Raising Others' Aspirations

A friend shared a write-up by Tyler Cowen about "The high return activity of raising others' aspirations" (see clip below). It reminded me of that time my grad school thesis panelists told me I have so much promise. They said I could go places. I just needed to get over being shy and I just need to be outspoken. 

My grad school marketing professor, Mr. Garcia, created a Yahoogroup for our class. He said he wanted us to speak our thoughts with articles he'd share with us. I hated reciting in class and jumped on the chance to share my thoughts through writing. Mr. Garcia talked to me after class one time and told me I raised very good points in the online discussions. He'd call me during class to recite after that. 

My thesis panelists and professor helped boost my confidence and believe in myself. After completing my MBA I had the lakas ng loob to apply for a product manager position. It was an attempt to shift to more marketing/business development work. Good thing I bungled up an interview at a retail company because it made me prepare more for my interview at a tech company. That's how I got into tech. 

Dev community, c 2011

I realized after my professors helped boost my confidence that I should do the same. I had the opportunity to build communities and part of it meant I had to develop leaders. I got to work with a lot of passionate individuals who also wanted to help others. Key to it was encouraging  them to reach their aspirations. A lot of them were introverts like me. I followed what Mr. Garcia did to me and put them in the spotlight too. 

That time I had Jomar do an HTML5 session

Well, I hope what I did helped others reach their potential, open doors and reach new heights. Sometimes the best thing to do is really take a step back and have others shine. Be the instrument to let others reach their ambitions.  That's what fulfilled me in my work. 

*Thank you to my friend for providing today's inspiration :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

How Volunteerism Works

In my previous job I built several communities. The first one started because I saw people were eager to learn. I wasn't the best person to teach so I got help from those who could. I saw it as a natural step because I learned about volunteerism from my parents. 

I was just a toddler when they volunteered to help build our parish church. It took years and I saw first hand how different people contributed to reach their goal. They even hosted a fund-raising activity where they were able to get famous stars to entertain. Through that they were able to raise enough funds to build our beautiful parish church. 

GTUG before it became GDG. Brian Tan Seng was one of those kind hearted people who volunteered to help teach other developers. Also thanks to O&B for supporting the first few meetups!

The community I started didn't even have a proper name. Together with some volunteers, we started by organizing learning sessions. We were luckily supported by startup companies. They provided the venue and some snacks. Eventually the efforts grew and a proper program was created. That took years to hone. Eventually, the program was expanded and we built other communities. 

Building things from scratch was hard. Getting the support for it even harder. I shed a lot of blood and tears to get support. The most difficult task I encountered was convincing my VP. A common question I always got was, "Why would these people volunteer to teach others?" "Do we need to pay them?" "Why would they want to map?" 

GenSan mapUp.

I fiercely fought for my communities when I ended up reporting directly to the VP. I convinced him to come to the Philippines and brought all the community leaders to my event. Brought them together in a session and had the leaders speak their minds. I wanted my VP to understand that when you work with like-minded people -- those who wanted to help teach others -- the movement will grow. I did that because I knew I couldn't do everything by myself. These volunteers taught others, mapped the country, helped during crisis, mapped all precincts among others. Your child's teacher? Probably learned the ropes of online learning through volunteers.

The celebratory dinner after the "aha!" moment.

And I found a lot of selfless people who wanted to help others. It started with developers, then entrepreneurs, then teachers. I did the same for students (now I have 400 kids calling me Mommy across the region haha). It eventually didn't matter whether I could speak their language, they shared the same passion and saw what others were doing. The communities eventually taught the rest of the world how they could help in their own way. 

It was sheer willpower to organize a mapUp in a country where very few people spoke English.

Volunteerism works when you have the same goals and the right purpose. That's what we're seeing now across the country as people come together to support a candidate that's been working with volunteers throughout her life. :)

Note to self: I can go on and on about this and leadership. I can probably write a book about it haha. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Make the Most Out of Big Breaks

If you know me well, you would know I'm not an aggressive person. I was never one to raise my hand to volunteer to lead. I'd rather sit back and help where I can. I'm more like my Mom that way. Growing up I witnessed my Dad lead. It was inspiring to see how people respected him and followed his advise. 

I guess that kinda rubbed off me because I was put in situations where I had to lead. I considered those as big breaks for me. As scared as I was I'd always try my best. I oftentimes doubted myself. I drew my strength through prayer. 

I grew a lot through the years. I'm still the same shy, introverted person, but when needed I pull myself together to step up. Early on I learned that being authoritarian is not the right way. You also hurt a lot of people that way. Big breaks are given to you because of the belief that you can do the job at hand. You also need to remember that no one is indispensable.

Photo by Norman Gorecho.

One of the biggest breaks I've had was to develop communities. I just followed what I learned from my parents. I focused on showing the way how others can use their passion to contribute to help. I've been indisposed for many months now and I'm happy to see the communities thriving. 

Big breaks may come to you because you're entrusted with an important responsibility to help others. Use it to inspire others to come forward and grow. 

CB///Yr2/22  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/49 #StayHome #BeKind  

Everyone Can Bloom Under the Sun

One thing I love most about my job is the opportunity to work with communities. I think it was fate that lead me to work with communities. I realized early on that I needed help. Many people reached out to help and I realized that I had the unique opportunity to encourage others to contribute to their chosen advocacy.

That's one of the things I've been doing in the last fourteen years. It started with developers, then entrepreneurs, students and now educators. Early on I knew it was not about me, but about showing others that they can each bloom beautifully under the sun.

Working with communities is like planting. Sow the seeds, nurture it until it sprouts, water and give it nutrients until it grows and blooms. It's not all rosy all the time. Pests can ruin your plants. The pests come in the form of off-track personal motivations, jealousy and differing of values. It gets really challenging and sometimes stress causes me to get sick.

So much like when my plants get sick I respond to the issue with love. There are several ways to manage plant issues -- pruning, adding nutrients, spraying water with baking soda, re-potting and even moving them around helps. Patience is key and in no time things will be back on track. It's hard though to spread the love evenly especially when your are taking care of many plants.

The best thing about it is when the plants bloom and stand tall under the sun.


CB//136 #StuckAtHomeDay/166 #WFH98 #StayHome #BeKind