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As the Philippines celebrated the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) with 160 countries around the world, the Young Entrepreneurs Society of the Philippines in collaboration with Miriam College hosted this year’s Failing Forward Conference at the Marian Auditorium, Loyola Heights Quezon City last November 19, 2016.

The Failing Forward Conference 2016 is the highlight event of GEW in the Philippines. Supported by renowned government officials, business tycoons and leading entrepreneurs the event is an inspirational keynote conference that aims to inspire and motivate attendees through the epic experiences and success stories of the roster of influential and excellent speakers.

This year’s Failing Forward Conference was attended by over a thousand enthusiastic students from different universities throughout the Philippines, entrepreneurs and startup owners who learned from successful startup founders and entrepreneurs both young and seasoned.

The speakers namely,   Euclid Cezar, Founder of the Famous Belgian Waffle; Doy Roque, CEO of M2.0 Communications; Luis Arcangel, CEO of Montgomery Fitch and Associates; Riccardo Corsini, CEO of Skyrocket Studios and Diego Ramos, Co-Founder of Horsepower imparted their insightful, inspiring and tipping point lessons from the challenges and adversities in dealing with the realities of ventures as startup owners. The participants truly had an inspirational and enjoyable experience from the quotable quotes of speakers as they learned how to rise from failures.

Here are some of the lines from their talks:

1. Euclid Cezar

“One of the few things that is still free in this world: DREAMING”

– Euclid Cezar, Founder of Famous Belgian Waffle

2. Doy Roque

“You always have to get the right people.”

-Doy Roque, CEO of M2.0 Communications

 3. Luis Arcangel

“Take ownership not just from your success but also from your mistakes.”

 -Luis Arcangel, CEO of Montgomery Fitch and Associates

4. Riccardo Corsini

“Don’t think about what you want to excel at, but what you are willing to give up along the way.”

-Riccardo Corsini, CEO of Skyrocket Studios

 

5. Diego Ramos

“When you remove failure, you remove creativity, innovation, and purpose.”

-Diego Ramos, Co-founder of Horsepower

A total of 19 schools, half from YES Student Chapters, were awarded with a certificate of recognition and before the conference ended, everyone participated in greeting the other countries with the statement, “Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week from the Philippines, Mabuhay!”

Here are some of the schools who participated:

This event is made possible through YES Philippines’ partnership with Global Entrepreneurship Network, Kauffman Foundation, and Startup Nations Philippines.

WheninManila.com, Light Network TV, and Negosentro is the official media partner of YES Philippines for this event.

It was almost a year ago when I got a call from one of my dear friends in the Young Entrepreneur Society (YES), asking if I was willing to go to Mexico to represent the Philippines. Of course, it was “yes,” because it was a rare opportunity to attend an important global event.

The destination: Mexico, where the 2015 Startup Nations Summit was to be held as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week; where entrepreneurs and start-ups from around the world would converge to learn from each other and forge partnerships. It was a 19-hour flight: Manila to Tokyo, Tokyo to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Mexico. There was a 14-hour time difference between the Philippines and Mexico.

I got to see the bigger world of entrepreneurship. It’s a thriving community of different people from different countries and cultures. I made friends from Indonesia, Greece, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, US and Taiwan as we talked about the struggles, pain and the ultimate reward of being an entrepreneur. I saw how other countries encouraged entrepreneurship through government-sponsored programs.

Honestly, I was very impressed by the ideas of the start-up entrepreneurs. From robotics, financial technology, education and IT, the innovation was staggering. To make the event more exciting, the organizers held a competition in which entrepreneurs pitched their ideas or services to a panel of experts, and the winner went home with cash funding!

In the competition called “The Pitch,” the grand winner came from Europe. The winning start-up was about making a water turbine the size of a small car, which can be placed at the side of a river to generate enough electricity to power an average home. Instead of a dam that can have a  severe ecological impact, they proposed a turbine that integrates well into nature and has minimal environmental impact. Another winner was a set of toy blocks that integrates with an iPad app, monitoring the learning progress of a child.

Perhaps one of the biggest revelations in the conference was the Waze app. It began as an idea, a start-up. The founder, Uri Levine, said that in the beginning, nobody bought his idea. But he held onto it, believed in it, and, over time, became a world-wide phenomenal success.

It was also the same thing that he advised to entrepreneurs in the process of forming their own start-ups: the struggle would be real, and some people would even shoot down the idea. But perseverance and firm belief in your idea—even if nobody else does—is what will keep the entrepreneur through.

