Be The Best Of Whatever You Are
by Douglas Maloch
If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill
Be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the hill
Be a bush if you can't be a tree,
If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass
And some highway happier make.
If you can't be a muskie, then just be a bass,
But the liveliest bass in the lake.
We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here.
There's big work to do and there's lesser work, too,
And the thing we must do is the near
If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail.
If you can't be the sun, be a star.
It isn't by size that you win or you fail.
Be the best of whatever you are.
The following is the story of one young filipino woman who did just that. she asked for no special treatment from the world. she competed on the playing field the way it was set, level or not, stacked cards or not, loaded dice or not. she claimed no exemptions for herself because of her race, religion, gender or national origin. she was a product of the american free public education system in the philippines.
"She was a mere 23-year-old young woman, armed only with a UP Bachelors degree in Food Technology, one suitcase of clothes and a couple of hundred dollars in her pocket when she stepped off the plane in Toronto in the summer of 1969. She was able to find a small apartment in one of the many high-rise buildings in the city where Filipino immigrants flock. She was able to find employment in a local dairy company's laboratory, reporting in early to do quality control work on the batches of milk bottles that found their way daily onto grocery shelves. After finishing her day at the plant she would hitchhike to the city to do part-time work sorting mail in the post office in the evenings. She would come home exhausted each night and sleep early for the same routine the next day. She was surprised to find out that even in a big city like Toronto the dairy company she worked for did not employ the latest procedures in quality control that she learned in school and at the food processing company in Manila where she worked after her graduation. In her new position she worked to improve their operations by introducing the latest technology in equipment and procedures she knew would provide a greater degree of health and safety to their Canadian consumers.
Later on she joined the Upjohn Company of Canada where she worked in their Quality Control department. Again she introduced the latest technology where she found them lacking. Her new techniques caught the interest of the parent company executives in Kalamazoo, Michigan who invited her to give them a seminar on the control procedures she has instituted in Canada. She was promoted manager of the Quality Control department of Upjohn Canada.
Some years later the VP of Operations of Upjohn Canada was retiring. A middle-level executive was sure he was going to be promoted to that position. He and his staff were surprised to find out that the young woman from Manila was promoted to the position instead. It was a job that entailed a lot of heavy responsibilities, making sure that the Canadian Upjohn Company, with all its different departments, was performing properly and efficiently. It was during her tenure in that position that the parent company in Michigan chose to award her the rarely-given and much-coveted Upjohn prize for exemplary work. In her spare time she presided over the Canadian pharmaceutical industry association helping the drug companies to set up industry standards and to coordinate their dealings with the Canadian government.
She often traveled all over the world sharing her work experiences in Canada with the other Upjohn companies in other countries, including Manila. She was offered by the parent company in Michigan to manage the Upjohn company in Milan or the one in Brussels, complete with villas, limos and servants, but she turned them down because she did not want to uproot her family and move to these countries. When Upjohn decided to open a division in China she was sent to meet with the Chinese government and to set up their company operations. Later on she was asked to manage Upjohn’s China company but again she turned it down. Running an overseas company for a few years was the final rung of the corporate ladder to become the CEO of Upjohn Canada, but always her family came first.
In 1996 the Bayer Company of Germany was planning to establish Bayer’s generic-drug division in Toronto. She was one of four finalists scheduled to be interviewed and pirated by the CEO of Bayer Germany. The other executives were white men from Canada and the US. She flew to the NY JFK airport to meet with the German CEO who flew there in the Bayer corporate jet. Back in Canada after the interview she received an offer for her to start up and manage the new Bayer-Schein Company in Canada.
Alone, she had to establish her business plan, set up the budget and present them to the German CEO and his Board of Directors. She was able to convince them of her short-term and long-term plans and the goal to be achieved for their first year of operation. Alone, she looked for a building for their office and to hire the people she knew to join her in her new enterprise. Though she had to answer to the Bayer executives in Germany it was essentially her own company to build up or ruin. They gave her the millions she asked for to run the new Bayer generic-drug company in Canada.
The new company exceeded its goals set for the first year and for the following years. After 5 years of successfully running the Bayer company, at the age of 55, she retired from her position. Bored in her house, she set up 2 companies which she ran part-time from her home. She hired some of her old executives to handle the day-to-day operations of these companies. One was a marketing company to sell the drugs for small foreign companies who did not have the staff and organization to sell them in Canada. Her other company offered to assist US, Canadian and European pharmaceutical companies in their mergers and acquisitions of other companies, with her performing due diligence reviews on contracts to make sure that her CEO clients received everything they wanted. Her fee was a percentage of the cost of the purchase.
