Day 1037: [PART I] How to Make 300,000 PhP a Month - The Anatomy of a Bad Financial Decision

Here's the deal breaker:

YOU CAN'T 

...unless you do something illegal or immoral.

But that was the catch phrase of their ad in Buy and Sell Magazine.

Here's the true to life story of how I invested 125,000 Philippine Pesos in a Philippine Game Software Development Firm and got duped - legally. This is my life and it almost crashed because of this one single mistake. Learn from my investment mistake. Read more on how NOT to make an investment. I pray that with my bad experience you will learn something that I had to learn on my own.


~o~

It all started with a little bit of money, and the promise of starting a new life. With the passing away of my father on the 22nd of October, the year of our Lord 2006, I, as the first born in our family knew that I had a legacy to fulfill. More than that, I had a dream to pursue.

I said to myself, and publicly during the wake of my father, "I will not let what my father built with his own hands be destroyed. If I have to build it again brick by brick so be it."

Those were my famous last words.

My father was a giant. A well respected lawyer among his peers, well liked in the church, active in community service, active even in fields not his own. He was everywhere yet not here. He was busy all the time, but had no time. He has been to the world.

Those were mighty big shoes I knew I could not fill.

His wake was attended by no less than several billionaires, CEOs, church leaders, friends, colleagues, IT professionals, farmers, pastors, priests, lawyers, clients, accountants, foreign nationals, family, and me.

It was a shock to everyone.

He died in his office of myocardial infarction one Saturday night. I was the third person to get there on a Sunday morning. It was too late.

I once overheard someone speaking to one of the lawyers,

"It's a portent of the things to come."

Fast forward to a few months after, I got a job in BPI, resigned from my job, with some money I joined a franchise, put up a business, made a small investment here and there and then sometime in 2007 I found this unique advertisement in Buy and Sell Magazine:

INVEST IN THE PHILIPPINES FIRST MMORPG.

I said to myself, "This is GOOD." This is the breakout that I needed. I knew that I had to be in something that is unique - something that would not turn me into a corporate slave. Something that would help me fulfill what my father failed to do - to break into the tech industry.

I did all my research (well apparently not enough), and the prospects for the business was International. The prospects were huge, very huge, internationally, - absolutely mind boggling. All indicators were up, up, up, up. There can be no down to it.

Or so I thought.

Never underestimate the power of HUMAN GREED.

Going forward, I emailed them to inquire:

 

At the time I was doing a very bad job of doing my "online due diligence".
Yes, Yes, I know I really should have checked SEC, BIR, for these sons of a ...

But I didn't.

Yes, please call me stupid.

I deserve it.

That was my first mistake.

My wife and I met with them, curiously in their office house or house office whatever , somewhere in Quezon City. It was a big house, with a big lawn, with lots of helpers, no cars though.

I was not impressed. I was expecting a corporate suite somewhere in Makati.

But I thought to myself, what the heck - I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley and thought Steve Jobs starting something in his garage. Maybe these guys could do the same.

 

I thought that this would make for a nice story:

The first Philippine company to ever launch an online MMORPG started in a garage somewhere in a little known place called Quezon City, in a tiny third world country called the Philippines.

I thought I would be a part of history... It turns out, I would be burned.

CLICK TO GO TO PART II