Interestingly, the entrepreneurial environment in other countries is more robust, with full government support as well as various “incubators” where start-ups are housed and where they can meet potential investors. That is one reality of start-ups and entrepreneurs: funding. They may have great ideas but not the needed funds to see these through.

Here in the Philippines, there is one organization called the Young Entrepreneur Society or YES that spearheads the cultivation of the entrepreneurial spirit among the youth. It fosters the development of aspiring young entrepreneurs through a series of seminars, programs, and bootcamps aimed at promoting collaboration and networking among young entrepreneurs. Every year, it joins the international community in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week to further advance entrepreneurial growth in the country. It will culminate on November 19, bringing together the largest gathering of idealistic entrepreneurs to learn about the successes—and failures—in forming their own start-ups.

More than that, YES Philippines also brings in the business sector to mentor students hungry for knowledge, as well as potential funding for promising ideas.

Indeed, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset, especially among the young, is very critical in ensuring their financial future and a vibrant economy. It creates knowledge, innovation and eventually, jobs for more people.

YES Philippines’s Global Entrepreneurship Week pushes the envelope even further by being at the forefront of the entrepreneurial community in the Philippines.

Who knows, the next Waze might come from our own country.

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Rienzie Biolena is a Registered Financial Planner of RFP Philippines

There are over 10 million people from 160 countries who are celebrating entrepreneurship this week.

Dubbed GEW, the Global Entrepreneurship Week is known as the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators, which aims to raise global awareness about the benefits of starting up a business.

Organized in 2007 and led by Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Network, GEW has grown from a simple entrepreneurial awareness campaign to a platform for international business collaboration.

Every year, GEW releases an annual index called the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) that measures the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in each member country.

The index, which looks into the entrepreneurial attitude, resources and infrastructure of the country, ranks the performance of each ecosystem.

According to this year’s GEI ranking, the Philippines has climbed to the 76th spot, up from 91st last year.

This rise in ranking, unfortunately, was not due to improving local ecosystem, but a result of comparative decline in the index of other countries and expansion of the number of countries covered from 132 to 137 this year.

The overall GEI index of the Philippines actually has slipped to 24 percent from 27 percent last year.

This decline was due to the weaker institutional attitude toward entrepreneurship, whose indicators fell from 54.6 percent last year to 47 percent.

Among the institutional variables that performed below average this year are freedom and property rights, which pertain to government’s regulatory efficiency in influencing startups and operating businesses; business agglomeration, which pertains to the urbanization and developing of poor rural areas to increase commercial opportunities; and corruption.

Hopefully, the economic agenda of the new administration under President Duterte should be able to address these issues.

For one, the government’s plan to allocate a higher budget for infrastructure to improve poor transportation system should not only help lower business costs but also develop domestic markets in the rural areas over the long-term.

While the institutional variables have underperformed this year, the individual indicators that pertain to entrepreneurial attitude, abilities and aspirations of Filipino entrepreneurs have improved this year to 59 percent from 56 percent last year.

The GEI report noted that large improvements were seen in the percentage of local entrepreneurs that are opportunity-motivated versus necessity-motivated.

This means that there are more entrepreneurs that are going into business because they are motivated by the opportunity to innovate and help improve lives, rather than by lack of employment opportunities and desperation to move out of poverty.

It is estimated that at least $241 billion could be added to the economy if the current conditions of entrepreneurship in the country can improve by 10 percent.

This should be achievable given a focused government effort to improve institutional environment as well as providing opportunities for young people to develop their startup skills.

This year, the Young Entrepreneur Society (YES), being official host of GEW for Philippines, is partnering with Miriam College, whose Department of Entrepreneurship has been designated by the Commission of Higher Education as Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship.

YES is celebrating GEW with a series of activities this week such as startup exhibits from different universities, training bootcamps, business ideas parade and the annual Failing Forward conference.

Learn something new this week about business. Make a better world for everyone by becoming an entrepreneur. Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week! – by Mr. Henry Ong

Many people would like “change”—a change especially in our society today, but very few are willing to create those changes. Today, our entrepreneurs are breaking barriers to make a big leap to make that change happens. This week we are celebrating the Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators. They launched start-ups that brought ideas to life, drove economic growth and expanded human welfare.

Crisis as an opportunity: The founder of Mang Inasal, Edgar “Injap” Sia II, considered fear as a mere four letter word that can immobilize and throw you off your game. For him, it’s all about research and acting upon the data. He saw the opportunity to build community malls in the provinces under Double Dragon. He created a business and offered it to the undeserved market is a sign that this crisis will give him ways to serve more people in different regions around the country.

