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Dado Banatao's short video life story Reflection

The short video about the life of a very inspiring Filipino, Dato Banatao (Diosdado Banatao) is really inspiring and amazing. The courage and determination he showed was incredible. He proved to us that anything is possible as long as you put all you got in it. He really did inspired me to work hard and to not to get frustrated. He set new heights in achieving goals. He is a true inspiration, an amazing one. He should be a role model to all of use Filipinos, especially those who are struggling in life. He should be our inspiration to work hard, and to never let poverty be the hindrance to our success. Because in the first place he showed to us on that video that poverty, your status in life will not hinder you from achieving your goals as long as you do not give up. He wanted to be an engineer, he wanted to be a successful engineer and he got it. His life story is a definition of courage and brilliance. He proved to us that talent is nothing if you don’t persevere. He is the personification of Thomas Edison’s quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” According to him he wasn’t that special at all. He was not that intelligent like the other guys at Stanford so he had to study twice as much. He showed us that focus is the key to obtaining your goals. Getting success was never really easy for him. But that was his passion, he loved every bit of it and he enjoyed every second of it.

He who is known as the “Father of the Semi-conductor” and “Filipino Bill Gates”. In 1984, Dado Banatao designed the first Personal Computer chipset that is inside of every PC today. He grew up from the rural parts of the Philippines, atypical barrio in the Northern part of Cagayan Valley. He’s father was a farmer. He grew up from poverty and the harsh reality of it. He experienced all the hardships of being a son of a farmer. There was no electricity back then, or the gadgets that we are fund of using right now and all the luxuries that he is experiencing right now. He lived a simple life from a poor family. He used to walk a dirt road to school every day, but all of it didn’t stopped him from becoming an engineer.

According to him, because of the poverty that they were experiencing in the Region, almost all of his classmates stopped at 6^th grade because their parents cannot afford to let them go to school anymore. His classmates were forced to stop studying and were sent to their farm to help work in the fields. But he was so lucky. He had an amazing father, a father that has brighter plans for his son. His father doesn’t want the poverty they are experiencing be passed down to Dado and to his son and to the next generations that will be coming. His father never wanted Dado to help him on the fields to do farming. Dado Banatao’s father set goals for himself, he wanted his son to finish studying. He wanted his son to live a better life, way better than what they are going through on Dado’s early child days. His father was very clear to him, he made it clear that he wanted his son to finish studying, that Dado’s only job is to do well in his studies and to finish studying. His father didn’t want him to interfere on taking part to earn money for their family. His father made it clear that it he should be the only one providing needs for his family and Dado should focus everything he got to his studies. Dado then went to high School very far from their home. According to him, he felt inferior to other students as most of them came from the cities and the fact that he came from the rural part, a barrio to be exact and that he was a son of a farmer. He felt embarrassed as he knows he was poor and that made him inferior from his classmates who came from the cities. But I think, this was the one thing that inspired him to not waste his time for nonsense things during his high school life. When his friends played basketball and do lots of fun things to do, he remained and he studied. This is the one thing that really inspired me. His dedication towards his objectives, his goals, which he really wanted to accomplish his mission there. He was much focused and goal oriented. He was never tempted to do nonsense things and remained his composure on doing the right thing and that is to finish his studies. He didn’t want to waste money, time and most specially the efforts of his family. He didn’t want to disappoint his father who sent him with a sole purpose to study hard and finish his studies. For me, he is really intelligent. He did study hard, for me he’s already a genius. According to him, he felt in love with engineering. Not an easy thing. Engineering is not really a piece of cake. Engineering is mean, if you don’t focus it will really hit you hard. He set new goals for his life. He wanted to be an engineer, he wanted to build things. But unfortunately, the country wasn’t able to offer him the choice he wanted. He cannot find design jobs for engineers in the country. So he moved to America and applied a masters in engineering at Stanford University. Stanford has a big name. It is well known as one of the best schools out there. Although he felt intimidated because all the other students there seem to be a lot smarter than him, it didn’t really discouraged him from achieving his goals. Instead, he made it as an inspiration, he was very motivated to study harder. He studied twice as hard as the other students. Going in the US was really the right thing for him to do. There he saw an opportunity to do what he wanted. He was given a chance to execute his plans and his goals. He saw an opportunity to design better computer chips, so he started to build his own company. Unfortunately that company failed, nobody lift him up and inspired him that it’s not over yet and that he can do it. He was forced to tell himself that he could do it. For me, this is pure dedication. He was so inspired and so passionate at what he do that it doesn’t matter anymore what others tell or do not tell him. He didn’t care if people liked what he was doing, if people cared for him to do more and never surrender. He didn’t limit himself to the limitations of others, he didn’t let his failure to bring him down. This is one thing I like about him. Whenever life knocks him down, he fights harder. He made every frustration, and failure as dedication for him to do more. He tried and tried it again until he succeed. Most people would have been devastated at the first glimpse of frustration, of failure. But he was different, he wasn’t easily knocked down by life’s challenges. He didn’t let go of his dreams even if he was already bombarded with challenges, of failures and the countless frustration of his struggles in his life. That made him successful. That made him make his company successful. He finally achieved his goals because of his undying courage and perseverance.

