“Refire, not retire”

CITY of BALANGA, Bataan – “You are not the smartest person in your organization just because you are a leader. A great leader surrounds himself with people who are smarter. And in the process the people make the leader smarter. Humility is a virtue and pride is a weakness” – Francis Kong 

The Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU) -BC Student Council, in cooperation with the Christ Commission Fellowship (CCF) Bataan sponsored last Saturday, July 4 a seminar entitled, “1LEAD – Leadership Matters at the Lou-Is Grand Ballroom, this City.

No less than Francis J. Kong, a versatile veteran, family man, businessman, columnist, broadcaster, book author and an inspirational speaker roused the close to  a thousand audience composed of college students from different schools in the province, parents and faculty members with his insights on leadership, “win or lose, you choose”.

Francis Kong, who belongs to the highest tier of prominent motivational speakers in the country earned the distinction as the Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) awardee for 2014. Sometime in 2006, students, faculty members and parents of the Bataan Christian School in Pilar had the rare opportunity to learn from Mr. Kong in a parenting seminar held at the Crown Royale Hotel.

Last Saturday’s audience gained new insights and were enlightened on leadership perspectives, abilities, and excellence coupled with honor, spiritual and moral values.

A renowned motivational and inspirational speaker, the much sought after Mr. Kong conducts around 300 seminars in a year, here and abroad; most of his clients are blue chip corporations, academic institutions, NGOs, NGAs and government agencies. Being a member of the CCF Manila, last Saturday’s leadership seminar in the afternoon and another one in the evening were conducted for free. He says that this gesture is part of his advocacy.

The audience in the evening seminar aptly entitled “True Success” were mostly businessmen, government officials, bank managers and heads of corporations in the province. Among those present were Provincial Legal Officer, Atty. Joey Angeles, MBDA Chairman Charlie Pizarro, Mr. Mr. Francis Initorio of AFAB, Mayor Alice Pizarro of Pilar, Mayor Gene dela Fuente of Samal, Vice Mayor Bong Galicia of Orani and the heads of the different departments of the Provincial Government of Bataan.

In his talk, Francis Kong highlighted the idea that true success is not all about money, how much money you have but more of how you serve your purpose on earth. So when he brought up the idea of retirement, he told the audience that “we don’t retire”, instead we should “refire”. It is because when we retire, we lose our purpose in life. So when we refire, we just don’t continue working towards the realization of our purpose but we also continue to learn.

According to Mr. Raymond Receno, a member of the Council of Servants of CCF Bataan, the dinner which started at a little after 8:00PM ended at around 10:00PM after the book signing, where 4 books of Francis Kong were raffled off to the audience.

Keep on refiring, Francis!

Photos courtesy of Cardist Skater – Jeno Receno