Hate Status quo:  Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, said in Global Entrepreneurship Summit this year, “We should value entrepreneurs in all their different incarnations. They’re the ones refuse to accept that the way things are today is the ways thing should always be.” From Henry Ford’s visions to provide “car for  every working class American”, Walt Disney’s “Real Estate Empire to Disneyland”, Elon Musk Space Travel bringing people to Mars by 2022 as fully operational, we can say we are in a world of possibilities. As entrepreneurs, you know that there will always be the best, fastest and easiest way to make things happen as of the moment and not settling for less but the best.

Grit: The book of Angela Duckworth Grit stated that “the people who can persevere more even they don’t have the talent yet can reach their true potential.” Effort counts twice and that’s grit power. The famous stories of three immigrant tycoons Henry Sy Sr., John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan were almost the same; rags-to-riches stories, billionaires, leaders in their industry and came from the same era. Living was not easy but they know how to persevere. They believed in luck as long as you prepare every single day, they experienced defeat but never back down. Those who failed but never quitted on their dreams stayed on the same course with a purpose to win and prove that what they’re doing has a higher value. Talent is not enough you must execute it.

High emotional intelligence: Studies shown that people with high emotional quotient have greater mental health, job performance, and leadership skills.  If you look at the world’s wealthiest individual in Forbes magazine, it shows how much money they got and how they took care of their business throughout the years. Steve Benitez, CEO of Bo’s coffee, a local coffee chain, is a great example with high EQ, when Rustan’s brought Starbucks here in the country he saw that as an occasion to rebuild the brand by reinventing the store, leveled up the products and benchmarked standards to deliver a Filipino coffee experience that puts a spotlight on Philippine coffee. Instead of letting fear took over, he used a strategic approach to scale up his game.Collaborative: “No man is an island,” as the saying goes, you need other people, as well.  Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook,  admitted that he hired Sheryl Sandberg as the COO and Instagram founder to scale up the business and continuously evolve the business. A baseball proverb said “everyone can make a difference but a team can make a miracle.” Entrepreneurs needs support group and talented people in order to learn more and create more. This is the century where social media is playing a big role to us all.

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David Isaiah Angway is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines. He is the CEO and founder of WinLongTerm Financial Consultancy that helps organizations retain their top key employees by teaching practical money management in the workplace.

Vice President Leni Robredo

The Young Entrepreneurs Society Philippines is proud to present that the vice president of the Philippines, VP Leni Robredo shared her greetings at this year’s celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the country.

To see her congratulatory message, watch the video below.

 

 

Senator Grace Poe

Grace Poe, one of the presidentiables last  May 2016 election, also shares her joy in having the celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the Philippines that promotes and advocates small and medium enterprise.

In her letter, she urges to raise awareness in entrepreneurship, “I urge you to progressively realizer your sundry GEW advocacies in raising awareness in entrepreneurship. I implore you to continue pushing for meaningful entrepreneurship development in all that you do.”

To read her full statement, see below

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, one of the Senators of the Philippines since 2007 gave his sincerest support and recognition in the celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Senator Cayetano said believes in the quote “Reap what you sow.” He ended his message by addressing the up and coming businessmen and business women of the Philippines to keep sowing seeds of innovation to reap the best fruits soon.

The senator sent a formal letter that can be read below:

 

Senator Bam Aquino

The youngest senator of the 17th Congress of the Philippines and social entrepreneur, Senator Bam Aquino takes this chance to voice out his warmest greetings at the celebration of GEW 2016 in the country and takes this chance to express his deepest congratulatory message to Young Entrepreneurs Society Philippines for being the official host of this celebration in the country.

 

Below is his video message for all entrepreneurs and the aspiring ones

senator Chiz Escudero

In celebration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in the country, YES Philippines will be organizing an inspirational keynote conference called “Failing Forward”.

One of the current Senators of the 17th Congress, Mr. Francis “Chiz” Escudero expressed his support to YES Philippines in celebration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in the country.

In his statement, he said that he believes that that entrepreneurship should be instilled especially to the youth as it greatly helps the progressive countries reach greater development.

To read his full statement, YES organization is enclosing the full message of Senator Chiz in the hopes of inspiring fellow Filipinos in embracing the culture and future in entrepreneurship.

Senator Migs Zubiri

A businessman himself, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed his support for this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. In his stated letter, “GEW provides a venue for both aspiring and successful entrepreneurs to form a support network, in which they can share and derive meaningful insights and best practices to start or build their businesses.” Senator Migs lend his full support for this endeavor.

“I lend my full support to this movement, which not only encourages self-reliance, but also contributes to the cosial and economic development of our country from the bottom up.” See his letter of support below.