“The times they are a-changin’,” sang Bob Dylan, 2016’s Nobel Prize awardee for Literature. And indeed, time does, for his award announces the new era that dawns upon us: the adjustment of traditional terms into this fast changing world. Like how his music was considered poetry, digital media has begun to compete with its conventional predecessors. The adobo Festival of Ideas unveiled the secret everyone knows: the world is changing.
Create. Innovate. Or Die as the FOI mantra says. The social economy booms as the internet becomes more accessible. Social media is now the space where everyone is connected, where everyone can watch and read each other’s posts. However, Carlo Ople, current Vice President of Digital Marketing Strategy of PLDT and previous Chief Digital Officer of Dentsu JaymeSfyu, advised the audience at FOI to create. The virtual world is manifested through content. Work-life balance is obsolete if life means binge-watching Netflix. The internet is a new frontier where traditional media can seek influence. Media agnostics criticize the flow of digital media, but the digital world is there, and it is full of promise.
Carlo Ople enumerated the key points for treading these uncharted seas: Choose and build your platform. The first step, the first stone that builds an edifice. Afterward, creation itself. The first piece defines who you are as a creator. Then relentlessly create and refine along the way. With the fires of passion, the technical side appears. You must learn to monetize and market your projects. As the creator yourself, you must also know its strong points and with this, the marketing strategies would smoothly flow. Discipline is also an integral part of the process.
He mentioned his 7-1 Principle. 9am to 6pm is time to build your career while 7pm-1am is the time to build your dreams. “Don’t be afraid of hard work. Because this is what separates you from those who can and those who can’t,” said Carlo. He believes that hard work tops everything. It is the key that ignites that car that will bring you to your destination.
Arthur Policarpio, Head of Mobext Asia Pacific, on the other hand, discussed the entrepreneurial aspects of the field. He said that there are around 500 million mobile business transactions happening on the internet each day. To pass on that opportunity would be disheartening. The ideas are endless in the mobile industries where creating something out of nothing is the trend. With just a single spark of a concept, the abstraction could materialize and become a source of money. There is a trend on messaging-based businesses, apps mainly targeting consumers, and those that focus in adding business operations.
Pinpoint and solve. He listed three significant things in being an entrepreneur: solve a problem, this step gives birth to the product. The product is born through a problem that needs to be satisfied. Not only does this promote your product by itself but it also makes itself relevant to the lives of consumers. Like how Snapchat, a seemingly simple app, delivers a platform where one could share content while simultaneously retaining privacy. Next step is to learn how to make money: common sense but the most fundamental knowledge in entrepreneurship.
Lastly, learn the Startup method. Dream. As they closed the session, they left us with a quote saying: If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build their dream.
