It all begins with an Emotional Why

"Emotional Why" is the driving force towards change. 


We make our decisions based on emotions and not on logic, this is a fact in life. Initially we use our emotions to respond to something, say based on impulse and we later on justify this action with logic. 


Let's have this situation for an example. A man who happens to be a chain smoker and has a daughter. He notices that often than not, when he puffs a cigarette, the daughter's asthma attacks would be triggered. Disturbed at the site of his daughter gasping for air, the man would decide on the spot to quit smoking. 


The response/action (quit smoking) was triggered by an emotion (disturbed and worried at the site of his daughter gasping for air).


An emotional why is usually the determinant with regards to staying with status quo or a sudden dynamic change.


A big emotional why is the reason why people would be willing to move mountains and do anything necessary to achieve something.


Another term for emotional why is hunger. The intense desire to achieve a goal. Without this desire, dreams are as good as words written on the sand. 


Most of the names in the Forbes 500 list are men who started out with very poor families, they would scratch soil just to put food on their plates and would be happy enough to have three full meals in a day. It is with this reason that they strive hard to be at the pinnacle where they are now. All because of a strong emotional why.


In contrast, most of the children of these prominent people (not all) in the list have been exposed to comfort. Thanks to daddy's efforts, they do no need to sweat their selves to have a living. No need for hard work, no more hunger and no desire to achieve a goal for they are already in a comfort bubble. Thus void of an emotional why. Often than not, when daddy goes ahead and leaves his wealth to his children, they will be able to maintain or perhaps keep it that much but they won't be able to expand or grow it because they don't have the emotional why, the hunger, the deep intense desire that daddy used to have.


A healthy advice for parents, allow your children to be hungry, to build a strong emotional why in themselves at a young age. Do not deprive them of difficulties. For just like a butterfly, it needs to flex its muscles and rigorously squeeze its way out of the cocoon for it to be able to fly.

The Pen Master

This man would walk on the streets of 

EDSA and Juan won't even know who 

he is. Let me introduce him to you.

"Bernie Liu, interviewed by Bo Sanchez, narrated to you by Godblessed"




Bernie Liu, of course his real name, doesn't even ring a bell nor could I associate him to any well known or prominent figure in society. I do not even know the man. But when I say PENSHOPPE, that more than vibrates a gong especially in the choosy ears of the filipino youth. For the non filipino readers of this blog, penshoppe is not a school supply repository, nor is it a stall for signature pens, neither a warehouse stationery immitation, it is a clothing brand established in the 80's, 86 to be exact, by the not so popular man i mentioned earlier.




Allow me to somehow narrate his success or should I say rags to riches fairy tale story. He says his dad was a Japanese captive in world war II Philippines. Later on became a professional and became a business role model to his children, During his younger days, they lived a very modest lifestyle, with their house below a factory, their own factory, now that's modest. He actually did not give a detailed account on how they acquired their business prominence, nonetheless it was a transition from employment world to business for his family. From modest to complicated to very complicated.




When bernie took over the company, it was still a lumber business but his mom had a garment factory and young Bernie was very much into architecture. As we all know architects are very imaginative creatures, utlising most of the day wandering their minds elsewhere. He took his chances and used up the resources at his disposal to further his dreams of establishing a clothing brand. 




As to how it became popularly known as it is today, he has this story to tell. He looked for an icon that would represent his company and being an architect, it makes total sense to use the "PEN" as its icon. He then merged it with the word "SHOP" to indicate that it sells something, and then adding the letters "PE" to make it sound foreign, say Haute Couture for example. And, alas, "PENSHOPPE" was born, marketing magic strikes again. The foreign sounding filipino clothing brand as we all know today, with the youth as its target market. With the garment resources they have, he collaborated with his mom's factory.




After 25 years, what used to employ 40 staff, now  gives opportunities to no less than 1500 employees, this figure excludes vendors and suppliers. What used to start as a brand only available in the nook and crannies of department store sections for indieshirts now has over 400 stores nationwide. The single brand branched into 10, the signatures, Oxygen, and Memo to mention some are no strangers to the pinoys. 




He often jokes and laughs on how he established his line. Being an underdog made him push hard. He accounts of how his brand thrived in crisis. During the people power revolution or EDSA I as it is locally known, he introduced the brand, and exactly on the day Mt. Pinatubo (one of the largest active volcanoes in the Philippines) erupted, he opened their first ever boutique. Perfect justification of the phrase. "flourishing in crisis". He recalls it is about merging danger with opportunity, that even when the environment as they say is not attractive it is up to you to make it appealing, because there is always a market, people will still eat even in a depression and people wont consider the notion of them walking bare naked in the street, at least for the sane ones.




He was never short of those reminiscent-worthy daddy talk moments as he recalls his father saying that there is no such thing as good or bad business, only good or bad management. A food for thought that is very timeless  and is apt when we are standing in front of what could be a replay of the 08' economic recession (God forbid). The point is there will always be a market even in the worst of scenarions, say a Nuclear war erupts, we will need a shop where we can buy nuclear resistant radioactive suits. Adaptation is the keyword.




On success he has this for you to ponder on. You have to  know what you want in HD (high definition). A clear cut VISION, because if you do not know what you want, you will never know what you are looking for and this will make you not know where you're heading, thus no direction to pave. By now you should have a vision, goal, objective or whatever you want to call it. Compound this vision with strategy and you now have the chicken soup for success. I know I may have short circuited your brain's wirings for a while so here's a synopsis of what I'm trying to reach with my point. "You have to know what you want and formulate a way to get there. Still dumb founded? Have a What and create a How. 




Well, for most of us, we just look at the facade of a brand, not attempting to look at how it came into fruition, the majority think that it just rose to the popularity charts because it has been that way ever since. At least for Penshoppe, and other brands such as apple, GE, motorolla, (pardon the comparison between a local signature with giants such as Apple, i just want my foreign readers to decipher the popularity of our local brand), it wasn't that way. What they are now, they attribute to years of painstaking failures and a lot of hard work to say the least. 




What's astounding with Mr. Liu is not his work ethic though, it is gratitude, He never fails to attribute his whopping success to his parents and most of all to the Almighty.




Am I right or am I very right Mr. Liu? Now we know him. :) But I bet you know the woman in the picture below better. Without me even introducing her to all of you.