(This is a speech given by Mr. John Gokongwei, Jr. during the Ad Congress on 21 November 2007. The central points are basically similar to the other speech -- hard work, confidence and positive attitude, determination and persistence, control over one's destiny, innovation and entrepreneurship. These speeches also revolve on globalization and the dream of the Philippines creating its own products and competing with the world. I have this feeling that if Mr. Gokongwei would answer our poll on whether we need more entrepreneursor more opportunities, he would likely say that we need more entrepreneurs who are willing and able to create products and services that could compete with the world's products and services, and, in the process, create more opportunities for more Filipinos.)
Before I begin, I want to say please bear with me, an 81-year-old man who just flew in from San Francisco 36 hours ago and is still suffering from jet lag. However, I hope I will be able to say what you want to hear.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Thank you very much for having me here tonight to open the Ad Congress. I know how important this event is for our marketing and advertising colleagues. My people get very excited and go into a panic, every other year, at this time.
I would like to talk about my life, entrepreneurship, and globalization. I would like to talk about how we can become a great nation. You may wonder how one is connected to the other, but I promise that, as there is truth in advertising, the connection will come.
Let me begin with a story I have told many times. My own.
I was born to a rich Chinese-Filipino family. I spent my childhood in Cebu where my father owned a chain of movie houses, including the first air-conditioned one outside Manila . I was the eldest of six children and lived in a big house in Cebu 's Forbes Park.
A chauffeur drove me to school everyday as I went to San Carlos University , then and still one of the country's top schools. I topped my classes and had many friends. I would bring them to watch movies for free at my father's movie houses.
When I was 13, my father died suddenly of complications due to typhoid. Everything I enjoyed vanished instantly. My father's empire was built on credit. When he died, we lost everything -- our big house, our cars, our business -- to the banks.
I felt angry at the world for taking away my father, and for taking away all that I enjoyed before. When the free movies disappeared, I also lost half my friends. On the day I had to walk two miles to school for the very first time, I cried to my mother, a widow at 32. But she said: "You should feel lucky. Some people have no shoes to walk to school. What can you do? Your father died with 10 centavos in his pocket."
So, what can I do? I worked.
(Read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8)
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