THE STORY OF DADO BANATAO (REFLECTION)

There are a lot of stories from many individuals about “rags to riches”. All of them are inspiring. They give good messages to all the readers or viewers about these stories. It can be beneficial to watch or read these stories because they can inspire us to strive more. From poor to rich, from nothing to something. These individuals are good example to follow, they can be our role in our road to success. Their inspiring lives motivates every people who knew about them. People may think that if they can do it, why can’t we? They have lower status in life in terms of financial than me. Why can I be like them? We Filipinos, most of us are poor. These stories are should be our lessons.

Filipinos have many stories of success. One of my favorite is the one that I saw in our group in facebook named IT Elective 1 (TECHNO 1). This group is created for our subject Technopreneurship 1. First let me tell about what is this subject all about and why does it relates about the rags to riches story that I saw.

This definition of Technopreneurship came from an article in the website www.rubenlicera.com. In the most obvious way, technopreneurship is what you get when you unite “entrepreneurship” with “technology”. This is not just the effect of technology on businesses but rather the process where progression in the lives of the people happens. It is the process of using the developments brought about by specialized knowledge to come up with innovations in all the aspects of human life with the aid of a creative and skillful mind. Birth of this field provides every entrepreneur a challenge of exploring an untraveled path towards greater success.

In this generation, one factor that greatly influences the lives of people is technology. Everything under the sun must cope up with the changes created by this shape-shifting factor, even the businesses. Whether they see these developments as a challenge to surpass or as an opportunity to expand their venture, they just can’t eliminate the fact that they should ride along with its trends.

Diosdado P. Banatao or also known as Dado Banatao’s success is through technology. In 1984, he developed the first chipset that is inside every PC today and it is the reason why Dado became so successful and rich today. He is a Filipino entrepreneur and engineer working in the high-tech industry. He was featured in Forbes because of it. He is the founder of PhilDev Foundation here in the Philippines. His story is so inspirational that it caught my attention when I first saw it in facebook. From here I will tell you what I saw in the video clip about his success story, and give my own reflection on each part of his journey to success.

Dado Banatao grew up in the Philippines in the rural area of Malabbac, Iguig, Cagayan. His father is a farmer while his mother is a simple housekeeper. His family is poor which makes it difficult for the parents to give their son Dado the expensive luxury that other rich kids enjoy. In Dado’s childhood, he walked barefoot on a dirt road just to reach Malabbac Elementary School.

This part reminds me of how we take for granted the simple luxury that we enjoy today. We even feel bad if we have a bad looking pair of slippers or shoes. To us, we think that we should wear clothing, footwear that have great brand names on it. We do not even mind the price if it is very expensive as long as it has a good brand name on it. We feel not contented if our phone does not have a camera, and even if it is a camera we feel bad because it is not a smartphone and when it is a smartphone we feel bad if it cheap and is not Samsung Galaxy or a phone that does have an apple logo behind it. Other people even feel bad if they have that apple logo behind it because it is not up to date.

We do not appreciate the simple things. We can eat three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We even have our snack time during the afternoon. We do not mind if other poor people have their own food to eat in this current time. Poor people have to work hard, under the sun just to have something to eat and we the fortunate ones sometimes complain. We wanted to eat the most expensive restaurant and to eat the most expensive food that they can serve. We order the most expensive drink. We even buy a coffee that costs a hundred pesos while the poor people does not have any cheap coffee to drink and bread to eat in the morning.

But Dato Banatao’s family financial status did not stop him to in going to school. He has no slippers to wear and still manages to walk barefooted going to school. We, fortunate ones complained how far our school from our home or boarding house or wherever we are staying. We even pay for a ride to go to a place that is just a walking distance for use. Dato Banatao is determined to go to school because he values education. He know it is important and he knows that is all that he can take advantage of in his childhood time.

The Malabbac Elementary School is a rural school. It does not have any great facilities like other elementary schools in the urban areas or the cities have. They taught their students to count by moving sticks. Their school is poor that they do not have the luxury to buy computers or even a chalk that can be used for the blackboard. We feel unfortunate when we study in a cheap school. We want to study in an expensive school to feel we are one of the cool kids. We have enough facilities to study comfortably but we still have bad grades. We do not think of other kids in the rural areas what are they taught right now? Are they learning enough to be competitive in the real world? These people do not have even the luxury of a buying a new pencil and paper to be used in their studies. We should be thankful we have the great facilities to enjoy while we study in our schools. Always think that we go to school to learn and we should never complain on little things like un-air conditioned rooms or old chairs and tables. Be contented and make the most out of what you have right now.

