Posts tagged character

EQ is your Emotional Quotient; it’s how well you handle your emotions in times of distress. Research says that EQ is 24 times more powerful than IQ. Wow! No wonder people are so illogical. How many times have you heard the line…I Love You…only to see the relationship end. Statistics say that this happens to 50% of married couples. Sad.

Going back to our failed business adventure, with all the problems brewing, the worst is when I have to talk to seven investors who lost all their money. Around P300, 000 to P800, 000 each. This is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done in my professional life. I can still recall the agony of it all. The sleepless nights! The fear of receiving a text message from them…or worse a call. My experience made me so much tougher mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Good thing I didn’t need to be tougher physically as there were no glasses or fists thrown at me.

(I’ll share some tips about this in a future blog entitled How to talk with angry people. Can you think of a better title in a situation like this? Guess not.)

John Maxwell sums up the importance of our emotions in his book Failing Forward. He mentions that “There is one major difference between average people and successful people … it’s their reaction to failure.”

Kat was due in three weeks. I found out that the remaining balance we owe for our leased space in a certain mall was around P350, 000. Our bankrupt company has P100, 000 left, so it took me another 2 weeks to raise the remaining P250, 000 deficit. Lo and behold when I returned with the full balance, accounting told me that there is an interest of P70, 000 for the 2 weeks delay. For those of you less cunning readers, that’s an interest of P5, 000 per day. Our store is already close at this time with no operation.

I talked to the lease managers several times almost begging them not to add interest. All to No Avail! (I won’t mention which mall did this. Lets just say that they were this greedy even though, “They have it All!”)

I had to drain all our savings to lend it to the company so that we can start dismantling the facility w/ no further interest & sell the dismantled items. Money I was reserving for Kat’s delivery.

First rule in adversity: Never Panic! I forced my mind to think of ways to raise money without incurring any more debt. After three days, our hospital bill came out at P85, 000. When all was said and done, we ended up having almost three times the amount we needed. In three Days!

When your facing incredible odds toward success, think of your love ones so that you can get strength from the adversity. And do not stop believing in yourself because if you do, then no one will. By the way, after two years, the mall hasn’t found anyone to rent our space until now.

I love this quote by Charles Spurgeon “It is doubtful that God can use a man greatly until he has wounded him deeply.”

A successful businessman who has grown his business from an SME to a Large Corporation told me that in business or life just like in war, you should be proud when you have battle scars, “Lalo kang gumagwapo!” I told him if that was the case…I should look like Brad Pitt by now.

Your character gets stronger through adversity as it reveals to you who you really are as a person. As you squeeze an orange to get its juice; adversity can squeeze life out of you for better or for worse. Because of the trials you are facing, you will discover a part of you that you’ve never known existed…from a child you become a man, from a mouse you become a lion, from being hopeless you become hopeful, and from being fearful you become someone whose fearless!

Nowadays whenever I have big problems, I would just recall my failed business experience and without exception it will bring a smile to my face making me optimistic to deal with the challenges I have today.

Negative Example:

According to the author, prior to 9/11, he used to arrive half an hour before take off. But after 9/11, it takes him an hour and a half for domestic flights and 2 to 3 hours before an international flight to make sure he has enough time to clear security. There is also a new 9/11 security tax with every ticket bought. So as trust went down, speed also went down and cost went up.

Positive Example:

Warren Buffet—-CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and currently the third richest man in the world, (Behind 1Carlos Helu and 2Bill Gates) made a major acquisition of Mclane Distribution (a $23 billion company) from Wal-mart. Typically, a merger this size would take several months to complete and cost several million dollars. But since the 2 companies operated in high trust, the deal was made with one two-hour meeting and a handshake. In less than a month, it was completed. Wow! 1 month instead of 6 or more with no due diligence costs. High Trust, high speed, low cost.

Personal Example:

Our first restaurant would probably take 3-5 years to generate the income needed to enable us to start a second branch. But because of the Trust Formula, I was able to acquire the capital of P5 million in just 3 weeks. I’ll share the details when we talk about “Competence” and “Raising Capital.”

I mentioned in my last post that Character is synonymous to trust. Here is a formula to illustrate my point. I discovered this formula from the book “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen M. R. Covey, son of best-selling author Stephen Covey of 7 Habits fame.

Here’s a simple formula that will enable you to take trust from an intangible and unquantifiable variable to an indispensable factor that is both tangible and quantifiable. The formula is based on this critical insight: Trust always affects two outcomes: speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed will also go down and costs will go up.

↓Trust=↓Speed ↑Cost

↑Trust=↑Speed ↓Cost

When trust goes up, speed will also go up and costs will go down.

“Character is seen when no one is looking.”

A Husband was watching T.V. when he felt a sharp pain at his back; when he turn around it was his wife with a cooking pan.

Husband: Why did you hit me?

Wife: I was fixing your things and I found a piece of paper with the name Isabella. Who is she?

Husband: Isabella…don’t you know that if it wasn’t for Isabella we won’t have any food on the table?

Wife: What do you mean?

Husband: Isabella is the name of the horse I bet on…We WON!

Wife: Oh is that true?

Husband: Yes! Next time ask me first before you accuse me of anything.

After one month, the husband was watching T.V. again when he felt a sharper pain at his back; when he turn around it was his wife with a bigger cooking pan.

Husband: Why did you hit me again?

Wife: Your horse…Isabella…is on the telephone.

How many problems occur because of character issues? Ability will bring you success and give you a head start in the short term; but it is character in the long term that will make that level of success sustainable. Character is vital for maintaining a long-term relationship with your employees, your investors, your suppliers, everybody!!!

Character can be synonymous to trust. Trust is the foundation of all relationship. Without trust, there is no relationship, whether you think you do or not. You can build it for years but lose it for a night. It’s hard to secure but easy to destroy. It is established by making countless good decisions but can crumble with just a bad one.

Some may believe that subjects like character, integrity, or trust is only useful for motivational talks. I beg to disagree. Having character can be very profitable. I’ll share a tried and proven formula on my next blog that will utterly change your mind.