A transcript of Renante Sulit’s speech which was delivered 11 June 2022 at the Tax Smart Best of the Best Entrepreneur of the Year Awards at the River Room, Crown Melbourne:
Opportunities don’t happen we create them. This is true because when I was starting, nobody wanted to hire me so I created a job for myself.
To Honorable Consul General Maria Lourdes Salcedo, to the Chief Executive Officer of Tax Smart Café, Master Financial Planner, my good friend and a member of the mutual admiration club, Atty Romulae Gadaoni, to our distinguished guests, fellow accomplished awardees, to the amazing staff of Tax Smart Café who make this possible, friends, ladies and gentlemen, a warm good afternoon to all of you.
It was Autumn of 2009 in the midst of the Greatest Recession when I set foot in Australia with such humble dream to start a new life, a new beginning, a new hope because I already gave up my illustrious career in public service in the Philippines.
Little did everybody know that I started here in Melbourne as a primary grades teacher being a licensed teacher in Victoria. Yes once a teacher is always a teacher. Thank you to the Victorian Government for giving me the scholarship for Internationally-Qualified Teachers. It was a short-lived experience because during that time, the demand for Internationally-Qualified Teachers was not high here in Metropolitan Melbourne.
In retrospection, I used to be a school principal of the school at a very young age and supervisor of public schools while finishing my law school in the Philippines. I also had the opportunity to teach abroad and experience the best experience a teacher could ever dream of. But that was not enough. I kept chasing my dream and make this dream possible.
It was during winter of 2010 that I needed to decide whether or not to stay in this land of opportunities. I was running against time because my visa conditions were not yet fulfilled so I need to do a paradigm shift. Like most of us, we needed to do what we had to do. We needed to examine what skills you do have, what you can offer and how much time do you have. But I only realized that here in Australia, it is not only what you know, it is whom you know. I perceived it as a challenge so through my own way of networking, I built my own circle. The winter breeze was cold and so as my hopes during that time. But I never surrendered. I worked in a different field in order to go back to school and study the field that I love, immigration. And the rest became history.
Standing now before you as I hold the Entrepeneur of the Year award, I can proudly say but with all humility that I succeeded in my task to create an opportunity for myself. Operating in Collins Street for almost a decade and being a lone Filipino-Australian that offers a complete package for our fellow Filipino nurses is something unparalleled.
Why did I share my story? It is because I want to inspire everyone of us to give our best in everything that we do. A celebration like this is very momentous as it recognizes our effort in our field.
As a businessman, you need to be resilient. The challenge of COVID-19 in our midst has made most us struggling in our businesses. Some lost hopes but some fought a good fight. We are therefore fought a good fight and this is a proof that we survive. RPS Migration is no exception to the repercussions that COVID-19 has brought to all businesses all around the world. While working from home, I need to bend overhaul some of the programs seeing to it that it will answer the call of times. The discounts and the promotions were the salient features of my pandemic era for someone to get out of the woods, he needs a fuel to try every possible means in order to recover in the most difficult conditions. Evidently and more suprisingly, the sales of RPS Migration had become better and it had not received the aide from the Victorian Government for so long. My staff all around the globe had been continually receiving their salary during those trying times. To be resilient is an accomplishment indeed and COVID-19 is the true test of resiliency of a businessman.
As a businessman, you need to be passionate. It has been once said that if you love what you do, it is as if you have never worked. You are not looking at the times and days but what you have in your heart is to get things done and serve your clients well. I am passionate about my job and it has become my advocacy indeed. More than a job, it has become my advocacy to help a lot of Filipino nurses more particularly to settle in Australia in a more cost-effective way of migration. Creating a program that is congruent to the goals to be achieved by my clients is something unique to RPS. I defy the traditional approach of migration by way of makin g a complete package for my clients so that the services I provide is complete from passing English Test to getting your residency visa. I need to evolve with time as migration and non-migration law, rules and regulations are always changing in Australia. You need to walk the talk, you need to deliver your service and you need to be quick.
Most of all, you need to be SUPERMAN. Running a business for almost a decade and having branches interstate and overseas like in the Middle East, Singapore and Philippines, your day and night are not enough. Travelling for 14hours in the plane is not a joke especially during covid times. Meeting a lot of businessmen of different nationalities will challenge your enormous strength. Holding seminars in Asia, India, Middle East, Europe and Australia needs a superman in you. The quick thinking, the laser eye technique of a businessman, the aura and the business judgement have to be spot on. Superman is in us, all we need to do is to unleash that power to become a super you.
Be Resilient. Be Passionate. Be Superman. Be RPS.
This is the formula I have been using all along for a decade now. No surprise I became RPS.
Thank you very much to all of you and this is the moment we should celebrate. Mabuhay tayong lahat.
– Renante Sulit, RPS Migration
