The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice; and because we fail to notice, there’s little that we can do to change, until we notice how failing to notice changes our thought and deeds- R.D. Laing
One of my beloved business mentors always tell me that I must pay particular attention to what my eyes notice. Often our eyes deceive us and sad thing is, this is what usually hinders a lot of us from succeeding in life.
This community often encounters people saying that our dream of making 1st world Philippines and creating 1,000 multi-millionaires will never work. Then they will cite evidences and reasons why it won’t work and one of the most common reasons are, “our government is corrupt”, “it’s too risky to be in business”, “Its better to work abroad”, “1,000 Millionaires from zero? that's crazy, it will never happen”, “you must scam people to make that happen” and thousands more and if we would compile it, we can create a book out of it already.
Come to think of it, each one of us has a story about ourselves, about our family, about this country and often times our stories either limits us or move us forward. As the pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies, Warren Bennis said, “the facts of the matter are much less important to us than the way these facts occur to us”.
Last week I watched the movie Charlotte’s Web with my kids. It’s based from the classic novel written by EB White about a very unlikely friendship between a pig and a spider. I believe that the book is more than just for children and we adults could definitely learn a lot from it.
In the story, the spider, Charlotte, basically transformed how the world views the pig, Wilbur. Everyone knows that the “future” of the pig is definitely to be slaughtered. The other animals in the farm also have a certain story about the pig Wilbur. When he was brought to the farm everyone treated him indifferently and nobody wanted to befriend him except for the spider. Now, all the animals in the farm know that he will be slaughtered and will be made as ham for Christmas and the rat Templeton, emphasized that, that what pigs are for, to be slaughtered. That's the default future of Wilbur as a pig: to be slaughtered. However, Charlotte made a promise to Wilbur that she would never allow that to happen. She believed and promised Wilbur that he would see springtime. Then she started creating words from her web, words like “some pig”. It spread around in the community about the words "some pig" on the web, and Wilbur started to get noticed by everyone. The next words Charlotte made from her web were “terrific”, “radiant” and “humble”. These are words Charlotte and even the selfish rat Templeton, came up with to describe Wilbur. Everyone in the community started seeing Wilbur “with new eyes”, he became “some terrific, radiant and humble” pig to everyone in the community. Even the other animals started treating him extraordinarily and the people in the farm started taking care of him, like giving him enough food and bathing him with buttermilk. Charlotte kept her promise; Wilbur experienced spring. The world transformed around Wilbur, transformed because a spider took notice of Wilbur not just a pig but “some terrific, radiant and humble pig” and everyone in the farm started showing acts of kindness towards each other even when the spider, Charlotte, died in the end.
What is happening in our world is not far from what the movie Charlotte’s Web tells us. We all have a default “future” as Filipinos and as individuals. Some of these futures are, “we can only succeed if we work abroad”, “we are a third world country”, “we can never be millionaires”, “we are born to be poor”, “poverty is everywhere” “the only way to get a good income is to go to college, graduate, study more and get promoted”. When I was in Hongkong, one Investor I had a conversation with at the lobby said, that we Filipinos are all talk. He went to our country several times already and nothing gets done. Our country is not a good place to do business.” If we will listen to all of these, we can immediately predict what the future of this country will be.
This is primarily the reason why a lot of people have difficulty understanding what our work is all about; what this community is all about. When something different comes in, most of us would based it from what our past tells us, like “nobody has done it before”, “my parents are poor”, “the only way to have money is to marry a foreigner or marry a rich person”, “I’m shy or introvert I will never succeed”.
What people don’t usually get is this, we can no longer change what happened in the past. What makes us transform the life we have in the present is the future we see coming towards us. I remember eleven years ago when I was still tutoring Koreans, one of my old students said that her country Korea, was inspired by what our country achieved during the 60’s and 70’s and during that time, that’s all they wanted to happen in Korea as well and when she came back in the 90’s she was surprised to see that nothing has changed for us. She said that it was like we got stuck somewhere and was not able to move forward. The truth is, we got stuck with our stories of our past. We brought our past in our future. We carried it with us. Take for example dictatorship, it happened long time ago, in fact I was still a kid then, yet everytime a new president gets elected, we are already finding evidences that he/she will declare martial law and if not we are sure any incoming president prepares for it. Its possible that martial law will happen again however believing that every president being elected in office plans doing it then finding evidences that it will happen again, is focusing on our past. Doing that we missed other future possibilities for this country. This is why we get a future similar to our past, nothing new is created. As philanthropist Lynne Twist said, “what we appreciate, appreciates”. If you appreciate goodness that comes in your way, it will appreciate, it will grow. On the other hand, if you keep on noticing all the crap that happens in your life, then expect that it will grow and as T.Harv Eker said, you become a giant crap magnet”.
