who make it past the third year are only 10 percent—meaning 90 percent would have shut down in the first three years. So putting up a business is not easy.”
For those who aren’t breadwinners and have money to spare, Jet asks them which industry they want and how long they’ve actually thought about their business plan.
“Take note that any hobby turned into a business becomes a career, and when you make it a career, ask yourself if you’re ready to suffer for the first few years for long-term benefits.”
Jet stresses that real passion requires sacrifice, discipline and choosing the right opportunity.
“There will always be a lot of opportunities, but you have to focus on the good opportunities you have right now; otherwise, you will just be chasing one passion and one opportunity after another.”
PRIME LEARNINGS
Jet credits his sense of discipline and determination to his parents. The middle child in a brood of three, Jet recalls spending his summers working for the family business, typical of Filipino Chinese families, doing clerical work and observing how his parents ran their real-estate marketing company for mass market housing.
Jet says his mom taught them how to be resourceful and street-smart, while his father showed them how to treat people equally. “My mom ran the business using the limited manpower and resources she had and taught me that you don’t always need to spend a lot of money to get things done. She also showed me that there was no weekend or holidays when you are running a business and people are depending on you. When business calls at 3 a.m., you have to wake up and attend to whatever needs to be done.”
His mom originally wanted him to be an architect, just like she wanted his elder brother to become an engineer and his sister an interior designer—hoping they would eventually take over the family business. All of them, however, had different plans. His sister took up marketing, his brother became a food technologist and Jet became an entrepreneur.
Jet took up entrepreneurship at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and even before they were required to start their own business in their third year, Jet had already put up a food kiosk selling siomai and rice meals, called Lil Asya Express, at one of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations in Caloocan.
This is where Jet learned just how hard it is to run a business. “I ran the kiosk for more than two years, and during the first six months we were just burning money, as in luging-lugi.”
His parents lent them one of their vans, and everyday at 3 a.m., he would go to the Balintawak Market to get supplies and then bring it to the kiosk, which isn’t easy considering they live in Quezon City, and he still had to attend classes. Sometimes, when his staff wouldn’t report for work, Jet says he had no choice but to run the kiosk himself and cook everything, otherwise they’d be penalized. He says things only started to turn around when his brother came up with siomai with ginger rice toppings. After that, sales increased more than 100 percent.
But while his business was finally starting to flourish, school was a different thing. Jet admits he wasn’t much of an achiever in school. “Back then, I was really addicted to games—‘Ragnarok,’ ‘Counterstrike,’ ‘Dota,’ ‘Gunbound,’ ‘Left for Dead’ and all that—and I think that affected my studies.”
So while his classmates were receiving numerous job offers, Jet recalls not getting any offer and even if he had a food kiosk and a few other small businesses on the side, Jet knew this was going to be a major turning point in his life and he had to come up with something.
We continue this story next week.
A TESTAMENT TO FLAGSHIP CAMERA PERFECTION
Huawei has grown in the eyes and hearts of consumers as one of the leading smartphone brands of choice offering excellent value, style, design, performance and exceptional photography capabilities. This year Huawei has once again opened the Next Image Awards, a platform where Huawei users globally can show off their eye for capturing different subjects and moments.
Huawei’s push for a mobile photo contest is no surprise, given that the brand is renowned for its class-leading smartphone camera, such a the P20 Pro with its Leica lens camera setup.
To further develop the culture globally, this 2018 several countries and regions have been chosen to host their local competitions independent of the international contest, as well as other events more specifically catered to the characteristics of local users. These events include three rounds of two-week competitions in the Philippines. In each of the three rounds that were held, judges selected the 10 best works from numerous contributors, naming a single grand prize and nine mentions of excellence.
A total of 10,431 photo entries from 3,378 attendees came from the Philippines alone, making it the country with the highest submission of entries overseas. The reason
Next Image got so many entries from the Philippines is not only because Filipinos love taking photos but, more important, Filipinos are creative people by nature. We Filipinos like expressing ourselves in different ways—through music, the way we dress, the way we dance, every one of us wants to show the world that we have something to offer and show the world.
Huawei collaborated with Manila Bulletin for the Next Image Photo Exhibit on September 5 at The Manila Hotel, Philippines.
The Next Image exhibit is revolutionary in its concept since it features photo collections on how the Filipino express themselves creatively.
SAMSUNG HANDSETS TO SUPPORT SMART’S WIFI CALLING
Customers using the latest Samsung handsets can soon enjoy the benefits of WiFi Calling as PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) partners with Samsung in rolling out Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) services, which will be initially available to selected subscribers by October after Samsung releases its latest firmware over-the-air update.
Soon, Smart customers can make VoWiFi calls using Samsung smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, Galaxy S9 and S9+, Note 8 and Note 9 via any Wifi connection like Smart WiFi and PLDT Home WiFi.
VoWiFi, or WiFi Calling, lets customers make and receive calls and text messages over a WiFi connection using their smartphone’s native dialer, without having to install a third-party app. Apart from an improved calling and messaging experience, WiFi Calling also offers extended network coverage, as customers can make and receive voice calls, as well as video calls, wherever there is WiFi connection.
Earlier this month, Smart and its technology partners Huawei Technologies Inc. and Samsung made the first successful VoWiFi call over a live network in Cebu, a first outside Metro Manila.
“This pioneering initiative is a key part of PLDT and Smart’s integrated efforts to continuously improve and evolve our voice services,” said Mario Tamayo, PLDT and Smart senior vice president for Network Planning and Engineering. “We will continue to strengthen and revolutionize our network so that we can deliver relevant services, such as WiFi Calling and VoLTE, as well as voice/video over 5G in the near future.”
Last year Smart also made the country’s first Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) mobile call, which uses LTE or 4G to conduct calls. With VoLTE, customers with VoLTE-capable devices can stay on the 4G/LTE network when making and receiving calls, which makes call setup time in LTE faster. Call setup time is the amount of time it takes for the voice call to connect.
And because LTE is very efficient in carrying data traffic, a voice call made over LTE is of crystal clear quality, with almost no background noise.
Parent company PLDT has committed historic levels of resources to support its network transformation. For 2018 PLDT capital expenditure is expected to reach P58 billion.
As of the end of June, Smart has installed over 3,900 new LTE base stations across the country, not only to expand LTE coverage but also to lay the ground for LTE-A, which can provide even greater capacity and speeds to users with capable smartphones. This puts the total count of LTE base stations at over 12,600.
Underpinning PLDT and Smart’s fixed and mobile network rollout was the expansion of PLDT’s fiber-optic transmission and distribution network. In the first half of 2018, PLDT increased its fiber footprint to about 204,000 kilometers. PLDT’s fiber network, the most extensive in the country, also supports Smart’s mobile network by providing high-capacity fiber connections for LTE base stations.
Smart is also deploying carrier-grade Smart WiFi in high-traffic public places all over the country, such as transportations hubs like Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and LRT Line 1 stations, major airports, bus terminals and seaports across the country, as well as in schools, government buildings, hospitals, malls and entertainment centers.