Ang lider ay dapat makapal ang mukha

'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Rizal Philippines
December 2, 2015

The recent political events reenforced my earlier missive to student leaders who talked about privacy issues regarding the posting of their life stories at this site.  I said, "if you are to be leader, a student of leadership, dapat makapal ang mukha" (thick skinned) You must be courageous and brave to be a leader.  As a matter of fact,that comes as a result of your passion.  You must strongly desire to be a leader if you must be a successful leader

Thus Grace Poe in her bid for Presidency faced 4 DQ cases. This is on top of her case with HRET. And she had to face the agony of facing the truth as to whether Bongbong Marcos is her brother ie that she is not only a foundling but a bastard.  And she must face that squarely, not to mention that her husband, and her children are involved in this fray.  And talk about Duterte, who may be too makapal.  But we are glad that he was not shy to mention that he is Viagra user, he has been child molested, has two wives and two girl friends.  Erap as known to have joked vs FVR followers that while FVR is ashamed of his lady, Erap is proud of the women in his life.

We have learned that there are dangers to leadership. As a leader pursue change, there are adaptive challenges and those who refuse to follow or do not agree (as a leader can not please all) to neutralize the originator of change, he could be neutralized by the oppositors/adversaries by all means.  And the leader must be brave enough, thick skinned, strong willed to overcome the opposition.  If you value your privacy, then you must not even think of leadership. As you pursue to lead and influence, then your life, you the leader becomes a public property.

Thus those who requested anonymity with their papers (they requested that their submission be taken off line for privacy issues, in a petition) do no have my respect, nor should they be proud of violating their learning agreement

Mark Zuckerberg and wife donate 99% of their Facebook stock for a cause/advocacy/initiative

'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Rizal Philippines
December 2, 2015

From Huffington Post

On the occasion of the birth of their child, Max, Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla, are donating 99% of their Facebook stock to a cause named Chan Priscilla Initiative.  It will focus on "personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities."

It was sort of a letter addressed to their baby, saying that there is so much this generation can do for the children to have a better world. It resonates well with the song "Greatest Love of All"

Reflection:

1.  This is the kind of thing we want our student leaders, to  find out their passion, to fill in the needs of this world.  This is what we want to address as we make our brainstorming (mind mapping).  There is so much to be done that neither civil society nor business, nor government has addressed.

2.  This is the area of concern of social entrepreneurship, where CSR and business principles meet.

3.   This is the kind of passion, the right kind of passion, the calling that is nice to see among our business leaders in the likes of Bill Gates, Warrent Buffett, and now Mark Zuckerberg.  The wealth and the gifts that they got, so huge are ultimately to be used for the benefit of mankind.  All in keeping with Genesis,1:28. ie that we are all mandated to take care of the creation of this world. As we, like Mark are blessed to be in the corridor of wealth and power, we too find that ultimately, wealth must be used to benefit not just our personal wants and needs, but the world,

4.  As with regards to his vision, mission in life one begins to think:

     1.  Did Mark start out with the idea that his mission is to help heal the world and/or make it better for future generation?

     2.  Was getting rich/very wealthy all ready a planned trajectory?   Or was it serendepity?

     3.  Or was it the birth of his son Max, make him rethink his objective, mission in life.   Now that that is clear to him, will he become richer, or will this new advocacy slow him down in his journey of wealth creation.

    Are your purpose/s in life clear to you as of now?

We have a student in MM and Clark whose advocacies are very clear to them. Their higher purpose.
Our good doctor Leader in Clark has a foundation to send poor students, and even their maid to school.  We have Cath espousing taking care of  abandoned pets.

