1. Story of Bill Gates.

(Microsoft)

Bill Gates is an American entrepreneur, programmer, investor and philanthropist. He and Paul Allen co-
founded Microsoft which is the #1 software company in the world. In 2015 their revenue was $110.4
billion. Bill Gates is the second richest man on earth with a net worth of $100.6 billion. He was the CEO
of Microsoft until January 2000, currently he is the Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella. He focuses
a lot of his time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that is why he has taken a less demanding role
at Microsoft so that he can focus more on philanthropy.

Early Life

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on the 28th of October 1955. His father is William H. Gates Sr
and his mother is Mary Maxwell Gates. He has one older sister Kristi Gates and one younger sister Libby
Gates. At the age of 13 he enrolled in Lakeside School a private preparatory school. While at that school
he took an interest in programming the General Electric system in BASIC and was excused from classes
to pursue his interest.

He built his first computer program on the General Electric machine. Gates met Paul Allen at the school
and they worked together to find bugs in the PDP-10 system belonging to Computer Center Corporation.
Gates, Paul and two other students wrote a payroll program for Information Sciences in exchange for
computer time and royalties. After that it led on to his school becoming fully aware of his programming
skills, he created a program to schedule students in classes.

At the age of 17 he and Paul started a venture called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on Intel
8008 processors. Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973 and was a National Merit Scholar, he
scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT. He enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973 where he
met Steve Ballmer. Gates did not have a study plan at Harvard but spent a lot of time using the
computers. In 1974 he joined Paul Allen at Honeywell. In 1975 the MITS Altair 8800 based on Intel’s
8080 CPU was released. Bill and Paul saw this as an opportunity to start their own software company

Lessons: If he can do it, so can you.

Gates did not build the first OS that IBM used, he bought the licensing rights from SCP and then
continued to build upon that to create the company that Microsoft is today.

You don’t have to create something new; you can take a product and improve upon it so that it is
excellent.

Do something that you are passionate about, Bill Gates loves computers. So, find your passion and start
a venture around that.

Believe in yourself.
 2. Success story of Jeff Bezos (Amazon)

Entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of the e-commerce company
Amazon, owner of The Washington Post and founder of the space exploration company Blue Origin. His
successful business ventures have made him one of the richest people in the world. Born in 1964 in New
Mexico, Bezos had an early love of computers and studied computer science and electrical engineering
at Princeton University. After graduation, he worked on Wall Street, and in 1990 he became the
youngest senior vice president at the investment firm D.E. Shaw. Four years later, Bezos quit his
lucrative job to open Amazon.com, an online bookstore that became one of the Internet's biggest
success stories. In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post, and in 2017 Amazon acquired Whole
Foods.

Early Life

Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise
Jorgensen, and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen.

The Jorgensen’s were married less than a year. When Bezos was 4 years old, his mother remarried Mike
Bezos, a Cuban immigrant.

Bezos graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1986 with a degree in computer
science and electrical engineering.

Bezos showed an early interest in how things work, turning his parents' garage into a laboratory and
rigging electrical contraptions around his house as a child.

He moved to Miami with his family as a teenager, where he developed a love for computers and
graduated valedictorian of his high school. It was during high school that he started his first business, the
Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.

Career in Finance

After graduating from Princeton, Bezos found work at several firms on Wall Street, including Fitel,
Bankers Trust and the investment firm D.E. Shaw. In 1990, Bezos became D.E. Shaw's youngest vice
president.

While his career in finance was extremely lucrative, Bezos chose to make a risky move into the nascent
world of e-commerce. He quit his job in 1994, moved to Seattle and targeted the untapped potential of
the Internet market by opening an online bookstore

Bezos opened Amazon.com, named after the meandering South American river, on July 16, 1995, after
asking 300 friends to beta test his site. In the months leading up to launch, a few employees began
developing software with Bezos in his garage; they eventually expanded operations into a two-bedroom
house equipped with three Sun MicroStation.
 3. Success story of Seth Godin. (American Author)

Saying that Seth Godin is popular is an understatement.

Some people call him “the Rockstar of marketing”. Some other “America’s greatest marketer”.

He is an entrepreneur with several successful gigs under his belt, among which selling Yoyodyne to
Yahoo for about $30 million in 1998 and creating Squidoo, a revenue-sharing writing site which listed
among the 500 most visited sites in the world.

He published 23 books of which 19 of them became international bestsellers and have been translated
in over 35 languages.

His blog it’s easily one of the most read in the world. It counts over 7100 blog posts, it has over half a
million visit per month, 434K referral backlinks and 16.6% of traffic coming from direct search (you can
find it on Google just by typing “Seth”).

He scored few successful projects in the world of education too. In 2015 he started the altMBA, an
intensive, 4-week online workshop for high-performing individuals, with over 1800 participants from 45
different countries. He also launched the Marketing Seminar, a marketing course which has seen already
over 6000 students participating in it.

The number of successes could go on and on and on. And yet… his advice about marketing often goes
upstream. It’s unlike anything you hear or read around. He talks about addressing “minimum viable
audiences”, about “shining a light for someone”, being empathetic, generous...

