Start Small, Dream Big, and Turn It Into Reality

Davao City - the center of Metro Davao and the third most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines, the land of promise, the durian capital, and probably… no, it is the safest city or area in the country of the Philippines. It is also the largest city in the country with a total land area of 2,444 square kilometers (At least that was what Wikipedia told me). Davao, a place that is already well known for its strict government or so I was told. I was born here, grew up at this juncture, and now here I am doing my best, squeezing my brain out for words I never knew I had in me and stressing myself out procrastinating to every projects and assignments given, to graduate and get a degree, go to work, get my shizz together, and live my life happily ever after. Well at least that was the plan, a story book that may or may not be published or worse, a story that may end up equally as frustrating. To be frankly honest I’m sick of school, or at least that is what my mind keeps telling me although my heart says otherwise. Anyway this is not about me, well actually it is still about me yet not (kind of confusing, yes?). It’s about my so called “future plans” or let’s just say to answer the question on “What can you do to help propel the economy of Davao City?” kind of plan. Before I start, I just have to tell you that I am no expert with regards to what I am going to discuss here in my entry. I am just going to write what I think I know, what I have learned, and what goes on inside mind that may or may not relate to the topic. Simply put, the contents of this page are simply my own understanding and are not base on actual facts. Well then, shall we begin?

Remember the time when land owners, known as ”hacienderos and hacienderas”, dominated and drove the economy of the Philippines? I can’t say I remember at all (I was not born in that era!) but one thing they had that time was that they had power (and no they don’t have magical ones if you thought so I suggest you to stop reading too much fairy tales and catch up with the boring way of life). They had the power to rule. They had all the money they want. All the servants they needed, comes to them to fetch and fulfill their wishes. Everything was within their grasp, hypothetically speaking. That was how it worked in the past and most probably until now but just in a different light. Now let’s think back to our today’s world. Notice something? Well of course you do, and the world obviously changed a lot since then but let’s get on the same page, where did that power disappeared to? Contrary to popular belief (a belief I believe I said so), the power did not disappear. It was transferred or rather, more accurately, their power (referring to the “hacienderos”) slowly deteriorated and a new power rose to existence. Unlike energy, power can be created and destroyed. It can be manipulated and controlled. So what exactly destroyed the power they had back then? To counter that, the most accurate question would be where are their lands now? Well, we actually see it every single day of our lives or rather we see what is planted within it. And no, it is not trees nor flowers but, guess what? Sirit? It’s all those tall skyscrapers, buildings, and especially those luxurious shopping malls we almost always go to buy the things we may or may not need. They created a new power, a power brought by the rise of industrialization. Henry Sy, Gaisano, Ayala, you name them. They brought, or at least inherited that power here and gained a lot through it. They rose and the so called “hacienderos and hacienderas” were never spoken of since then. This power or rather the business industry they brought is what driving our economy to propel until now or so I thought. But the greatest question is: Is it enough? To tell you what I think, it is not. For the whole 19 years of living my life here in the Philippines, specifically in Davao, nothing has changed significantly and that’s proof enough that our economy did not quite propelled since then. The shopping malls were almost the same as I remembered them when I was a kid (except for the new ones which kind of has a “nothing new” kind of vibe except for the automatic doors in Abreeza other than that it’s meh). The unfashionable and tiring sight of people lining up, squawking and squealing, waiting for their turn to order in a fast food chain is still the same as what my mind depicted during my “Happy (McDonalds) and Kiddy (Jollibee) Meal” days. The traffic is, well, still traffic or rather jammed. No flying cars, dimensional portals, human like robots, and time machines contrary to what the olden people envisioned in the past that were also depicted through awe inspiring movies. I’m not literally saying that all those should have existed by now but what I am trying to tell you is that our technology here is somewhat lagging up (Hey Davao, are you using Internet Explorer or something??). We simply lack technology. Sure we do have a lot of entrepreneurs out there for business and all but, tell you what, entrepreneurial skills alone would not help this society’s economy to reach unimaginable heights. It should be accompanied with technology and with this here comes what we would like to call technopreneurship. Technologies and entrepreneurial skills are what propelling most, if not all, economies to prosperity. Let’s be a bit more factual this time. Technology brought forth a lot of unimaginable things we thought was not possible. It somehow increased our standard way of living or simply put it made our lives a whole lot easier. Technology has boosted a lot, if not all, business industries and created more employment prospects in the country. Our needs were met with much greater ease. It was impossible to fly until planes and helicopters were created. It was impossible to cross the sea until boats and ships were invented. Technology already played a very important role in past what’s more now and in the future? Technology has already touched (“divirginized”) everything. It already touched every aspect of life be it in in the field of agriculture, medicine, entertainment, and of course in our education. Everywhere we look, we see the product of technology. Computers and the internet nowadays are found everywhere and are very much accessible even to kids. It brought change either for the better or for worse, just like the law of conservation of energy, what was lost was equally but inversely proportional to the energy gained. In simpler terms, technology took away a lot of manual stuffs but in return we get something equally the same but maybe something even better. Technology plays a great role in business. Business means money. And as they say money makes the world go round and that’s very true in the world of economics. Anything that involves transfer of money involves economics. What’s economics anyway? According to an essay on the nature and significance of economic science written by Lionell Bobbins, it is the social science that studies economic activity to gain an understanding of the processes that govern the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in an exchange economy. With that we can therefore conclude that economy means business. Simply