Category Archives: Mentors

Where is Conrado de Quiros?

Remembering.

Remembering.

Conrado de Quiros. Lost to the world but not forgotten. His was a mystery I wanted to solve.

De Quiros fell into a coma and has not woken up. No one knows if he will speak again in his voice, or if he will even remember or comprehend the visions he has painted with words, or love with passion – still – the country he has shaped with his pen.

He has, after all, put a president into power (which resulted in impotent uprisings against the writer).

I started to write because of him. With (and in) his writings, I found my voice – the first feigned interest (an opinion writer can write with an evocative, almost lyrical quality? really?), then the piqued longing to put thoughts into paper, test a storyline, hear it ring true. Like his. Although we were distant and unaligned, his writings always comforted me like an old friend. I – in my then-14-or-something years –somehow understood.

He inspired me without meaning to (or maybe meaning to). I found in his writing that putting words to paper could be solace, satisfaction, death, deliverance. That thoughts could brim until they overflow, speak a truth, be uncut, uncouth, yet strangely liberate.

I do not want him to be forgotten.

I will not forget.

We are grains of sand, soon to wither, weather, washed away by the sea/ocean/torrents of rain, tossed, forgotten, a fleck/dust/speck, imbued with meaning, meaning nothing, meaning everything, until we are hurled/guided/led – again – to shore.

George Verdolaga: Think like an entrepreneur

George with wife Maita at a brasserie in Paris.

George with wife Maita at a brasserie in Paris.

As editor-in-chief, I have had the privilege of getting to know and learn from some truly amazing Canadians. It’s my honour that I could now consider some of them as close friends and mentors.

George and his wife Maita have been very instrumental in helping us navigate and appreciate Canada. Here’s his story.  

After growing a six-figure business into a seven-figure business in just three years, George Verdolaga found himself at the crossroads.

He was an Economics graduate who had just generated some impressive growth figures with the business that he was running. However, he found himself yearning for something else.

After some soul searching and exploring many options, he let his inner-creativity transform his life.

“It was a very long road that started with a simple dream. I had just discovered interior design eight years into running my business which had become a big success. I decided to explore it and take part-time classes, and after a year, I thought ‘I really like this’, then I thought ‘I think I’d love to do this for the rest of my life’, which turned to ‘I think I’d like to learn from the best around the world’.”

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Canada: a compassionate country

Prod and Eleanor Laquian

Prod and Eleanor Laquian

As editor-in-chief of a Canadian newspaper, I had the privilege of meeting some awe-inspiring people. I will be featuring them here and I hope you will let them touch you and enrich your lives as they have mine.

29. That is how many times the Laquians have moved their household.

Nairobi, Kenya, Santiago, Chile, Suva, Fiji in the South Pacific, Beijing, China and many cities in between—they have been there and have called it home. They made lovely memories in all of them, but had little or no roots. The restless (by choice and by circumstance) can grow weary of impermanence too.

Until Canada.

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Lessons from a Portuguese Woman

The View

She was in coveralls, smudged by soot from head to toe.

She had been cleaning the fireplace of one of the apartment she owns.  She did not look the part at that time – but I was looking at one of the more financially savvy immigrant septuagenarian of Vancouver.  Her eyes had confidence as it held mine, and kindness too, perceptible and palpable, the trait of ladies who have aged gently.  I could tell life has been good to her, because maybe she has been good to it.

I was a prospective renter and I engaged her in conversation because her story – which I knew from people who knew her for some time – greatly interested me.  She owned several apartments but she arrived in Canada without money, or possessions.  I wondered how that could be, what’s her story, and can it be duplicated?

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Within the Wealth Circle

Clouds Almost Touching Clouds

In October 2011, Bo Sanchez launched another initiative aimed at helping those financially motivated to become wealthier, and he called it Wealth Circle.

Of course I could not resist being part of it.  Turned out, not everyone could get in because there was an application process that consisted of about a 10-page questionnaire (or something that seemed that long) that quizzed one’s financial health, motivation, problems, overall outlook in life.  It was a tedious process, one that made me re-assess my life, and reflect on it, making me laugh and cry a little (it was gut-wrenching and soul-satisfying).

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The Book Hubby Could Not Put Down

Are you -Able?

Are you - Able?

Hubby likes men’s magazines and comic books and art books and Sun Tzu.  And that is perhaps the entire repertoire of stuff that he reads.

So it was a surprise to me when he picked up my book -Able, one of the books sent to me for review (one of the more wonderful perks of being a blogger) and surprise, surprise – hubby could not put it down.

What’s to love: the lessons are bite-size, easy to remember, relevant, easy to apply.

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Move Your Cheese

Be Uncomfortable

“When I enrolled in Maven Secrets, I did not know what I was getting into. I only thought I would learn about blogging, get to know the man behind all those amazing features in Our Awesome Planet and, yes, dabble a little bit in internet marketing. I did not know that it will lead to my re-examination of my life, that it will change my life, transfer me from the confines of my glass penthouse to vibrant, more exciting possibilities. Let this serve as a warning and a warm welcome to those who will follow this unbeaten path.”

The above was my testimony for MavenSecrets when I attended its pilot class more than a year ago.  But its echoes reverberate to the life I know today.

MavenSecrets is an internet marketing program.  But it was also a way out – because like what it did to Anton Diaz, its founder (and to my other classmates), it strengthened my desire to leave the rat race and go after things that I am passionate about – like family and doing the things I could not find the time to do, the more important things that give life its flesh and its color.

Through having multiple passive income streams.

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100th Post and a Dash of Thank You’s

Thank You

After 99 posts, 453 comments (54 of which are spam which I have not deleted nor approved) and 699 tags, I come to this, my 100th post.

To think that YouWantToBeRich started as just a requirement to get a certificate in MavenSecrets, a professional blogging and internet marketing education seminar that I attended in 2009.

I did not know that it would change my life and give it colors that I never knew existed, or give me opportunities for self-expression and advocacy in a niche that I was just getting really interested in at that time.

At first, I thought I would go into food and travel because like Anton’s OurAwesomePlanet, it was my passion.  I even asked hubby to buy me a camera to herald my entry into the blogosphere via a food and travel blog.

But I am glad I went down the path of learning about money and people and their money idiosyncracies (especially my own and my family’s).  It felt good to chronicle this journey and to look back and learn from it again.

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