MEETING (JULY 4, 2015)

On the sharing that happened last July 4, 2015, I learned a lot from that discussion especially on the two mindsets the Default Mindset and the Alternative Mindset. This is the usual mindset that most people have about formal education. Our parents send us in school from Nursery up to college for the reasons that they want us to learn and get good grades and of course to land in high-paying jobs. Getting good grades in school is big achievements in one student life and having this can make the parents proud. As I remember my past years in education life, my mother always proud of me because of my good grades I have got. Having good grades in school can bring us and land us in high paying jobs. Most of the companies looked at first in your performance in school whether you get good grades, average or not. As I mentioned above, most of the parents send their children to school with this mindset – get good grades and land in high paying job. Students imbibe this mindset and carry it with them until college. Most of the students today imbibe this kind of mind set to get good grades and land in high paying jobs. They do not think of a higher purpose of going to school such being an employer someday but instead they support and apply this mind set. Going to school for me is not all about getting good grades and get a high paying jobs but I aiming in my life that someday I could be the boss or the employer in a popular company because I believe going to school is a key to be an employer or a boss in the future. And most of the schools today are subscribe to and support this mindset. It is like a default mindset. We can formally call it the employment mindset. According to my research, the results of the employment mindset can be beneficial or destructive, depending on one's perspective. From the perspective of schools subscribing to this mindset, they take pride in the fact that their best graduates are sought after by companies, offering them attractive compensation packages. In the case of Davao schools, the best graduates are lured to companies in Manila, Cebu, and other prosperous urban cities for the reason that those places offers bigger salary compared to the place where they came from like Davao. In the case also of Davao, the best graduates are migrated into other places like being mentioned above just because of a limited IT company here in Davao unlike those other places or cities. The average graduates try to remain in Davao but find it hard to land in good-paying jobs and find themselves following the route of their better classmates. Yes, I agree that average graduates have difficulty in finding or seeking for a job that offers high pay or high salary. Schools beam with pride when they get feedback that their graduates excel in the companies they are working for. And I can say that I am getting disturbed with this reality. Our best graduates help in the development of other places, not Davao -- and they have reservations in coming back. That is true our best graduates here in Davao did not help for the improvement of our city. This "brain drain" cycle happens yearly and Davao's industries remain thin and their development snail-paced. With this yearly exodus of our best minds to other places, will we allow Davao to remain as a sought-after human resource provider forever? I guess there has to be an end to this problem and hopefully that one day our city will be progressive and will improve.  According to our discussion, this is the alternative mindset of most people. "Go to school, get good grades, create and own a company." "Use your knowledge, skills, core values, creativity and passion to create and innovate through technology." Those people having this kind of mindset envision not only to get good grades, land in high paying jobs but to create and own a company in the future. According to the statement above, that having an alternative mindset and to create and own a company you should use your knowledge, skills, core values, creativity and passion and so that also you can create and innovate technology. The statements above offer an alternative mindset. We can formally call it the technopreneurship mindset. As being defined during our discussion, technopreneurship is entrepreneurship in the field and involved of high technology. It is the healthy interplay of technology ideas, technology skills, management skills and the entrepreneurial mindset. It starts with an idea, which when pursued, has the capacity to be transformed into a viable technology-based enterprise. The cultivation and nurturing of this alternative mindset can start in schools. A technopreneurship track in the IT curriculum can prepare students to be budding technopreneurs. We also discussed the technopreneurship track in the IT curriculum of Davao schools. And I learned that technopreneurship track can lead to the following scenario... Our graduates decide to pursue their technology-based business plans as start-ups in technology-business incubators. Venture capitalists invest in their viable high technology product(s). Their start-ups mature into stable IT enterprises and eventually locate in IT parks or buildings. In the discussion, I have get some ideas and learned that the IT enterprises were able to compete in the domestic and global market and spur economic growth in the locality. The local IT industry blossoms and attracts more locators and investors. And I also knew