Tag Archives: Manila Waldorf School

When I Manned the Store

The Art of Selling

The first time I manned a store – I think I was 14 at that time (maybe) – I chased the customer away.

Yes, I had one customer.  Because my mom would not let me talk to any other customer after that.  I think.  (my recollection is a little hazy)

We were selling batik clothes and some imported goods in a dry good stall and I was being very enterprising, butting in the conversation, giving the one customer (a man, I think) this option and that.  He almost bought something but I think he got confused because I kept showing him stuff after stuff. (giggles)

He left without buying anything and I was kind-of blamed.  I never really tried to sell after that.

But last weekend, I had to.

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Go to (the Right) School, Be Successful

Towards the Path to Success

I look at my daughter and I see an entrepreneur.  Okay, it is all in my head, but I want it with all my heart.  Because entrepreneurs are the ones who find their passion, do something about their passion, rake in all the money and success and (have the potential to) make the world a better place.

I want that for my daughter.  So I transferred her to another school.

It was a summer and I was learning about and loving finance, and the idea of a different school for my 9-year old daughter kept growing (gnawing) in my head – an entrepreneurial school that would give her a love of finance and help her find and inflame her passion.  The next day, I started interviewing other schools.  She was, at that time, enrolled in a traditional school – rigorous daily classes, heavy assignments, a bag with wheels that would make her shoulder stoop, teachers that taught but did not really teach.  She had the burden to understand concepts that were taught to her in 30 minutes or less, and the burden to ask mother for help, yes, me, while I also tried to remember and understand concepts that I already buried in the annals of my memory.  We were a mess.  Well, me mostly.

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Ondoy (Ketsana): A Storm Brings Out the Spirit of Bayanihan

Bending, Not Breaking

Bending, Not Breaking

It was a dark night.

But the Filipino have had many a dark night, and have had endured many a storm.

But the storm that one Saturday night was different.

It started out like ordinary rainfall, just a drizzle, in fact.  There was wind, yes, slight howling, barely noticeable, dark night eclipsing the dark clouds. Just your ordinary night. Two nights prior, the resident storm-forecaster PAGASA issued storm warnings, but in those warnings, they have relegated Ondoy’s (international codename: Ketsana) category to that of a minor storm.

Nothing to worry about.

No one was prepared.

The rains came.  A deluge.

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