Quitting my job at my dream company during a pandemic

“A million girls would kill for this job”– it’s a famous line from one of my favorite movies, Devil Wears Prada. Somehow when I tendered my resignation back in July 2021, that line was reverberating in my head only it went something like this “the other guys would kill to work for this company”.

It was actually the easiest decision I’ve done in my lifetime nonetheless it was not a decision I’ve decided on a whim. The decision primarily stemmed from the daily tasks, interactions and relationships that built up to be no longer aligned to my values.

Aligning my Purpose

Joining my dream company in 2018 was probably the best thing that happened to me in my professional life and getting to experience their gruesome test to prove my prowess as a salesperson for the past 9 years was humbling. Not gonna go through the whole process but it was pretty much a test of your work ethics and your smarts that they implement on your third month in the company to decide whether you’re a good fit. When I went through it I was ready to throw in the towel as I had a lot of self-doubt whether I could do the job or not. I wasn’t used to stretching myself. I’ve had it easy in my previous companies. However, I was blessed to have one of the best line manager at the time who painstakingly followed my day literally from 8AM to 7PM to assess how I work. She saw the relationships I built with my customers. She saw my potential. And that support from her was enough for me to spark the belief in me that perhaps I got what it takes.

I decided to embrace and imbibe the company’s culture of excellent performance. It wasn’t easy but it did allow me to access parts of me that I never thought I have within me. I was able to thrive having been away from Manila for 2 years and I was able to jumped from one role to another as I expanded my skillset. It was the best two years of my life. I was working at my peak and I had a lot of fire within me.

Living my Purpose

I was on a roll for 2 years and then I got promoted from handling regional distributors to a more exciting role handling national accounts. I joined the new team in March 2020 but the lockdown happened. It was a an uncertain time as we all had to navigate working in the “new normal”. It was especially challenging for me as I had to meet my accounts in the new normal setup for the first time. It felt like building an online relationship with someone only it was in a professional setting. How do I build my credibility to them? How do I earn their trust? How do we navigate the new normal together?

Having to t

The Creative Pursuit

May 31, 2025—

Continuing from where I left off—having to navigate the new normal altogether with my experience of jumping from one job to another and one role to another within the organization provided me with the tenacity to withstand any uncertainty that I come across to. I just knew that if I quit from Unilever, it would be all on me whether to fail or not based on the skillsets I have stacked from them.

Writing this from 2025 I realized I am faced with a much bigger responsibility and calling, and that is to pay it forward to emerging talents who deserve the spotlight and gain access to things I didn’t have access to when I was in college who was dreaming of making it big in magazines.

I do have a soft spot to kids who are pursuing an internship outside their required university requirements. I also have a soft spot to kids who hold a scholarship pursuing a degree that they really want to pursue after graduation. Over the years I have seen talented individuals who couldn’t break in the industry just cause they didn’t have the right connection. Having said that, I noticed the really talented ones could break it in but didn’t have the soft skills to ensure their longevity.

What’s in the Horizon

The past few weeks have been a mixed of vague conviction and a sturdy confusion. Sometimes I find myself asking whether I have the patience to mentor someone and realize their full potential. But one thing is for sure, whenever I look at my Espacio kiddos, even my nephews and nieces, I hope they could see that there is definitely a silver lining in pursuing what you love to do. You just have to really do something that not everyone within your peers are doing. And it is showing up and betting on yourself fiercely.

How to Beat COVID-19

Today marks the 14th day of the onset of my symptoms after being exposed from COVID-19. I’m not contagious anymore according to my doctor and nurses but my immune system is still weak so precautions must still be taken even at home by wearing mask and taking multivitamins every day.

Contracting COVID is especially harder if you infect your loved ones. So I want to share how people can prepare well when COVID hit your household.