that our graduates here decide to build their careers and families in Davao and not migrating to other places or cities like Manila, Cebu and etc. Graduates who left Davao return and decide to take root here. During also our discussion Sir Gamboa mentioned this and for the first I have heard this that Davao becomes the IT hub and capital of Mindanao -- and possibly the Philippines, BIMP-EAGA, or even the Asia Pacific Region which I was happy when I heard this statement and I am proud of being a Dabawenyo. And I was happy and overwhelmed with this statement that Davao becomes the home of highly competent and efficient IT professionals with sound social and ethical standards. The Davao schools become renowned worldwide for producing such graduates. Knowing all these mindsets is indeed I can say and  I  realize that someday we will be graduated from this course we could be an employer someday or in the future if we follow the alternative mindset and we could be also an employee if we follow the default mindset or employment mindset. I can say also that we have a greater opportunity and greater edge compared to others because we owned the technology; I mean we have an idea of what is technology especially today that we embrace the technology and we belong in the technology era. Like I said we have a greater opportunity and it is a big advantage to us, so just grab it, work for it and go for it. And aiming for the best ignore the default or employment mindset and go for the alternative mindset so that one day we become the employer and a boss and of course to become a technopreneur like Steve Jobs. I learned the different importance of technopreneurship such as employment creation, local resources, decentralization and diversification of business and many more. Not only that, I have learned also of what technopreneurship means. Technopreneurship as our professor gives definition is a high tech ventures in ICT, electronics, internet, life sciences and biotech. It is also a service firm where technology is critical to their mission and the last is technopreneurship is entrepreneurship in the field of technology. As I comprehend all this definitions of technopreneurship, I can conclude that I cannot be a technopreneur someday because as what technopreneur defined it involves in the field of technology and I think I do not have passion in the field of technology. Our professor also gave us the exact meaning of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are the people who enter into new and pioneering ventures. It involves whole-brained and uses both the left brain which is logical and right brain which is creative and entrepreneurship is starting up a new business. In the future, my desire profession is to become an entrepreneur, but when I knew the meaning of entrepreneur well I can say that I am not fit into this profession since it requires both left and right brain and as I know I have a left brain only. Sir Gamboa also discussed to us the course model called SEED. This course model is very important to us especially those people who taking technopreneurship subject. Based on the discussion, S stands for self mastery, E stands for Environment Mastery, E stands for Enterprise Mastery and lastly D stands for development of business plan. I learned from our discussion that the technopreneurship subject is come up with this model. So in order to understand this course model, Sir Gamboa elaborates to us of what is SEED curriculum. Based on the discussion, self mastery passion comes from knowing yourself. It brings passion, when you know yourself, you know what you want and do not want. I learned from this that in order to become a successful technopreneur in the future, you should have a mastery of you are or you should know yourself in and out so that you will know your passion and you know what you want or do not want. According also to the discussion of this, it does not require a high Intellectual Quotient (IQ) but if you have a very high IQ well it is good and it’s beneficial to you. But it requires or there is a need of high Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ). Emotional Quotient (EQ) is the ability of an entrepreneur to connect to other people and be able to feel other emotionally and Adversity Quotient (AQ) is the ability to rise up after the failure that has been encountered. It is also explained in our discussion that being a self-mastered person should be performer, epicure, and boss and has a whole-brained and has a personal vision and knows strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, I conclude that I cannot be a self-mastered person because in the first place it requires high EQ and AQ and as I knew during the time that I took a test on Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ), I have got only average on Emotional Quotient and moderate on Adversity Quotient and so I am the person who has not mastered yet in myself. The second is E or Environment Mastery in SEED says that it is all about generating business ideas and seeking opportunities out from his or her environment through serendipity walks, crises, trends and etc. I have learned from this that the possibilities of generating ideas are most likely to be found through the following. First is the serendipity walks, this an ordinary walk like walking on the field in USeP and suddenly you stumbled down and come up and generate with an idea. The second one is crisis