Life & Career Lessons From Business Mogul Francis Kong

Our Paano Ba To guest for today is one of the country's most respected business consultants and inspirational speakers in the country. He is a multi-awarded entrepreneur and best-selling author of over 30 books and counting, the founder of training and consultancy firm Success Options Inc. and Inspire Leadership, and most recently, the host of his very own podcast, Conversations. Mr. Francis Kong, welcome to Paano Ba To? And happy to be here and I'm happy to tell you that we have very, very good feedback dun sa episode natin. Oh, thank you for having me on his podcast, The Conversations Podcast. I will link that episode to this episode as well so more people can watch it. I'm so happy to have you back on Paano Ba To? Because actually, the Paano Ba To OG viewers would know that you are one of our very, very first guests in the format that I had on YouTube, na parang walking around with a phone. I remember that. Oo, tapos muntik nga ako nada pa eh. Doon sa ginagawa mo eh. Sorry, sorry. But really, that episode, you talked about passion. Yes, yes. It's true. still to this day people go back to it or watch it for the first time because it really shifted for all of us how we see passion it's not just the love love i remember you said that um passion actually means suffering right right and so you can watch that episode as well yes and and the the The word origin of passion in Latin always means suffering. That's why Mel Gibson, you know, came up with the movie. Mm-hmm. And a lot of people get surprised. Because for them, it's an emotional high. It's something that you love intensely. Yes. With emotions. But what about the drive? What about the discipline? So. I think that awakened a lot of consciousness, especially among the millennials who were still young at that time. Yes, definitely. It shifted a lot for me. And I mean, through the years, you've just continued to churn out different forms of content. The podcast is only recent, but people who follow you on Twitter know that you always hashtag. Passion, purpose, productivity, and all that. So we're going to dive into that today. But we will start with a few icebreakers. Sure. How many icebreakers? Yes. These are just quick questions. All right. Because we mentioned passion. At this point in your life, which advice do you believe in more? Pursue your passion or pursue your skill set or talents? Neither. Really? There's an addendum to passion. If you contain passion towards how you feel, emotional high and everything else, it can be selfish. It's all about you. But what can make it work better? It's not passion today, it's purpose. Purpose is outward directed, not inside. So that if you know your purpose and you're dedicated to that, No matter how you feel, whether you're having an emotional high or you're down in the dumps, you know, there's a commitment you need to do, and so you do it. Kaya for me, it's not just skills or passion, it's understanding that your talent may be God-given, but you have to convert your talent into acquired skill. And then you need to develop that skill until you reach the level of mastery and competence. And it's an unending process. Which is life. I mean, that's what makes life most enjoyable. I like that perspective shift. Okay, next. Your kids are within the millennial generation. What is a millennial trait or mindset that you appreciate? I think the millennials are the first generation who ever asked the reason, why do I have to do this? Prior to that, you have the boomers. We're just told what to do and we'll do it. The Gen Xers are a little bit suspicious, but they still follow what the boomers were doing. But when it came to the millennials, from the YOLO part, Because the Millennials grew up in a glowing economy at that time, so they don't want to make plans for the future. The YOLO simply means you only live once. The sophisticated version of that is Carpe Diem, which is the same thing. But then, life creeps up on them. They mature, they begin to understand, they begin to have families, they understand that money doesn't grow on trees, you got to work for it. But they began with the consciousness of asking, why? Why do we have to do this? Why am I on Earth for? That is the one beautiful thing about millennials that I noticed. Nice, because, well, millennials and Gen Zers do get sometimes a bad rep, But I believe each generation has like a... A trait that's worth admiring for other generations. With that, we'll move to Gen Z. Because a lot of your team members who I met, there are a lot of Gen Z. There are a lot of people who don't say Gen Z. It's Isabelle. So what is a Gen Z trait or mindset that you admire? Well, in the first place, I have to tell you, I'm a Gen Z fan. I love the potential of Gen Z. Extremely creative. Extreme. Extremely informed. The Gen Z sociologists and experts will say will be the most educated, informed, and tech-savvy generation, which they are. And they have all these potentials within them. That's what I like about them. But there's still a lot of fine-tuning you need to do in other areas, which, of course, is prevalent with every generation. But I really like their creativity and energy. Yeah, yeah. I definitely agree. I'm a fan of a lot of positive Gen Z traits, how they're more purposeful. Of course, they're the generation who has to think about the planet and sustainability more, all of that. I am with you on that. Okay, last. You're on all social media platforms. I