As I publish this post, I am pursuing in our organization, lower and affordable memorialization costs via cremation, BC rentals and the like.  I would like to be given two more decades to live, so that whatever can be earned can be used in the pursuit of lower health care and simply helping others through a foundation, those who really have nothing  - for food, fare, place to sleep, clothes, etc.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Regis Cebu Leadership Leader PL Castañeda Defining Moments Reflection Paper 1 (Revised)

Regis Cebu Leadership

Reflection Paper 1: Defining Moments (Revised)

by Leader Pedro Leonard Castañeda

Normally, being assigned to write a reflection paper is a source of joy for me. Writing has always been one of my biggest forms of release, and over time, I have learned to be proficient in elucidating my thoughts in a relatively coherent manner. However, this one, which should have been the easiest, since it is all about myself, has become one of the hardest to start.

They say  that a person is made up of the sum of all his experiences, both good and bad, including how he acts and reacts at certain junctures in his life. Having lived for four decades, there are several times that stand out in my life's journey, some as low points and some as high points.  Some say it is not the experiences that make a man, but how a man acts at that moment in time. At the same time, however, the experience itself, combined with realizations or self-justifications that inevitably follow one's reflection of past actions, can and does shape how one thinks and acts when presented with similar circumstances.

Sometimes, it isn't a moment, but a person. Or perhaps it is a series of moments with significant persons.

Much of what I am right now is somehow related to my father, and indeed, he serves as a point of reference in many significant moments I've had in the past, but first, a little background:

I was born out of wedlock. My father was a married man, 15 years older than my mom, and an executive in a multinational oil company. Six months after I was born, I was whisked off to my maternal grandmother's family in Mindanao, where I stayed until I finished grade school. My grandparents kept me in the dark about my real family situation, only telling me that my father was often assigned overseas. I had old letters and pictures, and he sent regular financial support for me. It was only in my fifth or sixth grade when I learned that I was an illegitimate child.

I transferred to Manila in high school, having been the only child in my province to pass the two entrance exams of Philippine Science High School, and soon after arriving, I asked my mother if she could arrange for me to meet my dad. She consented, and we met over dinner in Hyatt Hotel in Roxas boulevard. I felt with mixed emotions: resentment at being practically abandoned and disowned, and excitement about meeting my dad. After dinner and small talk, my mother picked me up. I remember my dad asking to talk about my future, only to be cut off by a brief, "there's nothing to talk about, Pete" from my mom. 

Had anyone asked me, there would have been a lot to talk about, but nobody bothered to ask the opinion of a 12-year old boy. I guess that's when I started feeling resentful towards my mother, a feeling that I still have until this day. Looking back at it as I write this, I am mindful of the fact that she put her pride first over my own welfare. We had very little means: she had a part-time job and was living in a rented room. I would say that this was a "defining moment for me," because the lesson that stuck was that of pragmatism: always consider the practical component of your decision.

Sometimes, it is better to swallow your pride in order for you to gain benefit. Maybe I learned the lesson in the wrong way, because in many instances, it has allowed me to see value in compromising principle for material gain. Processing it now, maybe what I should have learned is to stand on your principles - but also make sure that you deliver what you promised.

Before entering college, I made sure that I would meet my father again, and this time, asked him to support me financially, to which he consented. He had just taken an early retirement from his previous company, so he said while there wasn't much, he would still help me.

Because of his family, our relationship was pretty awkward. To get my allowance, I would call his home to arrange for us to meet, and never use my real name. Over the phone, I was "Alan," a younger friend who played chess with him. His wife knew about me, and knew it was me, but we kept that charade for the sake of my half-sisters. There was even a time in Makati when we met a family friend of theirs, and he introduced me as his nephew. I hated him for that, but because I needed his money, I just kept much of this to myself. Truth be told, I liked those few hours when I was with him: riding his car, listening to his stories about his trips abroad were interesting and exciting to me, and made me forget the drab apartment where I eventually had to go home to. I still remember that one time when he drove me all the way to UP, and some of my friends saw me get off the car. I just smiled and told them it was my dad who took me there.

