Symph Asks vol. 1

People have always asked Symph questions. This time Symph did the asking.

With Miss Universe in the news and an event our ladies put together for February coming up, we asked the tech (and non-tech) ladies of Symph the question of the week, pageant style:

Name something from the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience.

Here is what they said.

I fail to keep a light heart and an open mind when meeting new people. I have always been subject to my biases but through the recognition of that failure, I've learned that people surprise you and it's that feeling of wonder and amazement that adds to the beauty of life.

Ashley Uy, Director of Startups

Selflessness. As early as I can remember, I've always been putting other people's happiness and need before mine - this, I consider this as the one of the greatest privilege in this world - the gift of being able to help and give - and I will continuously do as long as I live. But amidst all the compassion I have for others and amidst all the giving of the soul, mind, heart and hand for others even if it costed my own happiness, I forgot sharing it with someone I've been with my whole existence and this is "me". I forgot that there will always be two sides of a coin and I took the other side (myself) for granted. And this is where I've failed myself. I should have remembered myself and shouldn't allowed myself to drain.

Given this, maybe there should be a balance. I will never give up on kindness and giving though. But I will also now listen to what my heart, my mind and my passion's voice.

Ianna Fernandez, Project Manager

I failed on chasing a dream. I did not chase on a specific dream like becoming an architect or a designer or whatever comes to my mind like ballroom dancing. I have so many things I want to do that I end up doing nothing. What I learned is that to find what you really want to do takes time but I could be wrong and I wasted all those time. But then again, I can start now before waste more time. Hahahaha! And world peace!

Nagsige pa ko figure out what I want to do really. I have so many things I want to do. I'll just be excellent and work hard with what I have now while I am still confused.

Nicole Padin, Director of Business Operations

Failure to express my love and affection towards each member of my family. Something tragic happened and until now sometimes I still feel that partly I was at fault why it happened. I became depressed and hit rock bottom. And then one day I realized that there was nothing I can do about it. Every time I remember those times and feel 💩 ,I will just tell myself that it happened because life is trying to teach me valuable lessons.

LotLot Arcipe - Rubite, Director of UI/UX

When I was younger, I failed to appreciate myself and failed to understand that as an individual, I am capable of doing things that are special. Now, I have learned to love myself and embrace all my strengths and abilities. I have learned to be comfortable under my own skin and now understand that the world is my own stage and I am the actress. :)

Franchette Camoro, Developer Intern

I failed to pass the entrance exam for UP Law twice. It was my dream, to graduate law from UP. However, I told myself that graduating from UP Law is not the goal, being a lawyer is. So I enrolled in USC Law thinking that when you fail, change the plan but never the goal.

Yna del Rosario, Project Manager / Law Student

I've never allowed my self to make mistakes - by never really pushing things out in the open, by stopping to create things in hopes that when I do finally make one - it is life-changing, impact-making and perfect. Anything lesser than that was a failure for me. And so, I never really created any output at all.

Holding back due to the fear of failing mostly did the failure for me; I became a failure before even making a mistake, by making someone else's metrics matter more than own. I realized that each of my creative endeavors will never be perfect - but altogether out in the open, I give it the potential to be, and perhaps they are pieces to something that could really be life-changing or impact-making. So, keep creating.

Erika Lagunzad, Director of Branding

I failed at taking risks for one reason or another. I learned that yes, not taking risks will save you from a lot of things but not taking risks will stagnate you. It prevents you from achieving the amazing things that could have happened to you or the things you could have done. But of course when taking risks - think about it really hard.

Mary Rose Tan, Designer and Full Stack Developer

As much skills as I have today, I still see myself to have failed at art. I failed to preserve my skills and share them properly them to the world. Art is said to be a bridge to your imagination to the real world but I can still experience that the way I used art for expression is not yet enough. Maybe someday I can use a bigger projector for my imaginations and the more I can express it well , the more I can reveal who I truly am. There's got to be a perfect trigger to turn it on.

Kim Javier, Multimedia Intern

Impressing and meeting the expectations of people is a constant struggle for me. One of which I failed at, is to get to the Top 30 national finalists of Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines. Later on, I realized that in the end, you fail at some point in your life in order to achieve something better in the future. If I was part of that top 30, I would have never worked in Symph and became part of an awesome family. Certainly, it was a failure that led me to better opportunities. Thank you! bow!

Justine Win Cañete, UI/UX Designer and Developer

I failed to adult and I learned that you don't get to. EVER. I think peter pan has a point about not wanting to grow up. But on a serious note, this adulting thing takes time. So i'm quite chill. I've only been here for 2 decades.

So, who knows?

Maryanne Apale, Bizdev - HappyWebs

Every one of those answers deserved a standing ovation.

Come meet our Symph ladies and other Tech Ladies in Cebu on February 24 for lightning talks and networking over drinks.

Registration is free, and you can sign up here.