I relate closely to the campaign because I am a volunteer myself. I strongly believe that individual contributions build up to something big in nation-building.

I spent a year in Cuyo Palawan as a volunteer teacher, was an elections-volunteer for NAMFREL in at least three elections and I continue to volunteer in PSI as a speaker.

Here’s taking another step forward and providing information to my readers about how else we can contribute in nation-building.

1. www.OneTama.com - Excellent website to get ideas on how you can contribute on an individual level
2. Rock Ed Philippines - “No More Excuses, Philippines!”
3. Gawad Kalinga
4. Habitat for Humanity Philippines
5. DOH Blood Bank Program
6. Red Cross
7. National Youth Commission
8. NAMFREL
9. World Vision Philippines
10. WWF-Philippines
11. Haribon Foundation
12. Jesuit Volunteers Philippines
    
13. UN Volunteers
14. Center for Volunteerism in the Philippines
15. Volunteer in the Philippines
16. VSO Bahaginan
17. Voice of the Youth Network (coming soon)

More to come.

If you know of other volunteer program links, feel free to comment below.

ka edong
volunteer

I’ve always wanted to be a painter.

I feel the power of creation through painters and their paintings. I feel that people who create are closer to God.

I feel there is a profound ecstasy in creating. You are in control of what you are creating.

I remember being in an art studio in UP Baguio. There was this one painter who had 4 paintings on-going. She had a palette and would work on one painting. And then, she’d step back and appreciate her creation - a work in progress. What’s curious is that she would walk up to another of her (unfinished) paintings and use the same paintbrush with mixed colors to retouch other paintings.

Creation.

I should not feel so envious. I create too.

I am writing a paper. And I am proud of my work! I take pride in what my work is and how it will be appreciated and used by others. This is my creation. A creation made through me by my God.

ka edong
Painter, I

As a result of taking on that challenge to “go get a 5-star mentor!“, today I met for the first time my latest mentor.

My 5-Star Mentor

Meeting My Mentor, Mr. Juan Halili

To protect his privacy, I will call my mentor “Mr. Juan Halili”.
Rather apt as I will look to him for guidance as “one” of my mentors (pag-halili).

Mr. Halili is a very accomplished executive with 40 years of experience in various industries, turning around two companies from their bad shape, and having received numerous awards for the excellent management and growth of some of the Philippines’ top companies.

I had the opportunity to spend 40 minutes with Mr. Halili today on the pre-text of a mentoring relationship.

In this article, I will describe my invitation and how I prepared for our first meeting. I will also describe key lessons I got from our first conversation.

The invitation

I sent my letter of invitation via email. Here are excerpts from my letter:

Hi Sir Juan,

I would very much be honored if you would accept my invitation for lunch or coffee.

Allow me to (1) introduce myself, (2) explain my purpose for this invitation, (3) and why I believe it is worth your while to accept my invitation.

Introduction
I am Edwin Soriano, 34 years old, an Electrical Engineer, technology-analyst, blogger, trainer and speaker among other things.
I am proud to be a Filipino and proud to be serving Filipinos through my work in Smart.

Purpose for invite
We were urged to find ourselves a “5-Star Mentor”!
It was an easy nudge for me as I have personally been searching for a mentor.

What’s in it for Sir Juan?
I hope that you will find exceptional value in sharing your life-lessons to a dynamic young-man who is eager to learn from you.

Sir Juan,

I would very much be honored if you would accept my invitation for lunch or coffee.
I hope I could reasonably ask for one simple lunch-date with you, Sir.

On Thursday April 30, I will approach your assistant to gather your feedback regarding this invitation.

Sincerely yours,

Edwin

CV details: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaedong
My blogs: www.edwinsoriano.com, www.technobiography.com

I received a reply within a few hours of sending my email. My invitation was accepted and I was asked to meet Mr. Halili two days later. Yey!

Preparing for our first meeting

Over a solo-dinner last night, I formulated a structure for my short conversation with Mr. Halili.

