WBW 36: More Action and Less Complain and We’ll Build a Better Nation with Joey Concepcion

It is common to find a Filipino complaining about a problem repeatedly, but NOT doing anything about it because they believe that the system will never change. Given such a negative and pessimistic atmosphere, it would be close to impossible to achieve anything with such a select people doing all the acting and pushing. In this episode, Jose "Joey" Concepcion III is trying to change this atmosphere in his own way – through GoNegosyo, with the purpose of inspiring the Filipino people, the youth in particular, to change this atmosphere, to one of a business or negosyo climate – one that believes in optimism and possibilities.

Who is Jose "Joey" Concepcion III?

At the young age of 28, Joey Concepcion has already become Chairman and CEO of RFM Corp., Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship and is the co-founder of Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship. He considers business not only as a way of making money but as well as a way to show love for the country. He wants to help others, already-entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs alike, that, together with other eight colleagues, they founded Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship. They aim to encourage and mentor entrepreneurs. They form a movement to achieve their goal of making Filipinos optimistic rather than pessimistic, named it "GoNegosyo", a brand they hope would create Philippines as a country of millionaires.

Show notes:

What do you consider your greatest failure or challenge?

• The greatest challenge of every entrepreneur, especially for him, is when you start to expand beyond a business that you really don’t know and if you’re not able to build the competencies in trying to really focus on business then you get into trouble
• Make sure you have enough capital to its fullest extent or else what will happen there is you will not have enough resources to even reach the finish line and
• Always FOCUS on a business
• Don’t over-diversify your business
• Stick to your core strategy – where you are good at

What do you consider your greatest success?

• Starting this advocacy of GoNegosyo
• Because this time they are helping people become more successful
• He’s reached a certain level of success in his life because of people who have mentored him well starting with his parents, school and fellow friends and entrepreneurs
• He felt that the time is right for the Philippines to move forward
• The only way for us to change this nation, to move forward is to have Filipino who are more optimistic about this country, who are passionate about what they do, have the right attitude, and of course will inspire more people – themselves, friends, rather than being down. And the crab mentality of the Filipinos have to stop
• Again we have to stop a country that is a country of complainers and really more a country with more action than complaints
• So this is what the advocacy is all about – inspiring people and hopefully through events like this.
• They planted a seed in a lot of young kids out there who either will pursue this dream or not. It’sall dependent on them. All they do is plant the seed. They can’t force people to be successful in life. The rest is up to them.

What do you think is the most important characteristic of being successful?

• Hard work. Similar to what Manny Villar says – sipag at tiyaga
• Persistence, being passionate
• And the most important, is being an optimist
• That is very important because if you are a pessimist, even if you are good at something, you will not be successful in doing that because your views on yourself, the country will always be on the negative side so always be an optimist

What is GoNegosyo for?

• It's not the money for him, but its really for them (the participants). They become rich. They become successful. So it’s about solving the problem exactly, which is poverty, so the way to solve the problem is to create negosyos.
• And this time, the chance for this nation to move forward is the creation of a negosyo climate. Its not about himself this time, but definitely the knowledge he gets, helps him become a better entrepreneur, but more so, the exchange of views / ideas are learned by these young kids out here who have a chance.
• They may be exposed to a school that may not be as good the private schools but by hearing these people here, will give them the chance to be able to get some good ideas, to get inputs, that they don’t have in their current school. Many of the schools who came here sent their students to attend an event like this.
• This is something that you don’t just get any day

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