This whole stretch of time was a complicated slew of experiences to me: I wasn't dumb, but my issues in life affected my studies, and my insecurities about not having a "real" family led me to seek for it through friends and a fraternity. I generally underperformed, telling myself how "deprived" I was of what I should have been entitled to.

There was one more incident in college that profoundly influenced me. Our fraternity was in a fight with another group, and I was in a dormitory with 4 other fraternity brothers when our opponents came for us. There were at least 25 of them, in 5-6 vehicles. 3 of my companions were outside the dorm, while 2 of us were inside. I panicked and hid myself in a locker while my 3 brothers engaged our opponents. They could have slipped off in the dark, but they decided to stand their ground. I eventually confessed to our team leader and was disciplined by the fraternity, which dropped me from the rolls. For a few months, I was a "barbarian," shunned by my own. This changed when we got into another fight and one of my batchmates was killed while they were having lunch. When I visited the wake, my fraternity reinstated me in front of his coffin. These two incidents "taught" me that I should never back down even in the face of insurmountable odds. True enough, the other fights I got in taught me that I could use rage (I was a very angry person back then) to silence my fears and make me deaf to the beating of my heart. The lesson here for me, at that time, was to never back down from a fight. Better a death with valor than life with cowardice.

Funny how, looking back, this lesson is the exact opposite to the lesson of pragmatism that I learned earlier. Time, however, has taught me the value of prudence and circumspection, and how diplomacy is not necessarily a manifestation of cowardice.

Later on, when I had started working, I told my dad that I no longer required an allowance, but I would like to meet him every now and then. That's when we started becoming friends. Unfortunately, it would not last, because soon after that, he stopped communicating altogether. I thought he was vacationing abroad with my half-siblings, but after about 6 months of silence, I gathered the nerve to call his house. His wife answered and told me that he died last June (it was November). They published an obituary and tried to find me, but they didn't know where I was. Of course, that's half-true. While she didn't consent to meet me, she at least told me where he was buried. I went there with my girlfriend but there was no closure: only anger and bitterness. I was angry and bitter towards him for leaving me just when I was starting to feel love for him, and angry with God for taking him from me too soon.

Later on, I went back to college (I was expelled by UP after I was caught carrying a deadly weapon in a fight) and in 2003, while in Iligan, where I took up and finished a degree in Sociology, I met a childhood friend, and renewed our friendship. She became my girlfriend, and, in January 2004, she became my wife.

 In April 2004, we moved to Manila and stayed there for a while, looking for employment, to no avail. My wife was eventually forced to go back to her job in Iligan. I stayed in Manila, still looking for a job, virtually penniless save for some cash from my mom and from some well-meaning fraternity brothers. I also attended a Bible study (out of sheer curiosity) begun by some of my alumni fraternity brothers and I was quite surprised at the changes I saw in their lives.

At this time, I was also jobless and far from my wife. I was miserable and penniless, and in despair, I cried out to God. This was the beginning of my "homecoming". I started to pray again and read my Bible. I slowly, and a bit inconsistently, started going to church again, which was a surprise to many of my college friends, since I was an angry agnostic before.

I eventually got a job offer in Cebu and have been here since 2004, rising slowly through the ranks to eventually head one of our branches. Marriage, and a restored relationship with God, have slowly healed some of the anger and bitterness in my heart, and leading a family, and having children, have taught me other lessons,  reversing the two harsh "lessons" I have imbibed in the past. This was my third lesson, and one the most enduring ones: courage includes being willing to accept when you're wrong, and that we stand strongest when we are on our knees. 

Having people under my care, both in my family and my workplace, has also taught me to slowly develop compassion for others, and realize that my experiences are far from unique. Other people have gone through similar or worse experiences, and some have been destroyed by them but others have triumphed, and ended up better persons. I have sought to learn from others, both from people I know and from the books I read. To this end, even my decision to take further studies are part of my desire to be deliberate in learning how to develop myself. Even my choice of graduate school shows how far the shadow of my father reaches in my soul: he was also a product of AGSB (batch '79).