saw your site. Lahat, even more than me. But which one is your favorite to be on? My generation speaks about FB because I'm an early adopter. The moment people began talking about Mark Zuckerberg and social media and FB. I think the one thing that made me become an early adopter is curiosity, which I still enhance until now. So I went into it right away when people said, What's FB? What's Facebook? What's that? A book with a face? So my generation now speaks, that's why I have the biggest following in FB. But then I said, wait a minute, it's already transitioning. So it's already IG. So FB is for something that brings value to me in terms of nostalgia and vintage and classic experience. IG is something that brings out the creative angle and many millennials and Gen Z are still with IG, right? But for professionals, LinkedIn is the go-to place. I mean, I am inspired and I need to be more active on the other platforms, but it's not easy. Not easy. And I'm also with Threads. I'm also with Blue Sky. Not many people are there. I have now a podcast on YouTube. And I now am a TikToker. Yeah, grabe, diba? I love it. But I don't dance yet because the world is not yet ready for me, diba? Thank you very much. Yan ang aabangan. No, but really it's inspiring that it's really not too late or no one, it sees no age, right? Social media platforms. And as long as you're willing to adapt. You're curious enough. We can be on it. We're talking about the different generations. And I think it was recently that the term, okay, boomer, was used. There's something like, okay, boomer. But honestly, so much wisdom that we can learn from your generation. And that's what we'll dive into right now. And where they call me, hey, boomer. I don't know. I'm a zoomer. I love that. I love that clap back. Okay. Close to a decade ago, there was an article about you and it was titled, I never want to ask myself, am I successful? And instead, what you want to ask yourself is, am I still achieving progress? So my question is, is that still the case now? And where did you even get this mindset of seeing life that way? Well, more than ever today, simply because the goalposts keep on changing. What seems to be success 20 years ago, today it's baseline. So success is never static. It's a moving target. So what is important right now is to understand that you never arrive at success because the moment you think about arrival, you think about settling in. What is important now is how do I improve the version of Francis Kong today compared to the one that expired last night? So success, the cliche is that success is not the destination, which is true, one half, but I would say success is not the destination. It is a direction. You got to keep on moving forward there. I mean, maybe a lot of people listening might have expected you to say journey, but... Direction makes so much sense. When did you come to terms with this mindset? Was it early on? Because in our 20s, that's the frame of mind. I want to be successful. I want to reach some sort of success. When did this, I guess, perspective shift happen for you? Well, I came from humble beginnings. Most people in the Chinese ethnic community, Well, my classmates in school. We just wait for the day when their parents will die and then they'll inherit the wealth. There's nothing for me to inherit. So I figured at an early age that I got to work for it. But then the question now is, what is the goal? What is the objective? Everybody wants to be successful, but what is success for you? It's a complex, it's an abstract concept wherein everybody wants to be successful, but ask them what success means to them. They can't even answer. So for me, it's a day-to-day progress. It's when I started flunking high school. Six years ago when I graduated, it took me six years to finish high school. Really? Yeah. So don't get so enamored with my magna cum laude and everything else. But six years ago when I went to high school, I earned my PhD in high school. Oh my goodness, I love that. Yes, PhD means passing high school with difficulty. Yeah. But really, the life experience of finishing high school in six years. Exactly. How do I get off this losing track? So when I went to college, I decided to do something I've never done before. I studied. Indeed. Never before, okay. So that's one progress. And then I began working. So when I started working, you know, you start at entry level. I used to make coffee in the forest. I used to cut his Mongol pencil at that time. It's okay. It's okay. You got to start somewhere, kahit sa base. Then I started shooting for a higher goal. But there's a lot of discipline involved in it, which is you have to cultivate that as a habit in daily practice. So I observed, while the employees would come in at a quarter to eight, then they leave and get ready to leave at quarter to five. I said, what if I come in half an hour or an hour earlier and leave an hour later when it's quiet? Then I'm going to study the organizational chart. I'm going to study the memo. Sa memo kasi parang script ng buhay yan. Nakita mo kung ano yung nangyayari sa office. And that allows me with a lot of knowledge. That eventually became my advantage because I seemed to know more than those people who have been there for about 10 years. Mm-hmm. And then one more thing about it is progress also means getting out of my shell. You see, I didn't want to speak before. I was so quiet. But I need to express my ideas, right? So I got out of that shell. And then I