Most of the children in Malabbac, Iguig, Cagayan when they finished their elementary education starts helping their family in the farm. Dado Banatao think about helping his family too after finishing his studies in Malabbac Elementary School. But his father did not agreed on that idea of Dado helping him in the farm. He told his son, dado that he is the father of this family and his job is to bring food at the family’s table so everyone can eat. So Dado continued studying his secondary education at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Tuguegarao.

I really like this part of Dado Banatao’s story because of what the father did when Dado wants to help him in the farm. Dado’s father is true father figure for them. He is the provider his family and he keeps it at there. He accepts the full responsibility of a father to all of the members of the family. He knew that education is important so Dado can have a better life than what they have right now. He said to Dado to continue his studies because it is his responsibility to study for the sake of his future. Dado’s father understand that he cannot provide dado the luxuries of the other rich kids out there so supporting Dado in his study is the best gift he can give to him. Every parent should be like Dado Banatao’s father. A parent that values education that much has a greater chance of making their sons or daughters successful. They must encourage their children and give them the drive to go to school. By providing them the necessary things they need in order to keep their studies and their determination alive.

 Some parents scold their son or daughters of not studying well not asking themselves if they are doing it right. Are they raising their child the good way? Are they providing them the right tools for proper education? Parent’s job is to provide their children what they need in life. Not spoon feeding them, but giving an idea to them and teaching them lessons on what life may bring. Parents should work hard to become an example or show their children how life it could be if they do not study well or lack in proper education. Motivate the children is their job because they are the first teacher a son or daughter can have it their lives.

            When Dado Banatao continued studying his secondary level on Ateneo de Tuguegarao. He felt inferior to other students because he is just a boy from a province while his classmates came from cities and are obviously has richer family compared to his. But it did not stopped him or crossed in mind to become a hindrance in studying in that school. He studied hard. His inferiority to other students makes it his leverage in pursuing his goals in having a successful career. He is determined to get good grades. He studied hard so he can make his life better. He treasured the opportunity his father gave him in studying in high school. He does not want be a failure because his parents believed in him. Dado’s mind is focused on study that he does not have enough time play. While his friends are playing basketball, he is in his room studying his lessons.  

But before I continue, let us talk first about education. The first thing that strikes me about education is knowledge gain. Education gives us a knowledge of the world around us and changes it into something better. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. People debate over the subject of whether education is the only thing that gives knowledge. Some say education is the process of gaining information about the surrounding world while knowledge is something very different. They are right. But then again, information cannot be converted into knowledge without education. Education makes us capable of interpreting things, among other things. It is not just about lessons in textbooks. It is about the lessons of life. One thing I wish I can do is, to provide education for all: no child left behind and change the world for good.

Some of the people in this generation right do not value education that much. They take it for granted. Some of the students that their parents send to school did not see the importance of education. On how it will greatly help their lives become successful. They do not mind the sacrifices of their parents just to send them to school. They spend the money of their parents like it is theirs. They do not think how did their parents earned that money. Spending their money on useless things, vices and other things that cannot help them in their studies or their everyday lives. Some of us complain about our allowances. We say that our allowances is not enough and we ask for more. We just became a burden to our parents instead of helping them out, we pull them down more into poverty. We do not think that we are the ones suffering if we do not study hard. Think of the time of spending in school if we just bunk subjects and take for granted the lessons. Think of the money spent by the parents for you. Every spent you spend is not yours and still you have the guts to spend it on useless things. We should be thankful we individuals that are fortunate enough to study in schools. We are taught the lessons we need specially we are being prepared for the future and for the outside world. The world out there is so competitive. Having a good education will surely have an edge over the others specially in applying for jobs. We should always be thankful for our parents who sacrificed that much for us just to get a good life.

