Pera ni Juan

2 decades ago the McDonalds Big Mac is the largest hamburger in our country. The double patties with another bun in between is the best there is. The taste of the hamburger is oddly unique and has excellent taste that will "hypnotize" the customers to keep coming back for more.

I used to remember when I was in high school, a Big Mac meal for me is fulfilling to my taste and to my stomach. In other words "Busog talaga ako". But now things are different. Today's Big Mac is not "big" anymore. It's more of a "medium" size burger. 1 Big Mac meal for me today is not enough for me anymore. I need to buy another burger sandwhich to complete my meal. And mind you guys, I stopped growing at the age of 18 and my appetite has decreased as I grow older.

The same thing goes with Hunt's Pork & Beans.... As in come on guys. You labeled your product Pork & Beans but all I can see is just beans.... lots of it. Where's the Pork? You should named your item Beans & Beans and not Pork & Beans.



I am not trying to sabotage Mcdonalds and Hunt's in fact I'm a loyal customer of their products. What I'm trying to imply here is that these companies must be true to their word and not mislead their customers. It's really depressing to see a product not according to their standards.

This is also a shout out to those entrepreneurs out there. Give importance to your customers and give "true value" to your end product. As the saying goes "The customer is always right". Once the customers found out that your fooling them they will change their buying habits in a heartbeat.

Imagine you have a Coffee shop that have 10,203 loyal customers. That would be amazing isn't it? How do you do that exactly? Well it's been done in the United States and hopefully here in our country soon. Here's the story.

Meet Coffee Groundz. It’s a small coffee shop located in Houston Texas. They serve a variety of coffee (locally roasted), both hot and frozen. They also have wonderful tea, delectable pastries, superb Gelato (also made locally), fresh sandwiches, and great selection of wine, beer and alcoholic drinks.The ambience is great and has incredible service. But one competitor stands in their way….. Starbucks.

Starbucks has quadrillion outlets in Houston Texas and have been in the coffee business since 1971. Coffee Groundz is just new to the industry. How will they match up with the biggest coffee chain in the world? Simple.. Use Social Networking media.

Coffee Groundz Operations Manager J.R. Cohen saw an opportunity by taking “To Go” orders in Twitter (Yes, Twitter). Customers send their orders through Twitter to Cohen before they leave for work. Cohen will prepare the food and drinks and ready to be pick up. It turns out to be a great idea as their customers grew to 1,000 just by using Twitter.

Today Coffee Groundz has 10,203 followers from Twitter. Because of Twitter they came out with an idea of Drive Thru counter so that customers doesn’t have to wait in line to get their coffee. Coffee Groundz may not be Starbucks but they are “in line” with them.

Here's the twitter page of Coffee Groundz for those who are curious.

http://twitter.com/coffeegroundz

It's a great marketing strategy for a small business like Coffee Groundz to get 10 thousand eager customers just by using an online tool such as Twitter. Let this story be an inspiration to entrepreneurs out there.

So keep on tweeting everybody. Who knows your business might be the next big story.

This is my 6 year goal. Living on the beach, relaxing in that hammock, and walking on the white sand of Boracay. Our ancestors originated in the province of Panay. Kalibo Aklan to be exact. We still have relatives staying there.
My plan is to start first in Kalibo, settle anything that needs to be settled, and slowly move in closer to the beautiful island of Boracay.

What I meant was staying there for not just a week, but more than a month. My main source of income comes from the internet by way of blogging, creating websites, writing articles to popular blogs, selling my products online, etc.
If I can accumulate enough funds in the 6 year period, then living in Boracay won't be a problem.

Hell, I know some Australian guy who makes big money just from one blog and rewards himself by traveling the whole world. He roamed majority of the countries in Europe, had been to the United States several times, and has traveled to Asia and the Middle East.
And the beauty of it is he is still earning while exploring the world. He just bring along his laptop and do his work whenever, wherever. Isn't it great?

If that guy can do it then I can do it as well. What I need is a powerful and fast ISP (internet service provider). So far what we have here is the Smartbro plug-it, Globe Tatoo, and Sun Broadband. But the word is the internet speed is still slow.
Hopefully, this 3 telecommunication companies can fix their glitch and improve the speed of their ISP.

