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Cited by AFFI. Day 1, GROWING UP, BUSINESS WAS THE LAST THING on Rommel Juan's mind. He was a child with an active imagination, spending his time doing art projects, reading comic books, or watching cartoons. It was his older brother who had the entrepreneurial flair and young Rommel often found himself acting as a sales agent, convincing classmates and friends to buy the cartoon stickers his brother was selling. Rommel enjoyed the exercise, but found more value in the interaction with friends than in the actual profit. He felt proud that he was able to satisfy his customers with the goods he sold, and looked forward to playing with them after the sale.
It was only in college that the entrepreneurial bug bit him, again with the help of his older brother. According to Rommel:
I was a late bloomer. My first venture with Raffy was in college. It was after the San Francisco earthquake; the "I survived the Great Quake" T-shirts became a trend. We used this as an inspiration for own version: the "I survived the Coup d'etat" shirts. This was in 1992, during one of the coups in Cory Aquino's time. It was also the Christmas season - perfect timing - and we sold a lot of shirts. That was the first time I earned money.
It was just a small venture, but it was Rommel's first taste of earning through enterprise. After college, the Juan brothers teamed up again, this time to start a food-takeout counter. Inspired by childhood memories of family outings with Mommy Charito's meals packed with banana leaves, they decided to set up what would be the beginning of today's popular Filipino fast-food-Binalot.
Rommel liked the idea so much; he found that he was aggressively pursuing the business. He liked that the concept was novel. He took charge, started trying out recipes, identifying costs, wrapping food in banana leaves. Unwittingly, he had found his business and had decided to be an entrepreneur.
To be continued...
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