Most of us cannot really imagine that he made it out. That he was able to attain those achievements even though he started as a very poor and simple kid. All of that success was a direct result of his beginnings, of what he was before what of where he was before. He had the will and determination from the very beginning up until he succeeded with his company. And according to him, it is the same will that every Filipino has.

Our country is one of the fastest growing economy in ASIA, still there plenty of people who live in poverty who are still struggling and struggling from the roots of poverty. But short video clip of Dado Banatao’s life story showed that anything is possible. That no matter where you came from, you can still achieve huge things as long as you are determined.  Dado Banatao was not that special, he was determined to do things and to achieve higher goals. I like the short film so much as it was an inspiration to all of us. The purpose of it was to inspire us. Dado Banatao wanted us to be also determined. He wanted that soon we can also inspire our own success story.

There are lots of inspirational movies in holywood or just locally in our country. But the video made more impact. Not only was it based on a true story. It was also a life’s story of a Filipino, my fellow countrymen who showed undying determination and courage. A story that doesn’t only inspire but also taught real life lessons that could really help us out in our everyday lives. Dado Banatao said indirectly, that every Filipino has a potential. And this is true, nothing is impossible if we put our existence to it. We should let this to become an inspiration to ourselves so we will achieve more and be determine to never give up in attaining our goals in life. We should put more effort in what we do so that we can be successful in the future. Not only that, I think we should also point out that the reason Dado Banatao was able to put his everything unto his goals was because he was passionate at what he do. He really wanted it. I think we should also find what we are passionate about first. We cannot put everything we got if we are not happy of what we are doing. We cannot be determined to do more and achieve more if we are not happy of what we are doing. Dado Banatao was capable of achieving his goals and leaping though all of those hardships, challenges and struggles because he was inspired by his father, he was very determined to not fail his father who invested everything to Dado. I think he was able to achieve his goal because he was very passionate about what he is doing. He was able to put everything he got in his company as for the reason it was what he really wanted in the first place, he wanted to design things.

