He had me at "Hello"

I woke up at 6:00am today to attend the National Retailers Convention at SMX. I don't like seminars that much, a series of boring speakers in a cold room full of strangers does not wet my apetite. Along EDSA there were billboards about the conference and it said that Tony Tan Caktiong will be there and my fiend Lee who was with me said that he will be doing a speech tomorrow. I felt a little bad because we were not scheduled to attend that session. I would have loved to hear him speak.

You see, I am a fan of Jollibee and became a bigger fan of their CEO when he won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the World in 2004. He beat the CEO of Dell and other strong brands all over the world in that award. The Philippines is the only country they said, where McDonalds is not the number one fastfood chain.

When we got to SMX registered and all, we settled down and I was all up and ready for a whole day session of doodling. About 30 minutes later, the announcer pipes in, and introduces the next speaker, I held my breath and it was him! Mr. Tony Tan Caktiong. I was in awe, he gave his hello's and greetings to everyone who was there in the room. And he shared his inspiring story of builing the brand we Filipinos love. The whole room was laughing at his jokes and quips. My favorite story that he shared was of an employee who stayed there for more the 10 years and the reason being, was because in the first day of her work in Jollibee, the CEO opened the door for her and let her pass first. I hope that the Philippines produces more leaders like him, more leaders who inspires people and makes us a proud race.

I didn't get to meet Mr. Tan Caktiong or even see him upclose, but I wanted to hug him and tell him that my childhood was filled with memories of his store. When Sunday's was Jollibee day for me and my mom. And I would order chicken joy and sundae, and my mom palabok fiesta. And that when I feel bad I would eat Jollibee for comfort. And that I was part of the Jollibee Kid Club in the 80's ;) And that someday I would like to be like him, passionate, driven and always tells good jokes.