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by Carmelita Cochingco Ballesteros.
January 1, 2013
7. RJ and Arianne David (Initiative)Initiative means inventiveness, creativity, or enterprise. It is the value by which entrepreneurs live. It is taking the first baby step, at the risk of stumbling, toward one’s ambition.
Personifying initiative, the couple RJ and Arianne David founded Sulit.com.ph on September 11, 2006. Sulit.com.ph is a free classified ads website for Filipinos. RJ is the web developer and architect while Arianne is the web designer and test engineer.
What’s inspiring about RJ and Arianne? 1) They started in their mid-20s. 2) They work as a team. 3)Inspired by Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, they took the initiative to put their inspiration into action. 4) They faltered with four earlier businesses, but they got up and kept moving forward. 5) They are driven by the desire to serve and pay it forward. 6) Seven years after launching Sulit.com.ph, they have garnered awards and have grown from a sole proprietorship to a corporation.
Have you seen the new TV ad of Sulit.com.ph? Its tagline is, Ano Hanap Mo? What are you looking for? Whatever it is, take the initiative.
8. Nick Vujicic (Initiative)
Nick Vujicic /VOOY cheech/ was born without arms and legs in Brisbane, Australia in 1982. How does one without limbs take the first step? The initiative?
As a boy, Nick had zero self-esteem and was bullied in mainstream school. One day, his mother showed him an article about a physically-challenged person who was independent, creative, and happy.
Nick decided to take the initiative, the first ‘baby step.’ He learned how to brush his teeth, comb his hair, answer the phone, write, use the computer, swim, etc.
He became inventive, creative, and enterprising. Becoming a student leader, he used his life without limbs as a means of motivating his able-bodied schoolmates to dream and achieve.
More importantly, he realized that God wants him to be His arms and legs so that He could reach out to many young people without faith.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Financial Planning from Griffith University in Australia in 2003. Today, he jet-sets as a motivational speaker urging the youth to take the initiative in making their lives meaningful. If he can, so can they!
9. Socorro “Nanay Coring” Ramos (Optimism)
“Nanay Coring” and her late husband Jose built and re-built National Book Store three times during the difficult years before and after World War II in the 1940s. They never gave up. It was optimism in action. They kept believing in a better future.
Today, “Nanay Coring” is a super saleswoman who, at age 89, outsells much younger people. Her optimism translates into a cheerful disposition aimed at serving customers with pride and joy.
She is a born salesperson with an abundant supply of optimism – that value of never giving up. When she wants something, she does everything to get it done. But she does not pressure a customer or a supplier. She charms them with undivided attention, disarming honesty, and sincere gratitude. The bottom line for her is serving the end-user with the “best buy.”
She has received many awards. The most recent is the 2012 MVP Bossing Award organized by PLDT and Manny V. Pangilinan. When her name was announced as the Grand MVP Bossing for 2012, everyone agreed by giving her a standing ovation.
10. Walt Disney (Optimism)
Walter Elias Disney created cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and made the Disneyland dream come true. In 1955, he dedicated the first Disneyland in California by welcoming children, adults, and the elderly to a “happy place” where the past, the present, and the future come together to celebrate life.
Disney’s success did not happen overnight. His family had little money, but he had plenty of imagination. As a schoolboy, he entertained himself by drawing in class. While attending a day high school, he attended an evening art school.
In 1922, he formed his first art company, but it went bankrupt. He persuaded his brother, Roy, to form another company with him in 1923. Other setbacks came along the way, but Walt kept pushing forward.
While trying to make Disneyland come true, Disney was refused financing by banks. None wanted to finance a dream. Disney, the optimist, did not give up. He became more creative and tapped into television to raise money for Disneyland.
Today, Disneylands in the US, Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong welcome approximately 100 million visitors each year and prove that optimism is a wealth-generator.
11. Christopher and Marivic Bernido (Discipline)
“Work is love made visible,” the poet Kahlil Gibran (1923) wrote. Similarly, discipline is love made visible in the persons of Christopher and Marivic Bernido.
To provide poor students with excellent education, the Bernido couple resigned in 1999 from the UP National Institute of Physics and relocated to the remote town of Jagna, Bohol.
However, the couple’s vision was almost shattered by the harsh reality of running a beleaguered school. Fortunately, they had discipline as scientists and Christians. They exercised their analytic and problem-solving skills while praying fervently and drawing inspiration from the lives of saints.
In 2002, they piloted the Dynamic Learning Program to solve three huge shortages besetting Philippine basic education: qualified teachers, relevant textbooks, and state-of-the-art educational facilities.
In 2010, the Bernidos were recognized by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for “ensuring innovative, low-cost, and effective basic education even under Philippine conditions of great scarcity and daunting poverty.”
The Bernidos have proved that discipline is love made visible by: 1) overcoming overwhelming odds, and 2) observing a regular prayer life to beg the Lord for strength and enlightenment.
12. Marie Curie (Discipline)
Born as Maria Sklodowska in Poland in 1867, she dreamt of serving humanity through science. But pursuing higher education seemed impossible for her because 1) she was a woman, 2) her family had modest means, and 3) Poland was conservative.
Maria conquered those enormous barriers through self-discipline and focus. In 1891, she went to the University of Paris in Sorbonne as its first woman student. Living a disciplined life, she promptly earned two degrees in Physics and Mathematics.
In 1895, she married Pierre Curie, a physics professor. Collaborating as scientists, Marie and Pierre’s discipline paid off handsomely. In 1903, they shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Henri Becquerel.
Tragically, Pierre died in an accident in 1906, and Marie raised two daughters alone while continuing her research. Remaining focused and disciplined, she received her second Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911.
During the first world war, she made mobile X-ray machines and drove to the battlefields to help doctors locate shrapnels and bullets in the wounded.
Having served humanity through science, Marie Curie died peacefully in 1934. She had proved that popular Chinese proverb, “obstacles are stepping stones to success.” (Comments: carmelita.nie@gmail.com)