put, business makes the money and the money makes the economy prosper. So I therefore conclude that starting your own business here in Davao will eventually propel its economy. But the question is what kind of business? From what I’ve said earlier, it obviously involves technology. And now, first let’s define what a technopreneur is and then we will go straight to the point or rather to answer the question earlier which was our real goal from the start. “A technopreneur is an entrepreneur who is technology savvy, creative, innovative, dynamic, dares to be different and take the unexplored path, and very passionate about their work. They take challenges and strive to lead their life with greater success. They don't fear to fail. They take failure as a learning experience, a stimulator to look things differently and stride for next challenge. Technopreneurs continuously go through an organic process of continual improvement and always try to redefine the dynamic digital economy.” – Rajesh Shakya. What’s the connection with all of this to the question? Simply put, I just need to be a technopreneur base here in Davao to help propel the economy here. A thousand word introduction and a one line answer? Fair enough but how? What can I do as a technopreneur? First let’s get to know some of the famous and well known technopreneurs worldwide. Bill Gates, who does not know Bill Gates? Just in case, he was the one who brought the name Microsoft a household name all around the world (In our computers’ operating systems). The infamous Steve Jobs who was best known for his innovations the iPod, iPad, iPhone, and other iProducts or simply the Apple products. Then let’s look at the success of Google, a success brought by the innovative minds of Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Who doesn’t know Google by the way? If you don’t you should probably google it. Their success also brought a great amount of prosperity to their economy so now let’s ask ourselves, what did they do in common in order to achieve that kind of success? They simply innovate. We or rather I should innovate, invest, make a permanent business, influence, and hypothetically thinking, BOOM our economy here, specifically in Davao, will rise and Davao will become the Technology Capital of the Philippines or as what our facilitator said “The Silicon Gulf” of the Philippines and possibly in the whole Asia Pacific Region. Of course it is not just about me. It is not just base on my own effort but also a team effort exerted by those who also want to envision the same thing. Let’s go back to the question “What can you do to help propel the economy of Davao City?”. To answer that, I can do nothing… yet. But by thinking big and dreaming high, there are a lot of ways to help this beloved city of mine for its economy to rise in the future. Just like what I said, we simply need to innovate. But what and how? It all starts with an idea. And idea which when pursued has the capacity to be transformed into a viable technology base enterprise. Davao City is already a very good producer of promising and well equipped people but a sad fact is that most of them, if not all, work for the progression of other places instead here who raised and prepared them for their next big thing. “Tayo ang nagsaing, iba ang kumain” kind of thing. The best graduates are sought after by big companies that are based in other places such as Cebu and Manila and the average graduates remain here in Davao but find it hard to land in a high paying job. Well I’m not one of the best, that might be for sure if ever I graduate, so I’ll stick to the average. I may not be one of the best but still that doesn’t stop from doing what others think I can’t. To tell you the truth, my original plan was to go and work in Japan – a country I fell in love with. Honestly I still want to until now but if Davao ever needs someone like me here, then I will gladly help. Well for Davao’s economy to rise, for starters, we need to pursue our technology base business plans. Make it a start-up. Plan and ensure success. If you fail then don’t be discouraged, a true technopreneur don't fear to fail. They take failure as a learning experience, a stimulator to look things differently and stride for next challenge. Technopreneurs continuously go through an organic process of continual improvement and always try to redefine the dynamic digital economy. I forgot to mention earlier that the key essence of technopreneurship is creativity. ” The key essence in such technopreneurship programmes is creativity. Creativity is breaking the conventional mental blocks and playing with imagination and possibilities, leading to new and meaningful connections and outcomes while interacting with ideas, people and the environment. However creativity alone, without technoprenuer skills and competencies, is not viable to sustain a business in a digital, knowledge-based economy. You need an integrated collaborative approach in turning an idea into a viable sustainable business in a digital economy.” – Rajesh Shakya. So be creative, make a lot of innovations, create simple yet crazy ideas, and envision a world in your creative mind where your ideas turn into reality. Soon after, venture capitalists will invest in your innovative technology products. And very soon, your start up will mature into a stable IT enterprise. If this will somehow happen to a lot of graduates including me, the IT enterprises we created will compete in the domestic and possibly the global market that will impel economic growth in Davao City. If ever this will happen in the near future, Davao City’s IT industry will flourish and more companies will take root here and more investors will come and of course invest. Davao City’s graduates will notice the blooming IT industry here and might decide to build their own careers here and will living here with their own family. The same goes for the graduates who left their mother city. They may have abandoned Davao, but just like how parents accepts their children after running away from home, Davao will always welcome them back and embrace them with a warm heat of the sun then slap them with the peelings of durian (mehehehe). And here comes the most awesome part of the plan. Just like what our facilitator envisioned together with his partner, or maybe with some other people too who were involved in this uhm scheme, Davao will become the IT hub or simply the IT capital of Mindanao and not just in Mindanao but all throughout the Philippines, BIMP – EAGA, Asia Pacific Region as “The Silicon Gulf”. Awesome! Right? Davao will become the foundation and home of many highly competent, skilled, and capable IT professionals with sensible collective and ethical values. There’s more! Davao schools will be well known not just nationally but worldwide for preparing and producing such fine graduates in the IT industry. There are still a lot of creative ideas we could think to drive the economy of Davao City but still it will only happen if we actually work for it to make it a reality. Ideas are just dreams if it’s just thought of without actual initiative or a plan to chase it. So pursue those ideas, dream big, and help Davao City propel its economy as high or much higher than the height of Mt. Apo.