Is this really how one of the supposedly greatest marketers of America” has achieve all these incredible
results? Well… yes. But there is more to it.

There are a few, key powerful ideas in Seth’s approach to business that make his career and legacy one
of a kind. We tried to put them together in this article for you to enjoy his enduring wisdom, once again.

Seth’s most popular idea is the one of the purple cows. The idea is simple yet powerful.

In order to stand out in the market, you need to be so remarkable with your work that if people see your
product on a supermarket shelf, in a store, or on their Facebook feed, they would stop whatever their
doing and think:

In other words, it’s about creating something phenomenal, counterintuitive and exciting. Something
worth making a remark about. Like a purple cow!

Seth urges you to implement this mindset into everything you build, do, or create, because — after all —
great marketing starts with goods and services worth promoting in the first place.

In order for you to be remarkable, you will need to break patterns, innovate and create things... and to
do that, you will need to take risks.
Local Successful Entrepreneurs

1. Joe Magsaysay (Potato Corner)

MANILA - Potato Corner CEO Joe Magsaysay built the French fries’ brand into a global franchise business
with annual sales of P1 billion.

In a publication by the Asian Institute of Management, where he obtained a master’s degree in

entrepreneurship, Magsaysay shared how the 25-year-old food cart pioneer succeeded.

"If you want a brand to stick, market it to kids," Magsaysay said, adding current millennial customers
were the same children who bought his products when it started.

"When you market to teenagers and adults, they will shift to the next big thing. But kids? Once you get
them, they’re yours for life," he said.

He hatched the plan to get the business back on track in graduate school, after the 1997 Asian financial
crisis forced it to scale down. He had initially wanted to pursue a donut business but decided on
returning to Potato Corner.

"I really believe in ‘one thing at a time.’ Potato Corner grew the way it did because we focused. We had
a lot of opportunities to explore because of the success of the business, but we realized it was successful
precisely because we were so focused," he said.

When Jose “Joe” Magsaysay Jr. returned to Potato Corner following the death of his managing partner
in 2000, the company was still reeling from the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

He briefly left the company in 1997 to try his luck in being a politician but lost. When he returned to the
french fries’ business, he presented a new business plan to his partners: the franchising business model.

“Because of franchising we are here today. It’s just like going public where you use other people’s
money to grow your business. In fact, I call our company a ‘public company’ because 75% of our stores
are franchised,” he told Cathy Yang on The Boss.

They currently have 550 kiosks around the world. In other countries, they have adapted to the flavors
the customers are accustomed to—spicier flavors in Indonesia and cinnamon flavor and chicken wings in
the USA.

As they hit the 25-year mark in 2017, they will also be introducing a “no cash-out” model, which he
explained to be more of a partnership than a franchise, where they will provide capital for the franchise
and you will share the monthly profit.
 2. Success story of Socorro Ramos (National Book Store)

ALL life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and
insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is
the major building block in the person we are today. That quote from Pope Paul VI best epitomizes this
amazing lady.

Socorro Cancio-Ramos is the matriarch of National Book Store, the Philippines’ leading retailer of books,
office supplies, and greeting cards -- a rare example of a businesswoman who watched her efforts fail
multiple times, then rose from the ashes to succeed with one more try at the same venture.

Socorro or “Coring” as she is fondly called, was born into a family of shopkeepers who were thrown into
poverty after losing the family business. While working for her brother-in-law, Coring met and fell in love
with Jose Ramos. They got married and the couple founded National Book Store in 1940. Unable to
afford extra help, she worked not only as manager but also as cashier, purchaser, saleslady, janitor, and
helper – all rolled into one.

The building that they built was damaged when typhoon Gene entered the Philippines, destroying
dozens of houses and property. Their house and store were taken down and all the merchandise soaked.
But this did not bring down the Ramos couple. They worked harder, they slept for only three hours a day
spending the rest of their time rebuilding the business.

After more than a decade, Ramos acquired a nine-story building along Avenida Rizal, and in 1963, the
construction of the Albecer Building (Albecer taken from Ramos’ three children - Alfredo, Benjamin, and
Cecilia) began. Little did the Ramos couple know that the Albecer Building would be the first of many
buildings they would build. Socorro Ramos now has more than 2,500 employees in over 80 branches of
her once-small stall. From a humble beginning, Ramos’ National Book Store is the Philippines’ biggest
book store chain and an icon in the country’s retail industry.

Today, she has expanded the National Book Store chain into an empire that spans a variety of various
businesses, including publishing, a music store, a department store, and several other convenience and
gift stores. What has become the Ramos family business has not stopped growing since, having opened
Powerbooks in 1996, a popular specialty book store. The best part – she has successfully kept the family
business intact, employing all three of her children as well as grandchildren and other relatives.

Coring has been recognized for her outstanding success both in the Philippines and the larger world. She
was the 2005 winner of Ernst and Young’s Philippine Entrepreneur of the Year award. Other notable
awards include: Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship (1991); DTI Outstanding
Filipino Retailer Award (2001); The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award (2006); and Filipino-Chinese
Federation of Business and Professional Women of the Philippines Award for Business (2007).

