Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity

I got this immortal wisdom nugget from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. This reminded me of a lot of people who have already approached me complaining about how they’ve never received “breaks” in their careers, relationships, and business. Here’s something to chew on – how many opportunities have passed you by because you’re not prepared for them? How many promotions have gone the other way when it gone have went to you if you would have worked a little extra?

My Story
I strongly believe in this statement because I experienced it myself. I don’t believe I’ve shared this story with a lot of people but let me do so now so I can illustrate it better. When I started out my marketing career, I was a Community Manager for the online gaming company of ePLDT, netGames. I reported to the Brand Manager (Frances Fernandez) and the Brand Manager reported to our Sales & Marketing Director (Apol Dionglay). During one of my evaluations with Frances and Apol, they asked me what I wanted to become in the next year or so. I honestly told them that I wanted to become a Brand Manager. However I still really didn’t have all the skills needed yet to be one. Apol shared with me some advice on what I can do to improve on and one of his tips have literally fueled me to where I am now in my career and even in my business and in my relationships.

Apol told me to read books.

And boy did I read. I blew my next salary on marketing and management books. I was never really a fan of reading but I suddenly found myself literally chugging down all the knowledge that I could get into my brain. It became really strange though when I’d be reading Kotler (marketing textbooks in college) when I was taking a crap in the bathroom, hahaha!

I was also blessed to have a good mentor in Frances. At first I was a bit annoyed on why she kept on passing work to me that I though wasn’t under the Job Description of a Community Manager. But looking back at everything, I finally understand why she did what she did. All the extra work that she was giving me did make life harder, but it was valuable experience and training that I won’t be able to get anywhere else. These were the days where I’d come home from work really late and I’d spent nights sometimes trying to come up with better ways to improve the games that we were handling. Yes – there were times when my girlfriend and I would fight because I’d be thinking about work during our dates, hehe.

Another mentor was our CEO – Jane Walker. She taught me how to really be strategic when it comes to brand planning and how to work smart. That’s the beauty with start-ups, you get to work with the giants even though you’re still an ant.

After months of preparation, an opportunity finally came. An opening was up for Brand Manager. I got the job based on all the hard work and training I put in and that was officially my first “break”.

It’s been one roller coaster ride after that. Level Up got merged with netGames and I handled different games and eventually got new mentors which refined me even more. The most important thing that was consistent though was that I worked hard everyday because I was passionate about the industry I was in and I knew that if I kept on going the extra mile, I’d get to the finish line faster.

To Apol, Frances, Jane, and the rest of my former colleagues in netGames, all the best to you guys and thank you for all the memories!

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