I’m proud to say that the Philippines is indeed the next Silicon Valley or Shenzhen—Facebook, Google, AirBnB, Uber, to fresh tech start-ups and modern developments unfolding each day—they’re all here and it’s all happening. You can see it. You can feel it.
In the Philippines today, I meet so many entrepreneurs with innovative ideas—dreams and aspirations to further develop or create the next brilliant technology that aims to revolutionize the World—and working with Filipino engineers, programmers, and designers along the way. From young to old, from all over the World, I’ve encountered people coming to the Philippines to turn their dreams into reality and create their products.
As I’ve sat in these meetings and read through countless emails, I’m so optimistic about what’s taking place in our country. I’ve been pitched remarkable products to invest in and advise on. In each meeting, I’ve constantly advised all of these dreamers, movers, and shakers the importance of accomplishing these things—collaborate, partner up, understand your strengths and weaknesses, focus, stay passionate, and thus—find the likeminded people—the talent that will help your idea become truly transcendent. And transcendent need not only be defined to the next big thing—but can be that food cart or community organization that employs even just 1 person in the province.
For every Nikola Tesla, there needs to be a Thomas Edison to bring power to each home on Earth. For every Mark Zuckerberg, there needs to be a Sean Parker to scale your product beyond your original borders. For every industry, such as the auto industry, there are people like Elon Musk who aim to shake things up. In the World of business and innovation, no one does it alone, period. No idea was completed in singularity despite our fascinations with the brilliant lone inventor—the mad scientist who exists out of our own societal norms and institutional bubble of innovation that creates, say for example, the internet.
We all, in some shape or form carve the path for the innovations of future generations. As Tesla once wrote in the year 1900, “The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter–for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way.”
In order for our great nation, the Philippines to truly level up, become great, and reach the heights we’ve always hoped and prayed it would finally realize, we all need to work together. It’s important to me. It’s important for you—it’s important for our future. So build something. Start it today because it’s not just about tomorrow or next week—it’s about 5, 10, 100 years from now.
That is why in this issue, we bring to you the incredible vision and performance of St. Luke’s Medical Center, the gold standard of healthcare in the Philippines. Read about how St. Luke’s Medical Center is at the forefront of servicing the global medical tourism industry in the Philippines. Understanding the vision and quality of St. Luke’s Medical Centers, I am supremely confident that the Philippines will soon become one of the top 5 biggest countries in the medical tourism industry—after all, we as a nation truly have it all. Filipinos are known to deliver world-class healthcare outside of the Philippines—and it’s time we’re known to deliver it at home as well, for everyone.
Collaboration and focus are two things that I constantly advise and push my son on as he directs our new projects, the Balikbayan Program and the Love of Country Network which are lofty endeavors that he and I hope will help all Filipino businessmen and women succeed in all industries locally and internationally.
Because great ideas are just that—great ideas. It requires a team of people to transform, unite, and make the World a better place—isn’t that what we’re all here for anyway?—To make the World a better place than how we entered it? And that precisely is what Love of Country is truly all about.
Our bodies have 35 trillion cells. And as the older we get, the rate of aging increases exponentially. But combining and uniting each of our 35 trillion cells into one cohesive energy and project, the results can be long lasting—a legacy. For an institution to be created, we must combine these trillions of forces working together.
