Manuel Villar - From a poor fishmonger to the richest billionaire in the Philippines

Manuel Villar was born on December 13, 1949 in Moriones Tondo Manila ( Philippines ). He is the second child in a family of 9 siblings. Father Villar was just an ordinary government official, his mother sold fish in the market. From a young age, Manuel Villar had the opportunity to get acquainted with the business by following his mother to the market to sell fish every day, his job was to carry goods or stand to sell fish and shrimp to customers to buy.

Thanks to Manuel Villar, his mother did not have to hire more helpers and saved a lot of money, and he also had a small salary to pay for the needs at school. The chaotic and complicated environment at the market has contributed greatly to forging Manuel Villar to become the person he is today. There he observed and learned how to do business from Chinese merchants. However, the person who has the most influence on him is his mother.

Once, his mother asked him to go to a nearby bank to cash a check for 40 Pesos (about 18,000 VND). When the banker complained that the check was full of fishy smell, Manuel Villar insisted that the employee exchange it for him, saying that it was their duty, no matter how foul the check was. .

Although the family did not have enough money, Manuel Villar still worked hard to study and entered the National University of the Philippines. When it was not yet morning, he was at the market to help his mother fetch fish and shrimp to sell, and then went to school.

Even though he worked so hard, he still completed two university degrees: one in Business Administration, the other in Accounting. Manuel Villar even got a master's degree. All these achievements require Manuel Villar to try, persevere and be determined to the end.

Graduating with two bachelor's degrees from the National University of the Philippines and one master's degree, Manuel Villar worked for an accounting firm before having enough capital to open a seafood business.

At first, Manuel Villar's company did well, until a restaurant that specialized in taking seafood from him refused to pay. With his acumen, the businessman asked the restaurant to issue a "meal voucher" - what is now known as a voucher - to compensate for the amount paid. He then resold these meal vouchers to office workers and took more than a year to get back the original amount.

Later, when the business failed, Villar moved to work as a financial analyst for a real estate development company. However, he felt he could still succeed in business, so he quickly resigned.

This time, Manuel Villar was determined to "play big" by taking a bank loan of 10,000 Pesos (about 4.7 million VND) to buy 2 used trucks and open a sand and gravel transportation company. Thanks to this job, he has the opportunity to interact with construction companies and understand more about the real estate industry.

With the money he had saved over the years, Manuel Villar bought 80 lots of land from BF Homes in Paranaque and built a house on it. In just a short time, all the houses were sold out, making him the youngest millionaire in the Philippines at the age of 26. Overcoming the storm, Manuel focused more and more on construction and real estate. , especially the young house prices.

His goal is the housing market for foreign workers working in the Philippines, from the middle class to poor households to buy houses through the financial support package of domestic organizations. . Thanks to Manuel Villar, countless families in this "country of a thousand islands" can buy houses at low prices with flexible payment times. This was the beginning of his success in real estate.

Not only is a successful businessman, Manuel Villar has also achieved many remarkable achievements on the political path since 1992. He served as a spokesman for the Philippine House of Representatives, before becoming a Senator and Chairman. The Senate not long after that. Manuel Villar is the first person in Philippine political history to head both the Congress and the Senate since World War II. In 2010, he spent more than 1 billion pesos for the presidential race, but was unsuccessful.

Currently, Mr. Manuel Villar is the founder of Villar Group and Chairman of Starmalls and Vista Land & Landscapes. Starmalls is one of the largest mall operators in the Philippines while Vista Land & Landscapes is the country's largest home builder. Owning a fortune of $ 5.6 billion, he ranked first in the list of the richest people in the Philippines in 2020 by Forbes magazine. He is also one of the rare billionaires whose fortune has not been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the second richest billionaire in the Philippines, Manny does not live in luxury like some other billionaires. Perhaps it was because he came from a poor background and worked from a young age to earn a living that he always appreciated the value of money and never wasted money. His humble lifestyle is reflected in the following:

First, he doesn't have an office. For a businessman who has built thousands of homes and tall buildings like billionaire Manny, people will think that his workplace is also very luxurious. However, in reality, this billionaire does not really have an office.

As the owner of Coffee Project - a "virtual living" coffee chain with more than 40 branches in the Philippines, the 71-year-old billionaire considers these beverage shops his "mobile office". The business magnate believes that as long as he has a smartphone and a stable internet connection, he can handle any job.

After that, he still drove a Toyota instead of a luxury car. While many other billionaires around the world have a hobby of collecting cars as a way to show off their wealth and success, Manny and his family are still very satisfied with the use of cars. old, normal life.

His two sons, Paolo and Mark, didn't even own a car until they finished college. Their super-rich dad didn't want his children to own anything too easily, so to buy a car, they had to take out a loan.

With a huge fortune, Mr. Manny can own private jets to serve his travel needs. But he did not do so. Surprisingly, he didn't even sit in a luxury seat on the plane. It seems that the self-made billionaire doesn't care too much about what class he is in and is completely satisfied with flying business class.

Manuel Villar believes that anyone can succeed if they work hard, persevere and know how to stand up after each failure: "Don't think that because you are poor, you cannot become a leader. Know how to show your enthusiasm. Sincere and good work, others will see and vote for you as a leader," he said.

It can be said that the story of getting rich from two empty hands of billionaire Manuel Villar has become an inspiration and motivation for many young Filipinos who want to embark on a business path.

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