If something is off– don’t go out. It started as an itch in my throat on Sunday morning but I chose to work and shoot for the day. I thought it was just an itchy throat but little did I know I was developing symptoms from COVID-19. Had brunch at my brother’s house and inadvertently infected their household. Looking back, I should’ve been more scrupulous when I felt something was off. So don’t go out even with just an itchy throat!
Self-isolate as soon as possible. Later that night I learned that one of my friends contracted the virus, I immediately self-isolated and informed my close contact during my shoot that day as soon as I received the text message. It was downhill from there when I got home that night. I developed a high-grade fever and my body was generally weak. My temperature was hovering from 38 to 38.8 Celsius from Sunday night to Monday night. Took paracetamol every 4 hours for my fever.
Isolate the high-risk patients in your household. My mom was developing symptoms on Tuesday morning. She was feeling weak and feverish. I realized we had coffee on Saturday morning and most probably got the virus from me that day. Later on Wednesday we got her tested and she tested positive for COVID-19. We isolated my father and my sister earlier in the process and they never contracted the virus. Self-isolation is very important.
Stay calm. The physical symptoms is half the battle. You need to have the mental resilience to deal with COVID-19. Focus on what you can control. I immediately asked to be removed from the house so as not to infect anyone further as it was also causing a great deal of anxiety for everybody. Focus on recovering and pray. My mom was also taken to the hospital for close monitoring as we dealt with the crisis.
Eat healthy. In the process, you may lose your sense of taste and smell. You need to force yourself to eat even when you can’t taste anything. I ate a lot of fruits and drank lots of ginger lemon tea. It also helped with my sore throat.
Sleep in a prone position. Basically, lie on your tummy when you sleep. It will help mobilize secretions in your lungs and maximize their expansion. It helped me relieve with the heaviness in my chest. I have to thank my friend Rezi who is a nurse in London for sharing this tip. It can save lives!
Stay home. Looking back this could have been avoided if I just stayed home. No one wants this to happen. Build the extra resilience to stay home while the vaccine is still not available.

A pandemic is still happening. Never let your guards down and stay safe. Take care! – Belg

8 Productivity Hacks During Quarantine

They say an idle mind is a devil’s playground. It’s super important that we do our best that we beat the boredom, anxiety, and stress of being stuck at home.

So during quarantine, I found some of the productivity hacks I’ve been doing since last year to be really useful during this time:

Commit to a morning routine– I have been talking about this a lot and made a previous post about it. Wake up at 5AM and win the first hour of your day doing the 20-20-20 method. 20 minutes of exercise, 20 minutes of meditation and 20 minutes reading. Those three things are important to set your mind, heart and body to win the day!
Eat a healthy breakfast– I know a plate of Tapsilog or a bowl of Champorado would be so good in the morning especially when it’s raining. Ugh. I would still have them but in very minimal portion. I notice I become easily tired when I eat way too much carbs in the morning. A no-fail breakfast for me during quarantine is a bowl of oatmeal, with my favorite fruit and a cup of ginger lemon tea.
List down the tasks for the day and do the hardest tasks in the morning– it does help to write down your important tasks. I normally would write them down on a post-it note and post it right in front of me. I feel giddy whenever I get to check at least 1 task from the list. I like to frontload my tasks in the morning as I avoid cramming in the afternoon.
Do the Pomodoro technique– it’s basically focusing on a task for an hour and taking a 15-minute break in between. I found it to be helpful in allowing my mental bandwidth to reset and at the same time, rest my back for sitting for so long. I have developed some back and shoulder pain during quarantine cause I would sometimes forget to take a break. So for me not to forget that, I do this next item…
Set a reminder for your planned breaks– I actually have an app for this called the Productivity App. But you don’t need really need an app for this. If you have an iPhone, simply use the Reminders option and set reminders every hour. Get off your seat, walk around, get some sun, play with your dogs, walk to the kitchen, get a glass of water.
Use focus music as your music background– I would sometimes listen to some focus music on YouTube to keep my concentration on a certain tasks especially if I’m beating a deadline. I use this if I really want deep concentration.
Exercise daily-yep, I know, two physical activities in 1 day. But what I do is a light workout in the afternoon, or yoga to cap my workday. It’s just a great release of endorphins after stretching your brains and sitting your butt for a long time.
Get enough sleep– it’s important to get your optimum sleeping hours to set up another winning day. A 7-hour sleep would be just enough for me to feel energized the next day, beyond that I’d feel really tired. Too little, my brain would be fried.

