10 successful entrepreneur

1. Socorro C. Ramos
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.
 After the Japanese occupation, the Ramos couple was able to
rebuild a shanty in the corner of Soler and Avenida Rizal in
time to catch the boom of post-war business. Using the door
of their house as a counter, Ramos again started selling
textbooks, notebooks, pad paper, and pencils in time for the
first postwar school year in the country.
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.
Eventually, through will and determination, the Ramos couple
was able to construct a two-story building complete with
mezzanine that would be their store for years.
 2. Mariano Que
Mariano Que once started as a regular employee at a
drugstore located in Manila during the prewar period. As
a dedicated employee, he learned to love his job, the
role it plays in the everyday living of the Filipinos.
. Then came the war who took all, and destroyed
everything that there is in the busy streets of the city. The
drugstore where he used to work was also severely
destructed, leaving Mariano completely jobless. When
the war was over, everything went scarce, including the
medicine. Being knowledgeable about medical
prescriptions, Mariano realized that this period could be
a good opportunity for him to help others and also,
improve his finances
 He then started retailing sulfa drugs, like the
sulfathiazole tablets for a capital of P100. he peddled
this in the most poor streets of the city where medicine
was really not available. And since his business was
retail, he sold out his items in no time. He used to peddle
this items down the streets, but when he has
accumulated enough capital, he then bought a push cart
or kariton and sell even more medical products.
Many others has saw the potential in that retailing
business, so they copied Mariano. But instead of selling
fresh and legit medicine like Mariano, other peddlers
resorted to selling fake and expired medicine.
 By the formal end of the war, in 1945 Mariano has
gained enough capital to put up a physical store which
he named Mercury Drug.
 3. Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Edison is in this list due to his motivation and
persistence which makes him a true entrepreneur, even
after thousands of failures. Now although Thomas didnt
have a terrible upbringing in terms of the money sense,
he was a very poorly child. Ill a lot of his early life, he
suffered from a severe ear infection that rendered him
deaf in one of his ears although it has been said he was
deaf in both.
He also developed scarlet fever as a boy nearly dying
because of it, but it didnt stop him. After becoming a
minor celebrity for saving a toddler from being hit by a
train, Thomas was offered a job as telegraph operator.
 Thomas went on to create thousands of inventions
and patents, failing a lot more times than
succeeding. However his first taste of glory came
when he developed the tin foil phonograph, after
working as a telegraph operator he wanted to create
a way of making a telegraph transmitter to work in a
more efficient way.
Some of his inventions were still use today, and
most of them are historical changing the world.
 4. Adolf Dassler
Adolf Dassler was the founder of the Worlds second
biggest sportswear manufacturing company Adidas.
Adolf Dassler was also trained as a cobbler and from very
early age loved experimenting with innovative designs
and ideas. At the age of 20, he began designing and
producing soccer, tennis and athletic shoes by taking
suggestions from trainers, doctors, coaches and other
athletes.
His brand earned international attention after the 1936
Summer Olympics in Berlin, when Jesse Owens won 4
gold medals wearing his brand.
 In 1948, after several years of conflict, both brother
finally decided to split and his older brother Rudolf left
the company and founded another big brand Puma. In
1949, he designed shoes with the company trademark
of three black stripes modeled with rubber studs.
The brand reputation later strengthened with its use by
several Olympic medal winners, world record makers
and football players. In recognition of his work he was
inducted in the Hall of Fame. It is said that Adolf
Dassler, along with his team of designers and
developers acquires over 700 patents
 5. Diosdado Banatao
Who would have thought a child who used to walk
barefoot to get elementary and high school
education would become the Bill Gates of the
Philippines? Im talking about Diosdado Banatao.
Born to a rice farmer and a plain housewife in a
barrio in Cagayan Valley, Banatao had to do just that
to finish Malabbac Elementary School. Decided to
pursue higher learning, Dado as he was called
pursued his Electrical Engineering degree in MIT
(Mapua Institute of Technology) graduating cum
laude.
 Faith would soon find Dado in the United States as
he was offered a design engineer job for Boeing Co.,
after a stint with Philippine Airlines as a pilot trainee.
There he completed a Masters Degree in Electrical
Engineering and finished it in Stanford University.
Joining the now-famous Homebrew Computer Club
he met the likes of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Dados design capabilities allowed him to develop
several milestone products in the computer industry
(e.g., single-chip controller, chip sets).
 Soon enough, he founded his own companies. One of
which, Chips and Technologies Co., was bought by Intel
for a whopping $430 million. Today Malabbac Elementary
School is the only public school with the most advanced
computer system thanks to Dado.
 6. Julie Gandiongco

