Published: Weekend, Sun Star Daily
Cebu City, Philippines
March 28, 2004
Pages 10-11
"A lot of people say it's a big deal for someone as young as I am to be in this kind of work because of the magnitude of the work. But for me it's not a big deal because I love my work. I look at it as fun and fulfilling," says Maxi.
He sets no borderline between life at work and after work. The secret, he says, is seeing work as a hobby, not as a chore. "When you love your work, it doesn't become work anymore. It becomes fun."
A business trip becomes opportunity to meet friends in the business. Workmates become a network of buddies. Life at work and outside work becomes "a beautiful tapestry of different patches viewed as a whole."
"If you enjoy the people you work with it, work becomes fun because you all become part of each other's life," he said.
Maxi had always dreamed of being in the service industry. He started as part of a service crew for Jollibee in college. "It was fun; we even hung out with friends from McDonalds."
After he graduated 1999, he became a marketing officer trainee and worked himself up in the organization. "The bigwigs must've seen something about me," he ponders.
He always leaves time out for himself, and in the fast-paced world of fastfood marketing, having a sense of fun appears to be most palatable.
Creativity plays a major role in his life, he says. He likes to go bar-hopping to unwind, and listen to jazz music.
This homeboy originally from Bicol and transplanted to busy Manila at a young age, has established roots in Cebu, which he now calls home. "Cebu offers me a great mix of rural and urban living without the hassles of traffic. I can be at work now and then off to the beach after that. I don't even have to plan my day just because I have traffic jams to worry about," he said.
Maxi likes reading self-help books on anything during his free time-which he says, is where he gets his creativity.
He also dabbles in poetry. He reads Robert Frost, Shakespeare and Garcia Marquez. He likes poetry that reveals bits about life, and writes some---a hobby since high school. "I am a romantic guy. I write poems for myself, and I write poems for other people. I give away some of my poems. The poems are usually about love," he says, bashfully.
"My friends in the past, they would text me and then say, 'Hey, here's the poem you wrote me..' and it's a nice feeling, because sometimes I don't even remember that I actually wrote those words," he said, grinning.
Maxi said people should be comfortable with who they are so life will make itself comfortable for them. "Do everything with passion and don't measure yourself based on the standards of others," he said.