like you encountered crisis or failures; this may lead to an opportunity. The third is trends opportunities and innovative ideas that can be found in current trends and fashion. And lastly are your hobbies or interests, personal skills and experiences. All of these are the factors and possibilities of generating business ideas and seeking for opportunities. I learned also that being an environment-mastered person should understand his/her industry where he/she belong and many more. The third is E also which stands for Enterprise Mastery and from this, I knew that enterprise mastery should have an idea on how to run a business such as marketing, operations and so on. And being an enterprise-mastered person should understand and integrates the functions of management, human resource, operations and etc. The last is D stands for development of business plan that covers writing, presenting and defending and adding refinements to the presented business plan. I learned also the four types of entrepreneurship which are incremental, imitative, rent-seeking and innovative. As well as the characteristics of an entrepreneur such as hardworking, self-confident, builds for the future and a lot more. The first start of discussion we had was on the introduction of the SEED or Self-Mastery, Environment-Mastery, Enterprise-Mastery and Development of the Business Plan. The whole process wasn’t done yet because we are still stuck-up in the Self-Mastery if I’m not wrong for some many reasons but still we are on the process on finishing the whole discussions. On Self-Mastery we were being asked on what are our future plans if ever we finished our courses a self-check if what are the things we really love and what are the things we avoid or hate it is very important to have a business that you love or like a hobby in which you have a great courage that this business of yours would not be a bluff. The topic shared by Sir Randy is all about the Rationale of Technopreneurship (Davao Academe Perspective). It has an outline that consists of five (5) topics, namely: The Usual Mindset, The Alternative Mindset, The Macro Strategy, The Ecosystem, and lastly, the SEED curriculum. As what I have heard while he shares the history of this module, Sir Randy together with his colleagues made this because they want to put Technopreneurship subject in the curriculum of IT Education degrees in every school that offers Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS) and Bachelor of Science in Information Management (BSIM) courses here in Mindanao, particularly in Davao City. Way back then, Sir Randy together with his friend had given a chance to study Technopreneurship in Australia but instead of grabbing the opportunity, they chose to bring the Australians here in the Philippines that have knowledge in Technopreneurship and gather the Deans of BSIT, BSCS and BSIM in every school in Region XI, as well as partnering in local organizations here in Davao. With that gathering, they had meeting, lecturing and monitoring sessions about technopreneurship held in different hotels. The presentation and reviewing of the module with some invited students and faculty has been made and after that, they launched successfully the Technopreneurship course. I really liked their advocacy because they are not doing it for the betterment of their selves but they want to help their society, as well as their countrymen. This kind of advocacy creating a way to make changes in the technology we had experience because through technopreneurship, we can think innovative ideas and we can share our innovations that will surely benefit the people and also, we could earn money.

I really like the outlined topics in the module “Rationale of Technopreneurship” because for me, we could learn a lot in which we could apply in starting up a business.  So the Usual Mindset is the first topic discussed by Sir Randy in his prepared slides. “Go to school, get good grades, and land in a high-paying job”, this quoted line is best describes what usual mindset is. This example of usual mindset can be adopted in education. Mostly the reason why our parents send us to school is because they want us to learn new things to be able to get good grades and to have a good job that has a high salary. And this kind of mindset swallowed by students nowadays. It is not that bad to have a usual mindset and it is not always about getting high salary for being an employee. It is much better to have a vision of becoming the employer, the manager, or the owner instead just dreaming to becoming an employee. We should always dream high, aim high, believe in our abilities, work hard and survive the challenges. Majority of the schools today embrace a default mindset which is the employment mindset. I just realized that since we are young, we must put in our mind to aim high (like to be a president, own a company, etc.) because when we have that kind of perceptions, we are not afraid to try anything just to attain our goals. As I absorbing the thoughts of usual mindset, I can’t help myself in comparing it to the “inside the box” thingy which I encountered in nine dots activity. “Inside the Box” defines the limitations and restrictions in life. It somehow tells that one person is likely to be confined to the four corners of a room and restricts himself in more possibilities outside the box. On the other hand, the “Nine Dots” puzzle tells the other way around. It simply describes