started doing it. And coming in, I experienced a lot of promotions within the next Two or three or four years, which eventually made me seek for greener pastures because there are new things happening in the horizon that I'm so interested in. Right. Okay. There is so much to unpack with what you just said. I can't believe that it took you six years to finish high school first. And it's so hard for people to believe that you You were once quiet, considering speaking is literally what you are known for right now Okay, there's a lot of things to break down there, but I guess what I'm hearing you say is the more... You kept achieving this goal and this goal. Parang it seemed like early on, you knew that it would always be a dynamic thing and not a static thing. That first job, you were an executive assistant. Is that correct? I would grab any position that has executive in it. Ah, the word executive. I'm an executive driver. So when my people, my friends will ask, what's your work? Executive. Oh, yeah. You said yes to a low salary. And then like you mentioned, within 1.5 years, you were promoted four times. The story is you decided to resign as you were about to get a managerial role. Why did you resign? The four times of promotions did not involve it. I was promoted in terms of position and function, not salary. Oh, still not. Okay. Kumeremang konti lang But then when I was about to be promoted as assistant plant manager of a concrete aggregates company, one day I opened the windows in my factory and I couldn't see any color there but gray. You have cement that's gray, hollow blocks that's gray, dirt that's gray. Everything was gray. I said, this is not the world I wanted. But at the same time, my curiosity was sparked with a booming industry at that time called RTW, which is ready-to-wear. And the curiosity fact is, if I have to go to the tailor to have a pair of pants made, how can anybody produce in mass scale? A size that can fit people of different sizes. So that's a curiosity that got me to leave that company when they were about to promote me in the colorless world to enter the fashion world that's very colorful. But I got to start from the bottom again. Wow. You were how old by that time when you moved? I think I was about... Mid-20s. Yeah, mid-20s. Mid-20s. So, an entirely new industry, but something you were very curious about, and you had to start again from the bottom. Yes. In that company… You went from dressing mannequins in the window. A more polite and politically correct term is I was with visual merchandising. Oh, yes, that's correct. Visual merchandising. I was changing mannequins in show windows from different stores. That's why until today, Bianca, it's amazing. To anywhere in the Philippines, I'll mention these stores, and people would laugh, and the store owners would say, yeah, I remember you. Oh my goodness, wild. But obviously, that was a place that you thrived because... You became general manager in just a few years. You know, when I say I want to achieve progress rather than success, it means building up. You build up one thing, then you build up another thing, and then you get there. So the next goal after changing mannequins is I want to be in sales. I got it. I became the national sales director. When I said I want to handle marketing and administration, I got it. I became the GM. And eventually, this is one principle which I want to share with your viewers and the listeners, that in the process of becoming better, you are beginning to build personal equity or value. So if you become good at what you do, your name spreads out there and the market is going to pick it up. So the market is going to say, hey, that brand was destined to the dumps. How come it became so good? Who's that guy running it? So I think I reached that level where in the industry now began to know me. Well, without it, there was no social media then. But in the industry, they'll know. Until one day, the market will always have people with excess knowledge and short on money being met by people with excess money, short on knowledge. I belong to the first group. And who will invite me to come up with our own business, which I did. And that made me an entrepreneur at that time. That is amazing. I love what you said about personal equity. Because equity is usually a term used for businesses. You know, how much equity do you own? But if we frame it in a way that, no, actually, we have... On our own, as ourselves, whether or not you're a personal brand, which is a thing now, right? You, as someone who wants to contribute to your workplace or society, you have personal equity. I like that idea. And we can keep building on that. So, again, the goal kept moving. You wanted to keep doing more. Aside from the curiosity. And it's clear to me that you are not afraid of hard work. What quality do you think enabled you to progress that quick in the company you were in before you became an entrepreneur? Well, it's the constant challenge to become better and to achieve excellence. Now, you may have a lot of technical description definitions about the word excellence. For me, it's very simple. It's delivering beyond what is required. So, you did very well in school. I know your story, right? And if the required passing grade is 75, and you deliver 76 or 75, you're not excellent. You are merely compliant. