Chutzpah & laughter in the business called ‘Fresh!’

Nothing important was ever accomplished without chutzpah. One must have chutzpah to achieve. One must have spunk. One must have laughter. One must have laughter so that obstacles will not seem so formidable to overcome. One must gurgle heartily when one laughs – at least three times a day for well-being. And if you can get other people to join you in laughter, then, you will be doing yourself a lot of good. I was told by a dear friend many years ago, when one’s heart seemed beyond patching: "Try laughing – laugh with all your heart."

Laughter has been good for me ever since. When someone has been unkind to you, try laughing within. At a legislative hearing when you hear all those voices haranguing, insulting, try laughing within. When your nerves seem shattered and your toes have turned vertical, try laughing. I was told early in life that "laughter is the best tranquilizer and it’s got no side effects."

But laughter is best when the people around you share with you the reason to be happy and laugh. Those are precious moments when my children and I over Sunday lunch laugh for the most inconsequential reasons and giggle with glee, just like four-year-old Katya and two-year-old Zach. Someone told me: "You don’t stop laughing because you grow old – you grow old because you stop laughing." For laughter is a person’s potion for survival, the sure fire balm for aches, and one’s elixir of youth. We have to indulge the fool in us... encourage the clown that is inside of us. We must make time for the funny and the absurd, and make a rule to do it, not just every now and then. Let your heart over-rule your head once in a while. This is good for your head and good for the heart.

Meet the world with a sense of humor, with laughter as much as possible. It is our needed armor in life. Laughter in you is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. Laughter is, after all, only an outcropping of a deeper understanding of how difficult and absurd human beings can get from time to time. If we can put life in perspective with a bit of laughter, we will survive. No person or society can prosper on a steady diet of seriousness and despair.

And this is where chutzpah comes in. Not too long ago, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was a guest in the Philippines under the aegis of the UP Pan Xenia Fraternity Alumni Association, a select organization of business and management alumni of the University of the Philippines. He spoke before a great big audience, appearing extremely knowledgeable and very definitely exuding chutzpah like no one ever did. After the lively open forum, as he slowly made his way out of the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel, I remember the anecdote he told the 12 or so people around him before he finally walked out of the hall. One well-known media personality asked him what was the most important quality he had brought to his job under two presidencies. He answered that it might seem a bit frivolous but the fact was that he felt having a sense of humor was absolutely vital to success. A diplomat like himself just had to understand and roll with the ridiculous events that came along. He told the group how he tried to deflect anger when negotiating with the Soviets back then. If they made rash statements in front of others, their pride would not let them back down thus leading to deadlock. So, whenever he noted anger rising, Kissinger would attempt to joke. Once, negotiating the complex disarmament treaty with Defense Minister Marshal Andre Grechko, he noted the marshal getting red in the face. A bit of humor was in order. Kissinger suggested that the Soviets could put their big missiles on their submarines and under the new formula, when the missile was fired and sank the sub, they could build new ones. There was no laughter. Bad joke, thought Sec. Kissinger, and he changed the subject. Three days later, he felt Grechko’s elbow rubbing his ribs, and the big marshal leaned down and said, "We are going to put our missiles on our submarines. Ha, ha, ha." It had taken three days, noted Kissinger, but the Soviets had decided to laugh! The former US Secretary of State knew the value of a good laugh. He had the chutzpah to utilize it astutely and well.

I saw chutzpah and laughter all over the place one day in March 2001 less than six months ago, not in diplomacy but in the launching of a small enterprise – a body-and-bath market. This is a business which sells some of the most refreshing natural soaps in the world, "fashioned by hand, created with heart," by Fresh! After a hefty lunch, with the scent of garlic hovering menacingly over all of us and waiting to be washed out, my kids, knowing my extraordinary attachment to soaps of all kinds, brought me just five minutes away, to the lobby of Glorietta I where some of the most exciting soaps were being introduced and sold for the first time – natural soaps made of ingredients found in nature, plant-derived, and steeped in Mother Earth’s tender loving care.

