THE other day, I had a nice 2-hour drive from Cagayan de Oro to a certain place in Bukidnon where I gave a retreat. The fellow who brought me there was a young businessmen, a friend who’s a very enterprising and entrepreneurial man with a string of businesses, and a lot of social work to boot.
I know he is a very generous soul, who manages only to see the good side of life and leaves the other side alone. He’s something of a balance to me, since I tend to immediately see the wrong side, while struggling to make it right.
Also, where I tend to come up with ideas, he comes up with concrete, implementable plans. Where I speak of doctrine, he talks of specific details that put doctrine to action.
So I was not surprised to hear from him that a few months ago, some nuns approached him to ask if he could help them build an orphanage. I didn’t ask how much was the cost of the project, but along the way I figured it must have been below 10M.
Typical of him, he just said yes, although he did not know how to do it. It was his first time to get involved in such a thing, and to think that he had no prior connections with the nuns. He must have had created a name before for the nuns to go to him.
So he sat down, did some planning and started to call friends and came up with many ideas. To cut the story short, he managed to put up the building in a short time, with the help of his friends and many others whom he got to know and befriend as the project went under way.
This, of course, left the nuns crying in profound gratitude, and the little orphans jumping with joy. But he said, the project taught him a great lesson in generosity based on faith in God and in man.
“There are many good people out there, Father,” he told me, “waiting for the chance to help. We just have to discover them in the proper time and in the proper way. A lot of patience is needed, and also a certain creativity to make things attractive and a win-win to all concerned.”
So I asked him about his micro-financing venture which he told me some years ago was his way of helping the poor people in the towns. As soon as he started to talk, I know it was also another successful, if painful, initiative.
“Oh, Father,” he said, “I have broadened it into micro-enterprise development. I realized I just cannot remain in the level of financing. I have to get involved in the development of their little businesses. I have to do more for them.”
And so he narrated to me how it was in the first years of the venture, where he met all sorts of disappointing results, with a good amount of his money lost and his goodwill to others, especially the poor ones, shaken.
He said that business as a way to help people is not just how to make money. It is about how to help people grow and develop as mature, responsible and also God-fearing persons.
“I have to give them talks on work values and attitudes. I practically have to give them an on-going formation that even includes the spiritual. My friends get amused when they learn I talk to the barrio people about prayer and sacrifice.”
When we passed by some public markets along the way, he pointed out to me the small stalls whose owners were the beneficiaries of his social work. And there were quite a number of them already.
Since I didn’t like to make him feel proud, I discreetly congratulated him and challenged him to do more. He took the challenge well, was even smiling, and somewhere inside me I know this guy will do it. I promised to pray for him and his family.
I also told him I will give him a copy of the Pope’s new encyclical called “Caritas in veritate,” which precisely talks about how to do business in a Christian way. I told him, “Just read it. You will find the ideas there already familiar to you, since you are already doing them.”
As we arrived at the place, I proceeded to give the retreat, talking about God, and he went back to the world to do business. But I know we are involved in the same thing. Somehow.
No comments:
Post a Comment