WHEN most billionaires share their tales, a common denominator is that they started from the ground up: Gokongwei sold candles; Sy manned a sari-sari store.
Same old story and different inspirational TV program but with all of them starting their empires at a very tender age, the question still gets stuck in one’s head time and again every time these things are hear that one asks: “Where was I when I was a kid?”
Asked the same question, 26-year-old upstart extraordinaire Charles Stewart Lee was already helping out at his mother’s Parañaque factory warehouse, getting stickers in place and ordered around with his siblings. It was this same youth who lived in a nook at a faceless nether Malabon street that thrives with funeral parlors. According to Lee, his family was penniless they celebrated New Year’s Eve by lighting a firework hanging on a tree. The day also happened to be his birthday.
No matter that they were in a snit with fate and the finances were getting low, the family still managed to get by, sending Lee, in turn, out to study in Hong Kong and the US, and work there shortly thereafter. Like branding steers and embalming the dead, Lee worked at the coalface.
He was there—subsisting on minimum wage—from busing tables to manning the cash register at a cafeteria. He said he developed his business acumen by being there on the ground and learning the value of earning every dollar.
Lee earned his first million after returning to the Philippines at Vikings Group, which he coowns.
He was 21.
From scratch
ALREADY a millionaire, Lee still worked as a waiter at Vikings’s Mall of Asia branch, insisting that, for one to learn the business, he has to be on the operation side.
From the front office to the support wing, Lee said he learned many things—most of the time in a hard way. He, nonetheless, never forgot to lead whether he found himself at the helm of the business.
“Hospitality is very different here in the Philippines,” Lee said. “I learned all that from scratch.
According to Lee, in the US, workers always speak their minds “even when you’re only a follower”.
“But, here, the idea is that, when you come up with something and your boss says a thing, you just ought to be quiet. If I don’t agree, no matter what position I’m holding, I would speak my mind, and I will give my opinion on why it doesn’t make sense,” Lee said. “The clashing actually benefits the company: Best of both worlds in one idea.”
Lee said he is not the sort of giving people “the ‘I’ve-been-there-done-that’ snippets of advice”. He said he encourages his subordinates to have a vision and make them feel a part of a team.
Spending to learn
WHILE still running Vikings, Lee ventured into another business, an FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company, one that bottles water pumped straight out of a volcanic rock and contained in a fancy packaging.
“It’s a very hard job; actually that’s the most difficult task I’ve ever undertaken. It’s a company I have never done,” Lee said. “Starting up is hard. It’s a factory. There are a lot of machineries involved. Technical. Electrical. Not to mention quality assurance and FDA [Food and Drug Administration] protocols I don’t know about.”
One year into it, Lee has spent millions of millions of pesos learning.
“I’ve made so many mistakes—millions of them—that I could have avoided. But there, I have realized when my mom said that mistakes are an opportunity to learn,” he said. “Learning is expensive. If you don’t pay for it, you don’t learn it. You spend on your mistakes. It’s an investment, not a waste of money.”
Branding water
OTHER than water being close to his heart having interned at Fiji Water Co. Llc., Lee sees branding as something as basic as water.
“Building a brand is hard, especially when you’re up against heritage brands [that] have been here since time immemorial. Who are we to come in and take a share of that pie?” Lee said. “How do we crash a market and say that we’re different from them?”
He saw the advantage in the land from which the company sources that is situated atop a volcanic layer: the layer makes the water volcanically filtered, an edge off their competitors’ products. Lee, hence, branded the water “Sip” and placed it inside an Instagrammable bottle with jagged diamond edges.
The product is something that epitomizes Seth Godin’s “milk-milk-milk-milk-milk-not milk” paradox when a customer is thirsty and makes a beeline to the fridge.
“I just don’t want people to think that drinking water is for moms,” Lee said. “I want to sell something to a millennial market. I want to make something as basic as water relevant to people my generation.”
Work smart
AT 26, Lee is a very millennial person, even for somebody who almost equates slacking to partying.
He said he enjoys the pressure, as well as creating something out of nothing—something he thought he would never do in his life—although he cringes at how millennials typically define their idea of success: Work smart.
“People say you just have to work smart. I don’t agree. Purely working smart is for people who are extremely experienced and have the right to work smart,” Lee said. “But when you’re young, you really have to work hard on top of working smart. Working smart won’t be enough.”
Image credits: Photo courtesy of Charles Stewart Lee
2 comments
Mr Le before you start tooting your own horn let me share with you my experience last year in VIKINGS, your fabled restaurant near MOA.
I was thrilled to be treated by my friend who lives across the US Embassy and is a regular customer in Vikings’ MOA branch (Vernon, not Vikings’s- no such word).
When we walked in I was pleased to see the good food and excellent presentation the food were prepared before me. But something happened while sitting down as my friend went to get additional food.
I was seated alone and a gentleman approached me and asked if the keys in my foot was mine. I looked and kindly responded that it’s not mine. I went to pick it up and lo and behold another man walked behind me and picked up my sling bag which was right on my left side. As I looked at the key, another lady stood beside me in my right side talking and was distracting me. When she was finished I looked at my bag and it was gone. This is a classic example of “Lag-lag Susi” thievery happening in a P1,200 per person All-You-Can-Eat restaurant. Three people conniving and as seen in a fuzzy CCTV walked out without anyone checking if they paid already or not. nYes with my Ralph Lauren leather sling bag, price $275.00
There were 5-6 people guarding the entrance with a security guard but all were useless (or in connivance) with the perpetrators. As I told the manager that these people eating here are not buying a P100 Chicken Joy but bringing a lot of money especially if they are a family. I lost P10,000 pesos credit cards, CA driver’s license, my US passport card, etc.
What is striking also is that these establishments are not serious in combatting these kinds of crimes because their CCTV is so fuzzy that it looks like you have a ’60’s TV being played.
A number of suggestions Mr. Lee to secure your establishments.
1) Buy a high end CCTV and place it in the front of the entrance (Not on top or ceiling). Maybe just about 7 feet high.
2) All customers must remove their hats upon entering. (These criminals just bowed down and you cannot even see their faces). It is a deterrence if their faces are vividly monitored and pictured.
3) Everyone exiting must show proof and be checked that they’ve paid. (Maybe pay as you enter instead to stop these thievery from happening.
4) Lastly and the most important thing, I was not aware that my son knew Mr. Lee. My son texted Mr. Lee and was told that his father was just robbed and it happened in the restaurant. Mr. Lee nonchalantly replied also. He said he was sorry. And that was it. No other messages not rectification of his father’s losses. Or at least a free dinner na lang man. Consuelo de bobo.
Your security procedure stinks. I was told by the MOA station Police that another incident happened a month before in Vikings and they could not even identify who these criminals are.
How many times has these happened?
Before you toot your own horn Mr. Lee, take care of the fire. Pretty soon it will engulf your establishment with a reputation of being Nakawan friendly. I would be glad to show you the blotter police report (which includes your security guard). Just ask skampilan@gmail.com
I would like to thank Tambo Police Station for helping me recover my US Passport card, credit card and CA Driver’s license a week later in a restroom of Petron gas station. But the sling bag is gone and P10,000 was also gone, my baon to Romblon to fix my birth certificate. And a truly sour taste of what Vikings is.