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But if the requirement is 75, and you deliver, what, 85, 90, 95, 98, 99? You went beyond the requirement. You're no longer compliant. You are committed. That spells out the difference there. Now, if you're compliant, that makes you average. And the world is full of average people. As my favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin, would say, if you are average, you are invisible. Nobody cares for average people. But if you want to stand out, you've got to be excellent. That makes you different from the crowd. So that's what drove me to be doing what I was doing at that time. That is so perfectly worded because what I found now, I don't know if it's a millennial or Gen Z thing, but... Because success is different for everyone now, right? For some people, it's running the home. For some people, it's running a business. And because you said, if you want to stand out, that requires excellence. So that, for me, also requires the person to think for themselves, do I want to stand out? What is it that I want for myself? And if I want something that's here, I have to rise to that level as well. And that's true, Bianca. I'm so happy you mentioned that. Because there are people who are afraid to be successful. And why is that? Success carries a lot of responsibilities. You know, I'm happy where I am. I don't want to be stressed. Really? But in the future, your future self, when you're going to be left behind, when everybody's advancing, especially in an AI-dominated world right now, that's when the real stress will creep up on you. And you're going to regret that decision that you made. You know, circling back to personal equity and that idea, I am also of the belief that if progress is the goal, like that's where you're looking, progress, not necessarily success, that builds your personal equity and that's investing in your future self, not necessarily yourself in a year, five years. It's for the long haul investment. Okay. That was around 30 that you became an entrepreneur. You started your own business, founding your own garment brand. And I find this very interesting to talk about because a lot of people in their 30s now want to shift. Careers, jobs, industry, something. They just feel like they want to but they're led by fear. of fear. What is your advice to people who aren't really so happy with where they are now? They know there's something out there but are afraid to take that leap. It's a very fair question and I do have to be very objective about this. Traditional business frown on people leaving. Mm-hmm. And, uh... Of course, you know, it's so hard to get good people working for us. And then there's Bianca now is leaving, putting up her own program and podcast. What's that? But the reality of the times is that today, if you take a look at the latest findings in Forbes, Filipinos 30 under 30, technology has afforded them with a lot of equipment and a lot of accessibility in building their own solopreneur or success. Yes, but before you can get there. You better have the knowledge and the understanding and the accessibility to be able to do so. So it takes years also of preparation, both in skills and also in mindset and in spirit and in your demeanor. So if you're the type of person who kind of give up and quit because you can't handle the pressure, then that opportunity will pass you by. But if you're somebody who's curious, who's not afraid to fail. Who's not afraid to try out new things as long as they are. This is what I tell my kids. They're very successful entrepreneurs now. As long as it's not illegal, it's not immoral, go for it. Then you just might find your way to entering an arena that you've never been to. that can make use of your potential. I love that you said one of the things that's important. And I think it's innate in you and a lot of entrepreneurs is that you're not afraid to fail. And so even if we look at this garment brand that you've built 17 years, I'm sure there were moments there that were challenging. It wasn't all uphill. How do you reframe? Because I think the millennial generation, maybe it's different for Gen Z, but the millennial generation, there was sort of this aversion to failing. Like, you shouldn't fail. When in fact, now I'm trying to raise my kids. It's okay to try and it's okay to fail because that's just like information, that's data. But like, it's so hard to shift, especially if your whole life you're like, no, I can't fail, I can't fail. How do we do that mindset shift? I'm going to put the blame on this. YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok gurus. But... But the thing about most people fail to understand success is an equation that has failure in it. Without failing, you'll never correct yourself and you'll never get to the piece or the place where you want to be. Now. My being an early adopter and my being resilient was formed out from me because of the garments. And by the way, I wasn't the only one who started it. I had three partners, and that's another story in itself. But I run things. Today, I can reveal my trade secret. If I put 10 designs into the market, I would expect about six or seven to fail. But only the three designs will sell very well, earn me enough to recover for the losses, and maybe a little bit of a profit. So when people ask me, Francis, what's your business? Is it making jeans and denims and pants? I said, no. My business is in managing failure. If I can reduce my failure rate, I increase my profitability rate. And it's always been like that. So I've done so many things in my life that did not work out, but none of them were