that one must not limit himself in exploring, investigating, and experimenting in order to create something that might be useful and benefits many people. It is about going beyond what you can see and accepting the challenge of trying something new. It allows someone to be a creator, an inventor, an owner, an initiator, an author or any term that will describe someone who was the first to discover something new and something useful. Another mindset introduced is the Alternative Mindset. This mindset has a perception of “Go to school, get good grades, create and own a company”. School is said to be our second home where we could enhance our physical and mental abilities. In school, everything that you do will be observed, recorded, graded and appreciated. Students must bear in mind to always be excellent in everything they do while in school because the more they strive hard and work hard to be on top, the more chances they could have to get good grades, get on top of the class and have awards and medals. It is always a fulfilment to the parents if they see their children graduated, be professionals and be able to raise money for living. For those students who have high ambitions, they will not be contented on just becoming employees or workers. They will have the vision to have their own company, have their own workers and employees and be known on their expertise. Alternative Mindset is not just focusing on getting good grades and earning a high salary but it is beyond of the boundaries. I said “beyond the boundaries” because we are not sure if we will achieve to create and to own a company. But what matter most is that we have a perspective to reach this kind of goal. Before aiming this kind of objective we should use our knowledge wisely and effectively, as well as our skills, core values, our creativity and passion in order for us to create and innovate technology. This kind of mindset is called as Technopreneurship mindset. Why it is called Technopreneurship mindset? Since it is identified as a technopreneurship mindset, it deals primarily with entrepreneurship implicated in the field of high technology. It is the well relationship of realistic and reasonable technology ideas and skills, as well as entrepreneurial mindset. The things we made will always start with an idea in which if we then pursued, it would change into a feasible technology-based enterprise. Our schools are the bridge to develop and foster this alternative mindset. Having technopreneurship subject in every IT syllabus can develop and educate the students to be potential and promising technopreneurs someday. Putting up Technopreneurship subject in every IT curriculum in Davao City could make the graduates come into a decision to chase their technology-based business plans and strategies as a start-up in technology incubators. With this, venture capitalists will invest in their feasible high technology products. The start-ups they had created will be established into constant and firm IT enterprises and in the long run, it will locate them in IT parks (a place of high technology companies). I really like this kind of idea having technopreneurship as a part of IT curriculum because nowadays IT enterprises compete and participate in the domestic and global market and impel the growth of economy in the local area. It is so nice to know that our local IT industry blooms and it catches the attention of more locators and shareholders. With this kind of advocacy, our own graduates will come to a decision to build and create their career and profession here in Davao City. Also, there will be a chance that our graduates who left Davao City will come back and settle on to start again. If our graduates will not migrate to other places and pursue their career here in Davao, there is a possibility that through Technopreneurship, Davao City will become the IT hub and IT capital of Mindanao and possibly the Philippines, BIMP-EAGA and the Asia Pacific region. Also, Davao City will become the foundation and home of highly experienced and efficient IT professional with sound social and ethical standards. And for producing such graduates, the Davao City will turn out to be distinguished worldwide. It feels good when those things mentioned above will happen. We are not just helping ourselves to become successful but also, we are helping our nation, the place we belong to be renowned globally. The third topic discussed is the Macro Strategy. A technopreneurship ecosystem in the region should be in place in order to achieve and continue the good things that were describe above. It needs cooperation of the academe, IT industry, government, and business community. And this synergy will continue with the following components: Technopreneurship Programs in the Academe; Technology Business Incubators; Venture Capitalists and Funding Institutions; IT Business Incentives and Legal Framework;  IT Parks and Buildings; Domestic and International IT Market; Domestic and International Locators; IT-Enabled Business Enterprises and Government Agencies; IT-Enabled Hotels and Tourist Destinations; and IT-Friendly Real Estate Environment. Though this kind of collaboration is far from the reality, however there were incursions beforehand that have been attained on the way to this track. We should support our IT industry so that it would improve and develop its plan for the future. The last topic in the outline is the SEED course model. As