It all started with a gift – a Nokia 5110 which was a gift to me by my uncle during my high school graduation. Since then, I became fascinated with mobile phones until it became my passion and eventually a business – buy and sell.

I started with a minimal capital of about PHP 10,000, an amount I was able to save from the extra allowance that my uncle used to give me during my first two years of stay in college.

The high costs of mobile phones and my passion to try the latest phones every now and then led me to do the buy and sell business. I started looking for resources and the most accessible was the internet.

Through these sites, I started to build profit. During that time also, Symbian phones (these are phones that enable users to install wallpapers, applications, games, polytones, etc.) were already out in the market. I thought of having a CD compilation of all of these stuffs and sell it.

During my free time, I could be seen in the internet room downloading these stuffs from the internet until I was able to compile it in one CD. I tried selling it using the same internet resources and boom! – it was a big hit! The first buyer bought the CD for PHP 1,500.

I didn’t notice that I started to neglect my studies until I received a letter from the administration stating that my grades were nearly falling below the required QPI (Quality Point Index) – a ground for probation. Then I started to realize that I have to prioritize my studies over the business. I lie lowed down my business and prioritized my studies more – until I graduated. Good thing I never failed even a single subject in my entire stay in college just because of the business.

After around 3 years in the business, I was able to multiply my initial capital to a gross profit of PHP 50,000. That was a modest profit considering that I have to do the business and study at the same time. And my course, Mathematics was one of the hardest courses in Ateneo.

Until now, I’m still doing the business but not that active anymore since I already have a job and the market is already too saturated since there are lots of competitors. But at least it adds a cashflow to my savings once in a while.