Julie kept herself always busy, keeping a sari-sari store

and accepting sewing jobs from the neighborhood
everytime her husband, Diegs, transferred location as a
Pepsico employee. From Bohol to Cebu to Zamboanga to
Ormoc. She went where her husband was assigned,
packed up everything her children and sewing business,
to start all over again.
Diegs resigned his job to concentrate on a 30-hectare
sugar plantation in Dumaguete. Again Julie went with
him helping supervise farm hands. However, the
price for sugar suddenly dropped worldwide.
 And with it, their future. Soon they lost the farm
and had to move back to Cebu.
Not wanting to get back to sewing, she applied
and became a canteen concessionaire for a
rattan export company. That opened doors.
Though based on credit as most workers pay
only on payday, Julie soon realized her
customers need for bread. Meeting a baker who
want to work for her, she opened her first
bakeshop, aptly named it Julies Bakeshop. She
was 50.
 7. Corazon D. Ong
Now, a heartwarming story of a mother turned
businesswoman. Corazon Ong was working as a
dietitian for a hospital. However, she decided to give
up her job to focus on her family. She put her dietitian
skills to good use in preparing baon for her husband
Jose and native snacks for her 2 kids. She
experimented with a new filling for siopao for instance.
Eventually, she developed a skinless longanisa for
her homemade siopao. Once the neighbors tasted
it, it became such a hit. Word spread fast. And soon
enough she had to borrow PhP 60,000 to fill in on all
the incoming orders.
 Eventually, she founded CDO Food sphere in
1995 which soon become a household name in
quality food products.
The business united them as her son and
husband are now full time in helping her grow
the business.
Business: CDO Food sphere, Most Outstanding
Meat Processing in the Country (1999-2003)
Consumer Union
 8. Alfredo Yao
Now we go to a son of a side walk vendor. Alfredo Yaos
father died when he was but 12 years old. He had 5
siblings. To feed the family her mother sold just about
anything a side walk vendor could sell. With a relatives
help, the young Alfredo was able to finish elementary
and high school.
Boldly, he decided to venture into the printing press
business. Perfecting his products, Yao made use of the
potential of doy packs, flexible foil packs. Soon, he
found use for this packs by venturing into the juice
manufacturing business himself founding Zest-O in the
process, leading the way for ready-to-drink juices.
 However, even with odd jobs working in a
warehouse of a packaging company, he was
unable to finish his degree in MIT (Mapua
Institute of Technology). With the help of a
cousin who was working for a printing press
business, Alfredo Yao learned the rudiments of
printing cellophane wrappers both for candies
and biscuits.
His juices has secured 80% of the packed juice
market in the country and has been exported all
over the world.
 9. Lucio Tan
For a man that doesnt smoke, its hard to believe
Lucio Tan owns the biggest cigarette manufacturing
company in the country, Fortune Tobacco.Born also
in Fujian Province, China on July 17, 1934 Mr. Tan
had modest beginnings. As a child he had to work in
Bataan Tobacco Factory to help the family.
He was able to push himself to elementary and high
school. Via a work-study program he earned some
units at the University of the East for Chemical
Engineering
 Although unable to finish college, he saw the big
opportunity and put up his own cigarette company in
1966 starting with just 2 cigarette-making machines.
Eventually, he was able to introduce such budget
brands as Hope.
He never looked back and through his sharp
business acumen was able to salvage dying
businesses and grow them to dynamic structures.
Examples include Philippine Airlines and Tanduay
Distillers. Today 80% of the cigarette market in the
Philippines is captured by his company and PAL is
the leading carrier in the airline industry.
 10. John Gokongwei
John Gokongwei was born in Fujian Province,
China. His family migrated and thru business
became well-off in Cebu, Philippines. However,
Johns father died when he was 13 and with it their
affluence.
To support his mother and siblings, John peddled
along the streets of Cebu and wet markets in various
towns, selling soaps anything and everything that
can be carried on his bicycle. In effect, he became a
market vendor, the youngest of his kind.
 For bigger profit, he traded in Manila at the age of
17 transporting items by sea. Riding a small, sail-
powered outrigger called a batel, the young
Gokongwei braved the high seas. On one such trip,
he had a brush with death as the batel hit a rock and
capsized.
Good thing he and fellow passengers were saved by
clinging on to therubber tires that he intended to
sell.
 Soon Gokongwei ventured into business setting up his
first company Amasia. He imported everything he can
from the U.S. (e.g., textile, newspapers, magazines,
used clothing, cigarettes, whisky) and sold them in the
country.
With his good name established, he was able to
secure a PhP 500,000 loan from China Bank to start
a manufacturing business, putting up a corn milling
plant and naming it Universal Robina. The rest is
history. Today, John Gokongwei is one of the few
billionaires in the country with estimated wealth of
$4.2 Bn (2012).