As we come close to the end of 2013, we try to reflect on Go Negosyo activities that have passed us so quickly – how we have done individually with our respective goals in life and our resolutions for the year.

The Philippines has had its fair share of triumphs and challenges. On the economy side, we became and still are the darlings of Asia as we have been upgraded to investment grade by all top rating agencies. We see this as we go around meeting foreign institutional investors. This is history for us in the making.

We saw our stock market break an all time-high with the index hitting the 7,300 mark. We saw a very bullish outlook in 2013 from the Go Negosyo advocates and Bossings that run close to 600 entrepreneurs today. We had record attendance in all our summits and caravans which started with the Technopreneur Summit attended by Filipino-American entrepreneurs like Dado Banatao, Winston Damarillo, Eric Manlunas, Paco Sandejas, and from our country Manny Pangilinan, Doy Vea and Myla Villanueva.

Attendance was packed which showed many Filipinos wanting to see how they can get into a tech business, like development of applications and others. This was followed by the Women’s Summit with Sen. Miriam Defensor – Santiago as keynote speaker and Sen. Grace Poe attending one of the forums. Also present were Sen. Cynthia Villar, Dr. Vicky Belo, Grace Padaca, Honey Sumnad, among others.

The Women’s Summit was full, showing that many women today are born entrepreneurs as seen with many micro-entrepreneurs which are mostly women. We partnered with DTI to do the caravans in many provinces and launched the Young Entrepreneurs Summit in different locations in the country.

The UK embassy partnered with us in launching the Global Entrepreneurship Week, which led to so many entrepreneurial summits and events that recognized the top entrepreneurs of the country from the PLDT Bossing Awards, the Ernst and Young Entrepreneurship Awards, the Citi-Moty Microentrepreneurship Award, and the Land Bank- National Livelihood and Development Corp SIPAG Microentrepreneurship Awards.

Simultaneously, the OFW and Family Summit, and the Creativity and Innovation Summit that we did the other week, which was again packed in attendance, just showed the interest of many Filipinos both young and old wanting a better life for themselves. They attended, wanting to find out the secrets to success of top entrepreneurs and learning their formula on how they got to where they are today.

Through all this, it starts with an inspiration which leads to a business idea and with proper mentorship, hard work and with God’s grace, can lead to success. It may not be a negosyo, as professionals and intrapreneurs (people working for others) as a career path is not wrong and those who move up the ladder fast still carry the same formula of success that we see in many entrepreneurs.

While this is the good news of what happened in the Philippines, we have seen our country challenged with the PDAF issue and the recent calamities that has hit hard on the Visayan provinces, from the earthquakes and typhoon Yolanda which has left so many people homeless and entrepreneurs wiped out of their entire business. Many micro entrepreneurs losing their sari-sari stores, bancas and other equipment, and on top of that, loved ones that have perished. Now the rebuilding efforts and bringing back the confidence to those affected so that they can rise again remain as the challenge.

There is a reason why the PDAF – Napoles issue has come about before this calamity hit us. I guess it is an eye-opener for all of us to now to see the beginning of a better Philippines thru greater transparency because the authorities are challenged to ensure that all donations, be it in kind or monetary are properly allocated and given to the people who are most in need and not go straight into the pockets of the corrupt. And while this issue is still alive, there is a much a greater chance that the billions of donations will be spent properly to rehabilitate these affected areas and will be allocated wisely with no taint of corruption.

This coming year, 2014, we should see the Philippines continue to do well and continue to be one of the most admired countries in Asia. Go Negosyo, in our small way together with the entrepreneurs who are part of this advocacy, will continue to provide the inspiration and mentorship. We will start with two big summits in February and in March our third Technopreneur Summit with Shiela Marcelo, one of the successful Filam technology entrepreneurs, and our 2014 Women Entrepreneurship Summit. We are also pleased to discuss this plan with Senator Grace Poe who has gladly accepted to partner with Go Negosyo in the 2014 Women Summit in March. She is one of the young senators elected who will bring about new ideas and link up with the private sector (entrepreneurs) to push for inclusive growth as the real corporate social innovation each negosyante should have as a business model is achieved by them.

By God’s grace, the Filipinos indeed will rise thru adversities and with the economic prosperity that has started to come to the Philippines, hopefully, a greater awareness for inclusive growth will help reduce the level of poverty in the Philippines.