In life you will really experience defeat, failures, frustrations, etc. It’s not always the easy way up. In life, you will experience lots of ups and downs first before you can experience success. I think we Filipinos should think like Dado Banatao. He never forgets his roots and what he is like when he was still very poor from his province Cagayan Valley. 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 became so tired of waiting to be successful that they started looking for an easy way out and some people started giving up on their dreams. But there is no really a thing called shortcut to success. Success is determined by who is the most determined person working out there. A determined person is generally optimistic in nature. This is the type of person who never gives up. A person who never say never. A person who do not care if others liked it or not. An optimistic person thinks the best possible thing will happen, and hopes for it even if it's not likely. Someone who's a tad too confident this way is also sometimes called optimistic. Being able to look past the shadow, to see the light so that you can get to where you want to be, is a very incredible skill. Someone who lacks determination would not have the mind set to look for the bright side in things and would settle for whatever he or she got. Optimism plays a big role in improving, in allowing yourself to know you can do better and actually doing it which is key in being determined. Optimism is a person’s tendency to hope, expect and believe that things will turn-out well towards his/ her advantage. While we’re living on purpose, it’s important to adapt an optimistic mind set. I’m not looking to get you all horned up on the power of positive thinking, but if you’re gonna make a drastic change in your life, you have to believe that it’s possible. You have to be optimistic. You’re gonna encounter challenges along the way – hard hurtles that hurt. Even if a thing goes bad such as loss of job/ money an optimist never give up and sees the silver lining. Research has shown that a person having positive mind set also has a good mental health. Hence optimists have good mental health too. Optimists get less sick as compared to pessimists. The way I see it, being optimistic means trusting that good will come of the situation. A lot of people wish they were more optimistic, but they’ll tell you that they just weren’t born that way. Well maybe they weren’t, but ultimately, science says that we have the ability to change the way that we think. For me, as what I have learned from the video I saw, it so important to be optimistic. Don’t let your past failure predict your future success. Don’t let a few disappointing deferred dreams stop you from traveling a purposeful path. Shit happens. Don’t let it sit in the bowl forever. Flush it down, get rid of it, and clear the air for a fresh optimistic start at something new. On the other hand Pessimists are people who fail to look into the brighter side of things. Optimists are more open towards possibilities. They believe in actions and hard work to make things actually happen. Even if things turn out bad after giving a lot of efforts and hard work they do not blame others but works harder next time. Due to which optimists have a brighter futures. They consider failures as a temporary setback. In bad times they wait for good things to come their way in the future. They are confident because of which they succeed. They are always thankful and grateful towards almighty and their elders for showering their blessings upon them. Like optimists you should also change your “thinking patterns” with time to stay a healthy and successful life. All you are required to develop a positive approach towards life. Instead of looking towards bad things in life focus over good things that are coming your way. Analyse situations to figure out what should be done on your part to come out of it. Discover your strengths & talents to deal with situations. Avoid blaming others for your failures work hard instead. Learn from your mistakes so that you can accelerate your potential towards success in the coming years. Your positive approach towards life can help you to maintain relationships & make others optimistic too. So spread happiness around you with your positive thoughts. Determination is something that makes your life successful. Without it you do not have the drive to achieve great things or better yourself. Your life is yours to control and to create whatever your heart desires, and determination will help you in doing so. By being determined, you are opening the door for a better tomorrow, future achievements and overall happiness in your life. And this is what Dado Banatao is all about. He is the personification of positivity, of optimism. And I do believe we should follow him, we should be optimistic on our dreams. We should always think that we can do I no matter what. By keeping a positive trait in ourselves we stop ourselves or other people from limiting what we can do. Optimistic people doesn’t say they cannot do it. They just do their thing and try and try until they finally succeed. Being successful doesn’t require a special being or special ability, it only needs sheer determination to gain knowledge. Dado Banatao had a rough road and difficult road towards his success, but he made it possible and he succeeded. We should always be reminded to always do better, not to give up, and stay optimistic all the time. Quitting will do us no good. Also not forgetting about doing the things that we love and learn to have passion in what we do, even we don’t like it in the first place, and they are among the solutions that help us get nearer to success. All of us should be inspired and motivated in what we do, they are among the important traits a person should have in order to succeed. We should never complain and instead look for positivity in all ways.  

