"Books let us into their soul and lay open to us the secrets of our own." by William Hazlitt.
I thought I was destined to be an engineer but my heart was not it. A good engineer is honed by the experience he goes through while performing his responsibilities. I was lucky enough to be one of the 42 cadet engineers chosen from hundreds of applicants. It was a good start. I made a lot friends and performing our duties was a walk in the park since knowledge of what to do was easy and there were plenty of guys to cover for my shortcomings. The only difference was, while they were busy adding some skills and experience, I was having a good time enjoying the perks of a high paying job. I was the go-to-guy in report making having a better mastery of correspondence, but in terms of engineering skills, I pale in comparison to my peers.
When MWSS went bankrupt, and about to be privatized, my friends were ready for jobs in the Middle East while I have to consider other options. They were thrilled with the complexities of construction while I find it boring since like in the tunneling works we were assigned to in our early years, things are practically the same after the first 50 meters. The same with roads, after the first 100 meters, construction becomes a routine. We only get to supervise so that the works will be done according to the plans and specifications. I couldn't focus that long so I always ended thinking of something else. As they watch the workers do their thing, I watch the girls passing by. I couldn't imagine myself doing this things in a foreign land where staring at women is a crime. Ten years of working and all I did was wining and whoring around. Going into business proved to be a more attractive choice for me then.
Newly married with a one year old daughter, I have to earn a living where I could maximize my time with them. That's when I decided to put up a buy and sell business in my parent's place after I resigned from my job. I would have been the first to put up a computer rental shop in 1990 in our place with 4 units of 486 PC's, a dot matrix printer and photocopier, but thanks to President Cory and her daily 12 hours brown-outs, I have to work on something else. That's when I concentrated on books and other reading materials. With no electricity most of the day, people found reading as the cheapest alternative to TV sets.
I was only in my early 30's when I started the business and one thing that really made my day was having the chance to talk with women. Since tagalog pocketbooks was the "in" thing in the 1990's, 9 out of 10 customers were women, mostly housewives who come to the store to swap books was a part of their daily marketing routine. I get more than a hundred smiles per day apart from the earnings, and I found out that book lovers speak a different language. The "Eureka" look when they found the title they were looking for, and the sincere kind of smile when they found the books to their liking. And the one that I like the most - the "gracious smile" when the book I recommended for them to read touched their heart.
After only a year of the book business, I came to discover a lot about myself. Things that never even occur to me in my younger days. I was destined for this kind of job, not only because I love what I was doing but also the fact that I was good in it. People appreciate what I am able to share with them, and in return, I too learn a lot from most of them.
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