A lot of readers emailed me to tell me that they were very inspired about the story of John Gokongwei. But one particular reader Andre commented, “The times were different then, can we still be able to do that?” I remember a saying Zig Ziglar made, “It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.”

I recently attended our first Crocs dealer conference in Cagayan. The origin of Crocs footwear in the world is an amazing story. The origin of Crocs in the Philippines is an unbelievable story.

It was started by a group of friends in Cagayan led by Carlo “Toot-Toot” Limjuco. In early 2004, Carlo saw a friend wearing a pair of Crocs Beach Clogs. He was intrigued by the unusual shape. He asked his friend on what it was. His friend explained and let him try it on. He really liked it and found it to be very comfortable. Later that night, he emailed Crocs and inquired as to where could he buy a pair. The response was, “ We have no plans of coming to Asia, but if we do, we will let you know.”

But Toot-Toot really wanted a pair. Later that year, his wife Diana was to fly to the United States for vacation, he asked her to bring him back a pair. When he finally received the pair, he liked it so much that he emailed Crocs, “I finally got a pair and have not taken them off since.” There was no reply.

In July 2005, he received an email from Crocs. “We are planning to come to Asia and Manila, would he be interested to meet?” He immediately replied, “YES!” and that led to a series of overseas calls that culminated in a meeting in Manila in September. Toot-Toot convinced his close friend Jeff to accompany him from Cagayan to Manila. They met Tom from Crocs USA. They had a meeting in Mandarin. He challenged them, “Are you willing to throw away your shoes and wear Crocs?.” “Yes!” They replied in excitement. Jeff took off his shoes and threw them away. The next thing they knew was that they had ordered their first shipment of 1,200 pairs that was scheduled to arrive in December that year.

Toot-Toot gathered his closest friends, Jeff, Mark, Franco, Warren and Ranvi. Together they were able to scrape enough funds to pay for the first shipment. They made the leap of faith, relying on Toot-Toot’s positive attitude that they could do this.

When the first shipment arrived, they did not know how to sell the product. Toot-Toot literally started selling them from the trunk of his old Toyota Corolla. He tracked down relatives, friends and long lost acquaintances to convince them of the virtues of the most comfortable shoe you will ever wear. He remembers that a lot of his friends would literally walk the other way when they saw him. They thought that he had gone insane.

They managed to sell off the whole shipment in a month and a half. A second shipment soon followed that arrived in March the following year. They sold that in a month. They made the ultimate leap of faith when they opened the first Crocs store in the Philippines in December 2006 at a completely new development called Bonifacio High Street, at The Fort. This was the start. Today two years later, Crocs Philippines has concept stores in almost all major malls all over the country, and is considered to be one of the fastest growing footwear lines all over the world.

Crocs is a fantastic story of going in with positive attitude. So Andre, yes it is still possible to make your own story. What is important is to always have the positive attitude that, “Yes, we can do this!” Always keep in mind what Dr. Seuss said, "Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way." So what are you waiting for?