My parents supported me in my goals in life and I have lots of them. I consider my life goals as my dreams. Dreaming is part of my DNA. I dream a lot that up until now my wife will catch me and my 1 year old son blind staring at a wall or on an empty space being in our imaginations, engulf by our thoughts. I dreamt of having a successful career as an engineer, as a businessman, as a chef, a philanthropist and of becoming a husband/father.
My journey in reaching these dreams started after graduation. I worked for 3 years in the Philippines and then I moved to Tokyo to pursue my engineering career in IT. The journey wasn’t simple. I had to learn a new language, a new culture and the latest technologies in the shortest time possible. I also had to start from the very bottom. I worked as a factory worker, a dishwasher, a waiter and I experienced of not having money to the point of not knowing if I can go to the office the following week and if I can afford to buy food to eat.
With faith in God, His providence, hard work and grit, I overcame all the difficulties I faced. Adversities such as the 2008 Financial Crisis, followed by the 2011 Nuclear Disaster and the historic 9.2M earthquake which sent a tsunami and swept numerous cities in the Eastern Part of Japan. I also experience crazy and very stressful situations at work; being verbally abused, discriminated, and looked down upon or even politicized by the very people you helped and chose to hire. They were difficult situations but as the saying goes “What can’t kill you can only make you stronger”. I managed to go through all these boulders and turned them into the very foundations of where my current career is at.
There were certain situations which really left a significant lesson in me. Amongst all the challenges I faced, the people who were politicizing, who were making stories about me, who I stood against because of power and sexual harrasment which had victimized colleagues and ruined families imparted a big lesson in me. I looked at their careers now and I don’t see anyone successful. One is no longer a manager. Another is out of job. Others were fired. I realized and learned that honesty, fairness, integrity, hard work and good values are what truly brings success. There is no shortcut to real success because it is not by changing the situation that allows us to reach our ambitions but it is by improving ourselves that equips us to reach our goals.
It was December 2007 when I first arrived in Japan as a very naive, ambitious, but innocent kid. I had no money but I had a mission and a goal in my mind. Now, it is 2021 and I am on my 14th year here. I currently worked as the Head of IT for a brilliant company who leads in developing electric car technologies. I no longer have issues of looking for food to eat next week and I also have a permanent roof over my head. Additionally, together with my dear partners/brothers, we cofounded one of the leading automation company in Davao City, Philippines.
There are many ups and downs in life but with God’s providence and the act of purity and goodness, we can reach our goals in life. The circle of life doesn’t have to be a downward spiral but can go upwards too. Really, dreams do come true.