If that happens then it's all systems go for me and off to Boracay I go. I could even stay in Boracay as long as I want. No worries of the traffic rush, the pollution, and the routine work of living in the urban area.
This could be my daily regular agenda in Boracay:

3-6 AM: Work on my Internet projects

6-8 AM: Go for a swim at one of the most beautiful beach

8-9 AM: Take a heavy breakfast with my favorite coffee

9-11 AM: Take a cat nap (with the aircon on of course)

11-2 PM: Get back to my work. Eat Lunch and check on my emails and updates.

2-6 PM: "A lot of Free time for me". I have a lot of options; mountain trekking, play beach volleyball, food tripping, shopping, scuba diving, wind surfing, spelunking, or just hang out and read my favorite book on the hammock.

6-7 PM: Dinner time. Time to look for a nice restaurant. Each day will be a different place.

7-9 PM: Go back to my room. Relax a bit. Watch a movie or my favorite TV show.

9-11 PM: Time to go out and Party!!!


So there, that would be my daily itinerary. I was able to do my work for a total of just only 6 hours, enjoy the nature of Boracay, be a food critic like Anthony Bourdain and dine in all of the best restaurants in Boracay, and be a party freak.

And on top of that, I live a healthy lifestyle. No pollution, little stress, eat fresh fruits and vegetables (maybe a little protein), do a lot of exercise, and just enough sleeping time.

And mind you, I can do that everyday of the week.

That is my 6 year plan. So Boracay, please stay clean and beautiful because I will be spending most of my time in your beloved place very soon.

How funny how nature works. Until now I couldn't believe how can an individual earn $ 100 dollars a day from cat droppings. But these are not your ordinary house cats. This are Civets.

Civets are small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammals native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. And yes we do have civets here in the Philippines. Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like an otter or a mongoose. They range in length from about 17 to 28 in (43 to 71 cm) (excluding their long tails) and in weight from about 3 to 10 lb (1.4 to 4.5 kg).

They live in a tropical rain forest. Their diet is eating fresh fruit cherries which makes their "poops" taste like Starbucks 10 times better. The price of their waste cost a fortune and the Philippines is making coffee beans out of it called "Kape Alamid". As of today we are gaining big profits from exporting to Western countries like the United States.

Interesting story huh? If only we can breed this kind of cats we would all be millionaires. In Indonesia they are already breeding civets.
For those who are interested to breed civets and make a money out of it, let me know. Let's do business together!

Here is a video about how Filipinos makes money out of Civets. Enjoy!

Imagine yourself in a place like this.... No traffic, no rush hour, no hassle, and no pollution. This is an escape from your every day routine life. It's just you and mother nature. A perfect spot to relax and unwind, along with your favorite book at your side and with your favorite drink to replenish your thirst of the scorching heat of the sun.
You get to feel the wind as you place your naked feet under the powdered crystal beach sand. And as you doze off you say to yourself that "Wow! this is what you call life".

Okay, now wake up and get back to reality. Your now back to your real world where you have no choice but to do what almost everybody is doing year after year.... working hard.
Nothing is wrong with working hard but like I said in my previous article that it is better to work smarter than work harder.
With working harder you get the chance to go to the beach only and just only on Holy Week, All Saint's Day, Christmas Season, and all the legal holidays that we have. That is just a few.

But with working smarter, you could stay at that beach for a month and not worry on your monthly revenue and expenses. How is that possible? Simple... the answer is creating Passive Income for yourself.
With Passive income you let your money work for you and not vice-versa. Here is an example: Let's just say that your a bank executive in one of the top banks in our country. The company pays you well but still you are not contented with your work. Why? Because of the "No work No pay" system. Your earning great but your losing time with yourself, your family and your friends.

You start to notice that you're living inside a close box. You start to think on how to re-live your life and create more time for yourself. Then you decided to create one passive income for yourself. You invested some of your savings in Real Estate. You bought a foreclosed property and converted it into a dormitory since the infrastructure is near to the school.
Let's just assume that the normal rental fee in one room is Php 3,000 and you got 40 units in your building. So that's a total of Php 120,000 in a month. Not bad for a passive income huh!

Plus you offered the ground floor of your building to Pizza Hut and Starbucks where they pay a rent of Php 50,000 each. That's an additional of Php 100,000. All in all you got a gross income of Php 220,000 a month.
You may now have a privilege to resign your job and continue adding your passive income streams.