After graduating from high school, he continued studying at Mapúa Institute of Technology the following details about this school is fromwww.wikipedia.org an online encyclopedia. Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, Mapúa Tech or simply Mapúa) is a non-sectarian, research oriented, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila and in Makati.

It was founded by the first registered Filipino architect, Don Tomas Mapua, in 1925, a graduate of Cornell University. After he died, the tradition was continued by his children, Don Óscar B. Mapúa Sr., a graduate in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Gloria Mapúa-Lim.

Mapua Institute of Technology is a source of architects, engineers, and science graduates and produces high achievers in the architectural and engineering fields as Mapúa Institute of Technology specializes in these fields in the undergraduate and graduate levels, aside from its widening range of undergraduate programs such as Psychology, Computer Science, Digital Cinema, Multimedia Arts and Sciences, Technical Communication(New Program), Information Technology, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Business Management, Hotel & Restaurant Management, and Nursing.

The Institute has been granted with the Level IV Accredited Status to its Civil Engineering program by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA), which is one of the first engineering programs to be accorded such status. In addition, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) recently recognized Mapúa’s Mechanical Engineering (ME), Computer Engineering (CpE) and Electronics Engineering (ECE) programs as Centers of Development for Engineering (COD).

Mapúa is also the first Philippine and Southeast Asian educational institution to have ABET certification, rendering the Institute to be at par with US-based colleges and universities.

A great school for a good student for Dado Banatao. He continued his education here and fell in love with engineering. Because of this, he took up Bachelos of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE). He studied hard and later graduated as Cum Laude. Because of this, many companies offered him several jobs. He turned down all the offers. The one big company that he turned down the offer is the Meralco. The better know Meralco is, here is some details about the company that I took from the www.wikipedia.org. The Manila Electric Company (PSE: MER and MERB), also known as Meralco (stylized in its logo as MERALCO), is the Philippines' largest distributor of electrical power. It is Metro Manila's only electric power distributor and holds the power distribution franchise for 22 cities and 89 municipalities, including the whole of the National Capital Region and the exurbs that form Mega Manila. The name "Meralco" is an acronym for Manila Electric Railroad And Light Company, which was the company's original name until 1919.

He then joined Philippine Airlines as a trainee pilot. Here are some the details of the company Philippine Airlines from www.wikipedia.org. Philippine Airlines (PAL) (A trading name of PAL Holdings Inc.) (PSE: PAL), also known historically as Philippine Air Lines, is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the PNB Financial Center in Pasay City, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name. Out of its hubs at Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Manila and Mactan-Cebu International Airport of Cebu, Philippine Airlines serves 31 destinations in the Philippines and 36 overseas destinations in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania, North America and Europe.

Formerly one of the largest Asian airlines, PAL was severely affected by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. In one of the Philippines' biggest corporate failures, PAL was forced to downsize its international operations by completely cutting flights to Europe and Middle East, cutting virtually all domestic flights except routes operated from Manila, reducing the size of its fleet, and laying off thousands of employees. The airline was placed under receivership in 1998, and gradually restored operations to many destinations. PAL exited receivership in 2007, and following the brief management takeover by the San Miguel group from 2012 to 2014, has been taking steps towards reestablishing itself as one of Asia's premier carriers.

If you can observe, the companies that offered Dado Banatao a job are all big companies in the Philippines. It is because of his grades while he was studying from elementary to college. It has given him the edge over the others. Based on the grades given to Dado, the big companies here in the Philippines like Meralco and Philippine Airlines are all interested of having him as a member of their company. Those people who thinks that education is not important in finding a job, here is a concrete example on how it will affect your life especially in finding a good job to land.

Later Dado Banatao was pirated by another company called Boeing. First let me explain how this piracy works by its definition. The meaning of this labor piracy is from www.businessdictionary.com. Labor piracy is practice in which one employer offers an employee from another company lucrative incentives to work for them. Employees in great demand are targeted by potential employers who offer attractive incentives to lure the employee to their company. Because of his skills many company wanted Dado to be a part of their company that it got to the point that they pirated Dado.

