A farmer bends in his rice field under the scorching sun, smoothing his fingers over golden seeds he knows will not be enough. At harvest season, a middleman will come and negotiate him down to a price so low it will not even cover the seed and fertilizer. He’ll sigh, take the loss, and do it again next year—if he can afford to. This is the Filipino cycle of despair in agriculture, where sweat and toil end in heartbreak, not wealth.

The middlemen are vultures who come just in time to swoop in and grab what they can, leaving the farmers with leftovers. They set prices, knowing that farmers cannot bargain. If a sack of palay should be sold for twenty pesos per kilo, they will give ten. Take it or leave it. And leaving alone is not because the farmers themselves are already living in debt borrowed from loan sharks, fertilizer company suppliers, and machine rentals. These men toil under the blistering heat only to lose their sweat from the fruits of their labor as they fall into the hands of traders who take advantage of their misery.

And more so for people living in areas infested by NPA members. Armed men come knocking on doors, not to purchase crops, but to extort a “revolutionary tax” at gunpoint. It does not matter that the farmer is already making pennies. He has to pay, or else. Those who attempt to refuse may never be heard of again. Others escape to the city to evade extortion, leaving their land, their inheritance, and their sole source of livelihood. If the government can’t protect them, who can? Farming is difficult enough, but farming in fear is impossible.

And then there are the typhoons—ferocious, relentless, and merciless. Farmers don’t sow crops; they bet on the sky. When rains pour more violently than they should and the winds blow more strongly than they should, fields are cut to zero in a night’s sweep. A year’s work wiped out in hours. No insurance, no subsidies, no opportunity to recover. Farmers who lose each crop season just refrain from planting altogether. Why suffer again and again if nature herself appears to have a mind to defraud them?

And so, with all these calamities, it is not surprising that Filipino farmers have been minimized to subsistence-level agriculture. They do plant because they need to eat and not sell in markets. It’s not laziness, nor is it a lack of ambition—it’s sheer survival. The economy dictates mass production, but how can one produce at a large scale when the system itself guarantees failure? No one chooses to be poor; poverty is set up as a trap for them, and every road forward leads to another dead end.

Some critics will counter with, “Then why not change crops? Why not innovate? “ These are the sentiments of one who has never once mastered a plow. Farming is not business; it’s a way of life, subject to the caprices of weather, custom, and custom of long habitude. An irrigator rice farmer can’t be a cacao grower overnight. Experiment funds are lacking, quality training is out of reach, and no government scheme trickles down to reach those who are truly in need.

The large farm owners can diversify—but small farmers cannot. And thus, the exodus continues. Farmers abandon farms to migrate to the cities and labor on Manila’s construction sites, in Cavite factories, for whatever better-paying jobs than in the soil they used to till. The provinces, or the food pillar of the country, are forsaken. And when the farmers are away, then who will feed us? Who will bend their backs in the sun so rice keeps our plates full? The country is losing answers, and it is running out of farmers.

The answer is not complex. Farmers require honest prices, genuine government assistance, safety from insurgent groups, and protection from weather calamities. They require respect—not sympathy. As long as the system continues to treat them like throwaway trash, as long as middlemen continue to take them for a ride, and as long as farming becomes an unprofitable career once more, our fields will continue to vacate. And someday, we shall wake up to a nation that no longer knows how to feed itself.

The entrepreneurial world is often portrayed as a glamorous, fast-paced journey to success, filled with innovation, disruption, and the thrill of building something from scratch. While this narrative holds some truth, it’s a heavily filtered lens that often overlooks the grit, uncertainty, and sheer hard work that fuels the entrepreneurial spirit.

This article aims to peel back the layers of the entrepreneurial myth and offer an unfiltered look at the reality of building a business. It’s a glimpse into the world of sleepless nights, relentless hustle, and the constant battle against doubt, all fueled by a burning passion and a relentless pursuit of a dream.

The Grind is Real:

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: entrepreneurship is hard work. It’s not a 9-to-5 job with predictable hours and guaranteed weekends. It’s a 24/7 commitment, demanding relentless dedication and a willingness to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Expect long hours, late nights, and weekends spent working on your business, often sacrificing personal time and social activities.

Uncertainty is Your Constant Companion:

The entrepreneurial journey is riddled with uncertainty. You’re constantly navigating uncharted territory, facing unforeseen challenges, and adapting to a rapidly changing landscape. There are no guarantees of success, and failure is a real possibility. You need to be comfortable with ambiguity, embrace flexibility, and be prepared to pivot your strategy as needed.

The Rollercoaster of Emotions:

Entrepreneurship is an emotional rollercoaster. You’ll experience highs of exhilaration when you achieve a breakthrough, secure funding, or land a major client. But you’ll also face lows of frustration, disappointment, and self-doubt when things don’t go according to plan. Learning to manage your emotions, maintain resilience, and stay motivated through the inevitable ups and downs is crucial.

The Importance of Building a Strong Support System:

While entrepreneurship is often portrayed as a solo endeavor, it’s essential to build a strong support system. Surround yourself with mentors, advisors, and a network of like-minded individuals who can offer guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear. Seek out communities and events where you can connect with other entrepreneurs and learn from their experiences.

The Financial Reality:

The financial realities of entrepreneurship can be daunting. You’ll likely face periods of financial instability, tight budgets, and the constant pressure to generate revenue. Be prepared to make sacrifices, manage your finances wisely, and be patient as your business grows.