failures. All of them were tuition. Tuition for lessons that I can learn that can help build me up into the next stage, make me wiser, And then reduce the amount of... Ignorance and then increase the chances of success. Yeah, wow. That is such a powerful reframe that I hope every millennial gets to listen to. Because in our generation, maybe there's a lot of shame with failing. Ay, nakakaya. Ay, hindi nag-work. Nakakaya. That's why, going back to what we were talking about Gen Zs earlier, a lot of them build in public because they're really unafraid. If it doesn't work out, that's part of the journey, which is so admirable. Okay. Years later, after the entrepreneur or during the entrepreneur journey, you also ventured into another space, which was public speaking. And I read somewhere, I don't know if this is true, that when you started doing talks, you did it for free? Yeah. I averaged about 120 talks every year for 12 years, never charged a single cent. What? 12 years? Yes. That is crazy. Wow. And even out of my pocket, I will spend for plane and hotel. Thank you. And I usually have invitations from schools, from faith-based. Yes, of course, from schools. I don't charge it. Because for me, that's where the purpose enters into the picture. For me, it's adding value to people, sharing ideas that can help them. And it's the purpose of what I did not know, Bianca, is that the twelve years of pro bono services is sharpening my axe. It's preparing me for something even better. But the thing that propelled me into public speaking was because of what I did when I went into sales. When I was presenting my samples, I was in these stores and I can see the way, Hindi naman lahat. But I can see a lot of merchandisers or the buyers bullying the sales representing in languages that I cannot even use. Not all, not all. Pero I'm a keen observer of human behavior. So they'll say, pangit naman yan. Bakit ganyan? Tapos if I present my sample, ano na naman yan? Yung mga ganun treatment. So I look at my surroundings and I discover that When they were being bullied, they were still sucking up to these guys. And I said, that's not the formula. That's not the solution. The more you suck up, the more they bully you. So I challenged myself and I said, how am I going to earn the respect of these guys? Well, if you fight them, you don't have business. Change of mindset. I said, what if I make these guys, these bullies successful? So how can that be? So I'll go into a deep dive, into research, understanding, new samples, new trends, new fashion, new colors. And I'll come and I'll say, sir, ma'am, ito na po yung magiging uso six months from now, three months from now. Kalokohan, di ba? I said, no, ma'am, I'm not kidding. Paano mo alam yan? I'm a fortune teller. I'm going, no, ma'am, I'll pull out my clippings. Ito po yung research. And then they'll look at me with a very different eye now and they'll say, Here's your example, including the clipping. So that's going to make you think, Bianca, why did they ask me to leave the magazine clippings? For what purpose? They're going to show it off to their bosses. So they're going to say, Boss, you know what? This is going to be used. But you see the owners and the bosses, they're very intelligent people. They know their capacity. They're going to end up asking, Where did you get that idea from? You can't lie. They're going to say, well, this young kid from this particular brand, I want to meet him. That started my speaking career. Researching, getting ideas, sharing to them, making a presentation. So what happened then was, when they knew that I will present a sample, they will purposely make me bypass that level of barriers and go straight to the owners now. These owners now are my clients, by the way, my friends. So I discovered the beauty. of studying, researching, adding value, sharing ideas, helping people succeed. And that's the very purpose of what I still do until today. That's true. Just in different forms and ways. And I did read that about you, that I think you granted an interview where you said more than the actual speaking, what you enjoy is the preparation. And that's it. And I wanted to talk about that because we all know it's a global statistic that public speaking is... The top fear. One of the top fears of human beings. And a lot of people, I'm sure, go to you and say, oh, but it's natural for you. Or you were born like that. But in my case, I wasn't. You also said that you were very quiet. But I guess I wanted to bring this up because I want to show everyone that, no, you actually have the power in you to develop a skill for public speaking. Thank you. Well, Jerry Seinfeld says in one of the studies, public speaking is the number one fear second to death. So that comedian is so wise. But among these comedians are borderline geniuses. That means you're more comfortable being the corpse in the box rather than the one giving the obituary. Yes, I remember that stand-up. So that thing right now is that you conquer your fear. Then people will say, were you born with that talent? My response is, are you kidding? Have you ever heard a newborn baby say, French, Roman, countryman, all those things? So what do you do if I want to be a speaker? Speak. What do I do when I want to be a writer? Write. And so you speak, and then you prepare yourself. To make mistakes at first, but you self-edit and then you correct yourself and then you improve. The more you do it, the more you... But here's the big difference, Bianca. There