shmula

σ business, technology, and stuff in between

around the block

while dry and probably uninteresting to most, i’m interested in the life of business, operations, lost the tv show, entrepreneurship, family, mixed martial arts, the wall street journal, technology, and the dirt and sweat of life. i’ll chronicle bits of pretty much everything here — from my viewpoint.

i’ve been around the block. i immigrated to the united states from the philippines in 1985; i was 10 years old. i lived in cebu city — the middle island in the philippines. i left during a really perilous time: there was political uproar, demonstrations, and poverty everywhere. we were very, very poor. my three older brothers, my mom, and i lived with my grandma. my dad died when i was 6 years old – he died of a heart attack – and my mom had a difficult time supporting her 4 boys, but she tried. he worked for a malaysian company that exported and imported materials all over the world. i didn’t see him much, but he wrote me letters while he traveled. i still have a letter from him; that letter is pretty special to me.

we moved to the united states because that is where my mom was llving at the time – she went to the united states to visit my older brother, harry, while he was serving in the u.s. navy. during that visit, she met an american, fell in love, and got married.

i didn’t see my mom for about 1 year while she was in america; my grandma took care of me in the philippines — my grandma is the best. we immigrated to the u.s. after my mom’s marriage.

moving here required a lot of adjusting. it was cold; winter time. that was new to me. speaking english was difficult at first, but i caught on quickly. my mom and her 2nd husband got divorced 1 year later. we moved out of his house and into a small little apartment: 1919 ygnacio valley road #72, 94598. living in the apartment was hard — we were so, so, so poor. but we survived and got through it. difficult times like that has a way of tutoring and shaping a person. i’m fortunate to have gone through difficult times, starting at such a young age. as an adult, i see many of my peers whose hands are pedicured and uncalloused, as it were, because they were given everything by their parents; they have not learned the value of hard work and sacrifice. i’m so happy i’m not like that. there’s nothing wrong with coupon cutting and making your dollar stretch –

at school, i learned fast how to survive — i learned how to ride my bike (i was 10 years old); i learned how to get to school. one summer, i learned how to take the bus, transfer from one bus to another, and use the bus to get to places — i was 12 and riding the contra costa connection regularly and alone.

i discovered skateboarding. i did that for a long time and won 2nd place in the embarcadero street invitational. i was also sponsored by concrete jungle, an old school san francisco skate company. i also surfed and was sponsored by leroyz la jolla — again, no money, but free stuff. a lot of the leroyz guys were gang members, who surfed. it was cool. n.w.a and eazy-e kept me going and their music really influenced me and helped me get through some really tough, self-supporting years ahead.

i got my first job when i was 10 — i walked the neighborhood and offered a plant watering business: i would water plants for 25 cents a day. i had a modest clientele and made enough money for ice cream. when we moved to the apartment, i got a job at gold’s gym — i’d go in super late at night and wash down the nautilus equipment and do general clean up. i got the job on my own; it wasn’t advertised; i proactively offered to clean for $5/night. i was 12 years old.

later, i worked for kentucky fried chicken, working almost full-time while attending high school. after only 6 months, i became the assistant store manager and managed a group of 12 people. it was a greasy, nasty job, but i learned how to work, keep committments, and how to manage people at a young age.

fast forward from the kentucky fried chicken job, my life changed for the better when i discovered religion through my friend and neighbor, aran sambandar.  he was a devout hindu, an older man of ~50 yrs, and he and i became friends.  because of him, i realized that i needed to change my life and that religion could help me do that.  he encouraged me to find a religion that would “speak to me”, but to remember that “everything, no matter what religion, had the face of god.”  i love aran; i still continue to learn from him today, even though we haven’t spoken in many, many years.

i began my search in the western religions, the religion of my birth — catholocism.  i spent time with our priest and tried to diligently understand and “get into” catholicism.  it wasn’t right for me.  i investigated other western religions and then eventually investigated eastern religions — hinduism and buddhism.  many things appealed to me, but the personal relationship with christ was missing, which, for me, was very important.  after some time of diligent searching, i discovered through a friend, the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints.  after a long time of searching, i’ve found where i need to be.

when i converted, aran’s religious belief was that he helped me to get to a point in my life where i found the religion that was right for me.  his part was done and was counseled by his guru (guru veda) that i need to immerse myself in my newly-found faith and that find a mentor within my faith.  aran would stop being my mentor.  he and i haven’t spoken or communicated in many years.  i’m thanful to him for helping me.

after i converted, i served a full-time mission right out of high school; attended brigham young university where i studied philosophy and mathematics, with a minor in economics — i was awarded a full-ride academic scholarship; for graduate school, i attended the university of chicago, where i earned a master’s degree in computer science, with an emphasis in operations research. i could’ve completed a ms/phd with a Ph.D. from the graduate school of business at chicago and and MS from the school of computer science, but decided to terminate at a master’s degree in Computer Science and 1.5 years of coursework from the graduate school of business at chicago and enter the work force.

while an undergraduate and graduate student, i was completely self-supporting — not just myself, but i supported a young family of my wife, then eventually 3 children by the time i finished graduate school. we had ZERO financial help from family or anybody. i’m really happy for that experience, because it taught me diligence & hard work and, in my opinion, life skills that my silver-spooned counterparts have not yet learned, which I believe has made me excel faster in life and business than they have. i’m not completely resentful or have less respect of the silver-spooned, spoiled brat; just a little, though.

along the way of life, i married my high school sweetheart and now have a wonderful family together. i’ve been watched over and taken care of. i’ve been pretty much on my own and have been, in large part, self-sufficient since i was 14 years old. i’m really thankful for my life.

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