YOUNG MAN, GO INTO BUSINESS By Pablo de Borja

Young Man, Dont Go Into Business. Go into art. Express the anguish, the ecstasy, the poetry of the human art. Go into medicine. Make the lame walk, the blind see, the leper clean. Go into architecture. Capture the texture and the sweep of the Filipino soul. Go into education. Open the minds, lift up the spirits, ennoble the hearts of the Filipino youth. Go even into the priesthood. Ease the heart-aches of old maids. But dont go into business. Business is risky, young man. Stakes are high. You gamble with your hard-earned cash, your familys security, and your childrens future. All these you stake at the mercy of fickle government policies: of controls and decontrols, restrictions on credit, dollar retention fees, and export taxes. Business is too risky, young man. You gamble with too much. Business is also dirty. Its a rat-race for the messy pot of corrupting gold. Its a jungle, where dog eats dog. Its a dirty world, young man. Eat or be eaten. Sell or be sold. Bribe yourself into government favor, or be bribed out. Give the kick-back for the bank loan, or be stabbed in the back. Buy and sell is dirty. Business corrupts.

Business, finally, is all-consuming, young man. You try to run a business and business runs you. There is no rest, no sitting on past glories. Stop and youre eaten. Rest and you go under. Business is too exacting. Stay clean, young man, stay secure, stay safe. Listen to the voice of experience. Lock yourself up; stay antiseptically clean; rest in the purity and comfort of your armchair. If you are weak, if you are insensitive to the needs of others, if you do not want to take risks, business is not for you. Business is for the Man, the man of vision, the man of strength, the man of drive. Business is for the man of vision who is not afraid to dirty his hands to bring forth life. The doctor in the maternity ward dirties his hands, but he brings forth life. The businessman allows the stigma of dirt, so that the future generations may live. In amassing wealth for himself and his children, and re-investing, he supports not only his children, but the children of all who work for him. In providing for his future, he provides for the future of his employees. In creating his future, he creates the future of his country for the political, social, educational, and cultural pyramid stands on an economic base. The failure of the base is the collapse of the pyramid. If the business fails, democracy fails. The failure of capitalism is the failure of democracy, the takeover of communism. If business fails, Filipinos will have no leisure for art, no money for education, no capital for architecture, no stomach for religion. The man of vision sees all these and goes into business. Business is for the man of strength. He enters a jungle of competition: lagays at the piers, the kickbacks at the banks, the hustling in buying and selling, the double-dealing and lies in advertising. He joins a rat-race for the messy pot of corrupting gold. He cannot but give lagay at the piers; otherwise, the unscrupulous will gain an unfair advantage over the good. He

gives until such time when he can unite all his fellow businessmen and say, None of us will give lagay. Either you release our legimately-imported goods or everything stopsno raw materials for our government, no goods for our stores, no raw materials for our factories. He has imposed reason upon the jungle. He has changed the jungle laws into human laws. He will try to do the same as regards the kickbacks, the hustling, the double-dealing and the lies. He joined a rat-race to cleanse competition. He did not sacrifice his principles. He suffered the stigma of dirt, but remained pure. And all for what? To create the future of his country, to keep his fellow Filipinos truly free, with money for education, leisure for art, aspiration for religion. But isnt business too demanding? Yes, there is no rest in business. You cannot sit on past glories. Relax and youre pushed under. Falter and you fall. Therefore business is only for the strong, for the man of vision, the man of courage. It is cruel to the incompetent. It pushes the inefficient down only to make way and give room for the more competent, the more efficient man who will produce better goods. Competition is cruel only to be kind. Competition is demanding. Yes. Competition is only for the man of dedication, the man of strength, the man of vision. Our free existence today is challenged on many fronts by the same enemy: our political freedom, by poverty; our social freedom, by poverty; our educational freedom, by poverty; our religious freedom, by poverty; the answer to overcome this poverty is business and business calls for courage and strong determination to create a better place to live under the sun. Young man, go into business. Today the challenge of existence is a bold challenge and it is hurled at us, the youth.