are people who want to speak because they want to impress people with what they know. That's not a very stable foundation because that means you're very self-focused. That's what I'm talking about, passion can be selfish. So you become conscious, you become conscious about how you look and how you deliver. And there are speakers whose joy is not to impress people, but to express truth and ideas that can help people. These are the guys that will make it big. These are the ones that become good speakers. Even if they make a mistake, they laugh at themselves. Because the intention is pure. So practice. And by the way, you can't. The best speakers in the world, they're writers as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I have never met a brilliant speaker and a writer who doesn't read much. They're all readers, voracious readers. These are such practical tips that everyone can do. And I also love telling people who want to develop a skill for public speaking or even now hosting. Because everybody, the term is yap. Everybody who yaps to your camera. The only way you can really get better is to just keep doing it. And I guess that's also part of... What you were saying earlier about the failures part of the equation. Because I think when it comes to public speaking, or for example, speaking to camera, Uh, the term for it would be cringe. Oh yeah, cringe for you. Yeah, you have to be okay with sounding cringe. Because that's what will get you to the better place. I still cringe at so many of the videos I see of myself from years ago. I'm going to give you a personal secret. I don't like to watch my own videos. Oh, I hate watching it too. To this day, I don't like hearing the sound of my voice. Like if I have to preview. It's gotten better, but... During the times that I have to watch, it's like... Yeah, and my wife is always with me. Well, she had this talk to me three years ago, but I would bring her to all of my engagements. Yes, I met her at the podcast recording. So she's going to sit somewhere at the back. And she will intercede and pray for me. Lord, what's going on in her mouth right now? Oh, yeah. So I have spiritual support. Yeah, which is so important. Does she also critique your talks? The worst critique ever. And I value the people closest to you when they criticize you. They're the most painful, right? Because they're the truest and the purest. I remember the first time I spoke, Well, without the... The stage, I was so conscious. My hands were inside my pocket and was playing around with my car keys. And then when I went down, my wife said, Sweetheart, next time I would suggest you don't do that. I said, why? From afar, it's like you're doing something obscene with yourself. Never forget that. Yeah, no, for sure. The people who give constructive feedback is so, so important, especially when it comes to that. Thank When I was looking at like your career timeline, something stood out to me because in the older you so generations, including millennials, our idea was like a career ladder. much You start from there, executive assistant, and then you work your way up. And then a term that I... for encountered online recently having for the Gen Z they call it, they prefer a career leap pad which means going from this one to this one to this one me. and what's interesting with how your journey has gone is that you may have started out career ladder but midway you already did the career leap pad without even it being term yet. It was just something that you did for progress, for growth. And so I guess I wanted to ask you with this mindset of a lot of Gen Zs, because we hear it, they start a job, they don't like it, and then they go somewhere else. And it sort of gets a bad reputation. But I do believe there's some sort of beauty in career leap pad because you grow in several ways. So what is What is your take on that? The short of this is that... They're right, there are not too much ladders in the corporate world anymore. This started around 90s going to the To progressing over the years because you have computers and automation taking over people. That's why you have terms like, we are a lean and mean and flattened organization. So what happens now is that from career ladder, it becomes a career lattice. So now they move you from one position to the other. Here's the mistake many people would make. They will say, I'm happy and comfortable here. That's why they're putting me into another department. I have to start from scratch. That's good for you. You're widening your horizon. You're adding more skills because that's what we need now. The one thing, Lan, is that you haven't built up competence and you feel like this is not for me because I'm bored or this is not for me because I want to try something new. Just for the sake of trying something new without building competence and skills and network is very important. Getting connections, knowing people, building relationships. That's where the fault comes into the picture. So you're like drifting. You just drift from one place to another place trying to find out who you want to be because you don't have basic competence that are very essential in making you successful there. They'll say, oh, you see, the kid is a millionaire. Wait, take a look at the competence. He's good at coding. He also has PR. Let's say he's good at coding, he's good at his technological innovations. They also need some skills to be able to sell it. Those are basic skills that you still have to. So