Beyond the Hype:

While the entrepreneurial journey is challenging, it’s also incredibly rewarding. The opportunity to create something from nothing, solve problems, and make a positive impact is a powerful motivator. The sense of accomplishment, the freedom to shape your own destiny, and the potential for growth and impact are all compelling aspects of the entrepreneurial life.

The Unfiltered Truth:

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It requires a unique blend of passion, resilience, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty. But for those who are driven by a vision, a desire to make a difference, and a relentless pursuit of their dreams, the entrepreneurial journey can be a transformative experience.

Final Thoughts:

The entrepreneurial world is a complex and multifaceted landscape. It’s a journey filled with challenges, rewards, and lessons learned. By embracing the unfiltered truth, understanding the realities, and building a strong support system, you can navigate the entrepreneurial path with greater clarity, resilience, and the potential to achieve your goals.
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If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts on the column, feel free to send an email to jca.bblueprint@gmail.com. Looking forward to connecting with you!

LET’S hope that we give due attention to this basic duty of ours of how to be docile to the abiding promptings of God through the Holy Spirit. Let’s remember that God is our creator and we are his creatures. As such, God and us as creator and creatures can and should never be separated.

Why? That’s because God as our creator is the one who gives us our very own existence. He can never be absent from us because, otherwise, we will lose our own existence. The creator cannot be absent from his creature, since not only does he give existence to his creature but also keeps it. Without the creator, the creature ceases to exist.

So, every creature, from the smallest to the biggest, from the inanimate to the living, from the material to the spiritual, from the natural to the supernatural, etc. has God in him or in it. That is why we can say that God is everywhere.

God as creator of all things governs all of his creation by giving each of them their appropriate law with the view of ultimately giving glory to the creator. By creating the universe, God as creator has no other purpose than to share in varying ways what he has with his creatures. And the bottom line is for the creatures to be united with the creator, giving glory to the creator in their own way.

In our case, since we have been created to be God’s image and likeness, sharers of his supernatural life and divine nature, we have been endowed by him mainly through our spiritual powers of intelligence and will so that we can know and love him.
That is the proper character of our relation with our creator. And since God is infinitely above our nature, God gives us his grace so that we can achieve what we on our own cannot—sharing his very own life and nature.

This giving of grace is something gratuitous to which we have to learn to correspond properly. Said another way, God is actually always intervening in our lives, giving us direction of how we should pursue our lives, not only from time to time but rather all the time.

This is where we are told that God through the Holy Spirit continues to send us promptings so we can act and be as children of God, sharers of his life and nature, even while here in our temporal world.

That is why we need to learn how to discern and to be docile to all these abiding promptings of the Holy Spirit in our life. Christ himself said it very clearly. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” (14,26)

We have to understand that the Holy Spirit perpetuates the presence and redemptive action of Christ all throughout time, with all the drama, vagaries, ups and downs that we men make in our history.

We have to do everything to keep this awareness of the Holy Spirit’s abiding interventions in our life alive and operative. This duty and task are not meant for some special people only but rather for all of us. And this we can do if we try to keep ourselves always in the presence of God, constantly asking him and consulting him.

“Oh, Holy Spirit,” we may start asking, for example, “how should I understand this thing that is happening to me now, how should I react and behave, what are you trying to tell me in this particular event and circumstance, etc.?”

Threats to the family are aplenty that we cannot and must not just rely on authorities for protection. Children of school-going age need parental care and protection more than what authorities can provide. We know too well that authorities could only provide limited supervision and protection to school children. School authorities can only oversee school children while in the confines of the school premises.

Beyond class hours and outside the school campus, we cannot expect school authorities to still be responsible for school children. It is the responsibility of parents to do their share in providing care and protection to their children after school. While there are police authorities providing school safety and protection, they too can only do so much of their task within the area of the school.

Reports regarding students being duped into vices and other undesirable activities by peers must be a cause for concern among parents. These problems are prevalent among high school students who are found in groups that engage in off-campus activities. These youthful students call their groups as fraternities and sororities. Observers however consider these groups as gangs for they do not have the characteristics of real fraternities and sororities.

All that these groups do are nefarious activities like forcedly collecting money from hapless students who are threatened with harm by the gang. In other instances, these groups engage in misguided activities. They do not have any clear purpose than enjoy the company of their gang doing what they want to do afar from the sight of their busy parents.

Students of this generation seem lacking in parental guidance and influenced by misguided elements of society. We are aware how peer groups take primacy among the influential factors in the life of students. It poses to parents the great challenge of combating the evil forces that drag students to misguided activities. We cannot rely on others, not even authority figures, the care, protection and guidance of our children.

But we must give attention to the factors that lead to the way students behave today. We may unconsciously be allowing our children to take misguided paths. A lot of media blitz from television programs require parental guidance but parents simply do not care providing children the needed guidance.

In school, values education is part of the curriculum but matters like children’s rights and related topics on freedom and privacy sometimes go offhand, giving the students the wrong notion of independence and less respect for parental guidance. In their eagerness to assert the rights being taught in school, students often go beyond the parameters by totally excluding parental guidance in the vocabulary. The indoctrination of wrong and misguided values by the media and worse, the school, are the unwitting cause why students are falling into unwanted and undesirable activities. All these may still be traced to seeming lack if not the utter failure of parental guidance.
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