1. WHAT ARE MY NEW LEARNINGS?

There are other defining moments, other lessons, that have made much impact in my life, but to delve into them is would take up another 50 or so pages, so I will end here. What I am now has been undeniably influenced by my past triumphs and failures, but I have since then learned a fourth lesson: that our past does not ultimately define who we are. We are able to deliberately learn in the present and aim to be better in the future. We can learn from our mistakes, and we can learn to forgive others who have wronged us, as well as forgive ourselves for opportunities lost and irrevocable mistakes committed.

What is important is that we continue to move forward. As the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. put it:

​

We are all leaders from where we are right now, because leadership is influence, as John Maxwell puts it. We can influence a thousand, a hundred, a handful, or even ourselves. And because we are all leaders, we can, by choice and action, as well as by inaction, be good, great or bad leaders.

In our first exercise, we debated on whether leaders are born, made or brought about by circumstance and situation. Reflecting on this, I have come to believe in all three:

·         First, they are born, because no one comes into this world apart from being born. There is that seed that awaits nurture or corruption.

·         And then they are made, as mentors, experiences, and learning mold and shape them to become great leaders.

·         Finally, the moment of truth, the situation comes, and they take that step forward, and rise to influence the rest.

 "Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, as well as determination not to accept failure." - Admiral Arleigh A. Burke

·   

2. WHAT IS THE RELATION TO WHAT I ALREADY KNOW?

I wish there were more positive stories in this long narrative, the way some stories of consistent achievers would be written, but what has happened has happened. What remains unwritten, the future, is a blank slate where one can draw a masterpiece or graffiti. That, I believe, is where all we have learned so far about leadership can come into play: we can take the lessons to heart and grow to be better than what we were. Not only that, but we can, by sharing and teaching others. also enable them to learn from both our mistakes and our successes, and inspire them to reach loftier heights than what we ourselves have achieved. We do not have to be shackled to the shadows of past failures: the prison of the past is but an illusion. Push the cell door and you will see that it is unlocked.

Many times I would imagine how it would be to travel through time. What lessons would the older me teach the younger me? What things would I do or undo? This stuff has been a staple sub-genre in fantasy and fiction because we have all made mistakes in our past, or have become victims of other people's mistakes. Some, in a less imaginative way, wallow in self-pity over decisions that cannot be undone. I admit that I too have my own share of wallowing. What if I was diligent in school? What if my first plan, to become a CPA-lawyer, had become real? What if I was not expelled?

So many what-ifs, and so many regrets. Some of these things we can, in a way, reverse or undo, or at least mitigate. But for others, we simply have to live with the consequences of our irrevocable past choices. There are second chances for some. There are none for others. When we can start to make peace with them and with ourselves, we can finally move forward: running, walking or crawling, as Martin Luther King exhorts us.

I have also learned a new definition of failure: failure is quitting. Failure is giving up. Keep on moving forward, and success is inevitable. Stop, and you will stagnate.

3. WHAT HAVE I DONE, AM DOING, AND WILL BE DOING FOR THIS TOPIC?

I have chosen to live. That is the first step. I have chosen not to be tied down by my past mistakes, and have chosen to exert all my efforts to give my children a better starting point, a better chance, and yes, a better father, than what I ever had.

One of these efforts include the sacrifice of time, attention and money that goes into my MBA. It is a significant sacrifice, since it does not come cheaply, and we have no company scholarship. Nonetheless, having finished several subjects and nearing the finish line, I can say that from what I have learned alone, it is already worth it. And this learning is not simply academic knowledge, but learning from the experiences of classmates and colleagues, and the sharing not only of best practices but of lives.

