EARLY INFLUENCES
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Music is the only medium that no matter what language you speak or where you are around the world, it is able to communicate volumes on so many different levels making you feel and think a certain way.

Although I have had many early influences in my life, it is quite difficult to attribute it entirely to one person, place, or thing. However, I wouldn't be the proper man I am today without the growth, guidance, and encouragement of my family members, brother, sisters, parents, and grandparents/extended family who have been there with me every step of the way along with my faith.

Family isn't always just limited to your bloodline because sometimes you end up meeting friends along the way that make you feel at home and they become your second family--more on that later... but first, I wanted to start off a quote from Lucian Grainge, the Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group because it is a code of conduct that we could all learn to live by:

“What makes truly great music is combining passion and creativity with integrity. If we are to best serve our artists and entertain fans around the world, we must embrace that every single day. Integrity means many things. It means holding firm to our principles. It means behaving honorably and with honesty. It means setting the right tone--in all that we do. We are accountable for the decisions we make and how we conduct ourselves [...] so that we may earn and maintain the confidence, respect and trust of our artists, business partners, fans, and stakeholders.   Our continued success depends on us meeting and exceeding the standards set out in this Code each and every day.”

We make decisions everyday, both good and bad, some great and others not so great, but truly great decisions are based on our core tenets and values and require us to be mindful and thoughtful of the actions that we have on others inspiring confidence and commanding respect.

Every decision is a risk. A decision ot not act and stay silent is also a risk--and every great leader is the sum of each and every one of his/her past decisions--a right does not justify or correct a wrong, but continuing to make consistently sound decisions is what makes up an effective leader, maximizes possibilities and keeps us at the forefront of our respective industries beyond just entertainment and business.

For most people, parents and their childhood upbringing plays a major and crucial factor in one's later development and transition into adulthood as the first 18 years is such a huge portion of our lifetime by the time we enter it as fully-autonomous humans in the workforce. So it is undeniable the impact our childhood upbringing has on us for our future interactions. I was born and raised Roman Catholic, and I went thru a series of private schooling for a portion of my life and later on transitioned to public schooling applying what I learned to the greater world at large giving me a unique perspective of blending those two worlds together.

During this growth and development, we are, at the core, sponges to everything we surround ourselves with, listen to, the people we associate ourselves with, our physical environments, the media we consume, the goals we set, and the hobbies we pursue. Psychologically and mentally, we do not fully reach our maximum potential at 18--not really at least even though the world almost expects those at that age to. We continue to develop well after then and from my expereince failures are some of the greatest lessons and opportunities of development.

Growing up, my family was not the most well-off. If you've never experienced real hunger or didn't know where you would find your next meal, it's a quite humbling experience to say the least. Being immigrants from the Philippines (very much a third-world country with a bustling economy for tourism but also stricken with extreme poverty), there was endless opportunity in the Americas and to this day, I still believe that to be the case. My father was the first to come to the States followed by myself at the age of 5 and my mother along with me. This was in the 1990's, and my father had started from humbling beginnings delivering newspapers and bustling tables in his first entry job here until he was scouted by Microsoft in the early years before the dot com bubble burst, and that alone set my family straight for the next decade.

In the years to come, my family along with my brother and sisters, would relocate periodically, typically every 2-3 years because that's how long a client project took to be completed in my dad's area of expertise of being a front-end/back-end programmer and technical/functional consultant for Microsoft. Raising children at the same time as pursuing a career was definitely not the easy task to balance with traveling so, we just situated ourselves where it was most convenient as my dad was the true breadwinner for the family at the time. And for the record, I wasn't always the easiest to manage--a rebel at heart refusing to be constrained by boundaries and limitations.

This vagrant lifestyle made it rather difficult to make many friends but when I do get the chance to make deep connections, they last for a lifetime. Having a close-kit support system of friends, allowed me to stay motivated and stay laser-focused on my studies and further advancing my career. Each and every place, we moved was different, from the always sunny Sunnyvale, CA to the "one-stoplight" town of Findlay, OH to the bustling mega highways of Atlanta, GA to the rolling mountains of Pittsburgh, PA. In hindsight, this set the precedence of encounting different types of communities and paces of living which later proved to be the standard in my young professional career and life.

This was very helpful in understanding the nuances in different cultures and groups in societies and helped put together pieces of the puzzle that was "What was the true meaning of life," and simultaneously, "What is the truth?". This way of life ultimately helped to broaden my ever-growing perspective and understanding of the world, what it had to offer, and a unique understanding of empathic living and living vicariously through others while living my mission, practicing my faith, and carrying a covertly evangelistic life through music, my acts, and my works.

I have to thank each and every individual I have come across with in my life to be where I am now today. Everyone has a story to tell and every person has a piece of the truth if we only know how and where to find it. We are all connected, and I didn't just learn that from a Childish Gambino performance at Bonnaroo of 2019. I have come to learn that every person we encounter is either a lesson or a blessing or somewhere in between. And yes, I've encountered my fair share of both.

Every person you meet is a chance to learn and grow. Every interaction, good or bad, teaches us something. Even tough folks or rough times can show us resilience, understanding, or how to set boundaries. They push us to adapt, learn, and become stronger. Early influences can be attributed to different stages and starts in life. Fast forward from my early childhood to early in my professional journey, in the early chapters of my career adventure, I navigated a maze where ambition and naivete intertwined. I placed my trust in a mirage of reliability and trust in a group of strangers blinded by the initial excitement of starting a new business.

As time went on, it slowly unraveled and became apparent to me that I was unwittingly becoming the scapegoat in an illegal cannabis operation and a level 5 money laundering investigation. I was a victim of circumstance, but I was not about to play victim--there is a notable difference. The moment I uncovered the truth, although I was disappointed as this was the first client, I had invested my time, attention, and energy to devoting a good solid 4 years into its startup, it proved to be just a minor setback in the grand scheme of things; it was the soil from which REINVENTED bloomed. It's a fusion of lessons from the nurturing mentors who planted seeds of aspiration to the deceptive encounters that sharpened my discernment.

There's kindness and lessons everywhere; ti's easy to see how supportive friends or family enrich our lives, but even strangers can offer something. A brief chat, a smile, or a shared moment can war our hearts and remind us of our connections.

People are complex, not just labels. We can't slap "lesson" or "blessing" on every person. One person might teach us in one moment and offer support in another. We all blend lessons and blessings in different ways.

It's about how we approach things. If we look for the learning and good in every interaction, we'll grow and feel more connected to others. It's not about categorizing, but about being open and appreciating the diverse tapestry of life.

Life's a messy, beautiful journey.

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