Blog Review: Following the Mainstream by Esteban

Esteban's blog, Following the Mainstream, is about sharing his experiences and views on attending one of the concerts of DJ Rusko's North America Tour. The blog was well explained as he shared how the crowd was, explaining the different music variations of the concert and he related this concern in to business. What got me interested with this blog is the how Esteban related this to business; lights and sounds provided, merchandise sold and the advertising. In a place like Edmonton, where these simple events could be an outlet to many people, I got the idea of being interested in advertising in these concerts because I strongly believe this is one of the few places where you could get a strong market. A salute to you, Esteban for this great blog. I wish you the best with all of your endeavours.

Its not yet the end, its just the beginning.

A lot of times, I think of where I stand in the next ten years but the answer remains uncertain. It is known that we can't determine the future, however we can hope for it by setting up goals and dreams to get to it. Honestly, as of now I don't really mind the career that I want because I just want to be rich when I grow up but in order to that I have to consider my skills, talents and abilities. I've noticed that I am a people person, I love to talk to many people, maintain friendship and helping them in many ways. I have also noticed that I hate working with my hands, in short physical work. I would love to travel a lot and talk a lot therefore I got in to business because it seemed the clear path among all and I am interested in it. The very least that I could do now is to study really hard, save money and meet many people because I personally believe that would be my start up key. Once I've graduated, I would want to earn a little more money for personal use, capital and investments. It would take a lot of sacrifices in the beginning but as they said it is always the ones who work really hard that succeeds. I would stick to right people and perhaps start a business venture with them in order to reach my goals. So in between now and ten years, I would hope to start up a business even a small one to give me income, buy me a house or a condo unit and of corse a car to keep me on the go. Once I've at least secured myself with those things, that is the time I would reward myself by settling down find the ONE to share this success with. 

"Nothing is impossible, only hard" 

-John Lao

Construction

When I was a kid, I always stayed at our balcony and stared at the skyscraper views for my past time. Watching those buildings kept me calm and at peace, especially as I watched the construction on one of the tallest buildings in the Philippines till I got to my puberty years when it got completed. One thing that was always on my mind was, when will I get to see the view from the top as I feel success in all of my endeavours. When I moved to Canada, I get the same feeling every time I get a glimpse of Downtown, Edmonton from a far but the only difference is that I'm not that little kid anymore and it's about time that I do something to get that view from the top and be successful. So when I was walking around one summer morning, I noticed that everything looks so old in Edmonton. No offence to Edmontonians, but the house, apartments, the stores and short skyscrapers (even if I know that they could not build tall ones because of the City Centre airport) looks like it was stuck in the last generation. This is where I started getting interested in the construction business because I strongly feel that in a place like Edmonton, developments have to occur from the growing population and the old infrastructures. Nothing really lasts forever right? So I am definite that construction and developments would soon rise. I am not interested with the work of building but I am interested in marketing this to people because that is where I am good at, more on the mouth and mind and not much on the hands. I plan to make this one of my ventures in the future because for me, Edmonton is becoming my home and nothing beats the feeling of doing something to make a better home. This would also remind of the feeling and dreams I have when I was a little boy.

Early Business

On a typical hot summer day in the Philippines, I was sitting down along with my friends figuring what we can do for the summer. I suggested something that would be productive such as earning money, and as a result my friends got excited and asked me to lead it as they follow along. I took advantage of my parent's company which was in garments/textile, so when I went to the factory, I got numerous excess products that we have like bags, caps, t-shirts and basketball uniforms. When I gathered all of those products, I also gathered my friends so that I could tell them that those are the things that we are going to sell in order to earn money. Since this was all new to me, I wanted to make it exciting for all of us by having a strategy on selling those things. I made labour division, by positioning my friends to different task; I being the leader stayed at a so called office in my friend's room where I spent most of my time thinking, planning and organizing while also got one of my friend to be my secretary to write everything down (may it be from accounting the money to cheats of a video game). I partnered up my friends as they will be the ones selling the product to different zones around my neighbourhood. In my opinion, I got them partnered up because one or two could do the talking while at least one of them will carry the products, demo it if they had to and run back to the "office" whenever they ran out of products. We spent so much time planning before we even started selling, wherein I thought them a little marketing by teaching them to speak politely to customers and the pity tactic by mentioning to the customer that we are doing this so that we could buy school supplies for the following school year to come. I gotta say, it always worked! Since we din't have any cellphones back then, I had walkie-talkies supplied so that we could all monitor our activities and if ever one of my friends were being looked for by their moms. We did not sell things everyday for various reasons but on that one day that I'll never forget, we were able to sell all of our products that gave us 1,120 pesos approximately $27 canadian dollars. At that time, that was big money already for us and I gave everybody their shares from all of the hard work and surprisingly, had money to spare to buy us that pizza dinner. As we were enjoying that pizza dinner, I was watching my friends as I saw smile from each and every one of them. For me, the success was not really much about the money we have earned but the fact that I was able to create something that did not only benefited me but my friends. I was only 11 years old. 