Being a voracious reader, I know that learning will not end after getting that diploma. Rather, it is simply the start of another journey in learning, self-awareness, self-development, and ultimately, of service to God and to my fellowmen. I may not end my journey with all the clutter that this world calls as marks of achievement, but I know that having chosen to live my life purposefully, it would not have been in vain.

As time continues its relentless march, taking you and I with it, I know there will be more mistakes to make and learn from, as well as triumphs to enjoy, but I have also come to realize that all our successes are ultimately meaningless apart from meaning that endures forever. Material success is elusive and fleeting: Alexander's empire is in ashes. Rome is no more. Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich is but a displeasing memory.

And what meaning and purpose endures forever? It is the one that can only come from God, and from knowing His Son Jesus Christ. He is the model of true servant leadership: of a King who washes the feet of the unworthy, and who gives Himself up in death so that others may live.

It is only when we do things for His glory, and depend on Him for strength and ability, that what we do becomes meaningful and significant. I end with this admonition:  

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Movie Synopsis of the Star Wars Sage ANAKIN SKYWALKER / DARTH VADER, the J Campbell Monomyth, and my Life Story

REGIS CEBU Leadership Movie Synopsis, Analysis of JCampbell monomyth and My Life Story

By Leader Pedro Leonard G. Castañeda

_____________________________________________Few movies have had the capacity to capture the imagination in such a spellbinding and compelling way than the Star Wars series. The richness of the worlds and characters that George Lucas has spawned has captured generations of fans: the fans of the first trilogy are the fathers of the fans of the second trilogy. Books and games have added more detail to the past, present, and future events surrounding Star Wars. None of the characters have stood out more than Anakin Skywalker, the son of an obscure slave girl in the distant backwater planet of Tatooine. "Anni," as his friend have called him, who would eventually become Darth Vader, one of fiction's most enduring anti-heroes of all time. With the first series (episodes IV-VI), we come across him as a sinister villain out to thwart all that  is good, but when the prequels (episodes I-III) finally came out, we find him recasted as a tragic hero who has descended into evil.

Applying  Campbell's Hero's Journey for the entire series would be long and complex, although the entire story of Anakin's life does follow the stages identified by Campbell. In fact, if one closely observes the story pattern, you would see repetitive, sequential and overlapping cycles: the whole story follows the cycle, but so do the episodes. < most movie makers are observed to be following JCampbell patterns)

SYNOPSIS:

The story begins in the midst of a crisis: the planet of Naboo has been blockaded by the Trade Federation, and the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic dispatches Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate with the Federation. Unknown to them, the Trade Federation has been secretly advised by Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord, and the Jedi's greatest opponent, to kill the Jedi and invade Naboo. The Jedi flee to the planet even as the invasion commences, and saves a Gungan outcast, Jar-jar Binks. In their debt, Binks leads the pair to the underwater Gungan city, where Qui-Gon unsuccessfully tries to convince the Gungans to aid the humans. They journey to Theed, the capital, and rescue Queen Padme Amidala.

MM Leadership - Reflection # 3 My Passion by Leader Leighna Abarquez

Ateneo Graduate School of Business – Middle Manager
Leadership
Reflection Paper # 3
Leader Leighna Katrina Sitoy-Abarquez


My Passion

What is your passion (what is it that you love doing)?

When I was young, I was always fascinated with teachers. My great grandfather and great grandmother were public school teacher/s, both my grandfathers were deans—one dean of the college of law, the other dean of the college of commerce and accountancy. I have always been enamored with teaching. For me it was a natural calling, more so, when I belonged to a family of educators.

When I was asked in school, "what I wanted to be when I grow up?", my ready answer was I wanted to be a lawyer or a teacher, or both. I really believed that I will become a teacher someday. My father however, was a bit diplomatic when he learned that I wanted to be a teacher. He said that there were many avenues to teaching, it may not necessarily be your main job. Many years later, now that I am a lawyer, I realized that somehow my desire to be a teacher is reflected in how I handle my work, my family, my daily life and my life's journey.