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Leafing through Joey Conception’s book Go Negosyo: 50
inspiring entrepreneurial stories, I found these awesome
entrepreneurial lessons. I will not paraphrase, but will quote
verbatim to capture the essence of the story written by Rafael
Ongpin since I don’t have primary data.
“Boni Comandante is simply a regular guy with
an idea. He wasn’t a scientist, but he made himself into one
to refine this idea and take it all the way. He is someone who
sees possibilities and, more importantly, turns them into realities.
“Boni puts fish to sleep which could be a
billion-dollar industry.
“Boni is no snake oil salesman—he is neither
glib nor slick. He is shy and you probably wouldn’t be able
to pick him out in a crowd. He is simply a regular guy with an
idea.
“Fish is all about freshness. The less
fresh a fish is, the less good it tastes. You can freeze fish,
which most commercial fishing operations do, moments after catching
them. But freezing, while preserving some measure of the
taste, can destroy the texture of fish, make it dry and crumbly or
slimy and sludgy, instead of firm and buttery. The best
fish to eat, then, is freshly caught. Many Chinese restaurants
specialize in this, with live fish tanks all over the entrance where
you can actually pick out a specific critter for your dinner.
But live fish is expensive. This is because in order to
transport a single live fish, you have to put it in water that is at
least three times its weight. It is a heavy proposition.
“It all started when Boni was born on the
island of Siquijor and grew up in Laguna with a clubfoot. As a
child, perhaps because of the extensive therapy he was required to
undergo that excluded him from sports, he read a great deal,
including an entire set of encyclopedias. He looks back, ‘I
think being born with that condition was, somehow, a gift. It
taught me to look at everything in a different way. It made me
reflective from a very early age. It taught me that there are
possibilities in almost everything.’
“He went to work for a government irrigatiuon
office, the Light Rail Transit and a livelihood-enhancement NGO that
posted him to a fishing community in Palawan where he developed a
system for flying fish live from Palawan in tanks straight to
Hongkong via chartered light airplanes.. One night, one of the
fishermen gave him a large, live lapu-lapu. As he was flying
out the next morning, he put the fish on top of an open cooler.
There was no water in the cooler, just a bit of ice. There was
something about the conditions in the cooler, something just right,
because the next morning, six hours later, the fish was still alive.
In fact, put back into a tank of water, it swam vigorously.
Boni wondered about this and tried to figure it out, but he
couldn’t.
“Returning to Manila, he then spent several
years running a successful network-based merchandising business.
Nonetheless, the fish incident still bothered him. He realized
the business opportunity in it if he could the process.
“He finally decided to go back to fishing and
back to school at Siliman University for a masters degree to add to
his agricultural engineering degree from UP Los Baños, After
much research, he found the conditions to enable fish to sleep up to
12 hours and graduated from the masteral program with honors.
“Boni quickly applied for local and global
patents on the process and he now is in the verge of a very
profitable business, Buhi Corporation.
Read the Joey’s book and get inspired 49 times
more. Keep your Christmas lights on.
INVITING all V. Mapa High School alumni to its
Grand Reunion & Ballroom Dancing tomorrow, Sunday, starting at 2
p.m. at Wack-Wack Golf & Country Club, Mandaluyong City.
CONGRATULATIONS to the 11 Blue Falcon Awardees this year for their
outstanding achievements in their chosen field. SPECIAL
INVITATION to members of Class ’64 to cheer Rear Adm (Ret.)
Edgardo M. Israel and this columnist for having passed the Screening
Committee with flying colors and being approved unanimously by the
Board of Judges to receive the Blue Falcon Award.
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innovationcamp@yahoo.com;
www.learningandinnovation.com
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