You may want to make some coffee before reading this...
Mr. Rodrigo E. Rivera, Sr. was a banker for 20 years before he was able to put up his businesses. He was employed to the Insular Bank of Asia and America (IBAA) as one of their branch managers in Gensan. For everyone;s information, IBAA merged with Philippine Commercial International(PCI) Bank in 1985 with the latter as the surviving entity. Later on, the PCI Bank again merged with Equitable Banking Corporation and was widely known as Equitable PCI Bank, Inc. and everntually merged with Banco De Oro Universal Bank in early 2007. While he was still employed, he was slowly starting his pawnshop businesses with his wife Mrs. Dolores Chua Rivera with a very limited capital.
As a banker, Mr. Rivera came in contact with a lot people around the area including owners of big businesses in agriculture, fishing, and other commercial sectors. And since he was a good manager, he was able to build good relationships with his clients and cleverly studied the ins and outs of their businesses. At that time, he had a Japanese businessman client who was looking for something to put his money into and so Mr. Rivera suggested a lot of businesses to him. The Japanese was impressed with the knowledge about businesses Mr. Rivera possessed and became interested to the TUNA fishing business. It was probably because Japan give a higher value to Tuna than any other countries and one of the Japanese specialty dish, sashimi, is made of tuna.
After a lot of research and discussions, the Japanese decided to start the business. He already had the capital in his hand but lacked sufficient knowledge with the nature of the fishing business. Since Mr. Rivera himself knew that he already learned a lot about the industry from his years of doing business with Gensan's biggest fisherman at that time, he bravely asked the Japanese if he would want Mr.Rivera to manage the business. The Japanese found it favorable and so he agreed with it. Then, he gave him the capital to start the fishing business.
Everything was not as easy as we think of when Mr. Rivera started their fishing business. Just like anyone who is just starting out with something new, they were faced with many problems and setbacks along the way. But because Mr. Rivera was very determined to move forward, he was able to overcome the challenges that could have stopped him from getting further. He sought the help of his friends and clients in order to grow their business stronger and faster. After a couple of years, the Japanese became very happy with the growth of his investments and to return the favor, he offered Mr. Rivera a loan. He knew that he can make something bigger out of that offer and so he accepted it. He used the amount he loaned to build his Tuna fishing empire through the years. Little was known about what happened between Mr.Rivera and the Japanese right after that.
Determined to catch a fish. Photo Credits
Because of his determination, faith in the Lord, and attitude that never quits, Mr.Rivera succeeded in his conquest and became the richest Filipino fisherman owning more than 40 companies and still counting...
Last year, Mr. Rivera gave a speech during our Christmas party and hat struck me most was when he said... "I refuse to retire. I am already 72 now but I still feel very young and I still have a lot of mission to accomplish. I have so many plans for our company and I am looking forward to its realization."
Indeed, he is such a strong-willed man!
Oh..did you take a sip from your coffee? :)
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