if you don't stay long enough, and then you just drift because you don't like it, or you get bored, Boredom, by the way, is the number one enemy now of mastery. And boredom, by the way, is the number one reason why you always constantly add to cart. Mmm. My goodness. Goodness. So many valuable nuggets there. And I think. It has been consistent throughout this conversation that it's really about building your personal equity, progressing, preparation. I mean, those all are so important to get you to where you're going next. Mm-hmm. And maybe I just want to wrap up this conversation. Your career, our conversation has been like a series of you building and rebuilding, building on something, rebuilding something. To anyone who wants to do that with their lives as well, to just keep going, keep building, rebuilding if needed, what's your advice to them? Bianca, I never expected the day will come when I will become an influencer. I'm sorry. So I have an invitation from Singapore wanting me to play some, you know, some posting and everything to attend this. major AI tech conference that will cost 3,000 US dollars. So I'm going to go there. And there's this CEO of this big tech company, Superstar Yan, that I'm going to be interviewing. These are new adventures in my life. So if you're going to take a look at me, wow, why are there so many accomplishments? No, no, no. You got to go and look back. It all started with curiosity, it all started with never settling, it all started with wanting to be the best that you can ever be, it always started with never settling and never thinking that you're successful, it all started with the whole world is so adventurous, there's just so There's so much out there that I can still explore and maybe that's why I stay away from I stay away from classic songs of my age like Bee Gees and everything. I want Olivia Rodrigo and I want new things. And it's always excited with new things. And that's what it is. But it's building up, building up, building up. But the core remains the same. What is the core? It's still communication, it's speaking, it's writing, it's still the same. So if you're an influencer now, if you're in TikTok and everything, the core is still the same. And so that's what it is. That is such an inspiring perspective on life, honestly. And I come from a place that I remember when I was growing up, we would see, oh my gosh, 40, it's so old. Like, what will you do when you're 40? And when I turned 40, the feeling was more. Wow, life does begin at 40. Like there is still so much to do. And I'm so excited for everything. Rather than when... The mindset when I was in my 20s was like, oh, that's the prime of your career now, 20 to 30s. But I so don't feel that way now. And hearing you at 71, am I correct? Yes. At 71, you're going on a trip to Singapore to interview these major personalities as a... influencer and you being so excited about this decade of your life and the many possibilities that's so endlessly inspiring honestly and has shifted so many things in my head. And there's also another reason for that because I keep on reading I keep on researching technology now extends the lifespan of human beings as the futurist Peter Diamandis would say. It is now possible with technology that you and I can live up to beyond 100. So if you have that mindset of thinking that life begins at 40 and ends at 47, what are you going to do with the rest of your life anyway? You might as well grow, enjoy, be curious, appreciate, but most importantly, be a blessing to others and help others. As you build your equity, you also... share and then build value and provide value to others as well. Yes, amen to that. I'm a believer of that and that is something that seeps through every corner of the work that you do. Thank you so much for being here, Francis. This is going to be another Paano Ba To? cult favorite episode. I'm so sure. So much wisdom. Thank you. With that, I wanted to ask you one last question that I ask all my guests on Paano Ba To? You already have figured out a lot of things in life and are still curious about some things. What is one paano ba the question that you have in life now? Paano ba ito na mabago natin ang kultura ng ating bansa in getting used? To accepting mediocrity, corruption, and accepting all these faults as if they were normal. How can we build this to become a better nation, full of productive citizens? And And if you're going to tie this to my paano, paano na to before, paano ba itong keep on sending our people? To clean the houses and toilets of other people in another country when we cannot provide for our very own. How can we fix it? So that has always constantly been in my mind. Yeah. What? Such a valid, very you. Nation building, but still having hope in everything. Paano ba ito question? Definitely a question on my mind as well. Thank you so much, Francis. I super enjoyed this conversation. Maraming salamat. Akala ko six hours to. Short lang na ba? More! Thank you. Thank you. Paano ba to? The podcast is created and hosted by me, Bianca Gonzalez, with podcast producer Ani Neri and edited by Paolo Halili. We would love for you to be part of our community of supers. If you are on Spotify, please click the follow button. Or if you're watching on YouTube, please do subscribe to this channel. We also have our socials on Instagram. We are at Paano Ba To? on TikTok at Ask Paano Ba To and our private Facebook group, the Paano Ba To Super Group. Till our next episode, stay super, supers!