Tag Archives: Disaster Preparedness

Making a Video? Nothing is Impossible

Two storms flew in and work was suspended.  The stars seemed to be aligned.

I could edit a video!

Okay.  Maybe it seems silly, but editing and featuring a video on this website is something I obsessed about since I started.  I even bought a video camera, and confidently told my internet mentor that my site would have video blogs.  But that was about two years ago so I already relegated it to the category of the maybe never.

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Why Do Some People Succeed?

Sailing Away

Sailing Away

And why only some?  Aren’t we all genetically predisposed to be the best that we can be?

The answer, simply, is no.  Otherwise, no one would be successful.  And our journeys would all be, for lack of a better word, boring.

Here are some speakers in the Money Summit 2011 who defied the odds and became masters in their own fields:

NOLI ALLEJE

I was into everything before I started doing real estate.  As an entrepreneur, I started off with window furnishing in the late 70’s, then went into knitwear in the 80’s and a PR company that focused on beauty contests … We handled Triumph Court of Fashion, Palmolive Circle of 10, Mutya ng Pilipinas and Miss Asia Pacific plus Eupohoria Disco … in the early 90’s, Iwi Laurel and myself put up the first real estate talk show on nationwide television … sometime thru those years, I became the Philippine representative for Joe Weider products (muscle building drinks) and regular jobs in financial institutions such as Bancom Philippine Holdings, Union Bank and ULTRA, the concert and sport venue.

It was only when I started selling real estate and investing in real estate that I can say that I reached financial maturity.  The Property Forum was granted exclusive marketing contracts in the mid 90’s which was right smack in the Asian Crisis period … That is the time I realized that my expertise was on distressed properties since our sales was great during bad times … So the years after, I started doing auctions with the major universal and commercial banks …

We began doing bulk investment from bank assets 3 years ago and last year, we decided to buy the asset management company of GE money bank from GE Investment in Norway … As an investor, I basically buy and hold while I wait for nature to solve the headaches … Sometimes dump the lousy assets and just collect the good ones …

Lesson:  I like what Noli Alleje said here – that in real estate investing, particularly in investing in distressed properties – one technique is just to buy and hold while waiting for nature to solve the headaches.  So if applied to the US real estate market (or to stocks), the time to buy is now.  But many are still scared.  And that is why people like Noli Alleje emerge the winner.

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Disaster Preparedness: Why You Have to Be Prepared

[bubblecast id=302798 thumbnail=475×375 player=475×375]

Two years ago, many people witnessed on television a family of 5 sitting on top of a floating roof.

A wave came, and only one family member remained.  But it was not a film or a teleserye everyone was watching, but real life, and Ondoy (Ketsana). It was then that everyone realized that during extreme weather conditions – which are happening more and more frequently (super typhoons, earthquakes – one that spawned the recent tsunami in Japan) – no one is safe.  Unless people are prepared.

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How to Be A Millionaire Without Starting a Business (and a Mention at Cosmopolitan Magazine!)

Cosmopolitan March 2011

Page 158, Tips 3 and 4 are Mine 😀

When I got the email from Kristina Monica Guerra of Cosmopolitan Magazine requesting for an interview, I was more than thrilled – I was ecstatic.

She said she got to know of me from Anton Diaz’ list of upcoming Bloggers and wanted my two cents on how one can be a millionaire without starting a business.

The question stumped me.  I am a business advocate and champion of those who dare to change their lives through the wonderful, maddening, exciting world of business.

Being a millionaire without going into business – is it even possible?

The March 2011 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine featured some of the answers I submitted to Monica.  I was quoted alongside Francisco Colayco, author of several books, speaker, entrepreneur and mentor – what an honor!  I could not believe my eyes when I saw my name and my blog mentioned (yey!).  Thanks again, Monica.

But back to the question: Can one get to millions without getting his feet wet in the grime and grunge of business?

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