Carson Tan

Carson Tan, an economics-degree holder from the University of the Philippines, Carson was fresh from college when he began his first business, a fastfood stall called "Naka-goto". This was when goto was a hot new concept in fast-foods. His store was doing well but since there were not enough tenants in the building where he was leasing space, the business went down due to lack of foot traffic.

After his first business closed, he became a salesman. He saw sales as a way of learning about business at its grassroots. He did not have the capital to put up his own so he literally peddled encyclopedias, absorbing the rudiments of sales and sharpening his skills.

During this time, he also put up another enterprise, portion-sachet packaging of sugar, coffee, and ketchup to capitalize on the requirements of other fast-food restaurants as safety in food handling was becoming an issue. Once the business took off, he left the encyclopedia business to concentrate on marketing the packaging services, eventually also supplying the disposable burger wrappers and other flexible packaging materials.
Today, at the helm of Aquabest, he has learned to commit his business to God. It is no surprise that the company is doing very well. But in the beginning, it was a hard uphill climb for Carson and Aquabest. He used to be a silent partner, part of a group of businessmen who in 1997 saw a big market in the water-refilling business. Initially, Carson and his partners were skeptical because only one water shop store existed at that time. Nobody bought water then, there was plenty of water gushing out of the faucet. But with skillful marketing and educating of the public, the market soon became ready for the health benefits purified and mineral water brought and so the Aquabest Company flourished.

Inspirational message from Carson Tan:

1. Take the journey with God. Always include God in all your endeavours and simply trust his Words. Be at peace with Him and glorify Him in all your achievements.

2. Have a vision and mission in Life. Constantly we need to be inspired to dream and have a future vision of what we want to be and a mission of what we want to accomplish before we can chart the course and plan the next move.

3. Equipping with proper knowledge and information. Being knowledgeable and being equipped with the proper information and tools are crucial in any kind of endeavour we want to get ourselves into. Don't get yourselves into something you don't know. You could risk everything and regret it that it's too late to start all over again.

4. Be inspired and have the proper mindset. All of us trek the journey called Life. Life is all a matter of choices. Some have better road maps, some may not even have one. Worst, many don't even know where their direction in life and take life as it comes. Why? People have different levels of mindsets, attitude or perspectives in life or should I say realization. Our level of realization evolves from time to time depending on the type of experiences we undergo. To be able to change our experiences there should be a motivator or inspiration for us to overcome the resistance to change. In business, that will spell the difference between a fishball foodcart vendor visavis a food cart entrepreneur.

5. Create Possibilities. Allow me to share the latest realization I learned from my mentor. He taught me to "Always create possibilities". When you entertain that thought, then your mind start to work positively.

6. Be at peace with men and live a happy life. A harmonious life is a balanced life. Never take advantage of men's ignorance to gain wealth. Money is not the end thing. Money is the reward of accomplishments; an indicator of the level of our success. If we dishonestly gain wealth then what sense of achievement do we have.

7. Love and share. If we are full of love then we are willing to share what we have. Afterall, we are only God's stewards of whatever we have. All our entire being belongs to Him, as we have been purchased with a price - His precious blood for our redemption.

April 28, 2009

Dear Jesus, This year, we are looking for a beneficiary where in we would like to put up an artesian well for a community that lacks access to clean water. Maybe we can do joint projects.

God bless.

Carson Tan