• Connect
• Clarify
• Cuestion
• Close

Connect
First I will connect.
Re-introduce my role in my company.
Introduce myself further (UP, volunteer teacher, Foundation for IT Education and Development, AIM, Intel, PSI)

I want him to know that we have a couple of things in common.
At the very least, I want him to recognize my passion to serve Filipinos through the work I do.

Clarify

I also want to lay down the cards to him.
I want to be clear that I am here primarily to learn lessons from his career and personal life.
I will tell him what I had prepared for this first meeting with him. (5 questions)
I will reserve 5 minutes at the tail-end to close.

Cuestions

I prepared 5 questions and we can discuss 2 or more depending on how our conversation goes.

1. What do you consider as your single most important habit/skill that helped you excell in your career? Why?
2. What has been your most important avenue for learning, something that you’d encourage me or my peers to engage ourselves in?
3. What is your vision of a highly-effective workforce?
4. What advise regarding work-life balance would you give for a young man like me?
5. What books do you read? What do you recommend that would help boost my effectivity as a professional in my field?

Close

1. propose to meet him again once every three months, find out if he is open to this arrangement
2. ask Juan if there’s anything I can do for him — this is a question about me bringing something to the table next time around. I wanted him to find value in meeting with me.
3. a photograph

As additional preparation, I also got ready to answer a few questions Mr. Halili might ask me:

• What is my vision, my purpose?   Edwin’s short answer: “Help More Thus Be More“
• What is my vision for my career and for my company?

My first meeting with Mr. Halili

I was at his office 15 minutes before my appointment. While waiting to be called in, I reviewed my self-introduction and my questions. I had a notebook at hand for my notes.

When I was ushered in, I approached Mr. Halili at his work desk and gave him a firm handshake (something I learned from KElmer and from UPSCA). I told him my name and reminded him about the email I had sent two days earlier. He showed me to a round glass table where we took seats to begin our conversation.

As planned, I clarified with him that I was there to learn from him, to listen. And before I could proceed, he asked me what to tell him more about myself.

In my self-introduction, I made sure to mention the few things that I knew we had in common. There was a connection, we had built a certain rapport within our first 5 minutes .  He is, afterall, a very down-to-earth person.

Q&A with Mr. Juan Halili

I then continued to my questions. Here are a few key points in our discussion. The essence of the conversation is re-constructed from my notes and from memory.

Edwin: What do you consider as your single most important habit/skill that helped you excell in your career? Why?

Mr. Halili: (After giving much thought) Perception of humans. Humans are there to contribute. From this point of view, you will learn to appreciate that people who work for you or with you have a lot to contribute to success. This perception of humans brings out the best in people.

It is important to listen. Power comes by listening, not by talking.

Humility.

Edwin: What has been your most important avenue for learning, something that you would encourage me or my peers to engage ourselves in?

Mr. Halili:
Reading. I learned a lot through books.

I consider myself blessed to have had many good mentors early on. Early in my career, I already had many good bosses.

I was exposed to high levels of leadership early in my career helped me understand strategy and managing an organization.

I was also very lucky to have been given leadership positions early in my career. Nothing beats being in-the-line. When your neck is in the line, you have no choice but to perform well and rise to the occassion. When so much is at stake, you will bring out the best in yourself.

I just kept on moving, kept on going.

Edwin: What is your vision of a highly effective workforce?

Mr. Halili: Creativity and Innovation. It is important that an organization institutionalize creativity and innovation. It’s the only way to keep up with or keep ahead of the demands of the industry and the market.

Less ego, less problems.

Intersperesed in our question and answer, there were many nuggets of wisdom that struck me.

• You will know that you have a good handle of power when power does not handle you.
  When you are able to let go of power, you know that you can handle power.
• A lesson I learned from my father is simplicity. When you’re simple, it’s easy to be happy.
• There’s always a pay-off, a price to pay for achieving things.

Close

After Mr. Halili had answered my questions, I began my close by asking him if he was open to having a similar meeting with him once every three months. I was delighted, to say the least, when he said he was open to it. It was just a matter of finding a day where his schedule was relatively light.

