My name is Carlo from batch 2007. Looking back to my school days, I am terrible at academics. Low grades, mediocre averages. From grade school in Ateneo de Manila, I struggled with most of my subjects, especially Araling Panlipunan. I had an 81 average come grade school graduation and that just didn’t cut it for them, so they told me to look for another school.
So in high school, I enrolled in La Salle Greenhills. It was pretty much the same experience academically there, I got to finish 4 years in high school quietly and entered University of Santo Tomas taking up Business Administration. Well, my stay there didn’t last long, I eventually failed 5 out of 8 subjects in the first semester of my junior year and I was out of there. After this, I was just lost. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like a failure all my life. The magnitude of my disappointments in life was just epic.
I confided with a cousin, and fellow car guy, who studied in UA&P at that time. He suggested looking into the Entrepreneurial Management Program because I’ve always had a keen interest in buying & selling car stuff.
So I applied in the program and went through the tough screening process. This was not your run-of-the-mill application process of just a written exam and you’re in kind-of-a-thing. There was a panel of “judges” who determined if you are good enough or not for the course. to this day, I still remember the reaction of one “judges”, Ms. Milagros Castro, after I answered her question and she gave me that “what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about-face” look and I just froze. The silence was broken by another “judge”, Mr. Robbie Zialcita, with an “Okay. Thank you, Carlo. You may now sit.” WEll, that blew my chances of that one.
So for some reason, the stars and planets aligned together with the sun and moon; I got in. It was a miracle! A shot in the dark. And on that first day in EM summer camp of 2002, I said to myself, this is different. This is not your ordinary school. There is a lot of collaboration and teamwork involved amongst students. There are still the individual academics, of which I still didn’t do very well, but also I got to work more with my fellow classmates creating and managing projects and events. For the first time in my life school got really interesting for me. It was such a breath of fresh air from what I experienced before. I really love how the EM program system works. On how they allow us to take risks and let us fail. But before we hit bottom, they catch us, point us to the right direction, and let us thrive. A good example of this was how they designed the survival swimming course. We had to jump from 3 stories high to a deep diving pool in order to pass. I didn’t know how to swim, but I jumped. And almost drowned. But before I blacked out, our coach got to mee and saved me. I failed that course that time and had to repeat and eventually completed it. I learned how to swim on the final day of the final hour of the survival swimming finals. I completed the EM program in 5 years, consistently in the bottom 3, and was one of the last to graduate from the batch. So, what am I doing here?
In NBV, I conceptualized and put up Lia’s Cakes in Season, using my family’s avocado cake recipe and it has been up and running for 19 years already. It is my bread and butter. And never in my wildest dreams have I imagined it would go this far. It just started as my college project. As a requirement for me to finish school.
I remember a mentor once told me, that “your product had very good potential. Marketing and Operations were okay, but your financials were crap!!!”. That’s me and accounting for you.
There was also a time when I was asked by one of the mentors during a panel presentation, “How many cakes can you sell in a day?”. With sweat running down my forehead, my throat dry, I swallowed hard & muttered, “10 sir!”” He then said, “10 cakes? Kaya mo yun?”
I didn’t know any better back then, but if only they can see how Lia’s Cakes in Season have been a part of many celebrations, big and small, through the years. I owe it all to my supportive family and friends, my hardworking team, my loyal customers, and most of all, my alma mater, this school, this program. Lia’s Cakes certainly would not have made it this far if it weren’t for each one of them.
Taking my school project to the full-blown cake business that it is now, was not a walk in the park. I used to join bazaars with my mom, Lia, to offer free taste. The introduction of the Avocado Cake brough both pride and struggle. Being an unusual dessert, one would never imagine avocado as a cake back then and they wouldn’t even try it for free!
We had to go through rejection after rejection after rejection and would be ecstatic over that one curious foodie who would finally give it a try. It started with a few and has now grown to a market who shares the same pride that originated from my family.
Just when I thought I’ve got it all figured out, COVID-19 happened.
We had to fight for our existence one day at a time, anxious about what tomorrow will bring. We were fortunate enough to have a delivery system in place just a few weeks before the government declared lockdown. Little did we know that it would be the key to our survival.
To this day, it was the most grueling time of my life, The uncertainty of me being able to provide for my family, and the families of my employees on top of the looming threat to everyone’s health and safety was just pure torture. Somehow, we pulled through and managed to keep the business going. I am grateful for all the lessons I learned from what I would say was the most challenging twist in the crazy roller coaster ride. I guess that’s the beauty of being in business, no matter how long you’ve been at it, there will always be something new to learn.
Speaking of learning, I discovered something about myself earlier this year that confirmed why I struggled so much in most subjects in school & did well in selected areas of interest.
While on my phone scrolling through reels, I came across “symptoms of ADHD” (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) and I laughed at it and was, “parang ako to ah! teka, parang ako to a!”. This led me to believe that I do have this disorder and reached out to a psychiatrist. Then, I got confirmation that I do have ADHD. This was a big relief for me, my self-esteem, and my poor brain that hey, I am not inept or dumb, I just have a disorder. This was the reason I got bored on certain subjects and hyperfocused on others which piqued my interests.
This led me to think, I’ve always been passionate about cars. Why not pursue a business that revolves around it. This was the perfect opportunity to apply what I learned from the program and what I learned about myself. I came across a friend from one of my car clubs who was taking up an automotive detailing course. I said to myself, I can do that too! And just like a flick of a switch, I was hyper focusing on it. I signed up for the course, purchased all the necessary tools and equipment and launched Detailer 85 in a span of 2 weeks. It is basically a home based automotive detailing show in my very own garage. It only started in July of this year & with barely 4 months of operations, I see a lot of potential. Only time can tell where this new venture will take me but I will take it in 1 car at a time & enjoy the ride.
In closing, Let me be the living proof that an underachieving, poor performing student can make something out of life. So if I made it through, I’m sure you can do a hundred times better. Do what drives you. Keep going. And if you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re on the right track. It’s meant to be that way. Trust the process and everything will work out fine.