West Edmonton Mall

The moment I was told that my family and I were going to Edmonton for our summer vacation, all I kept thinking was West Edmonton Mall. I was told by my cousins who have been there already that it's a mall with everything in it such as an indoor pool, skating rink, amusement park and so much clothing stores. The moment I made my first step at WEM, I gotta say I was a bit surprised because it wasn't as new as the malls in the Philippines (Interior Wise). Anyway, I went straight to Abercrombie and Fitch, one of my favourite clothing brands of all times, and bought myself a pair of pants, a couple of shirts and a cologne, because I only get to buy Abercrombie and Fitch whenever I was in North America only. Only to find out that my family has decided to stay in Canada for now because my dad was offered a job by Don Ghermezian, the succeeding owner of West Edmonton Mall and the Triple Five Company who manages West Edmonton Mall and The Mall of America in Minnesota and Las Vegas. I was surprised about the decision of staying in Canada and leaving almost everything I have in the Philippines but at the same time I was happy because we were given an opportunity not just by an ordinary person but by the owner of the mall himself. So my journey begins... West Edmonton Mall is the largest shopping mall across North America and the fifth largest mall in the world. The mall has 800 stores and attracts 60,000 to 150,000 shoppers daily. The mall posses The Galaxy land, an amusement park inside the mall to attract kids and teenagers. Along with that are following: Waterpark the indoor swimming pool complex that is open despite the winter season, Skating Rink, Fantasyland Hotel, Casino Palace and The Empire Night Club. All of those attractions are owned by the Triple Five Company. On Pesakh, the passover celebration of Jewish people, I was helping out at the Ghermezian residence and got the opportunity to chat with Raphael Ghermezian, one of the four brothers who started the mall venture. In our conversation, I was inspired to work hard and sacrifice for now because he said to me when he first got here in Canada, he was a dishwasher then 10 years after, he bought the mall..in those exact words. Now that I'm in the stage of entering the business world, I could use this inspiration to bring me far more from my wildest dreams. As I end, I've learned to love the mall not by its attractions but by how the family strived to built such venture that turned into a big success. And also, I've got quite some experiences with the mall as I had my first date in Canada in that mall, it was definitely a date to remember because I never ran out of things to do there. 

My Own Different Marketing Style

Ever since I was a little boy, I've always been fond of meeting and being around people. As I grew up to my teenage years, I began to develop more social skills by building up personal relationships with them. I gotta say, I was quite successful in persuading them and making them believe in what I say. So how did I do it? Well, its starts with appearance first because not only does it bring confidence in you but it attracts people to see whats in you. Once you've got their attention, make the initiative by being the first to talk or smile back because doing nothing and being quiet wont bring you as far as talking could. Show them that you are a nice and down to earth person despite having an extravagant entrance with your looks. Seal it by controlling the conversation, not by telling them all about yourself but about hearing what they have to say, giving them your feedbacks and your own personal advices. Make them see that you are not like others. It is not easy to do this but it is not impossible. You are going to have to balance your time by setting priorities first such as health, spend a little time on the gym and eating right foods because then again ourselves is the most important investment in the business world. Take time to be with other people, learn from them and adjust to their living standards so that you can learn how to be with other kinds of people in this world. Once you've developed that relationship with them they will consider the things that you say or suggest because you've got that trust from them. Always be truthful to them and be true to the words that you say because from what I've learned from my classes so far is not only building profitable relationships but building relationships that would last for a long time. Make the most of out of everything you do because you have nothing to lose but everything to gain. People may I say that I'm lucky with this because of the experiences I've gone through but I consider this as a talent and attitude of being true to myself. I am confident enough to say this because I have done this a lot before and it worked to the point that they even try to wear the same brands of clothes that I wear just to be like me.