I also asked him if I can help him in any way. He did ask me a few questions. They were interesting questions coming from a man of his age and stature. I choose not to publish it here to protect Mr. Halili’s privacy.

In conclusion, there is much to learn from a focused 40-minute conversation. Especially when you’re well prepared with critical questions, and especially when you’re ready to learn and listen well!

Power comes by listening, not by talking.

ka edong
mentorific

One portion of the training discussed mentoring. We discussed the importance of leaders being mentors. This allows the mentor to “replicate” himself (and do more) at the same time allows the mentee (the person being mentored) to grow in leadership and in responsibility.

And the foundation of a mentoring relationship is a genuine care of the mentor for the mentee.

My mentors

We were asked to write about our mentors - one in our personal life and one in our professional life. We described how our mentors were instrumental to our growth and development.

I shared to our class what I wrote. Then our facilitator, Alex Castillo, challenged us further. “Have you thanked your mentors? Have you thanked them enough?”

Anna Salcedo

I took out my cellphone and started texting my mentor at Intel, Anna Salcedo. Anna was my manager at Intel for almost three years. She’s 3 years younger than I.  She had excelled at Intel (likewise with the help of her mentor) and took good care of our team throug hthe years.

Anna and Edong

This was my message for Anna, and the exchange of texts that ensued.

Edwin to Anna:

Hi Anna! I want you to know that I treasure how you mentored me at Intel. I learned from you:  clarity of purpose and process. I admire how you role-modelled strength, commitment and genuine care for our team. Precious is our friendship and I thank you mucho mucho!

Anna’s reply:

Wow thanks. Ok k lang b?

Edwin:

Pwede pa-utang? hahaha! It’s important to me that you know that I am grateful. Hugs! Musta kay pare!

Anna:

Ur very much welcome! And I’m glad we are friends . God bless! Happy weekend!

Captain Bobby Lim

Captain Lim was my professor at AIM in an elective called “Sources and Uses of Power” (SUPR).

He’s 89 years old now. Here’s a short and utterly deficient description of Captain Lim: He was a war veteran, established the Lipa Airfield, an executive at Philippine Airlines, professor at AIM, writer, diver (learned diving at age 75ish!), a seasoned traveller, and has two iPods!

And most especially to me, Captain Lim is a mentor.

It was electrifying how Captain Lim manages the class discussion. I described it to my dad as: “It’s as if I’m part of an action movie! Like I’m really in it, slugging it out and not just watching and commenting on what’s happening!”

We continued to have animated discussions outside of class. He invited us for lunch at his Tagaytay home. It was a super sarap lunch, not just because of the sumptuous meal, but because of the sumptuous discussion!

Captain Lim’s home is about 45 minutes from where I worked at Cavite. Every few months, I would have lunch or dinner at Captain Lim’s home. We would talk about all sorts of topics under the sun.

Among the many topics we talk about, the list includes:
career, relationships, traveling, technology, real-estate, business, OFWs, books, kids/grand-kids, health and life-lessons.

I described our mentor relationship this way in my Maxwell class:

Captain Lim guides me with wisdom that comes with age.
Our talks lead me to deeper self-reflection.
He challenges me to dream high, think differently and GROW!

It’s about time I pay a visit to Captain Lim.

Go get a 5-star mentor!

Lastly, our training facilitator Alex challenges us to “Go get a 5-star mentor!” . I am aware of the importance of mentors in my life.

Alex says: “Go for the Michael Jordan or the Tiger Woods of your field!”

And that’s what I’m going for!

Today!

ka edong
that I may share what has been shared to me

It’s an excellent opportunity for me and my classmates. Learned a lot in day 1 and shall learn a lot more in day 2.

Developing the Leader Within You - by John Maxwell

Our facilitator is Alex Castillo, an excellent trainer with many good stories to tell and a lot of insights to share.

