The Shrek mentality (Or business lessons I learned from an ogre)

This is kinda embarrassing, but I have a confession to make. I am probably one of the few souls who hasn’t watched any of the The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies.

You’re probably wondering what cave I have been hiding in, or perhaps you’re curious why I don’t go for fantasy-epic-adventure movies. My good friend Marife Macasaet of Ace Saatchi, who serves as my personal "you-have-to-watch-this-movie" consultant, keeps on pushing me to go and watch a movie. She can’t believe how much movies I have missed. She would often tell me, "Rod, I can’t believe that you haven’t watched Stars Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. You’re missing half of your life!"

Marife’s probably right. Every time I engage in conversation with some friends about recent movies, I feel left out. I’ve missed the biggest movies in recent memory. The last movie I watched was not exactly the talk of the town. It was that predictable and ho-hum flick titled Jersey Girl. And mind you, I only watched it because my wife told me that I remind her of Ben Affleck. I can’t believe I fell for that one. Except probably for comedian George Carlin’s occasional funny quips, it was two hours of unadulterated torture. Not really my type of film.

The funny thing is, it’s not the type of film that my wife prefers either. She prefers horror films like The Excorcist. But in a way, Jersey Girl could be classified as a scary movie. Nothing is more horrifying than watching Ben Affleck attempt to cry and desperately try to look pitiable. It was a creepy sight.

Anyway, back to the fantasy adventure films that I have missed. I have nothing against this type of films. I am actually a sucker for any movie that provides me an escape from the real world. I am not too much into movies like On Golden Pond, Bridges of Madison County or The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. They are too close to reality. And frankly, I have too much reality going on in my life already, especially on my TV! I guess the only reason I can attribute to my movie-watching delinquency is the lack of time. Which is really no excuse.

So last week in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the world, I resolved to buy the DVDs of all the nice films I have failed to catch. I bought the first installment of Harry Potter and I will soon be buying the first part of The Lord of the Rings. I’m getting there, folks, I am getting there!

Last night, I decided to watch Shrek first because the Part 2 is already out in theaters. I really enjoyed it. Shrek has high entertainment value, is very witty and curiously modern.

There was one part in Shrek, however, that really caught my attention. It was a conversation between Shrek (whose voice was provided by Mike Myers) and Donkey (whose voice is that of Eddie Murphy) in the middle of the film. In that particular scene, Shrek, an ogre who was rejected by society and a loner who found solace in living by himself, was trying to convince Donkey to go away and leave him alone. But Donkey, being a reject himself, persisted in hanging around with him. The conversation went something like this:

SHREK: Why do you want to hang around with me? Can’t you see? No one can like me. People can’t see what’s inside of me. I am like an onion. I have many layers."

DONKEY: Why do you compare yourself to an onion? A lot of people don’t like onions. Why don’t you compare yourself to a cake? A cake has layers, too. And a lot of people like cakes.

SHREK (insisting): No, I am like an onion! I am an onion!

DONKEY: How about parfait? Everyone loves parfait?

SHREK (screaming): I am an onion!

We Are What We Think We Are

When I heard that line from Shrek, I couldn’t help but relate it to the way we Pinoys often think of ourselves. In a way, we all have a Shrek mentality. Most of us have a skewed way of looking at ourselves. We’d rather look at ourselves as onions rather than cakes – even if we have all the ingredients to make us a cake. In other words, we’d rather look at ourselves as a defectively inferior race rather than a race that is at par, or maybe even superior to others. It’s an automatic frame of mind that is inherently inculcated in our culture. I guess you can blame it on the fact that for centuries, we were under foreign rule. It’s really sad if you think about it.

One clear indication of this unfortunate mentality that we have is the ton of Pinoy jokes that we all know about. I think each of us knows at least one Pinoy joke. Now, on one hand, we can argue that these Pinoy jokes are a way of laughing at ourselves and not taking ourselves too seriously. But haven’t we gone just a little overboard at this whole "being able to laugh at ourselves" frame of mind?

Sure we can laugh at ourselves. But not all the time! At a certain point we have to know who we are, accept who we are – and yes, be proud of who we are. In the movie, Shrek was rejected by the people because of how he looked. But the real problem of Shrek (at least at the beginning of the movie) was accepting what the people believed about him. And, thinking that he couldn’t do anything about it, he locked himself in his own little, lonely world. But that shouldn’t be the case for Shrek, and that shouldn’t be the case for us Pinoys.

I know a good number of people who are (ahem) shall we say, "aesthetically challenged," and yet, have excelled in life. Some, in fact, have become great leaders.

Some of our mayors and governors aren’t exactly pleasant to look at. But they are successful primarily because of the confidence they exude, not so much because of how they look. If we did judge them on how they looked, a lot of them wouldn’t be in office. But you see, they believe in themselves, and in the process they have somehow convinced their constituents to believe in them.

Some of the best leaders in the world are not of the Al Gore mold. Look at UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He isn’t exactly Mr. Chippendales. And how about Fidel Castro? He has led Cuba for what? A hundred years now? He’s not exactly GQ cover material, but he’s got all the confidence in the world. And that’s why he’s been Cuba’s leader since time immemorial.

And in business, some of the most successful CEOs in the world don’t exactly look like Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. Have you seen Donald Trump lately? How about Bill Gates? Sure, he’s not hideous, but he ain’t no George Clooney either. In fact, he comes off as somewhat of a nerd, don’t you think? But he’s transcended all of that. And, going beyond that geek look of his, he has transformed himself from techie to arguably the world’s most successful corporate executives. How did he do it? I don’t really have the answer. But I’ll bet he started out by simply believing in himself. Everything else followed.

As I’ve mentioned time and again, our thoughts are very powerful. Our thoughts can make or break us. Last month, I got to speak to the president of LG, with whom MTV just closed a deal. He told me how LG became the leading appliance brand in India. Every morning, before the working day starts, he would assemble his staff. And, like a preschool teacher, he would require his workforce to repeat a mantra. I don’t know exactly what the mantra was, but the message was something like this: "LG is the best. LG is No. 1. LG is the best. LG is No. 1."

They did this every single day. And, after several years of doing this, the mantra became instilled in the minds of the employees. Eventually, they applied their mantra to their work. And it didn’t take long before LG became the number one appliance company in India. Amazing, huh?

My whole point is this: You are who you think you are. If you think you are a loser, then you are a loser. If you think you’re special, then you are special. Your perception of yourself, whether you like it or not, will eventually come out, and if you think low of yourself, then that’s how people will think of you. On the other hand, if you are true to yourself, and you acknowledge what’s good in you, people will eventually see that. And that will ultimately redound to your benefit.

So here’ s the challenge… Do you think you’re an onion? Or do you think of yourself as a cake? Do you think you’re a loser? Or do you think of yourself as a winner. As a country, are we proud to be who we are? Or do we content ourselves with Pinoy jokes and make fun of ourselves? It’s our choice. To me, the choice is obvious. I choose to believe that we Pinoys are a great race. We are not onions. We are cakes. And if we instill this in our minds, we can have our cake – and it eat it, too.

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Thanks for your letters! You may e-mail me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.