Kaya Ko Yan!

Your career success or any other endeavor for that matter depends on how often you say "kaya ko yan" (I can do this). Nope, that's not all you need, you silly, but it starts there. CAN or on the other hand CAN'T are pretty powerful words. "Can" sets you on your way, "can't" stops you dead on your tracks.

I've been working for the last 20 years. I got to where I am now because of the number of times I said "kaya ko yan." On the other hand, I got this far also because of the number of times I said "di ko yan kaya" (I can't). I can just imagine how much farther I could have gone had I said kaya ko yan more often than I did and at times when it most mattered.

We all have that "UNKNOWN" window pane in our JOHARI window and the way to shrink it is by challenging our selves, taking some risks or sticking our neck out so to speak. You really can never tell what you can't do if you haven't tried at least once.

I wrote this because I see a lot of people who can't muster enough courage to say kaya ko yan when faced with an opportunity or a challenge. The low self expectation cause a lot of us to believe we are incapable of excellence that's why we settle for mediocre. Just imagine the possibilities if we all believe we can do better. It would mean better products, better customer experience, better quality of life.

Go get that job and then succeed in it. kaya mo yan!

Who Do You Work For?

The logical answer of course is your employer. To say otherwise is to invite criticism that are you are being a smart aleck.

Changing the way you look at this whole idea of working for another may change your attitude about how you deal with work.

Think of it this way, you are running your own business, you are therefore working for yourself and you are your own product or service. What do your employers represent then, you may ask. They are your customers and in order for your business to flourish, you have to make them happy.  Their happiness improves the market value of your product. Your ability to do more than expected makes your product attractive both to them and other potential customers. The more attractive you are, the more people will be interested to retain your services, hence the better job pricing offers.

Are You Putting Your Strengths to Good Use?

In a book written by Marcus Buckingham entitled "Now Discover Your Strengths", he mentioned a research that showed only 20 out of 100 people work in jobs that fully utilize their strengths. If the same is true in the Philippines, it means that 80% of our workforce is not achieving their full potentials. One of those millions of people could be you or me! How do we make sure that we are on the better end of the statistics or better yet, how do we add up to the statistics of people who are doing work that fully utilize their strengths so there can be more than 20%?


Buckingham said that there are three major ingredients to one's strengths. The first one is talent. The test, strengths finder identified 36 types of talents.  They are: Achiever, Activator, Adaptability, Analytical, Arranger, Belief, Command, Communication, Competition, Connectedness, Consistency, Context, Deliberative, Developer,  Discipline, Fairness  / Empathy, Focus, Futuristic, Harmony, Ideation, Inclusiveness / Includer, Individualization, Input, Intellection, Learner, Maximizer, Positivity, Relator, Responsibility, Restorative, Self-Assurance, Significance, Strategic, Woo.  Go to this website to find out more about what they mean. http://strengthstest.com/theme_summary.php. You could demonstrate a variable number and combinations of any of those talents. You may also want to check out Richard Step's free version of strengths finder test here.