One portion of our training yesterday featured a video by John Maxwell discussing the 5 levels of leadership:

• Position (Rights) - leadership based on position.
  People follow you because they have to.
• Permission (Relationships) - leadership based on good relations.
  People follow you because they like you.
• Production (Results) - leadership based on good results.
  People follow you because of what you have done for the organization.
• People (Reproduction) - leadership based on loyalty.
  People follow you because of what you have done for them.
• Personhood (Respect) - leadership based on …. respect. These leaders attract followers who are loyal and sacrificial. Derive great joy from watching people grow and develop.

There’s more where that came from. So I’m gearing up for day two of the training.

I checked my email today and was pleased to find that I’ll be able to access more of John Maxwell’s videos by virtue of my membership in the Maximum Impact Club! Yey! And I’ll be able to participate in teleconference calls as well.

Ah, we like!

For inquiries and registration, you may contact:
Landline: +632-6872614
Mobile: +63919-3824382
email: inquiry@inspireph.com
web: www.inspirephilippines.com

I share my story here.
More importantly, I share my lessons learned.
So that my death and my second life shall be more meaningful for me and for the people I love.

Life is short

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 5:31 PM, Edwin S. Soriano <edwin.soriano@gmail.com> wrote:

I met an accident this morning.
I’m safe, un-hurt, no bruises nor bumps. Thank You Lord for keeping me safe.

In PSI, there is a term we call “Dexify” - Defend, Explain, Justify.
I will NOT Dexify when I tell you the reason of my accident.
I take full responsibility for this.

It could have been worse

I was very drowsy na kanina. Twice I caught myself going off track a foot or two from the center of my lane. But I was just 5 more kilometers from home where I thought I’d rest, get a glass of water or sprite (my pang-gising) when I reach home.

But next thing I knew, I heard a loud crash and the car had tilted on the two driver-side wheels. My guess is the front right wheel went up around 3 feet from the ground. I was afraid the car would turn. I was sooo afraid, really.

I’m realizing now, that, boy, it could really have been worse. I got scared, and only now I am allowing myself to feel scared of what happened kanina.

I could have gotten hurt.
The car could have over-turned.
I could have hit another vehicle.
And even worse, I could have hit another person or I could have hurt myself.

I could have died.

It could have been worse.
And indeed, it is cause for thanksgiving that it was just the car that got damaged.
Thank you ma for offering that thanksgiving mass.
I am saying my own prayers of thanks too.

It could get worse

Moving forward, the only other way this accident could get “more worse” is if I fail to learn the lessons of my accident(s).

I don’t want to make things worse, so here and now, I make even more changes in my life.

From a very direct perspective, lesson is “don’t drive drowsy“.
But on a deeper level, my lesson is
“Create more balance in my life. Take care of myself so I can do more.”

Put bluntly: I have many big dreams, but I can’t do them if I’m dead, can I?

Thank you for your reminders.
Sorry if I refused to listen to your advice in the past.
I know your words of advice are filled with love.
And I could use your reminders to make my life better.

Life is short.
There’s so much I want to do, and I thank you for all the love.

Thank you! I love you!

Love,
Edwin

Ka Edong Awake, Alert, Alive and Enthusiastic

One year after

I told a good friend of mine that I’m commemorating my death today.
She was disturbed and told me that it’s unnecessary.

But to me, it is important to remember this day.
For with the keen awareness of death is the awareness of life and it’s finite-ness.

Life is short, so today be kind!
Life is short, so today smile!
Life is short, so today laugh!
Life is short, so today hug!
Life is short, so today share!
Life is short, so today learn!
Life is short, so today teach!
Life is short, so today let go!
Life is short, so today say sorry!
Life is short, so today forgive!
Life is short, so today live your dreams!

Life is short, so today live and love!

Tomorrow, repeat.
And each day, we live to the fullest.

This day last year, I woke up to a new life.

Edwin

I love hearing my father’s stories which he tells us with much gusto. He’s half smiling the whole-time he’s telling the story, half winking and looking for approval laughter from his family, his captive audience. I seriously think he has a set of index cards where he keeps his jokes and stories, ready to be shared at the right moment.