With all her awards and wealth, Socorro Ramos stays humble and credits her success to values. She
constantly monitors the business landscape. She says there’s always something new to learn; successful
business people must remember this and keep their minds open.
 3. Success story of Injap Sia (Mang Inasal)

The country’s youngest billionaire at 40 years old, Injap Sia is the man behind one of the country’s most
popular food chains, Mang Inasal. Yes, it’s now under Jollibee Foods Corporation, but the barbecued
chicken they sell came from the mind of Injap Sia, whose nickname comes from the lineage of his
parents: Edgar Sia Sr. is half Chinese or Instik, while his mother Paz is half Japanese.

Early days

A hard worker even at a young age, the Iloilo-born Injap was no stranger to doing the legwork just to
reach your goal. He took up Architecture at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, but would later
drop out at the age of 19 to start a laundry business and open up his own photo-developing center.
2003 was the year when Injap came up with the grand idea of opening up a chicken barbecue fast-food
restaurant – an idea that was a bit of a novelty at the time. His father, a Filipino-Chinese, gave him a
hard time before eventually giving in.

The name “Mang Inasal” was pretty straightforward: it’s Ilonggo for Mr. Barbecue. His father, Edgar Sr.,
had other ideas. He wanted the name to be shorted to “Mng Inasal”, citing feng shui and companies like
Jollibee and Chowking. Both had eight letters in their name, and both were successful in the fast food
business.

Injap nearly gave in to the suggestion until he came across Banco de Oro, which had 10 letters and was
just as successful as Jollibee and Chowking. Edgar Sr. eventually gave in, and Mang Inasal was born at a
mall in Iloilo City.

From that one branch, Mang Inasal ballooned to over a hundred in 2009. One Manila-based company
took notice and wanted in on the chicken barbecue craze: Jollibee Foods Corporation and its owner,
Tony Tan Caktiong.

Caktiong later acquired 70 percent of Mang Inasal’s stake for a whopping Php 3 billion in 2010. In April
2016, Jollibee acquired the remaining 30 percent to the tune of Php 2 billion.

Two years after fully acquiring Mang Inasal, a partnership between Sia and Caktiong was born: Double
Dragon Properties, a real estate company that wants to develop 100 community shopping complexes
called City Malls in the smaller cities of Visayas and Mindanao.

That first Php 3 billion didn’t go to waste. Ever the eager businessman and learner, Injap invested the
money he got from Jollibee into banking (he was part of Philippine Bank of Communication’s board for
two and a half years), and health maintenance (he still serves as a director for Maxicare, the country’s
largest HMO).

Today, he is the CEO of Injap Investments, Inc., which holds a joint venture in Double Dragon Properties
with Tony Tan Caktiong’s Honeystar Holdings Corporation. He’s also the owner of People’s Hotel, a 5-
storey businessman’s hotel in Iloilo City.
 4. Success story of Tony Tan. (Jollibee)

Tony Tan Caktiong was a Filipino Chinese entrepreneur who set up a two-outlet ice cream parlor
business in the city of Manila. It was 1975 when he began his business. His father used to operate a
kitchen in Fujian, China, which was where Tony’s association with the food services business began.

Even though his ice cream parlor business was doing well, Tony wanted to expand in the foods business
– in the form of a fast-food outlet chain. He was inspired by the global popularity of companies like
McDonald’s which was planning to enter the Philippines during that time, but Wendy’s and Burger King
already had a presence in the Philippines.

Tony established his own chain of seven hamburger outlets in 1978 under the name Jollibee. He did not
get a franchise like Wendy’s or McDonald’s. Tony and his brother went to the US in 1979 to study the
fast-food business. They spent a couple of weeks looking at the kind of equipment used, the retail
outlets, the food served and various other things. Tony decided to copy almost each and every aspect of
US fast-food major, particularly McDonald’s and benefited from tested business practices. In so doing he
avoided ‘reinventing the wheel.’

Tony was aware that Jollibee could not compete with McDonald’s which had financial muscle and
decades of expertise in the business. But by establishing Jollibee in 1978, Tony pre-empted McDonald’s
entry into the country.

Jollibee’s strong focus on issues such as product development, operational excellence, customer service,
marketing and promotion, and social responsibility, and the leadership helped it become the market
leader in the Filipino fast-food industry, beating all the multinational companies. The company has
globalization strategies and future prospects in the light of the new challenges it is facing in foreign
markets.

As years go by, the Jollibee group of companies grew bigger. Tony Tan Caktiong acquired and
established a couple other food chains including Chowking, Red Ribbon, Greenwich, Delifrance and
Mang Inasal. Aside from bringing Jollibee, Chowking, and Red Ribbon to other countries, they’ve also
established new food chains in China and Taiwan which suit the tastes of the people there.

As of 2016, Tony Tan Caktiong ranked 6th in Forbes’ Philippines’ 50 Richest. He was also awarded the
Entrepreneur of the Year and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.