In the many years of Go Negosyo, we have shared countless inspiring tales of the entrepreneurial journey of our partners in the advocacy. They revealed to us their dreams, the paths taken, the challenges they faced, and the triumphs over adversities. Real entrepreneurs have their vision, their aspirations and determination, and the common thread we see is their relentless passion on what they do: passion on their big idea, passion to make a difference, and inherently, a passion to succeed!

Passion has ignited many to generate creative and innovative ideas to start their business ventures, and with passion comes the determination to pursue those ideas. I can say that the value of passion is more than just the character of one individual. It is a personal perspective, outlook or drive. It comes from within. It is the energy to pursue the goals and ambition despite the hardships and criticisms that one may face. And that is what makes dreams come alive.

The success of an entrepreneur does not depend only on the amount of money that he is earning. The real meaning of success is the achievement of their goals and purpose they have set. I remember Steve Jobs from Apple who said that, “People with passion can change the world for the better.” And that is what we in Go Negosyo and the many partners of our advocacy believe in.

We want people to pursue their passion and purpose in life!

In line with this belief, we are happy to announce that we are once again releasing an empowering book to inspire the readers with stories of successful entrepreneurs who pursued their passion, with hard work and determination. They have a positive mindset. They built on their competencies and studied their market well.

That is the 9th book of Go Negosyo which is very timely for our 9th year anniversary.

The 50 Entrepreneurs of Passion is as special as our first book launched in the first year of Go Negosyo. Why? Because this features successful and champion entrepreneurs who have an undying commitment to fulfill their goals and mission in their businesses.

We are releasing this book with the hope to encourage our fellow Filipinos, from different social status, to take the path to success.

This passion book, as we call it, will open the stories of the entrepreneurs who were once challenged, who faced frustrations and disappointments, but never gave up.

I want to share with you their stories in this column, but you all have to wait for its official release. We will be unveiling this 9th book in a private dinner on Nov. 17, which will also coincide with the launch of the Global Entrepreneurship Week. This will be a gathering of those who were featured in the book including inspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders like Andrew Tan, Andrew Gotianun, Ricardo Po, Jose Magsaysay, and many other champion entrepreneurs. Leading entrepreneurship advocate and PLDT Group chairman Manny Pangilinan will also join us as he was the one who wrote the uplifting foreword of the book. A forum about passion will be the highlight of the evening.

In the morning of Nov. 17, we are launching the Go Negosyo Building Enterprising Students for Tomorrow (Go Negosyo BEST) program, which is a one-year mentorship program for the country’s brightest students. We are expecting about one thousand representatives from various colleges and universities. British Ambassador Asif Ahmad and I will welcome the participants. Our program partner is The Master Lighthouse Foundation, headed by long-time Go Negosyo advocate Anthony Pangilinan. I will join Manny, Sandy Prieto and Aurelio Montinola in the morning forum. We will also be joined by Dylan Wilk of Human Heart Nature and Jonathan Yabut, winner of The Apprentice Asia 2014. Rajo Laurel, one of the entrepreneurs featured in the Passion book will give an inspiring talk about his Passion for Fashion. A forum of young Filipino Entrepreneurs will give us a background on how Joseph Calata, RJ David, Luis Gabriel Moreno, Ronald Pineda and Mikhail Red became enterprising and entrepreneurial in their chosen paths.

It will be a whole-day activity filled with inspiration and learnings that will surely reignite everyone’s Passion to Succeed!