what Sir Randy said, this SEED course model would really help us in this Technopreneurship subject we have been taken up. It was then elucidated that this SEED curriculum were based on its four main idea that were classify to give growth and advancement on every person that were brought in and acquainted with this course model. The SEED acronym has its own meaning. First S means Self Mastery. So self mastery itself, we can conclude that we must know first ourselves before anything. If we totally master our selves, then we will know those things that we want and the things that we don’t want. We will know our limitations and so much more, we will identify what is our passion. We will be able to discover our strengths and weaknesses; on what field we can have big contributions and in what scenarios we can do less and our presence will be less appreciated. After the Self Mastery, the first E in the SEED is the Environment Mastery. Based on the slides, Environment Mastery means that it is about producing business ideas and looking for opportunities and chances from our environment through serendipity walks, crisis, and trends. Environment mastery will help a person on deciding: on which field he belongs, what are his expertise, what is his passion, and what he really loves to do. He will perceive those opportunities in his environment and not the dilemmas. He should be aware of the things in his environment and should always look for positive prospect and not by a negative aspect. It helps us on how to master our environment and the things that we need to do to expose and reveal our prospective when we engage in turning out to be a technopreneur. On a nutshell, the second E in the SEED is the Enterprise Mastery. According to the slides, this enterprise mastery tells us on how to run a business. It is relevant to the knowledge and awareness of different enterprise disciplines such as creating the business, marketing management, operation management, financial management, and risk management. These disciplines are somehow the same with the topics tackled by Sir Randy in our Project Management class. By having knowledge of the disciplines mentioned above, we could run a business professionally and effectively. The last letter in the word SEED is D which stands for Development of a business plan. Based on the slides, it covers writing the business plan, presenting and defending the business plan, and adding refinements to the presented business plan. To be able to create a good business plan, we should have this kind of strategy on how to write, present and defend, and add some improvements to the existing business plan. As I have read and put that information on my mind, it makes me feel amaze on the things that Sir Randy together with his colleagues has done on Davao City particularly in the IT education. They all have awesome and incredible minds for a reason that they think of an idea that everyone can benefit and it is also an advantage especially for the students who are now getting Technopreneurship as their subject. It is impossible to think but they just did; they were able to gather all the Deans of different schools here in Davao just to put a Technopreneurship subject in IT curriculum. Although they are not that “powerful” people in Davao City, however they used their knowledge wisely and effectively to make changes in Davao City in terms of the things that involves in IT industry. They are influential enough and brilliant minded people that they were able to get the trust of the Deans. It is true that knowledge is powerful, as what famous line of Ernie Baron says “’Pag walang knowledge, walang Power” (If you don’t have knowledge, you don’t power). No one is idiot. Every people in this world are intelligent. It will always depend on how we used our knowledge. Like on what Sir Randy said, it is just like he shares his knowledge on us by doing things that people could gain. His principle is indeed worth to be praised. He said it to our class that he does not teach for living, he teaches us because he wants to share his knowledge upon us and he also wants the lives of his students to flourish. With his actions, I think and I am sure that every instructor wants also their students to step out on our cage and face the world. They want us also to learn and to be wise. For him, he don’t mind if his students are intelligent or not, beautiful or not so, but what matter most to him is the attitude. It is nonsense if you don’t have a good attitude to act. Our attitude will reflect on who we really are. Sir Randy taught us also to dream high. Not to be contented as an employee but we should aim to be an employer. Not to limit our selves and be open minded on everything; thinking the advantages and disadvantages of doing such things. To go beyond the boundaries and explore new ideas that could help us in producing innovative ideas soon. I know that he wanted us to take those opportunities that will surely help us. And I am so lucky and it is also my privilege having Sir Randy as our instructor because a lot of real talk lessons from him I already had put on my mind. Although he always make punishments on my late comer classmates, but still the lesson why he is doing this is to teach us to be more serious and dedicated when it comes to our study. I could always see lessons behind all the things he had done to us. I want to follow his steps in helping the nation by sharing my knowledge to everyone and pursuing to innovate high technology ideas in order to promote technopreneurship in Davao, and even outside Mindanao. It is so nice to imagine if I can also reach the things that Sir Randy has done to his life. I think a lot of hard works and struggles I will face before I could achieve a bit of the achievements of Sir Randy.  