Good evening my fellow JCI Members, our beloved Past Presidents, Senators, friends and distinguished guests. Tonight marks an important rite of passage that our chapter JCI Manila has observed since 1948. The JCI is all about the tradition of developing young leaders. We have strived to pass on the col

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Good evening my fellow JCI Members, our beloved Past Presidents, Senators, friends and distinguished guests. Tonight marks an important rite of passage that our chapter JCI Manila has observed since 1948.

The JCI is all about the tradition of developing young leaders. We have strived to pass on the collective understanding of our experience here in JCI Manila,  forged thru time, tradition and a legacy that has lasted 61 years. We refer to it as a University of Leaders.

I am truly thankful for this opportunity to share with you this legacy of leadership passed on to us how it has affected me personally. I will tell you a story of 2 people who’s legacies were defined by the JCI and in doing so I hope to show you how each one of us can create our own legacies.

What I know now about the organization is a far cry from what I thought the Jaycees was when I first joined. Like many new members, I thought I was getting into a socio-civic organization not a leadership-development organization.

The term Leadership by itself is difficult to understand. Its not directly taught in schools, there is no fixed formula for being a good leader and the best way to learn it is in actual practice. Back when I first joined about 9 years ago I did not understand nor appreciate that the JCI could give me this training in leadership. Honestly I thought it was just work. And I thought I had enough of that at the office.

But there is a saying in the JCI that ‘You get back even more than what you give’ to this organization.’

I have two very good stories to prove that. The first is Henry Sy’s story. Mr. Sy was an active Manila Jaycee in this time. He proved himself by chairing projects and gained the respect of his fellow Jaycees, one of which was Ting Ayllon who is now the Chairman of Insular Life. Back then he was a middle manager for Ayala.

I interviewed him around 3 years ago for a video we made for Manila’s 60^th Anniversary. In that interview he told us of the day he decided to offer Henry an opportunity of a lifetime, to open up a big store in a prime lot in Makati. Despite the fact that Henry was only operating a small shoe store at the time, he knew Henry could do it just by the way he worked on Jaycee projects. He told him ‘kaya mo yan’.

Henry asked for a week to decide, after all this was much bigger than any store in existence at the time. After one week he came back to Ting and said, ‘if you really think I can do it, I will” and he took up the challenge. The space Ting gave him is where SM Makati still stands today and the rest they say is history. 

The other story, is that of my Dad, who is here tonight, JCI Senator Bobby Claudio. His story is a little different, because in his case, he was almost fired for being too good a Jaycee. You see he was an active Manila Jaycee too, and as Deputy Conference Director for the 1977 World Congress, he would travel outside the country often to help promote the congress. One day, his boss confronted him saying “Bob, your Jaycee obligations are taking too much of your time” you have to choose, work or Jaycees’ to which he replied, incredibly ‘I choose Jaycees’. And he promptly handed in his resignation.

Forced to start a business from scratch he opened up a tiny 15 sq.m toy store in Greenhills which he named after his son, me. Despite its accidental origins, that store which he started, Toby’s Sports, has grown to a chain of 42 outlets and was named the Most Outstanding Filipino Retailer by the Phil Retailers Association last year.

So I can truly say, we owe it to the Manila Jaycees for my dad losing his job but also for having a store named after me. Not a bad deal if you ask me. So thank you dad for resigning and choosing the Jaycees over work.

Yet even after hearing Mr. Sy and my Dad’s story, it was only the beginning of my appreciation for this organization. In true Jaycee fashion, I learned the rest thru actual practice.  I ran for director the first time, and had my first big major project as Chairman of the 60^th anniversary. That’s when my perception of the JCI really started to change. I read about the long line of dynamic young men from prominent families who came together to make a difference. I marveled at how daring and ambitious their projects were. Then saw how they became great leaders who helped shape the destiny of our country. Stories of Del Rosario, Sycip, Yuchengco, Henry Sy, and many more proved that this had become the breeding ground of the nation’s future leaders.

As we ended that night of the 60^th anniversary, something happened to me. Some call it being bitten by the JCI bug. For me, it felt more like being Struck by Lightning.

 

 

 

Since that fateful day I have become even more passionate about the Jaycees, served on the board again twice and have now come to understand the amazing process you undergo once you decide to be an active member. Every meeting, every project, success or failure contributes to the learning. And when you see how these experiences change you for the better, you cannot help but love the organization.

That is why so many sacrifice for the Jaycees. I would like to thank those men, our Past Presidents, Past directors, senators, my previous board mates and all the passionate members who’s sacrifices have allowed me to understand and experience this.

Like the 61 previous batches of Past Presidents and Directors who came before us, the men of the 2010 board have come together because we made a choice to become better leaders. More than that, we have agreed that it is our duty to give our members the opportunity to Lead and Learn and leave their own Legacies.

We will do this by harnessing the limitless talents and boundless energy of our members armed with a resolve to create positive change in the communities that need it the most. Together with other JCI members all over the country I am confident we can change our nation and perhaps even the world.

That is what makes the JCI most fulfilling - the fact that while we are out trying to change the world, without us even noticing, we are already creating a World of Change within ourselves.

As we create positive change, we change ourselves and learn to become better leaders. That is the Jaycee promise.

Because of the skills and confidence my dad gained as an active Jaycee, he had the guts to leave his job and start a business from scratch. Henry Sy got his first big break. 

Their stories are just 2 of the many examples of how the organization has delivered on its promise. But my fellow JCI members, you need to jump in,  head first,  and take advantage of every opportunity that this organization has to offer. I repeat, jump in, head first.

We now live in a time when our country needs good leadership the most. So we owe it not just to ourselves, but to our country, our nation to be the best leaders we can be.

And here in JCI Manila is the definitely best place to learn to become a better leader. We have among us many outstanding young men, our friends, the members of JCI Manila.

Thanks to their untiring efforts we are now back on top having been awarded last June at the ASPAC in Nagano Japan as no less than the BEST Chapter in Asia.

This year we will need to tap every ounce of your skill and talent as we prepare to host the rest of Asia in the Asia Pacific Conference to be held here in Manila in 2011.  Together with the JCI Phils National Board, and our friends from other chapters around the country we will go to Singapore this June to invite them and show them the best we have to offer. And in the tradition of this organization, I am sure we will make our country proud.

Together, the men of JCI-Manila and the men and women of JCI Philippines, we can truly create positive change. And it is in giving our all that we can learn lessons that will last us a lifetime.
 
This is our quest.

Let me leave you with a challenge for all of us here today - lets go on this journey, not walking, not sightseeing, but Running with a Passion to be the best we can be, while creating A New Legacy of Leadership within and around us.

Thank you and Mabuhay ang JCI, Mabuhay ang Manila Jaycees!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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