MANILA, Philippines – I have never tried to disguise my bias towards hiring my business-qualified applicants who are former athletes. This is driven by an underlying belief in the power of sports as integral teaching tool: teamwork, discipline, will to win, and many other important intangibles for success are best developed on the fields of competitive sports. But the most valuable lesson of them all is a maturing effect that comes with learning that life is not always fair. That in life, and in business, there are harsh realities that can be quite cruel. Athletes know this inherently, because the cruelest world of all is the world of sports. Those of us in business are downright lucky. Let’s take a look at the life of a national athlete in the Philippines. To be clear, this is not in any way an indictment on how our national athletes are treated — this is the life of any professional athlete in most countries. The top of the food chain of our national athletes is being nominated as a “priority athlete.” This usually means winning a medal at the SEA Games, which are held every two years. A gold medalist will earn an allowance of P40,000 a month. A silver medalist gets P30,000 a month. And a bronze medalist gets P25,000 a month. If you come in fourth or fifth place, your allowance for being a non-medalist on the national team is a mere P9,600 a month. Now, you may think this is Read More …