Embrace and Carry!

Embrace! - Tito Ed, Andrei and Cali -- Happy Hearts all!

This story is about Tito Jay and Tita Peach, our family friends who are both in their mid-60’s with three kids and a couple of grand children.

After attending a Holy week recollection, Tito Jay went back home, excited.
He immediately went to greet Tita Peach.
Tito Jay was unusually warm, as if he was a new man!
Tito Jay gave Tita Peach a warm embrace, to Tita’s delight .
Tito Jay didn’t stop there.
Tito Jay wrapped his tired and wrinkled arms around Tita Peach’s waist
and lifted her high up in the air, with some effort of an old man!

Tita Peach was soooo touched, she was about to cry.

With tears of joy in her eyes, Tita Peach asked her husband “Why? What happened?”
Tito Jay replied: “I’m following a message from the priest in the recollection.”

Tita Peach, wondering what words had touched her husband: “What was the priest’s message?”
Tito Jay shared: “The priest’s message was : ‘Embrace and carry your cross!‘ “  :D

Go home and plant some hugs!

When you go home today, Embrace your loved ones! Carry them! Then tell them this story! Have a good laugh!

Have a happy heart this Easter! God is good!

Happily yours,

ka edong
free hugs

Best Day of My Life

Many thoughts cross your mind one hour before the beginning of an Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). Can I finish? Was my training plan sound? Did I do everything I possibly could to prepare myself for the day? What if I get a flat tire on the bike? What is my nutrition plan for the bike and run?

Self doubt is natural.

As I rode down the hotel elevator one hour before the beginning of Ironman Wisconsin , I overheard the following conversation between strangers:

Stranger 1 - “Good morning. How are you?”
Stranger 2 - “Best day of my life.”
Stranger 1 - <surprised by the reply, silence, apprehension for the Ironman race>
Stranger 2 - “Young man, make this the best day of your life.”

These simple 5 words from an anonymous stranger stayed with me for the next 11 hours 37 minutes and 12 seconds to the finish line. They were spoken without hesitation or rehearsal. They were spoken with wisdom, passion, and gratefulness. Ironman Triathlons have a way of magnifying yet simplifying life. There are only so many things in life you can control. You are 100% in control of your attitude. Your daily ’self talk’ can be negative or positive. The choice is yours.

Stranger 2 turned out to be Frank Farrar, the former Governor of South Dakota and 79 year old Ironman Triathlete. Frank has competed in over 30 Ironman distance Triathlons and continues to compete. Thank you Frank for these words.

Steve Muller

Steve Muller is the President of a Wisconsin automotive sales and finance company. He is a 3 time Ironman finisher and 20 time Marathon finisher.

Thanks Kristine for sharing!

Ka Edong Singapore Marathon (Dec 2007)

ka edong
here’s to a lifetime of best days!

Litratuwaan #4: Where is this?

Answer to Litratuwaan #4 next week, Friday.

Answer to Litratuwaan #3:

What is it?
It’s a photo of a hot air balloon taken from the inside. This photo was taken while the balloon was still being inflated, so it was still lying on its side. Beautiful colors, don’t you agree?

Congratulations, Mona! You got it! Here are some more Hot Air Balloon photos.

ka edong
colorful life

Have you watched them sleep?

I got the article from my brother who sent it to us siblings with the message: “This is poignant”.

I replied with this message:

Poignant it is.

I remember one afternoon in Happy Homes when I was around 6 or 7 years old.
Nag-siesta kami ni mom.
Then, as a kid does, I asked her point blank “Why are you crying?”

I don’t remember her exact words, but I remember she brushed of the topic and the tear in her eye.
I shared that story to a friend a few weeks ago. It made me think what mom’s troubles were that time.

These days, I still get the chance to sleep beside mom and dad. I relish that time, I hug them while I sleep .

Next time, I’ll *watch* them as they sleep.

Love,
Edwas