“No task is too small,” says Adelaida “Ade” Sy Singson, 40, of the pet food family business, My Life on Paws. “Find what makes you content, however little it seems.”
In Grade 2, Ade bought a sheet of Sanrio stickers, asked her elder sister to cut them into individual stickers, then with a Hello Kitty bag, sold each sticker in school for 25 centavos. In high school, she did typing jobs. In college, she printed cards. After college, she created balloon designs, planned her brother’s wedding, became an events coordinator.
Enterprise runs in the family. When he was still a teen, Ade’s brother, Wilson Sy, negotiated with a computer dealer to provide 10 machines for a friend. This led to a special price for the friend, plus a tidy commission for Wilson.
In college, Wilson bought eggs from another friend with a farm, and went around the village, selling door to door. “Give me anything,” says Wilson, 51, “and I can sell it.”
Dogs and chores
When the Sy children were young, their house in Quezon City was “like a zoo,” at one point filled with 13 dogs. The family never turned away a dog, even if it meant added work.
“I think my mother deliberately did not hire any helper, for a time, for us to do chores,” says Wilson. The kids cleaned their rooms, set the table, washed, ironed, hung clothes.
Wilson (as the older of two boys) did a lot of the heavy work, such as taking out the garbage—and leading the dogs outside to do their business at dawn.
“I was so sleepy, but the dogs were scratching the door. I had to get up from bed, go down the stairs, unlock the door. The dogs circled outside, and I’d say, ‘Be quick! I want to go back to sleep!’”
The tradition has continued. Wilson’s two grade-school sons, Zak and Zander, do their share of chores. The kids arrange their things, help set the table, and keep their room neat.
“If they leave their dirty shoes on the floor,” Wilson says, “I tell our helpers not to touch them. My kids have to put them in their proper place.” The kids are not just honor students, but responsible, too.
Cannot be hurried
The patriarch Sy Hing, who passed away in 2013, was a “workaholic,” busy with the steel manufacturing business set up with relatives. His only free time was Sunday afternoons, starting with a family lunch at Maxim’s in Greenhills.
“We chatted for hours, alaskahan at kantiyawan,” says Wilson. Then the kids roamed the mall: Wilson to computer shops, the others to their interests, Ade with her parents, “because they had the funds!”
“I am thrifty,” says Wilson, “Ade’s the opposite.” Ade and her husband Gilbert, 35, agree.
Their father loved all his kids, but did not treat them equally. Unlike many Tsinoys, he favored the girls, at least when it came to travel.
Wilson is the second-eldest, but “my younger sisters had already traveled to Hong Kong, Taiwan while I had to stay home.” Dad’s logic? “Your sisters have to travel now. When they get married, who knows if their husbands can afford to take them out? You are male, you’ll earn your own money.”
“Of course it was unfair!” says Wilson. Did the girls feel guilty? “No!” says Ade.
Why doesn’t Wilson resent his sisters? “Growing up with different dogs with different personalities, we learned to love and care for each one. It’s the same with us siblings: we’re so different, but we get along because we accept each other.”
To siblings who fight, Wilson and Ade say: “Get a dog! Dogs teach you compassion.”
“Dogs teach you not to take short cuts,” says Gilbert, who also grew up in an animal-loving family. Once, he walked their deer around the village in Makati, to the surprise of joggers. Their ducks produced lovely orange eggs.
“Today, we want instant gratification, digital gadgets to give us answers, without having to work for it,” says Gilbert. “But caring for dogs cannot be hurried. You have to feed them, bathe them. When puppies are too weak to suck, you feed them milk with a syringe, drop by drop.”
“Pets teach responsibility.” Many people don’t want to start their own business, not just because they are afraid of risk, but also because they fear responsibility.
“If you work for others and things go wrong, you can always blame someone else. My boss or co-workers did not do this and that. In your own business, you have no one to blame but yourself. That is something many people cannot face.”
“My dad said that there is no such thing as failure,” says Wilson. “If you fail, you learn from your mistakes. No shame in that.”
Proud parents
“I had always wanted to be like my father,” says Ade. “He got things done, he was hardworking, he was a provider. We were not rich, but we felt rich! We were never deprived.”
“Vision and foresight,” says Wilson. “Even if he was conservative, he was also open, especially to innovations in the business.” The father never forced the children into the business, but they worked at the steel plant every summer. (The business has since been sold.)
Their father never asked about grades. “I pay your tuition. If you failed, I would have known,” he told Wilson. When Ade got her only failing grade, her father said, “These things happen.”
“His kindness made me feel worse, so I passed the subject the next time,” Ade says.
Ade and Gilbert are proud parents to three dogs: Lexi, Harper and Chicklet. For Lexi’s birthday in 2010, Ade baked a cake with ingredients so safe that it could be eaten by humans. They posted the party photos on Facebook, and friends started asking Ade to bake treats for their dogs.
Wilson (with his own pest management business) suggested to the couple that they start “My Life on Paws,” which has garnered more than 6,000 Likes on Facebook and 9,000 followers on Instagram.
The couple are employed elsewhere during the day, but after work, Ade bakes fresh goodies from scratch, mixing “human-grade, pet-safe, and healthy ingredients” by hand.
Gilbert and the three dogs taste everything first. Tail Wagger Banana Drops, Pawesome Mini Paw Cake, All-Natural Sweet Potato treats, and many more: Who can resist? My own dog Hershie, a picky eater, loves Ade’s cakes.
Check out My Life on Paws at Facebook (fb.com/mylifeonpawsgoodies), Instagram (@mylifeonpaws), e-mail mylifeonpaws@gmail.com, call 0920-9112613.
Next Friday: Enticing young people into the family business
Queena N. Lee-Chua is on the board of directors of Ateneo de Manila University’s Family Business Development Center. Get her book “Successful Family Businesses” at the University Press (e-mail msanagustin@ateneo.edu.) E-mail the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com.