Rico Mondejar Cardoniga, also known as “Kabayan Rico,” has presented excerpts of his book entitled “The 12 Habits of Highly Successful OFWs” during the highly anticipated Philippine Property and Investment Exhibition (PPIE) 2023 which took place from May 12 to 13, 2023 at the Grand Zabeel Ballroom Radisson Blu Hotel, Deira Creek, Dubai UAE.
During the event, Kabayan Rico highlighted main parts of his book which tackles the importance of developing good habits as a key factor in achieving success, especially for OFWs who face unique challenges living and working abroad.
According to him, these twelve habits make Filipinos successful in their careers and in their lives:
- Believe in God – Nothing will happen in this world without the green light from God. If you believe in God, you will always be on the right path.
“Lahat ng problema natin we can solve with God. For us to succeed in life, we should be P.O.G.I. – or we should have the ‘Presence Of God Inside’,” he said.
2. Live a life by design – In our lives, we have two choices: it’s either you live your life by design, or you live your life by default.
“Don’t dwell on your comfort zone. If you live your life by design, you establish a goal and the goal should be smart, specific, measurable, attainable, result oriented, and time-bounded,” Kabayan Rico explained.
3. Practice self-belief – If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.
“Self-belief is the result of K.A.T.E. which stands for knowledge, ambition, training, and enthusiasm. Your IQ is not as important as your ‘I can’ – if you say I can do it, then you can do it whatever it takes,” he said.
4. Practice patience and perseverance – Stopping right away when you encounter any difficulty is not the right attitude. Everyone needs to have the spirit of not giving up.
5. Practice time management – You cannot manage time — but you manage yourself in relation to the available time, because time is constant.
“You should prioritize, write down the things you will do, make a to do list. You will be more productive,” Kabayan Rico said.
6. Maintain focus – One of the key factors to thrive in your careers is to follow one course until you are successful.
7. Believe in continual learning – For us to be competitive, we have to stand out from the rest, and we need to have self-mastery.
8. Associate with the right people – We have to stay away from people who don’t contribute positivity in our lives, and that we should choose to be with the ones who brings out the best in us.
9. Embrace failure and rejection – According to him, “walang mangyayari satin pag titigil tayo.” We should remember that F.A.I.L. means “first access in learning.”
10. Knows the value of saving and investing – One of the reasons why we don’t have savings is because of our overspending. We should learn how to budget our money and say no to unnecessary things that will only give us short-term enjoyment.
11. Live a healthy lifestyle – We should have enough sleep, enough rest, eat the right food, exercise regularly, avoid smoking, and say no to drugs.
12. Pay it forward – Lastly, we should do in return what other people did for us to help us succeed.
“Nung bago ka may mga taong tumulong sayo. To pay it forward, you can always do an act of random kindness to a total stranger,” Kabayan Rico concluded.
The recently held PPIE 2023 is the largest and longest-running property and investment exhibition in the Middle East and has gathered thousands of attendees from different emirates with a notable presence of high-level delegates from the Philippines and the UAE.