Now the scene of you lying on the beach will now come into a reality and you now have the option to enjoy your stay on your favorite vacation spot for as long as you want. Your passive income stream is working hard in order for you to enjoy life at it's fullest. Wouldn't you want that?

Passive income comes in many ways, there is business and entrepreneurship, real estate, stocks, mutual bonds, forex, etc. As long as you don't have to spend your time then that is qualified as a passive income stream. How will you do it? It's totally up to you. Just remember that you don't have to quit your job to start your passive income streams. Keep your job while you slowly build your passive income.
When you notice that your passive income is bigger than your active income (salary) then you have a choice on what to do with your life.

Like you I'm also striving to create passive income for myself. So far I only have one, so my dream of staying much longer on my beach paradise is still a work in progress. But I already started my engine and I'm sailing my way to my goal.

How about you? What is your dream?

Most people are like ants. Their mindset is to work from Monday to Friday for 8 hours a day.
They leave their house in the morning and be back home almost in the evening. This people do it in a routine manner that they don't have to set an alarm clock to wake them up. Their body clock is set like ants and they do it 5 days a week.

In the week-end they spend their hard earned money by going to malls and eating out and buying the stuff that they don't really need. Not like ants, they work not for their wants but "only" to their needs. That is why the ants colony have plenty of food during rainy season because they were prepared for it.
And mind you folks, this ants didn't get any proper education. They just do it by instinct. If they don't work they won't have anything to eat.

Unfortunately, we people are the other way around. We are the ones who were educated but it seems we are "dumber" than this tiny creatures. So after this people spend their money in the week-end they have to start the week with no or little money. Their payday seems to be miles away and they have to pay the bills and their personal needs.
That's the time they to do part time jobs or overtime. So their time of work ends not only at 5 PM but they extend it to 7-9 PM. Then they are too tired when they reach home by 11-12 PM.
Tired in a sense that all they can do is go to bed and get ready for another stress-full day tomorrow.

But you know what, it's still the same thing. This people earned a little from their weekly part-time jobs and overtime work just to pay for their debts on the tuition of their kids, their electricity, post paid plans, cable TV, water, maids, car monthly amortization... the list goes on and on...

And they keep on doing that year after year. Always struggling financially and always going for the pursuit of happiness. When they reach 60 years old, they don't have any retirement savings, no investments, and no medical coverage. All they have is unpaid debts, body aches, and unlimited tension.

That is why managing your time is very very important. In fact it is more important than money. Why? I know you would ask that... ok here it goes. Money is nice and everybody in this world either needs it or wants it. But here's the thing, sometimes in life you will lose money. Even the rich ones makes mistakes in their investments from time to time. No one is perfect.
But even if you lose money (even a large portion of it or even to a point of bankruptcy), there is still a chance to gain money again.
All you have to do is work again and do the stuff that you've been doing when you still have the money. One way or the other you will get it all back.

But we can't do that with time. Once it's gone it's gone. For example, you were stuck in the meeting and you miss the basketball game. Or how about you were with your friends in the mall and you were not able to attend your son's soccer game where he scored the winning goal.
Or you got sick and we're not able to dance the boy of your dreams in the high school prom night.
All of us, have experienced something that we regret and wish that we could turn back the clock and fix things up.

That is how valuable time is. You could not go back in time to correct what you made wrong. It may sound corny and the phrase is a little bit old and rusty but the "Time is Gold" phrase is very essential to all of us. Time is really gold, it's priceless. The times together you spend with your spouse..... your wedding day, or perhaps the first time you've met.
The times you and your girlfriend went to Boracay and spend 3 days of fun and adventures at the beach.
All of this has meaning. All of this is memorable. All of this is treasured.

So going back to the people who works hard like ants but still doesn't have money to live happily and no worries... here's my tip to you. You don't have to work hard. There is a better way for it... work smarter. You don't have to work for money, let your money work for you.
Making passive income will solve your financial burdens and you will have more quality time with your loved ones.

I have started one passive income where I let my money work for me. All I have to do is to monitor it consistently and just make it a well oiled machine. Right now I collect my earnings from my passive income and I'm planning to put "another" passive income stream so that in the future I can let go of my "active" income (work) and let my passive income streams do the work for me. Neat huh!

I will discuss this more on my next article. In the meantime, work like ants but also save like ants. In that way you can save money and build your own passive income streams that will bring you to financially freedom and happiness.