At Boeing, he worked as a design engineer for the company's new commercial airliner and cargo transport aircraft, Boeing 747, in the United States. But before we continue, I would also love to state the details of what is this Boeing company from the www.wikipedia.org. The Boeing Company is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets and satellites. It also provides leasing and product support services. Boeing is among the largest global aircraft manufacturers, is the second-largest defense contractor in the world based on 2013 revenue, and is the largest exporter in the United States by dollar value. Boeing stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Boeing Company's corporate headquarters are located in Chicago and the company is led by President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg. Boeing is organized into five primary divisions: Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA); Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS); Engineering, Operations & Technology; Boeing Capital; and Boeing Shared Services Group. In 2014, Boeing recorded $90.78 billion in sales, ranked 27th on the Fortune magazine "Fortune 500" list (2015), ranked 90th on the "Fortune Global 500" list (2015), and ranked 27th on the "World's Most Admired Companies" list (2015).

With the opportunity to work at the United States of America, he then took his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University and finished in 1972. Dado Banatao also joined the Homebrew Computer Club, where he met Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He loved engineering that even though he is living a good life. He still pursued learning more. He always finds an opportunities in everything that he do. Studying Stanford University is something to be proud of. Here are some details about the university from thewww.wikipedia.com. Stanford University (officially Leland Stanford Junior University) is a private research university in Stanford, California, and one of the world's most prestigious institutions, with the top position in numerous rankings and measures in the United States. Stanford is located in northern Silicon Valley near Palo Alto, California. The University's academic departments are organized into seven schools, with several other holdings, such as laboratories and nature reserves, located outside the main campus. Its 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus is one of the largest in the United States. The University is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.

When Dado Banatao studied in the Stanford University, he felt insecure about himself and about his capability as person. Hi thought that everyone around him are two times smarter than him. But he did not let this things get through his mind and put him down. Instead he even studied twice to be able to prove himself. He used the insecurity and pressure that he felt as reason to strive more in learning more things. He would not waste the opportunity in studying in such prestige school like Stanford University.

In addition he meets the prominent people in the world of IT like what is mentioned before like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. All of us should look at how Dado Banatao worked through his success. He always finds a way to improve his life. When an opportunity comes, he thinks always how it would help him. He has good decision making skills and that is one of the reason of his success.

Dado Banatao life story is not all about success. Just like us, he also experience a couple of failure before becoming what he is now. The one that I will mention is the Mostron Company that he founded. It was his first startup and later he failed because they ran out of money. But this did not stopped Dado from trying again. He tried again by founding the Chip and Technologies and this time he succeeded. Here are some details about the company I have taken from www.wikipedia.com. Chips and Technologies (C&T), founded in Milpitas, California in December by Gordon A. Campbell and Dado Banatao, was perhaps the first fabless semiconductor company, a model developed by Campbell.

Its first product, announced September 1985, was a four chip EGA chipset that handled the functions of 19 of IBM's proprietary chips on the Enhanced Graphics Adapter. By that November's COMDEX, more than a half dozen companies had introduced EGA-compatible boards based on C&T's chipset.[2] This was followed by chipsets for PC motherboards and other computer graphics chips. C&T was acquired by Intel in 1997, primarily for its graphics chip business. Former members of C&T founded Asiliant Technologies in January 2000 to continue the support of the CHIPS 65545, 65550, 65555, 69000, 69030, and other notebook and LCD oriented graphics ICs. Intel licensed the rights to build, sell, and service the C&T chips to Asiliant. Asiliant manufactured and sold C&T components for the next few years until it closed.

Then Dado Banatao founded the S3 Company which is also a success. S3 Graphics, Ltd (commonly referred to as S3) is an American-based computer graphics company. The company is perhaps best known for its notoriously slow ViRGE and its much improved Savage 3D and Chrome series. Struggling against competition from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and nVidia during the height of the 3D accelerator wars, the graphics portion of the company was spun off into a new joint effort with VIA Technologies. The new company focused on the mobile graphics market, and became a major player in this space. The company was purchased by HTC in 2011. Although primarily a mobile technology company, they still produce graphics accelerators for home computers under the "S3 Chrome" brand name.

