WBW 38: Talent Without Work is Empty. So Work as if Everything Depended on Work part 1 of 2

We're living in the Intellectual Age, where not only information abound, but the synthesis of these ideas into something new and creative. Whether to make life easier for all, become wealthy or to see through the launch of a new idea, whatever your objective, you have about the same chance to be successful as the next guy. Yet to have an edge, combine your smarts with the old school value of HARD WORK. Watch this WBW, part one of two featuring Armand "Superman" Bengco of the Colayco Foundation for Education, as he talks about work, ideas, the intellectual age, and how a businessman, employee, start-up or supervisor, clerk or CEO can become their own Entrepreneurs.

Who Is Armand Bengco?

Armand Bengco, also known as Superman, is the executive director of the Colayco Foundation for Education, Inc. (CFE), a foundation dedicated to the promotion of financial literacy among the working class, the average income earners, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), and students. It is into publications, seminars and workshops, various media e.g. radio, tv, newspapers, internet and SMS.

Having graduated from San Beda College with a degree in Marketing, he regularly conducts seminars, talks and workshops, as well as hosts and guests on local AM radio, in line with the foundation’s advocacies. He considers himself an enterprising strategist and a basketball enthusiast.

Armand "Superman" Bengco is also a director at the Kalayaan sa Kakapusan Service and Multi-purpose Cooperative (KSK SMPC), an investment cooperative among OFWs and ordinary income earners established to provide access to higher yielding financial instruments not available to small savers and investors.

Currently, Superman, together with the entire CFE has recently launched One Wealthy Nation (OWN), a thrust for the global community of Filipino savers and investors committed to taking control of their financial lives. OWN provides the community ready access to accurate and reliable information, a practical and speedy fulfillment mechanism on a broad range of affordable retail investments as well as other services and products.

Watch out for the seconde part of WBW 38 and find out why we coined him as a natutong playboy - an experience he shared which is definitely a must-watch.

When asked what's his greatest challenge?

Watch out for part 2 of 2 :)

When asked what's his greatest success?

Watch out for part 2 of 2 :)

Show notes:

Thoughts on Work

• At work, I don’t call my people “staff” or “personnel”. I call them my “team.” Since I am a sportsman, I run it like a basketball team. But I’m not like Michael Jordan. I’m probably Phil Jackson.
• Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. At the end of the day, we just have to win the championship and bring home the trophy.
• I’m not a workaholic because a workaholic stops. I think about work all the time.
• My father always used to tell us – work as if everything depended on work. But pray as if everything depended on prayer. So we work our butts off. I think everyone in the office work as hard as I am. So we see our work not as a job but our life.
• If you want to be happy, be happy with work. If you want to be sad, complain at work. Kung biniyayaan tayo ng talino, ng lakas, ng katawan, ng isip, emotions, tapos hindi ka magtatrabaho, what a waste and misuse of God’s graces. So everyone should work.

Work and the Intellectual Age

• Now is the intellectual age. Gone is the agricultural age – when you need hectares of land to be wealthy or maintain your wealth. Gone is the industrial age, wherein you have to have companies to produce products and services as your chance to be wealthy.
• The intellectual age is even over the information age. This means you have to be very creative. You have to process information, put it into something knowledgeable, so you gain wisdom in your thinking and your actions and decisions.
• Everyone has a chance right now, if you want to prosper and become wealthy, to make a difference. Make good use of what God has given you; work hard and cultivate your mind – like what you’re doing with EntrepBuff.com.
• It’s ironic that failure is because of you, but your success is usually credited to others. That’s how hard or cruel life is. But that doesn’t mean you stop.
• Continue thinking and coming up with very bright ideas, and be out of the box, as they always say. It’s a common cliché but it’s very real, especially in these times. Look at what you guys are doing – you are sharing ideas.

Work + Ideas = Learning

• What’s good with working hard and cultivating ideas is that learning comes and takes place. School ends with a degree, but learning, as they say, is perpetual. Marami kang pwedeng matutunan – depende na lang sa’yo kung ano ang gusto mong matutunan at kung papaano mo gagamitin.

Work as Vocation

• Most inspirational speakers say you have to love your work, enjoy your work because you will feel like you are not working anymore. That’s very true but I want to put it in another context. You have to have a sense of ownership.
• I always end up doing something that I proposed to the company or to the supervisor. So there’s a lot of sense of ownership. I was given the opportunity to cultivate ideas and propose them, and if they have some business sense, it’s tested to see if it will succeed or fail.
• I used to work for the government. I was practically doing clerical work, after being educated in very good schools. I was supposed to type 2,000 checks in 15 working days. I would do that in 3 working days, so the rest of the week, I would go to the gym in our office, play basketball, darts – until I said nabobobo ako rito.
• But I was blessed again to be given a chance to propose new ideas to that government agency. But knowing how the government is, parang bawal ang new ideas unless you’re the top gun in that agency. But I was lucky enough to be given a chance by my boss then to really grow.

For part 2 of 2, click here.