In 2004 she decided to retire for good. Her only grandson was born and she felt that she now has more important priorities in her life - as a babysitter. Today she still babysits full-time for her grandson and granddaughter while their parents work.
She was a brown woman and a Filipino in a foreign country who never bellyached nor whined about job discrimination nor a glass ceiling that would stop her climb to the pinnacle of success. She only tried to be the best of whatever she could be.
"She was a mere 23-year-old young woman, armed only with a UP Bachelors degree in Food Technology, one suitcase of clothes and a couple of hundred dollars in her pocket when she stepped off the plane in Toronto in the summer of 1969. She was able to find a small apartment in one of the many high-rise buildings in the city where Filipino immigrants flock. She was able to find employment in a local dairy company's laboratory, reporting in early to do quality control work on the batches of milk bottles that found their way daily onto grocery shelves. After finishing her day at the plant she would hitchhike to the city to do part-time work sorting mail in the post office in the evenings. She would come home exhausted each night and sleep early for the same routine the next day. She was surprised to find out that even in a big city like Toronto the dairy company she worked for did not employ the latest procedures in quality control that she learned in school and at the food processing company in Manila where she worked after her graduation. In her new position she worked to improve their operations by introducing the latest technology in equipment and procedures she knew would provide a greater degree of health and safety to their Canadian consumers.
Later on she joined the Upjohn Company of Canada where she worked in their Quality Control department. Again she introduced the latest technology where she found them lacking. Her new techniques caught the interest of the parent company executives in Kalamazoo, Michigan who invited her to give them a seminar on the control procedures she has instituted in Canada. She was promoted manager of the Quality Control department of Upjohn Canada.
Some years later the VP of Operations of Upjohn Canada was retiring. A middle-level executive was sure he was going to be promoted to that position. He and his staff were surprised to find out that the young woman from Manila was promoted to the position instead. It was a job that entailed a lot of heavy responsibilities, making sure that the Canadian Upjohn Company, with all its different departments, was performing properly and efficiently. It was during her tenure in that position that the parent company in Michigan chose to award her the rarely-given and much-coveted Upjohn prize for exemplary work. In her spare time she presided over the Canadian pharmaceutical industry association helping the drug companies to set up industry standards and to coordinate their dealings with the Canadian government.
She often traveled all over the world sharing her work experiences in Canada with the other Upjohn companies in other countries, including Manila. She was offered by the parent company in Michigan to manage the Upjohn company in Milan or the one in Brussels, complete with villas, limos and servants, but she turned them down because she did not want to uproot her family and move to these countries. When Upjohn decided to open a division in China she was sent to meet with the Chinese government and to set up their company operations. Later on she was asked to manage Upjohn’s China company but again she turned it down. Running an overseas company for a few years was the final rung of the corporate ladder to become the CEO of Upjohn Canada, but always her family came first.
In 1996 the Bayer Company of Germany was planning to establish Bayer’s generic-drug division in Toronto. She was one of four finalists scheduled to be interviewed and pirated by the CEO of Bayer Germany. The other executives were white men from Canada and the US. She flew to the NY JFK airport to meet with the German CEO who flew there in the Bayer corporate jet. Back in Canada after the interview she received an offer for her to start up and manage the new Bayer-Schein Company in Canada.
Alone, she had to establish her business plan, set up the budget and present them to the German CEO and his Board of Directors. She was able to convince them of her short-term and long-term plans and the goal to be achieved for their first year of operation. Alone, she looked for a building for their office and to hire the people she knew to join her in her new enterprise. Though she had to answer to the Bayer executives in Germany it was essentially her own company to build up or ruin. They gave her the millions she asked for to run the new Bayer generic-drug company in Canada.
The new company exceeded its goals set for the first year and for the following years. After 5 years of successfully running the Bayer company, at the age of 55, she retired from her position. Bored in her house, she set up 2 companies which she ran part-time from her home. She hired some of her old executives to handle the day-to-day operations of these companies. One was a marketing company to sell the drugs for small foreign companies who did not have the staff and organization to sell them in Canada. Her other company offered to assist US, Canadian and European pharmaceutical companies in their mergers and acquisitions of other companies, with her performing due diligence reviews on contracts to make sure that her CEO clients received everything they wanted. Her fee was a percentage of the cost of the purchase.
In 2004 she decided to retire for good. Her only grandson was born and she felt that she now has more important priorities in her life - as a babysitter. Today she still babysits full-time for her grandson and granddaughter while their parents work.
She was a brown woman and a Filipino in a foreign country who never bellyached nor whined about job discrimination nor a glass ceiling that would stop her climb to the pinnacle of success. She only tried to be the best of whatever she could be.
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