A crowd had gathered around the small booth located as you enter the mall, very attractively and prettily decorated, with an extraordinarily large variety of some of the best soaps I have ever come across in my long lifetime – soaps of all kinds so attractively packaged. I couldn’t tell anymore whether the packaging outclassed the soap or the soap the packaging. There were at least two lady barkers calling out the names of the soaps... soaps galore, layered soaps by the loaf or by the slice. Amid the laughter ringing all around, you could hear such names as "Desire" (if your skin desires to be loved and pampered); "Heaven in a Bar" (after a hard day’s work, this is heaven, and that kind of heaven made of natural oils and herb extracts); "Total Bliss" – a blend of Lemon Verbena and Hibiscus (an antiseptic soap which is meant to help relieve anxiety); "Choco Mint," "Revive," "Cucumber Puree," "Vitality," "Lemon Freshies," "Itch a Relief’ (an itch-relieving blend of lavender, chamomile, peppermint and essential oils); "Tea Tree-at" which is anti-fungal, antiseptic, and anti-bacterial. There were soap "Bub-balls" – absolutely cute and colorful little soap balls of mango, mandarin, yin (for her) and yang (for him), and others too many to mention.

I was drawn to the "Singles Bar" which really should have been named "Swingles Bar" and purchased the Mint Chamomile with its cleansing and healing qualities. I have been using this magnificent bar ever since. There was one named "Rose Romance" for the romantics. I stayed away from this one, though tempted to near submission because of its incredulously sensuous scent. Indeed, the soap market called "Fresh!" had so many favorites for me – "Love it Calendula," for one, is a staple in my soap cabinet. I just made a great discovery and snatched it immediately – "Fresh Coco," made of coconut extract, carrot, and vitamin E extracts, is unbelievably the best anti-wrinkle soap today – I’ve tried it and have really noticed that the wrinkles have diminished, and itís not my imagination because friends have told me. There were also "Buff Scrubs" made of passion fruit and poppy seeds. There were soaps for massage therapy called "LAUGH," "Relax," "Energy," etc., and bumpy soaps the better for having one’s tired back massaged with soothing names like "Joy" and "Peace." But the most adorable were the baby soaps called "Baby Love" and "Gentleness" – delicious, mild and nourishing. I have indeed never seen such an array of excellent soap scents – gentle and lingering, not screaming at you – all these body and face soaps, massage bars made only of pure, unadulterated aroma therapy grade essential oils. Such original and expert Filipino technology that went into the manufacture of the widest array and the great variety of soaps of all kinds I have never seen in any soap market in the world ever, and that’s something for someone like me with a penchant for soaps. Such chutzpah in marketing the product – visible in the quality of the men’s line: Gentlemen Only, Cool Shave, Tough Guy, Boy Next Door; in the women’s line, and in the kiddie line.

What I saw that Sunday afternoon when the store had just opened spelled success. And success it has been ever since. I understand the business is ready, within less than six months, to franchise out their product line. There was laughter and glee all around the booth that day as the crowd kept milling and laughing at the names the barkers were calling out and at the reasonable prices given for each of them.

World-class too, I’d say, were the ladies, the owners of Fresh! – themselves manning the front that day. The sight of Nelia Silverio-Dee whose expertise and background initiated what has become a tremendously successful business hardly half a year old; two extremely good-looking nieces, Kit-Kat Silverio-Zobel, and Kelly de la Merced, and the testimonies of two young former skin asthma sufferers – two adorable kids: Nicolo de la Merced, six years old, and Natasha S. Zobel, four years old, attesting to the fact that "Because of Aunt Nelia’s soaps we have no more itches," the total image of the Fresh! Enterprise is hard to beat.

What ingenuity, what chutzpah indeed! Its business by-line says it all – "Life is short, use good soap." This puts the excellent topping to the outstanding marketing of the excellent soap products – all 100 different varieties, possibly the most plentiful variety one soap line has ever produced in the world – all-Filipino and world class, ready to be franchised out to the world – "FRESH!"