Francis Kong was born in Manila Philippines. He is a businessperson. Francis owns consultancy companies, a children education’s program, and a publishing company. He is into speaking, writing, training and business consultancy. Francis has written 18 books, maintain an award-winning weekend business column in the country’s leading newspaper (10 years), Still does a Monday-Friday daily radio program (23 years) and does more than 300 talks, training and seminars in a year! His passion is sharing his ideas to a myriad of people and audiences with the hope that he can offer people options to improve their lives, work and families and to live life with meaning and fulfillment.
1. Humble Beginnings
Q: How did you get started and what or who inspired and empowered you to?
I came from the garments business. Was able to develop a local brand that rose to national fame and recognition. I discovered the joy of doing research, reading books, travelling to different countries, learning from experts and then sharing ideas to my clients and helping them understand future fashion trends and fads. Pretty soon I discovered that I have been blessed with the ability to write and communicate. That there is an intense desire for me to observe people, learn their unique experiences, read books, attend conferences and then put the ideas together and share lessons and ideas on how to do business, improve careers and in general how to live life better.
Q: What unique and creative strategies if any did you use when you were first getting started?
With this passion within me, even while I was earning barely enough to sustain a growing family, I began to speak in different places to different audiences. There were many occasions when I would even spend my own money and travel to places where I would address parents/teachers/students in schools. Pretty soon and by word of mouth, business organizations and civic organizations began inviting me. The audiences got bigger and bigger. I was doing an average of 120 talks in a year for 12 years and I did all of these talks FOR FREE! I decided that this is my calling in life. To inspire people to become better and if the audience find what they hear, apply the principles and become better, then that is in itself its own reward.
2. Mindset
Q: What mindset distinguished you from others who were doing the same thing? How did you develop it?
I guess the biggest distinction in what I did compared to those who were in the same field of speaking is that I was willing to do it for free and even spend my own money just as long as I fulfill my calling in life. The most important mindset I had was that:
“God has equipped me with this unique gift, fired my heart with the passion to help people and would not allow fees or pay to stop me from doing it.”
3. What is your definition of success?
Over the years and through the various experiences I have observed with the lives of others and most importantly for my own; success means being fruitful investing one self in the lives of others while fulfilling the purpose one has been called to do. That success is always a moving target, it is never static and neither is it a destination because success entails constant growth and learning. And because this is my own definition of success,
at age 62 today, I never want to ask myself “Am I now successful?” I constantly ask myself “Am I still achieving progress?”
4. Failure
Q: What do you think is the main reason why some people face failure when going after their vision?
I have a few suspicions why. It could not be one main reason (except the fact that they give up too soon!) but it might be a combination of the following factors:
1. Their vision was not realistic in the first place.
2. Their vision was not aligned to their talent and competence.
3. They get distracted and they never followed through.
4. They quit too soon.
5. And they look at failure as failure and never as lessons to improve.
5. What is the best piece of advice you have received or came across and would like to share with everyone?
We all have only one crack at life. And we need to learn how to number our days. So no moments should be wasted but that we grow and improve with the sole purpose of helping others grow and improve as well.
To view Francis’s amazing work, visit franciskong.com
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Originally published at medium.com