New from UP ISSI/SERDEF

Dreamers, Doers, Risktakers Part 3 -
THE MICROS THAT ROARED!

Edited by Ruperto C. Alonzo, Myrna R. Co and Gloria S. Recio

“Ed and Ver are a good-looking couple, happy together at work, at home and at leisure. Through a trusted sales network, their slippers have “walked far” – reaching Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Occidental Mindoro, Samar and Leyte. And even Shoe Mart.”

“Jun broke away from the family tradition of teaching to try one business after another, until he set up a handmade-paper making enterprise. He then parlayed his Papel Nueba Ecija from a business that initially did not have buyers into one that has begun to export.”

“Luz is the youngest of five children born to a copra worker and a housewife in Sorsogon. Her life became harder when she lost her mother at age 12. Today, Luz is a picture of contentment. Her family lives a good life.”

These are not the protagonists of a best-selling fiction. They are real people, four of the “Dreamers, Doers, Risk-takers “ featured in the “Micros that Roared!” --, the third volume of articles on successful entrepreneurs published jointly by the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation, Inc (SERDEF) and the University of the Philippines Institute for Small Scale Industries (UP ISSI). Written in clear and simple language by the writers of UP ISSI, the 190-page book captures the drama of 25 lives that battled all odds – abject poverty , lack of skills, family disapproval, personal tragedies – to craft decent lives for themselves and their families through micro businesses such as slipper-making, fish-trading, soap-making, native delicacies, peanuts, food-processing, to name a few.. So successful is the narrative style that the reader gets personally involved in the ups and downs and the twists and turns of the fortunes of the featured personalities.

The reader travels with the entrepreneurs from pain to pain (suffered because of deaths in the family, fire, or business losses), from failed ventures to victories, small and big (such as discovery of new recipe, or opening new markets, or increase in volume of sales, or acquisition of new property), from rejection (because of poverty ) to redemption (when the business succeeds, an entrepreneur forgives those who wronged her, an arrogant fish trader finds her “better self” after suffering business reverses), and from zero resources to a taste of abundance.

Set mostly in impoverished circumstances and environment familiar to Filipino readers, from Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon, and spiced with vernacular terms, the stories deliver a theme that strikes home and lifts the spirit of every Filipino reader, rich or poor. The book resonates with the strong message that there is power in our hands to transcend the limitations of the elements of our nature and nurture, provided we take responsibility for our lives and have the courage to break down the barriers that keep us from what we want to become. For exemplifying these virtues, these entrepreneurs did not only earn profits but also won awards from microfinance and other support agencies.

“The Micros that Roared” is not about lions or tigers; not even about their cubs. It is about former “kittens” – little lives, powerless people, voiceless creatures – who later packed themselves with muscles and bones, and possibly with vocal chords that allow them to roar, worth their weight in human values, if not gold. The reader cannot miss the values that bind these 25 individuals like genes - hard work, determination, sense of honor (paying debts religiously and promptly). And a lot of heart, too.. Much of that heart goes out to the workers and family who lent a hand as the enterprise crawled and toddled in the beginning, and continues to play that role even as the venture picks up speed. Many of the respondents effusively give credit to their of their staff whom they treat as family. Part of that heart is reserved for the microfinance agencies that provided and still provide the much-needed capital at the most crucial times – Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Claveria Agribased Multipurpose Cooperative, Enterprise Bank, Kabalikat sa Maunlad na Buhay, Micro Enterprise Bank, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Opportunity Microfinance Bank, People’s Alternative Livelihood Foundation of Sorosogon, and Urban Program for Livelihood Finance and Training.

If you are looking for a how-to book, this is not for you. There are few lessons here on entrepreneurial skills and techniques. The UP ISSI has published other books for that purpose. This book is for those who are looking for a ray of sunshine in their poverty-stricken lives and those who are in search for meaning in a string of bad luck either in their personal lives or in their business ventures. The life stories are for both beginning and seasoned entrepreneurs who delight in the insights gained from the experiences of those who make it big in similar situations. . Also, because it is easy and interesting reading, peopled by ordinary human beings who experience ordinary human feelings such as joy and pain but who bring a dimension of specialness into that ordinariness, this volume is for everyone, young or old, who finds inspiration from lives that prevail.

Long after you have finished reading “The Micros that Roared”, you may still hear the purring of the kitten that has found its sweet voice. Or is that a tiger (or lion) cub?

By Edna Flor M de los Santos