It is funny to imagine that I have a plan to be like a girl version of Sir Randy. But there is nothing wrong to imagine and dream. It is just like I am seeking and wanting beyond the boundaries that I know it is too far to happen from now. And, for me it is good because I have a goal and perspective in life and I just want to apply the alternative mindset on everything I will have done in the future. We cannot hide the fact that in every sharing session in a class, there would always be a not so like topic and a most like topic. And we feel that because we listen to our instructor in every detail and we are carried away with what he has shared to us. As what we had tackled last July 4 about Rationale of Technopreneurship, there is an outline topic about usual mindset that I don’t like to be reign in my vision in life. Usual mindset or also known as an Employment mindset tells that “Go to school, get good grades, and land in a high-paying job”. This assumption usually applied in our educational system. Most of the students nowadays have an outlook like this it is because their parents send their children to school with this kind of point of view. And the schools were also embedded this kind of perception. Now I realized that it is not good to have an employment mindset because there is a possibility that we will just be contented to be an employee that earns a high salary and have a good job. It is not that I am against being an employee (most of the successful persons nowadays experienced to be employees) but my concern is that we should aim high and have a big dream to be an employer on our own company. Few people nowadays achieve their goal to be an employer and I want also to be one of them. This topic outline taught me how to dream high, discover new things and not to be contented and satisfied with the things in my environment. It taught me how to strive hard to attain my goals and dreams in life. It shows me the correct way to be a successful and not just to oblige myself to work hard as an employee for a living. Usual mindset are applied by most of the best graduates nowadays because of what they had witnessed and teach by their parents and as well as their teachers when they are still on their elementary days. Based on the slides, it was stated that our best graduates here in Davao City are wanted by many companies and they offer attractive and compensation packages. So with this kind of offers, our best graduates will be attracted on these companies that usually based on Cebu, Manila and Urban areas of the Philippines, and even outside the Philippines. It is so nice and proud to hear that our best graduates that were produced in our institutions have the chance to get a good job in other places and they really excel in their field. But in all of this good news, the saddest thing of this reality is that our average graduate could not find a better work in which it is fit to their chosen field and the bitter part is that they could not taste to have a good job that has a big salary. However, it is alarming that our best graduates work outside Davao City because more opportunities are available outside Davao and bigger salaries and compensations are offered. Though they bring pleasure to Davao City but what I am pointing out is that they must first serve their own place. Although our city is not that rich city and they cannot offer big compensation like what other places proposed, but if we apply the things that what we have learn and try to create a start-up business, then it is a big help for the city. There is a possibility that we are not just helping our community, but also we could definitely help our fellow citizen to start their own business through their ideas. Having this kind of advocacy could make other people to follow you because of its good effect. If we always have this good perception then our industry would develop and grow. We will not be a human resource provider because our graduates in Davao have now a job that also offers big salary through their star-up business. Education is very much important to the lives of the people. As what they have said, it is a treasure that no one could ever steal. Through education, it is a means of improving start-up and technopreneurship industry in our country. It is impossible to achieve if we have lack of educational foundation in the sciences and technology. In order for our country to excel and to become a developing country, we need to have a new technology that can access to the global market and most importantly, to have more investments. If we want to improve and develop technopreneurship in our country, we should need to get better with the culture and system in our place because it is useless to deal with if we know that it is still lack of improvement. So aside from constructing infrastructure to chase for a technological education and advancement, our institutions as well as companies here in the Philippines should have to adopt and implement technology to promote and persuade less usual mode of thinking. To sum up everything I have learned a lot in the discussions.