Success can be achieved despite the great odds

“Nung bata pa ako, walang mapakain yung nanay namin samin kasi wala kaming pera. Nagbebenta ako ng kung ano ano para lang may makain kami.” Mrs. Dela Cruz said. She is one of the the many people that belong to a poor family but that didn’t stop her to be achieve her goal and lose hope that someday, she can also be successful. She may not be as popular as the owner of large businesses like Henry Sy, but she has achieved her goal and be successful in her own way.

Success can be achieved despite the great odds
By Cherrie Dela Cruz 

Forty years ago, Mrs. Yolanda Dela Cruz sold foods and different things like accessories outside and inside their school campus to help her family… Today, she is now successful with her business and has now achieved her goals despite the great odds.

“Nung bata pa ako, walang mapakain yung nanay namin samin kasi wala kaming pera. Nagbebenta ako ng kung ano ano para lang may makain kami.” Mrs. Dela Cruz said. She is one of the the many people that belong to a poor family but that didn’t stop her to be achieve her goal and lose hope that someday, she can also be successful.

She may not be as popular as the owner of large businesses like Henry Sy, but she has achieved her goal and be successful in her own way.

The beginning…

Mrs. Dela Cruz is a house wife with a husband that is working in Middle East. One day, she thought that she could make her time productive by establishing her own small business. She use her husband’s salary that she kept as a saving for them for a profit. She started buying clothes and selling them from house to house and at the same time she also offer to do a manicure and pedicure services. Then she became popular in that business and her business grew larger. She had a pawnshop, sari-sari store, bakery, burger house, computer shop, video games machines, videoke machines, rental of apartments, beauty salon, beer house and soft drink and beer whole saler. Some of this business are still present until now such as the apartment rentals, sari-sari store, Videoke and net café. She slowly bought commercial properties to the government or other persons for investment and make her business extend in that area. She take risks of investing in that commercial rights because felt that her business will gain large profit in there. She also doesn’t want to loan any money from anyone because she believe that it is the first cause of bankrupted business.

Failures and Coping..

One day, Mrs. Dela Cruz found out that one of her business which is the soft drinks and beer whole saling is slowly being bankrupted, causing for her other business to either be slow or closed. She let her husband handle that business so that he will not feel that he is not capable of helping her and to also teach him how to manage a business, but it turned out into a nightmare. Mrs. Dela Cruz has a debt of almost P 1M to San Miguel Corporation and Coca-Cola Company. In order to pay that debt, she sold her other properties. Many of her workers resigned because she cannot pay them all anymore and only the loyal ones stayed. She decided to relax for 1 month and clear her mind of the situation to device another strategy so that she can do business again. After one month, it’s like a miracle happened because her friend offered to help her to start another business which is the video games machines, videoke machines, billiard pool table rental per game and net café. She earned almost P50,000 a week. From then she had survived the problem that she had.

Inspirations…

Her first inspiration is God because without him, he cannot do all of this, She always pray to God for guidance and thank for his blessings. Second is her family because she did this all mainly for them. She did not want her family to experience what she had when she was a child and she want them to have a comfortable life. Her family and God always help her whenever she had problems and they are her strengths and reason why she keeps on going.

Advices…

“ If you really want to be successful entrepreneur, DON”T ever loan money from anybody because that is the main cause of bankrupt. Your profit will be eaten by the interest of the loan easily.” Said Mrs. Dela Cruz.

Mrs. Yolanda Dela Cruz is one of the many people that has inspired us that we should persevere and achieve our goal despite the great odds. God will always be with us and our family. Poverty is not a problem if you want to be successful.