"Vision is more important that knowledge."
In Rudyard's Kipling's "Captains Courageous", a boy,Harvey Cheyne is the son of a wealthy railroad magnate raised (and quite thoroughly spoiled) by his over-indulgent parents. Washed overboard from a transatlantic steamship and rescued by fishermen, the young Harvey cannot persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince them of his wealth. However, the Captain offers him a job as part of the crew until they return to port. With no other choice, Harvey accepts.
There follows a series of trials and adventures where the boy learns to adjust to his rough new life, and with the help of his friend, the captain's son, Dan Troop, he makes fine progress. Eventually, the schooner returns to port and Harvey wires his parents. They rush to the fishing town and find to their amazement that their child has become an industrious, serious and considerate young man.
On their way home, the father wants the son to go to college to learn all that he can. There he will learn with fellow students, share the same classroom, share the same teachers and read the same books. But he will be different. Because while his classmates looks for a job after graduation and earn a few thousand dollars a year (book was printed 1897), he will be fighting for millions of dollars.
This story illustrated the difference vision makes. Same school, same teachers, same books but one is trying to earn enough to live while the other seeks to earn millions. Who do you think will eventually earn a million bucks? We believe this is the biggest difference between Filipino technopreneurs and their American, Singaporean, Japanese counterparts. Its a matter of Vision. While Filipino entrepreneurs set up business to be able to live comfortably, buy a house, buy a car, send their children to prestigious universities, their foreign counterparts set up businesses to change the world.
Maybe there is a big difference in the availability of resoures and our chances of success but what excuse could we give for not being able to dream of changing the world? Is it because we just accept that Filipinos don't have a right to dream big? Maybe were afraid to dream because we don't think we could achieve BiG dreams. But isn't it what dreams are suppose to be?
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are some of the forerunners of the computer age. The usher in the computer age not just because they are technology geeks but because they envisioned a future where every home will have their own computer.
If the Philippine Silicon Valley can someday become a reality, be must start dreaming and believe in it. We Filipino technopreneurs can someday develop products that can change the world someday, we must start dreaming of it today. Because that is where it all starts. Dreams. Visions. Today.
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