Honorable Christopher Arnuco, Chairman of Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (ZamboEcozone), was one of Western Mindanao State University’s guest speakers during the 71st Commencement Exercises held on March 29 and 30 at Dr. Juanito Bruno Gymnasium.
In his speech, Arnuco brought up the economic expansion in the country and how it is making waves on the world stage. He said both presidents of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim and Asian Development Bank, Takehiko Nakao have high regards on the growth of the Philippine economy.
He said that the Philippines has just received the European Union General Scheme of Preference Plus status that allows the country to export more than 6,000 products to any of the 28 member economies of the European Union. Arnuco further mentioned that the country has just entered the year of Integration within Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), opening a single regional market with an estimated 650 million consumers. This will allow goods and services to freely move among the 10 member economies.
Arnuco was proud to say that Zamboanga City has improved tremendously from 79th place to 15th under the National Competitiveness Council Report Year 2015 indicating that the city has a dynamic workforce.
The ZamboEcozone Chair inspired the graduates as he talked about the struggles and successes of world-renowned people including Henry Ford, John Pierpont Morgan, John Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the Philippines’ John Gokongwei. Arnuco said these people also experienced harsh conditions like civil wars, lack of housing and poor logistics before they achieved success.
“These people are brilliant and are driven by self-interest. They know what they want and their personal beliefs are their passion,” Arnuco said. “They have clarity of knowing what they want. Successful people know this and you should know it by now,” he added.
“The simple difference between those who are successful against those who are not is that successful people dream; their dreams lead to beliefs, beliefs turned to thoughts, they put their thoughts into motion and their actions generate result,” the ZamboEcozone head continued. “Whether you think you can or you cannot, either way you are right,” Arnuco quoting the famous line of Henry Ford.
The chairman urged the students to acknowledge that failure is part of success, encouraging the audience, especially the graduates, to embrace failure and use it as a motivator. He gave three dimensions as part of success- passion, vision, and purpose.
Hon. Arnuco said that passion is to have a strong feeling for something, like choosing a degree and working hard for it. One needs vision in order to get through the sets of plans and targets. Most especially, a person needs to have a purpose in order to anchor passion and vision and attain success.
“Success comes when you are true to your passion, faithful to your vision and most especially to be anchored by your purpose,” were Arnuco’s powerful words to the graduates. (Liezel M. Parreño, PAO)