Last August 12, students together with Enderun’s Provost, Dr. Lance Masters, principal founders,  Mr. John Suits, Mr. Javy Infante, and other faculty and staff were able to meet and hear about Joey Concepcion’s life --as a son, a student, a father, and of course, a Chief Executive  to a successful business.

Casually donning jeans and a green T-shirt, Joey Concepcion shared his insights and gave us a peek into his experiences. He was a student of De LaSalle University back in his time, but was not able to graduate with his bachelor’s degree. He may come from a prominent clan - his family having an established business already, but he chose not to work for his father. Instead, he applied for other companies and just like other individuals, he too encountered several challenges. After learning and experiencing many other incidents in life, he eventually joined his father’s business and contributed to the company’s growth. He became the president of their company when he was only 30 years old and the business incurred enormous growth under his leadership.

Now, Joey Concepcion is the CEO of RFM Corporations. He has also expanded his investments, from cotton candy, to Sunkist, to processed foods and a few years ago, he invested in the pizza business which is now known as Joey Pepperoni. He explained the obstacles and threats he faced in the pizza business as Filipino culture back in the day was not really that open to the concept of pizza. Currently, Joey Pepperoni keeps on expanding and developing more branches all over the Philippines.

After attaining growth and success in his own ventures, Joey Concepcion started to give back to the community - which gave him the idea of establishing ‘GONEGOSYO’ and he also started the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) and he was able to inspire others to put up their own businesses. Gonegosyo provides seminars, livelihood trainings, pamphlets, TV programs and books to give Filipinos the knowledge to establish their own businesses, and these efforts help propel the country economically.

Being one of the prominent people in the business industry, he shared some tips for their careers and future ventures. He said, “If you do not know how to market yourself, you won’t be successful” which means that in order to be a successful salesman, you will have to know how to go out of your comfort zone and reach out to other people - you will have to speak for yourself and show them what you have. He also mentioned that, “The only mistake is one from which you learn nothing.” Everyone commits mistakes and what makes a successful person different from all others is that he does not give up and he knows how to learn from those mistakes. Another tip he shared is that whenever great opportunities come your way, grab them!  Lastly, according to Mr. Concepcion, one must always ‘RUSH’; one must forget about pessimism and constantly move to reach success.