Jeremiah

I couldn't summarize the series of unfortunate events into a blog post but I found one image to make me forget about them. Thank you, Papa G.

Account Executives

The moment I saw this artwork online – I couldn’t help but laugh. Allow me to dissect each photo and explain my take on it.

First shot – people think it’s all glamorous. It’s not. I can enumerate a lot of times where I would run in heels from the sound booth to the backstage and then back to the client. Packing items in the middle of the event, setting up and printing press releases 20 mins before media arrives. But hey, after we pulled through an event or any implementation – we like getting that pat on the back. We feel like a star.

Second Photo. The reason why I voluntarily took a Communication Course in college because I wanted to deal with less numbers as much as possible. I was thinking the whole time – I won’t need to deal with them in the future anyway. WRONG. When I started out in this company, I never really bothered changing the costing before sending to client. Now, I’ve come to realize if you put in value to what you do and especially the man-hours of your co-workers – I can call the shots on the cost – with the help of my supervisors and directors of course.

Shot number three: Like a boss. WHUT? No. Not exactly a boss, more of the gatekeepers. We are not simply order takers. I still have to give inputs in whatever deck we present and we still gather all info from the support teams – filter or add stuff. We’re supposedly the leaders for our respective projects.

If client thinks we go overtime like crazy. Go ahead. It’s true. We go overtime because we want to give them their money’s worth and shower them awesome presentations/ideas. Enough said.

As for the last shot - It’s true we’re always doing PowerPoint presentations for a client – for our industry since we’re in PR, another 50% of our time we’re in front of Microsoft excel. It got me thinking – is that how people around us really see us? I think it’s only because it’s the program always open in our laptops anyway.
I asked one of the directors – how did you last doing client servicing? There must be a secret to it. And his reply? You just need to have the passion of meeting people.

On March 7, it will be my 5th year in this industry. I think we all know why already.

Good days, bad days… in the end – it’s all worth it. I love my job. :)

Linsanity

You know it’s Linsanity, when people who never even cared about the NBA would stay up till the wee hours of the morning watching youtube videos and reading articles about Jeremy Lin.

I’m sure a lot of people already wrote a gazillion articles about him – his winning streak, graduating from an Ivy League school and his enormous faith on God. I am a fan because I just love the whole idea that this ordinary dude came out of nowhere and the opportunity just presented itself and he grabbed it. No – he didn’t just grab it - he made the most out of it. (And he still is!)

I’m sure a lot of people were shocked and disappointed about the loss of Knicks over the Hornets last Saturday but hey – that’s the way life goes. You win some, you lose some. While watching Lin during the press conference, he took the blame and pointed out his shortcomings. Not a lot of people have this characteristic – to admit their own fault, to be humble when defeat strikes you.

I thought to myself after watching that press conference – babawi yan.
I woke up this morning and the first thing I looked up was the Dallas-Knicks game. Vindicated.

Of course – I’m gonna try to squeeze in myself to the picture. Haha! It has been a rough couple of weeks at work, my presentation got shut down and it sucks big time especially when you’ve been getting praises for the past couple of weeks from your previous decks.

I’ve always been a big fan of ‘second chances’. I guess this is a way to get my feet back on the ground and head on the clouds. I thought to myself – I know I’m going to kick-ass on my next presentation. I just have to focus and go through the ropes again.

I mean if the Knicks/Jeremy Lin won the game last Saturday then I think the victory today would have lost its essence or there would be no added market value. Let’s face it. We all look for the drama. There has got to be a conflict or else no lesson will be learned. That’s why there are challenges because they will push us to become better. (Well we all saw that his TOs lessened in today’s game, right?)

I don’t want to sound like a poser proclaiming to everyone that I’m a huge basketball fan because obviously I’m not. I’m just really happy that there’s someone out there who is actually a good example in a very competitive sport. There are still God-fearing and talented men in the globe.

Before I end this entry, I’d like to share a quote I read in one of his interviews. If everyone had this mindset, I believe that anyone can excel in whatever field they’re in.

“There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now,” Lin said. “To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that’s not how I want to do things anymore. I’m thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory? It’s a fight. But it’s one I’m going to keep fighting.”

I may be part of the whole Lin-sanity bandwagon but it’s only because he’s definitely a
Lin-spiration.

The Reset Button

“So what’s your New Year’s Resolution?” a friend asked me a month ago. I laughed and replied, “I don’t know, I actually have no idea”.

I stopped making resolutions for more than a decade ago – thinking of course I’m never going to fulfil them anyway. So what’s the point? All I wanted to do is to (I know this is going to sound cliché’) live life to the fullest. Have no regrets. Keep on doing whatever makes me happy at that moment. I’d want to elaborate on my definition of that but right now I’m not so proud with the things I’ve done for the past couple of months.

With all the series of events that’s been going on, I think I’ve reached my limit. I fell off track. I couldn’t stand anymore so I decided to kneel and say a prayer.
I met up with my cousin last night and we decided to update each other on what’s been going on with our lives. I’m not depressed or anything, it’s not like something terrible really happened or someone died – but I knew deep inside I wasn’t happy anymore.

“Char, you just have to press the reset button,” says my cousin.

In order to press this reset button, and if I want all the programs to work faster in this computer (a metaphor for my life). I knew I had to come up with resolutions. I don’t want it to be a lot so I’ve narrowed them into three only.

1. Read more & blog more. I get too caught up with my social calendar and my work schedules that every time I go home, I just grab that opportunity to sleep. If I want to widen my vocabulary and come up with better press releases and client presentations, I have to do this. So expect more blog entries this year– will come up with more hilarious anecdotes and write-ups. I know because of this I’ll be able to be save more money rather than spending it 140 peso local beer in crazy clubs or bars.

2. More time for myself. Giving a lot of your time to other people can be tiring. It’s not that I’ve decided to be selfish but I feel like I owe this to myself. I’ve never even tried travelling alone yet because I enjoy too much the company of my friends. I am grateful though that I’ve finally learned the art of eating alone and it is fun. I like it because I get to think more and sort out my priorities.

3. Complain less. Easier said than done, right? Okay let’s change my strategy - count more of my blessings. A couple of years ago in my Starbucks planner, I would always write down the three nice things that happened to me on that day or the three things I was grateful for during that day. I want to start that habit again. This will remind me (and maybe you) that at the end of the day – good always trumps the bad. It’s so obvious because we see it in movies, books and newspapers but obviously we tend to forget them. No more rants on twitter and on facebook. I’ve got to try to harder.

I wanted to come up with a longer list but let’s start with three. If I’ll be able to fulfil all of them in the next three months then maybe I can share with you the other things too.

I was going through Pinterest the other day and I bound into a post which I love! All I could say was – “This is so me.” I felt like this post was done for me. (Selfish!). Aside from the fact that the skirt is color green (my favourite!) – everything written there are the things I dream of doing. Who knows maybe if I stick to the resolutions I said above – I’ll be able to achieve this.




Even if it will be March in a couple of weeks – I guess it’s never too late come up with resolutions or to press the reset button. I believe that it’s never too late to become a better person.