Now, how about you, what do you see? Do you see the worst of times or the best of times? Do you recession or do you see opportunities? Do you see problems or do you see problems as gifts? When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see a bitter person or a person who can be a contribution? Do you see a person surviving or a person thriving? Do you see a small person or a great person becoming? Warren Bennis said, “our actions relate how the world occurs to us, not to the way that it actually is”. When how we occur to yourself alters, everything else shifts as well.
This community is offering an alternative future, a future distinct from the past. We are choosing to see the unpredictable; we are choosing to see what 80% of the Filipinos failed to notice. We choose to see that Filipinos are powerful beyond measure. Filipinos are not born to work for others but born to make a difference not just in his/her own country but also to the rest of the world. We choose to see that the brown skinned “Indios” are not slaves but are business leaders who can steer the course of the world.
The challenge is basically to see beyond what are eyes allows us to see. Just like my favorite cartoon when I was a kid Thundercats Lion-o would say, “give me sight beyond sight!”. It is true that there is recession; it’s true that in our own home or community, we see evidences of poverty. The media and newspaper will never run out of it and will always smack it on our face everytime we open the television and read our local paper. We would even often argue, “to see is to believe”, “I see around me that I’m poor, I watch the news and they say we are in a recession. I have all the evidences to prove that I will never thrive in this country”. Whatever recession or depression this country is experiencing right now, this community, CA2020, is not joining it.
Mediocre people will accept what they see around them, do nothing or worst blame the government, their parents or justify their being poor or unsuccessful. On the other hand, business leaders will accept what they see around them, become aware of things they can and cannot control, and then choose to see differently and from there, they take the necessary action. As one of my mentees Coach Cy said, “depression is an option” even suffering, even misery. Are you even aware that right now, you can choose to be happy?
Mahatma Gandhi knows that India is suffering from the British rule and he chose to see that India being free even though a lot of people that time never believed its going happen. The thing is, Gandhi saw India being free even before it happened.
Business leaders/visionaries are coming from this context, “I’ll see it when I believe it”. Whereas a lot of us Filipinos would rather see first then believe. This is why a lot of us end up becoming “wait and see”. In the world of business, we end up mostly consumers not producers. We end up working for somebody else for the rest of our lives rather than taking charge of our financial lives. Just to look back, even during the time of Conquistadores, we’ve always been the one being conquered not the conqueror. What do you expect from a country full of people who don’t have the power to conquer their own thoughts? How can we conquer something from outside of us when we can’t even conquer what’s close to us? The prison is not in our local police station; it’s in our thoughts.
When we had our second major bankruptcy in our business several years back, we look into our bank accounts, there's nothing, our so called friends left us, our partners flee their responsibilities, we have nothing to eat but sardines, noodles and suffer not having electricity for months. It was like a never ending
rondori, multiple attacks, emotionally, verbal attacks, threats etc.. We know we don't have anything that time. Nada. Around us, life that time might seem futile. Our parents told us to go back to the province and find a job. Still, we chose not to suffer as Marcel Proust said, "the real voyage of discovery consists not seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes". We chose to see that suffering is temporary and that for every breakdown there is a breakthrough. Looking back I realized that indeed what we're seeing with our eyes, is just a tip of the ice berg. Indeed, now more than ever, every Filipinos must have "sight beyond sight."
This is not about denying the “facts”, and again we can always get the facts, at the end of the day, how these facts occurs to us is what matters. If you’re asking yourself right now, why is it I still do not achieve the results I want in my life? Investigate how the situation occurs to you. Again, our actions relate how the world occurs to us, not to the way that it actually is.
So, are you joining the recession? If not, the community welcomes recession-free individuals. Individuals who choose to see themselves thrive during this very challenging times than just survive.
Create Abundance is an organization whose purpose is to empower people and organizations to generate and fulfill new possibilities based on gifts, generosity, accountability and commitment. We create and provide services, programs and business vehicles that produce extraordinary results for our partners. We conduct ourselves and our organization from the following fundamental values that are the heart of who we are being: The opportunity to make a difference. The profound privilege of participating in one's own financial transformation, the transformation of others and financial transformation of the world itself. Responsibility. Responsibility begins with the willingness to experience oneself as cause of the matter, to be the cause of the matter in one's life. A context one chooses to live. Service. Service begins with willingness to commit to another being. It's a relationship in which one commits to another person. Accountability. Accountability is the opportunity to live at choice rather than accidentally. It is the opportunity to carve out the future rather that to sit back and have it happen in one's life. Integrity. It is a space where one becomes his/her promise rather than what one said. Honoring and respecting one's word. One gives up life when one compromises integrity. We promise to be true to our purpose, to accomplish our mission, to operate consistent with our values and to generate our enterprise in service to humanity. This is who we are. This is what we stand for. 