There’s also one movie I saw that really inspired me. It was a Thai movie, it was a true to life story about a boy who became one of the biggest Billionaires in Thailand. Though it was entirely different from Dado Banatao’s short video clip. I think they both share the same. They both share the positivity we should have in life. It was a story of Aitthipat Kulapongvanich or nickname Top, is a Thai Chinese young billionaire based in Thailand. Unlike Dado, Top came from a wealthy family. But due unfortunate circumstances his father’s company got bankrupt when he was still in high school. But his father still wanted him to go to college, But Top, never wanted to go to college, he wanted to be an entrepreneur. So he started out his own business even if it’s against his father’s will. His family wasn’t able to pay their loans so all of their property were taken by the bank and his father was sued by the bank so his family was forced to go out of the country and escape out of it. But Top never wanted to leave the country, He strongly believes that he can be successful and do business by himself so that he can pay his family’s loans. Top tried so many business but failed. But just like Dado Banatao, they both shared this unique kind of positivity, they just never know when to give up and just kept piling up failures and frustrations as their inspiration. Top was very determined. He was very passionate on what he does. One day, his big break came when 7 eleven accepted his product. And in just the span of 2 years, Top managed to pay the debt his family and his family managed to take back home. With just a few years he became one of the youngest billionaires. As far as comparing the 2 videos, we can greatly relate to Dado Banatao’s story as he was a fellow Filipino, and also his story was very much inspiring as he was from “rugs to riches”. But to sum it up, there really one thing that very important thing that we should reflect on both of them. They both share the attitude of a successful individual. They both share this undying positivity to never give up to challenges. That they always consider life’s frustrations and challenges as a way to keep them more determined and inspired to do more. They were really never knocked down by those challenges. They kept inspiring themselves that they can do it, that they can achieve it and both of them amazingly really did it.

These are some of the phrases Dado Banatao said in the video which really put huge impact on me:

 “Everyone seemed smarter than I was, so I studied twice as hard”

-       He really amazed me when he said these words. For me, he was already intelligent. But he was so passionate in his studies with engineering that he didn’t settled for less. Because he knew he can do more and so he can achieve more. The most problem I noticed to some people is that they stop achieving and striving more if they got to the level wherein they are already comfortable of what they have achieved so far. You see this is the often mistake people do. When they get comfortable on their success, they stop. They have limited their selves of doing more and doing more amazing things just because they have already attain a level of success they are comfortable with. But Dado was different, he always gave his best. He could have just decided to get good grades and apply to good companies in the US. Instead, he studied twice as hard so he can be a lot better. He made everyone who is better than him a challenge that he must overcome and that is truly amazing about him. Yes, he was intimidated, but it was never a reason for him to back out. Instead he turned that as an opportunity to do better and achieve more. Because of that type of attitude of his, he was able to become the right person to be so he could successfully build and run his own company.

“No one told me that I could do it. I had to tell myself that I could.”

-           He had nobody with him to encourage him and to support him. But he wasn’t frustrated. Instead he forced himself to be a lot more determined and encouraged. He said he had tell himself he could do it. That was pure awesomeness to me. He was so confident of himself he could do it. He never doubted his dreams. He never put limits at what he can do. Instead he just kept doing what he loves to do and he just kept trying and trying harder every time. Nobody’s perfect and so everything’s not going to work out well all the time. There will always be ups and downs in life. Dado clearly new all about this. That’s why he never really gave up on his dreams. He was always prepared for what’s to come whether it be failure or success, that’s why when life knocks him down he just gets up and tries again. I think we should reflect from this, we should learn to accept failures and learn from those failures to be stronger and smarter the next time. Failing something doesn’t mean it’s the end of you already. Anything’s possible as long as you set these failures to challenges you have yet to overcome, then you can be wiser. Also, he never doubted himself, he never limit himself to the things what he can only do. Never ever doubt what you can achieve, we should remember this. Believe that you can achieve your goals. Believing in oneself is creating will, the desire. The desire to be successful is believing nothing can stop you from achieving your goals. If you want it, you will get it. And that is what Dado Banatao exactly did. He turned every negativity to positivity, he turned his failures as his stepping stones to success.

“My success is a direct result of my beginnings. It is the same will and determination that every Filipino possesses”

-       When he quoted this, he was implying about his humble beginnings. And I like that about him. And it’s exactly right, if he didn’t experienced all those hardships, all of the inspiration his father gave, all the perseverance that he had so they can be able to let go of their poverty, is simply a reflection of his past that helped him achieved what he is today.

“But my life shows a different path is possible.”