These three companies are like the trophies of Diosdado Banatao, a “probinsyano” from the poor country Philippines who strived and worked hard from rags to riches. The path of his success is not easy as anyone could think. Everything are the result of his hard work, talent and perseverance. Dado is not a pessimist instead he always takes a look at the bright side of every failure he faced upon and tries to look for an opportunity from it. A great lesson from a successful Filipino from a rural place like Cagayan. Image his journey from a kid who does not own his own pair of slippers into an owner of three companies that all making a scene in the Silicon Valley. We should be all proud about his success. We should be like him, and I am saying that we follow all of what he has done, but have to act like Dado Banatao. When he is in doubt or he is in his lowest status, he did not gave up. Instead, he used it as a motivation to strive harder. He is very determined in everything that he wants to achieve. Some people quits when he has big lost but not Dado. He took it as a lesson, change what is needed to be changed and tries again. That is what a successful person do. Failures are not a sign that you will stop. It is just a message that you should try harder so you can be better than the last time.

After his success in the International Scene. He went back to the Philippines. He thinks that he has a debt to pay for his country. Dado Banatao whent back to the Philippines to help his country develop and catch up with the other countries in terms of technology. He never forgot about his roots. The province that he came from, the country where he is originated. When he went back he started a foundation called the PhilDev Foundation. It is a foundation that aims to help eradicate poverty through innovation. They give scholarship to deserving bright students to be able to develop themselves and become successful people. Here is the mission of the PhilDev Foundation that I took from their website www.phildev.org.

At the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), we are working to eradicate poverty through education, innovation and entrepreneurship. Here's how:

Strengthen the education and training programs for young Filipinos in science and technology. Produce a higher ratio of qualified science and engineering experts and practitioners in the Philippines

Foster innovation by driving science and technology research toward the development of globally-competitive products and businesses.

Build an entrepreneurial ecosystem—from mentorship and networking to legal and financial support infrastructures—in the Philippines to start a movement that will lead to long-term economic growth.

The PhilDev Foundation is what Dado Banatao payback to the Philippines. What I admire him the most is even though he is very successful today, he did not cursed his home country, the Philippines as the reason why he was living a poor life since he was kid. Instead, he went back and helped the people experiencing poverty just like when he was a kid in Cagayan who has no pair of slippers barefooted walking to school. He keeps his feet grounded even of his staggering achievement in his career. He thinks that Filipinos are not dumb, think said that we are intelligent and capable in achieving our goals in life and make our country one of the most developed country not only in Asia, but also in the whole world. It only determination to get there.

We Filipinos should think like Dado Banato. He never forgets his roots and what he is like when you are a poor boy from province. His story is a motivation for us to work hard and become determined on what we do as we work to our road of success. Some of us become so tired of waiting to be successful and finds a shortcut in success. But there is no really a thing called shortcut to success. Success is determined by who is the most determined person working out there. Through innovation we can make it to the international scene. We have the intelligence and we are more than capable of.

Some of the Filipinos that worked abroad left the Philippines saying to themselves, I would never come back to this corrupt country anymore. That is not the right kind of mentality to have. As a Filipino, we should be patriotic in our own country. Development of a country does not take a day to be noticed. It is a step by step process. We have our own duty for our country. The skills that we have should by enjoyed by the people of our own country, the Philippines. Success sometimes makes a person arrogant and forget where they came from. Be humble and help other people. If you are one of the fortunate people in the country, you have the capability to improve the status of this country. We can start little by little by being honest for our country’s sake. The PhilDev Foundation is a great start in developing this country and we should all support it.

Never lose confidence in yourself. Be determined to improve the status of your life. Always think of the opportunities in your lives that will come. Grab those opportunities because you will never know when you will going to have another one next time. Learn from the successful people like Dado Banatao. Do not think of being poor as an excuse for not trying to reach your dreams. We just need to think of a way on how to improve our lives. Determination is a must as what Dado Banatao said: There are countless kids who just need a chance like I did. I am not so special. But I am determined.

Diosdado “Dado” Banatao’s story is one of the best story of hard work, determination and innovation. A barefooted boy who walk his way to school to study into a successful inventor who takes Silicon Valley by storm through his innovations. But what makes Dado Banatao a “real” successful person is when he came back to his country to help his fellow countrymen improve their lives. For me that’s what makes up to be a completely successful person is by never forgetting where you came from. Dado Banatao is an inspiration for all of us aspiring to be one of the successful person in the industry of Technology. We Filipinos are very proud of him.