Entrepreneurship Philippines
I have been in the Philippines now for nearly 6 years at the time of writing this article and my opinion on this topic is there sadly there is not much entrepreneurship in the Philippines. I do not mean this in a negative way it is purely an observation made over time. One of the biggest reasons is there are a lot of copycat types of ideas or very traditional businesses with little evolution.
What does entrepreneurship even mean?
The best example I found is from Investopedia
Entrepreneurship refers to an individual that has an idea and intends to execute on that idea, usually to disrupt the current market with a new product or service.
The key part of this definition is to disrupt the current market with a new idea. Some of the examples of entrepreneurship that I have seen in the Philippines at a basic level kinda make me giggle a little however I applaud anyone taking a risk to follow their dream no matter how big or how small that is. Let's look at some examples of what types of entrepreneurship you can expect to see in the Philippines.
My favourite entrepreneur in the Philippines
If I had to comment purely based on initiative creativity at the base level the best example has seen is someone charging money for something that they do not even own. It is truly amazing and quite genius at a base level whilst not causing anyone any harm which is important. There is a guy that lives near me near a busy nightclub district who only had to make one outlay for his idea. That was simply to buy a plastic chair. He uses this chair to block a single space in the busy street carpark until someone wants to park in it. He then charges them a small fee to park there and the customer is so happy when they leave that they give him a tip.
It is not his carpark to begin with, and yet he profits from it. I applaud this kind of thinking as he has not been held back by having zero he has in fact created wealth from nothing. I am not sure if it will last forever however I take my hat off.
A typical display of entrepreneurship in the Philippines
I have driven all across the Philippines and it is interesting to see how the different business operations work. I do however get confused as you drive and you are looking out the window and you see a little shop selling Mangos for example. Then for the next 2 kilometres, all that is for sale is mangos. Then it might be watermelons. The funny thing is I can still not work out which end starts selling first but I know the ones in the middle are definitely the followers. This is some of the base level thinking when it comes to entrepreneurship in the Philippines. If you have been here you will see the same. In Tagaytay, it is super clear as they do meat, so you will see hundreds of meat shops. Would it be wrong to think that a car driving past may have someone in it that doesn't just want to buy mangos? Just an idea lol.
You only know what you know and you don't know what you don't know.
This statement right here will define how far someone goes with their ideas as you really do not know what you do not know. If all your life you have only seen people make money out of selling mangos then that's what you will do. The more you see the more you learn and the more you realise you don't know everything. This is what broadens your horizon and your ideas.
I am sure the owner of Jollibee "Tony Tan" did not live where they only sold mangos on the side of the road and thought hmm I am going to make a burger franchise?
Anyone who takes any risk to follow their dreams in my mind is a champion however for entrepreneurship to grow you really need to expand your mind. Every time I get to the limits of my thoughts, I must go and learn more things and travel more to gain more experience. I would not say that I have worked it all out just yet at 35 however I have reached for the stars and failed a lot. I am only writing this blog out of curiosity and as a learning journey to expand my mind further so thanks for joining me.