-       Nothing is impossible, you can set any goals you want, and sky is the limit. But again, everything is possible, you should prepare yourself for the worst as well. Though the good thing about it is that still, anything is possible. You might fail the first, second time or couple of times but there’s still a possibility you will get successful. Having this in mind is setting yourself the positivity you need in your struggles for your success. He is trying to encourage us that no matter what status we have in life, no matter who we are, anything is possible as long as we dedicate our life to it.

“We know hardship, it’s time we learn success”

-       This really serves well as an inspiration especially for those people who are struggling in poverty. He is trying to imply that, we are already done with all of those hardships and struggles, it’s time we enjoy ourselves with the sweetness of success. This would really serve as a very good inspiration. We shouldn’t settle for less when we can do more. We know we can do more, anything is possible, as long as we put ourselves into it. As long as we put our everything unto it we can achieve it. He wants to send a message that we should take success as our ultimate goal, if we are already experiencing hardships, then we deserve to experience success as well. And because of that we should strive hard and always keep a positive thought that we can do it. We should serve our success as a sweet reward to all of our hardships

“I am not so special but I am determined.”

-          When you set goals, you should be passionate and focused about it. When you are focused, you can set all your time, effort, energy, dedication etc. to it.  In this way, not only you are maximizing your capabilities but also you are maximizing your success rate.  Yes, he wasn’t that intelligent after all, he was just focused, and determined. He had to study twice as hard when the people around him seemed to be more intelligent than him. When his friends were playing basketball, he studied. What he is trying to convey to us is that we don’t have to be special, or somebody who is so intelligent to be able to achieve higher goals. It’s not always about the talent we have and we were born with. Instead, it is all about our attitude. It’s the attitude we have towards our goals. Even if we you are intelligent but you don’t strive hard for your goals, then you are nothing you are just wasting your precious talent. He was so determined because he know what he is passionate about and that made him happy, and enjoyed doing what he does. And for me, that is very important. Knowing your passion is one of the primary step before setting your goals and your plans. You cannot achieve your goals if you are not doing what you are passionate of. Doing something you are passionate about motivates you to do more than 100% of your effort. You can achieve maximum efficiency and focus if you are passionate on what you are doing as you feel happy when you are doing something you are passionate about. You cannot put positivity on something if you are not determined to do it. This was his secret formula to his success all along. It was his attitude towards life. He was passionate about designing something. That is why he was so determined to do it, he was so eager to learn more and do more. He never stopped in learning because he was so determined to do more, he knew he need to learn more to be able to do more. His undying determination protected him from all of the lives hardships, struggles and challenges for him. It made him strong enough to withstand all of those failures and frustrations and just to make it as part of his road to success, as a stepping stone so he can leap higher and higher towards his goal

“My story could be your story. As Filipinos, it must be our story.”

-          This is a very good last phrase. He is very inspiring when he said this. He is making me go on a hype to do more and strive more so one day, like him I can also share my success story to my fellow Filipinos. And this should a challenge to all of us. To put to ourselves the values that he shared, for us to be able to achieve the goals we have set on our lives.

Over all, the short clip was really great. I was moved by how he was so determined about his life goals. I cannot believe that there’s someone who was very strong-willed as he is. Well, it’s easy to dream big, but achieving would be the hardest part. It is so amazing that from a very poor family, a son of a farmer got that successful, truly amazing and truly inspiring. I think we should all reflect from all the values that Dad Banatao (Diosdado Banatao) Have showed to us on the video. Especially for us youngsters who yet to face the challenges of life. His values can be of great help to us, so we can have somebody to look at and follow the right attitude towards a successful. I think nobody didn’t want to not to be successful. It’s just not everybody has what it takes to be successful. It was never easy. Life was never easy, especially to Dado Banatao, he had a rough ride of his life. But because of his attitude towards life, the great principles he had in him was the key to his success. But again looking back when he said, “My success is a direct result of my beginnings. It is the same will and determination that every Filipino possesses”, we cannot deny the fact, that his parents were also a major factor to his success. He was lucky he had those amazing parents who shaped him to become strong or life’s challenges. But then again, the most important thing is, we should put to ourselves the values he shared as it can greatly help us to our journey towards life.