Reflection Paper 1My Defining Moments by Leader Karen Kay Guanzon

MY DEFINING MOMENTS

Karen Kay L. Guanzon

            There are three significant defining moments in my life.

1 First one is when I conceived my daughter when I was just 18 years old. On the day I had her, I knew everything will change in my life. I was a college student that time; I became more pressured to finish my studies and look for a job. I became a single parent; although my parents are there to support me, I knew within me that I need to strive hard in order to give my daughter a good future.

            

2. The second significant moment in my life is when I started working at our family business. My father asked me to resign on my job in able to help in our business. That time was the peak of my career on my first job, my boss was offering me a promotion. I was in a dilemma whether to take my boss's offer or go with what my father wants. I came into a decision wherein I did what my father asked me to do, thinking that I need to make it up to him from what I did (being a parent at an early age). I thought I will have a future on our family business, I thought I will learn a lot from it and be able to grow to becoming a great leader. But that did not happened, instead I felt that I do not made any sense on the company, one of the main reason is because they cannot give me a specific role and responsibility. I have nothing to do and I cannot make any decisions for the company. The time came when I became lazy and did not go to work every day and I only stay for a short time in the office. What hurts me most is when my brother and cousin talked to me and discussed my work ethics, my cousin told me that I am not a good example to the employees, that I just add up on the problems of the company and they cannot see my worth. I felt so down and depressed, those words run in my mind for a long time and my life was affected because of it. But that instance also gave me the eagerness to stand on my own and look at the possibilities on handling my own business. Late last year I was offered by Coca-Cola Philippines to be a delivery partner in one of the town in Pampanga. I was lucky that they gave me the town near where I and my family leaves. I was quite nervous to push through with it but my father helped me to pursue the business. He financed my business, helped on building the warehouse, helped looking for the routing units and even helped me to get some of the permits I needed. And so KLG Traders successfully opened last September 8, 2014.

            

3 The last defining moment in my life just happened last February 15, 2015; we lost my father, our superman, our shock absorber and our protector. That moment is a big life changing for me. I've been with him all throughout my life and I am not ashamed to say that I am dependent on him. I entered the world of business and enrolled in MBA because of him; he is my inspiration for both of this. Because of his death, I was stacked, I didn't know where and how to start again. I became compliant to the point that I don't go to my office and I somehow lost care with what is happening on my business. I also stopped studying and did not enrolled, I actually have no plans on going back at school before, but the people I love pushed me to continue my studies because that is what my father wants. My dad became proud of me when I entered MBA and when I successfully opened my business; that is what made me pursue everything I am doing before he died. Although I am still coping with what happened, I am now slowly picking up myself.

            Those three episodes in my life made me stronger. I may be pessimist most of the time but I know my life experiences helped me survive all the trials and challenges that came and will come my way. I can say that somehow I also became matured and now I am most likely deciding on my own especially for my business.

            After reading the article of Peter Parker, "Leading from within", I had a lot of realization. One of this is me not being an effective leader, because I got 4 of the 5 shadows inside. I was very shocked to know that all of those shadows cannot help me on becoming a great leader. I felt the need to learn more about how to become a true leader and how to use my life experiences to be one. Now I will make it a point to make all the heartaches and headaches I experienced an inspiration to be better on handling things in the present and in the future. I will not make everything against me and I will make sure to seek help from the people around me and people around my business especially when I cannot handle things anymore. And I will put in mind what Parker Pilmer said; and I quote "We need to remember that all the great spiritual traditions, when you boil them down, are saying one simple thing: BE NOT AFRAID!". I will not make my fears dominate me and stop me on pursuing my goals and dreams.

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