Defining Moment of Leader Josh

HI Prof,

Resending again my defining moment since I sent it previously as an attachment.

My Defining Moments

There are numerous defining moments that I can consider in my life starting from my childhood. I was born from a poor family wherein my father has no permanent job and my mother did different type of odd jobs to earn for living. Aside from this, my father is the typical character from a drama series with vices like heavy smoker, heavy drinker, womanizer and gambler. I can still remember a day wherein my mother did not stop finding ways to provide us food for lunch until 3 pm. I can't remember how she made it but this experience stuck in my mind and I consider it as one of my defining moments at an early age bearing your hunger without any assurance when to satisfy your empty stomach. This pushed me to earn for a living at an early age to help my mother. That time, my father was taken out of the picture since he was not really responsible enough to earn for a living. I did selling vegetables in the market, going house to house to sell banana cue, camote cue and ice candy. During weekends, I worked in a restaurant owned by my aunt as dishwasher and doing the errands. On summer time, we are selling 'halo-halo' everyday which preoccupied my vacation days while seeing other children going to the beach and playing in the streets the whole day. My childhood days are different from the normal one but I can't say that I did not enjoy it. Yes, I enjoyed it simply because my objective then was to help my mother for an additional income in my own little way. This experience taught me to be stronger at an early age and that poverty is not an excuse not to pursue your visions in life.

After graduation, I had my first job in a Filipino owned chemical company as a Shift Engineer. Being so determined to succeed, I did my best to be recognized and have permanent job. I was surprised that after 4 months, my boss handed my regularization with remarkable 50% salary adjustment. This pushed me to do even better day after day. My first year was really a challenging one since people are resistant to changes having been in the company for at least 10 years and some are in their 20 years and more compared to me as a neophyte. But little by little, my perseverance to introduce changes paid off after they have seen and felt the positive effect of those changes including the management. My presence was felt in every corner of the company including the owners. After a year, though there was no promotion, my boss who is the SVP for Operations involved me in management meetings and engaged me in planning. This exposure elated me personally and an assurance that in deed, I was doing a great job. But after almost 4 years, I decided to take another job with a Japanese company which is multinational for better opportunity. I was one of the pioneers who put up Yokohama Tires here in Clark. I started out as Chief Supervisor and year after year had been promoted up to the highest Filipino Manager of the company.

Another defining moment I can consider during my almost 8 years in Yokohama is when I stood alone on not regularizing the son of our President's housekeeper due to poor performance. At that time, the company is on the stage of rebuilding the loyalty of people after a failed attempt to put up a union. For him (the President), he is 100% sure that this guy will not join the left wing group in another attempt to put up the union. Our HR Manager then was encouraging me to just accommodate the request of the President. I told the President that no one will ever dare to be in my shoe during that moment, declining to do favor for the President and explaining why. Yes, I could have chosen to make things easier and simpler by doing a favor. But for me, what I did was to protect his name and the interest of the company. A lot of employees knew that the 'guy' is personally picked by the President and it will create a bigger 'issue' if this guy will be regularized despite his poor performance. For months, I have to bear the 'cold' treatment of the President but one day he realized the decision I made and thanked me for being brave enough to say 'NO' to him. This experience taught to decide based on the best interest of the company even if this decision will make you unpopular to many especially to the President.

I got married at the age of 31 since I made sure that my mother has a comfortable life before building my own family. After a year we had our eldest then 4 years after we were blessed with another boy. By then, we really wanted to have a baby girl and luckily after another 4 years, our youngest came, a girl who completed our joy. We were very happy until one day, 3 months after she was diagnosed with a tiny hole in her heart that could lead to an open heart surgery at very young age. From that day on, I have to wear mask and act to be strong in front of my wife and kids that everything will be alright. For 7 months before she had to undergo open heart surgery at the age of 10 months, I have to endure the pain inside and stay strong as I could. The most painful moment was when the day came for her surgery. At 6 am that day, by the time I handed my daughter to the anesthesiologist having my last touch, I felt like all my strength was taken away and wanted to cry as hard as I could but I just can't. But on the positive note, I believed that my strength was passed on to my daughter for her to be strong enough to go through this surgery. The doctor advised us that it will take about 5-6 hours but after 3 hours we were called by the doctors. At first, my wife was crying so hard thinking that something bad happened but this time, I was not wearing my mask and confident enough that the surgery went well and successful. True enough, the doctors congratulated us since our daughter was brave and strong and did very well. This was truly a life changing moment not only to me and my wife but to the whole family. I consider this as the most difficult journey that I and my wife had gone through. Then I realized that there are instances in our life that we need to wear mask behind our weaknesses to give comfort to others. This is what leader envisions and doing during difficult times. They seek peace and comfort because people depend on their strength and there's no room for them to show weakness.

All the struggles that I have been through all these years molded me on what and who I am now. I am currently working with a US company as Plant Manager and hopefully get a greater responsibility worldwide. I am happily married for 15 years with 3 kids studying in a prestigious school here in Angeles. We just moved to our new home 3 months ago in a well-known subdivision also in Angeles and all of these achievements are part of my clear vision in life starting from an early age.

Thanks,

Leader Josh

3  Thanks submitting as requested.  Have a great day Leader Josh