The Evolution...

After the war, I had saved up 50,000 pesos. That was when you could buy a chicken for 20 centavos and a car for 2,000 pesos. I was 19 years old. Now I had enough money to bring my family home from China. Once they were all here, they helped me expand our trading business to include imports. Remember that the war had left the Philippines with very few goods. So we imported whatever was needed and imported them from everywhere-including used clothes and textile remnants from the United States. We were probably the first ukay-ukay dealers here.

Then, when I had gained more experience and built my reputation, I
borrowed money from the bank and got into manufacturing. I saw that
coffee was abundant, and Nescafe of Nestle was too expensive for a
country still rebuilding from the war, so my company created Blend 45. That was our first branded hit. And from there, we had enough profits to launch Jack and Jill.

From one market stall, we are now in nine core businesses-including
retail, real estate, publishing, petrochemicals, textiles, banking,
food manufacturing, Cebu Pacific Air and Sun Cellular. When we had
shown success in the smaller businesses, we were able to raise money in the capital markets-through IPOs and bond offerings—and then get into more complex, capital-intensive enterprises. We did it slow, but sure.

Success doesn't happen overnight. It's the small successes achieved day by day that build a company. So, don't be impatient or focused on immediate financial rewards. I only started flying business class when I got too fat to fit in the economy seats. And I even wore a used overcoat while courting my wife-it came from my ukay-ukay business. Thank God Elizabeth didn't mind the mothball smell of my overcoat or maybe she wouldn't have married me.