Have you ever heard the lines to this ad from Apple, “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

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?

One of the biggest gifts that writing this column have given me is that it has put me in touch with a lot of people. I have met a lot of successful people and their stories have fascinated me. How they began, what was their driving force, and how did they succeed. It always fills me with humility and surprise when I hear about how they struggled. It fills a lot of people with disbelief because we normally don’t think about the concept of struggle.

Successful entrepreneurs are familiar with the concept of struggle because it leads to the development of character. One of the most popular sayings is, “whatever does not kill you can only make you stronger.” Helen Keller once said “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved .” Majority of young people today have a very strong aversion to the concept of struggle. In an age where everything is fast and convenient, why is there the need to struggle?

I once received an email about an eightyone year old man reminiscing about his life. This 81 year old man was reminiscing about his life in front of a room full of strangers. He was giving a speech talking about how he had lived his life. He spoke candidly of how he wrestled with struggle for most of his life. It was a powerful and fitting message for young people.

Let me tell you about the life of this eightyone year old man. He grew up in Cebu the son of a wealthy family whose family owned a chain of movie houses. When he was thirteen, his father suddenly died of typhoid. Right there and then, his life of privilege was exchanged for a life of poverty. A thirteen year old suddenly came face to face with the concept and consequences of debt. It was a hard and bitter transition.

The first two years after his fathers death, his mother tried to make ends meet by sending his siblings back to their home province in China. The little boy of thirteen went to work. First by roasting and selling peanuts from their backyard to setting up a stall at the public market selling basic goods. At the age of fifteen, he was able to consistently make enough money to feed his mother and himself as well as send assistance for his siblings.

After a while, he decided to risk everything by trading in tires between Manila and Cebu. This would entail riding a small boat to the nearest point in Luzon and then enduring a hard six hour truck ride to Manila. When he had sold all his tires, he would then use his profits to buy goods that he could sell back in Cebu. This young man who was not even twenty years old that time accomplished all this with World War II as a backdrop, living in constant fear of being robbed or worse, losing his life.

After the war, at the age of twenty, he put up his own company selling everything from old newspapers to fruits and vegetables. This was his start. From there, he branched out into corn starch manufacturing which eventually led into snack foods.

Today, we travel more as a nation because of his vision. Cebu Pacific pioneered the low price fare strategy that has allowed air travel to be affordable to more people. We communicate more frequently because of his passion. Sun Cellular has blazed the way using promotions that allowed more people to talk to each other for less. His many products are a part of our lives because of his dreams. C2 created a whole new segment of the drinks industry and shocked the giants.

His companies have established a reputation as monopoly busters. Whenever he enters a business, the public can be assured that they will end up getting better prices and services . The eightyone year old man I am talking about is Cebu’s very own John Gokongwei. Who he is and what he has accomplished are already stuff of legend. But where he came from and what he did to get to where he is needs to be told more.

John Gokongwei said, “But to be a truly great nation, we must also excel as entrepreneurs before the world.” I believe that he has done so much to inspire the next generation of young entrepreneurs. A lot of times when we look at successful men, we fail to look deeper into their beginnings. If we did that, we would discover that we too have chances of doing it. They were not born successful, but they were able to make something with what they had. They struggled and in their struggle, they were able to build the character needed to propel them forward.

Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at stirspecialist@gmail.com , or visit www.stirspecialist.blogspot.com

I met a very interesting Filipino last Saturday. I emphasize “Filipino” because that is the best way to proudly call Atty. Alex Lacson, who was one of two keynote speakers of the 3rd Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit (AFLBS) held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel last weekend. Atty. Alex is best known as the writer of the book, “12 little things every Filipino can do to help our country.” In that book, he described 12 little things that we should do that if all done collectively will automatically restore our pride as a people.

The premise for this came from the book “The Tipping Point : How little things can make a difference” written by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote about the high rates of criminality in three decades (1960 to 1990) of the city of New York. A lot of solutions were already tried and had proven futile until 2 police consultants proposed a radical social experiment. They proposed to clean up the city’s subway train system. They cleaned up all the graffiti and painted all the trains and surroundings sparkling clean. They improved the lighting and posted policemen. Believe it or not, this caused the crime rate to fall dramatically in the subway system and contributed to a 65% drop in crimes in the City.

It does make sense. According to Gladwell, “do not underestimate the power of little things.” In the Philippines, we can see the disparity in the average rates of crime in slum areas versus gawad kalinga villages, There is almost practically no crime rate in the latter villages. GK has a simple premise, the idea that bright colors uplift the dreary atmosphere to which the poor have become accustomed, and this uplifting fosters improvement in their lives. That’s why GK houses and villages are very colorful.

Atty Alex applies the same principles to our wounded Filipino psyche. In order to combat the prevailing sense of apathy and helplessness, he proposes to do 12 little things that will rekindle our sense of civic duty as well as slowly spark our national pride. They are as follows: