Employee Spotlight
The Salbabida Lesson
Success is not achieved overnight. It is a serious business that comes with a price – time. We dedicate long days and even longer nights for something we are passionate about. The trials and errors, missed opportunities, and wrong decisions are, in time, transformed into lessons and ingredients for success.
Richard Tee, the Business Development Manager of United Neon Advertising, Inc. is an exemplar of longevity and being in a constant buoy of life. On the 26th of November during United Neon’s Thanksgiving and Christmas Party, Sir Richard is presented with a service award for his 20 loyal years in United Neon for our partners, country, and God.
This kind of recognition will not pass without everyone’s awe. We see him as our silent inspiration of patience and passion. We look up to him and say, “I, too, will become one of the company’s pillars.”
A family man with the right values
On our last issue, Sir Bert told us that one of the qualities that make a good parent is having the right values. Striving for a successful life calls for the same values.
Sir Richard’s colleagues would describe him as a family man. We see him embodying the right values when raising his children. He is strict in a reasonable way. He was sharing to a friend that he would let his children commute going home to push them towards independence.
In the same way, he moves with similar correct values with his subordinates. Maintaining the mentor-student relationship, Sir Richard is never selfish in sharing his knowledge. Can of Business Development describes him as the patient boss who reminds her of a guiding father. “He is always telling me to give my best but never work during lunch time. It is the one hour where we can interact with other people in a more relaxed and friendlier atmosphere.”
Passionate with what he does
Likewise, we see how compassionate he is with other people and how passionate he is with life. People often say one will learn a lot from him even during casual conversations. With bags full of various stories and anecdotes about virtually anything under the sun, there are no dull moments with him.
“He is often quiet but likes to joke around. Malalim nga lang ang jokes, ‘di ko magets [laughs]” kids Ms. Chewy. You will learn while you laugh with him.
His passion with the things he does translates to his work. It is very visible with his work ethics and by how he unselfishly shares his knowledge and experience. Oftentimes, we see other managers seek him for advice. By his way of listening to other people first, his open mindedness emanates. These are some of the traits of a true leader.
The Salbabida Lesson
One of the most memorable lessons from Sir Richard is what he calls the Salbabida or the life buoy lesson. Complete with a diagram, he draws the inner and the outer circle of a life buoy. The inner circle represents God while the outer circle is the different aspects of our lives – physical, emotional, mental, physiological.
Similar to a real life buoy, the inner circle is necessary for the outer circle to survive. And the two circles must be aligned. It is to make everything in balance. Otherwise, the life buoy will sink and so does the person that depends on this lifesaver. Sir Richard tells us that, “God should be in the center of our lives in order to achieve peace. Despite what the outer circle faces, if God remains in the middle, we shall float on.”
Success differs from each person concerned. Some may define success as being able to buy a house, travel the world, a stable career, and so on. For others, it is simply putting God in the middle of everything for the rest to follow through.
As any other leader, Sir Richard is not spared of challenges. He has taken the entire struggle with an open heart. He has tagged them as lessons learned and experience gained with a perspective that in everything and anything, Jesus is the center of everything.
