GOKONGWEI REACTION PAPER

John Gokongwei Jr. was born with a silver spoon, he was enjoying his life to

the fullest but not until his father died and all their businesses, properties, cars, and

even their home had vanished. That incident made Gokongwei Jr. start from scratch, at

the age of 15 he sold roasted peanuts and other products to provide for his family. With

his determination, he manage to put up a stall and began trading goods from Cebu to

Manila. With great passion and pure determination to succeed, the rest was history to

John Gokongwei’s success.

His story made us realized that nothing is impossible if you have the passion

and determination to succeed in life. Determination will help us persevering towards

difficult goal in spite of obstacles and challenges. From someone who almost had

nothing, he climbed his way to the third richest person in the Philippines in 2019.

Gokongwei Jr. also taught us to love our work, he said in his one of his speech

that he earned 20 pesos a day by working longer and harder than everybody else, it

didn’t matter since he really love his work and this will be his stepping stone for his

success

Don’t let a tragedy in your life stop you from achieving your goal. You can’t

mourn your entire life but you can work so hard so that everyone you lost along the

journey will be so proud of you for becoming successful. “Ships don’t sink because of

the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let

what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.”