Anyhoo, these are some of the things I have been doing to keep myself at my optimum productivity every day. There are some days you might fall off the wagon and that’s okay. Hope you get to use some of these hacks and sound off in the comments if you have other productivity hacks.

Don’t Do a Half-Baked Job or Don’t Do It At All

Simply put, if you commit on a project, make sure you complete it excellently. Otherwise, do not do it at all. You will be wasting precious resources… especially time.

Live As If You Were Living for the Second Time

I didn’t invent the title. It’s lifted from Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. It goes, “So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”

I was talking to my sister recently and I was telling her how this pandemic is allowing me to live as if I’m living my life the second time around. It does help to subscribe to this idea as every day you try to live your life better than the bay before.

The photo above was taken in Tokyo in 2014. I remember how I was just thinking how the old man looked so happy for living his best life and questioning whether I was living my best life. I didn’t have the answers then. But I think I have the answer now.

So if you have to live as if you were living your life the second time around, what would you have done differently?

Fiction and Non-Fiction Books of the Month

I found that its best to read a fiction before going to bed. This is the best time to recharge your mental bandwidth from working the whole day. Conversely, I found that its best to read non-fiction books in the morning as you it helps ignite my brain’s neurons and prepare for the day.

Fiction I’m currently reading:

Love in the Time of Cholera– I’m halfway through. So far, so good. This books has been recommended by a lot of my friends so I’m excited to finish this one. Been sleeping late because of this. Best to read this over the weekend from cover to cover.

Non-fiction I’m currently reading:

The 80/20 Principle– I highly recommend this one. A lot of our time is spent doing things we don’t enjoy or on things we’re not good at. This book will tell you how to focus on multiplying the top 20 percent things that return 80 percent of your happiness.

It’s one reason why I have been writing. 🙂

Use this time during lockdown to catch up on those books you failed to finish.

Take care! – Belg

Why You Should Start Using This App for Meditation

I have been meditating consistently for the past 43 days. Thanks to this app I discovered from Tim Ferris. This app is called Waking Up with Sam Harris.

I think I have this app to thank for in shaping my psyche to remain calm during this lockdown. Also, it helped me quit smoking for almost a month now. Some people would describe meditating as a struggle as they can’t seem to quiet their mind. I find the guided meditation on this app really helpful as Sam walks you through every single step, every day.

Try the free version of the app first and then decide later whether you want to purchase or not. But I say go for it, the cost is just equivalent to a pair of trousers in Uniqlo.

Look after yourself. 🙂 -Belg

2 Ways to Write on Your Journal

I have been asked by a lot of friends recently on how to write on their journal. I have been encouraging a lot of my friends and family to use it to express themselves especially during quarantine.

It may be a bit of a challenge especially if you’ve never done it before. I remember taking my time on my first journal last year. So I just approached it by writing as if I’m writing to my future self who’s gonna be reading that journal entry in the far distant future when I feel sappy and nostalgic.

There are two ways you can journal:

Write a letter to yourself– talk about how your day went, what were the highlights, what were the lows, how do you make it better if you had to relive the day, write down the steps you took in achieving your plans, who pissed you off, who made you smile, what are the things you’re looking forward to the next day. Write down pretty much everything you wanna tell your best friend.
Do the 5 Minute Journal– so this one’s a total opposite of the free-hand version as you need to write them in bullet format. I discovered this from Tim Ferris’ video. It’s pretty simple, you need to allot 5 minutes in the morning and then 5 minutes at night. Here are the bullets you can follow:
- 3 things you are grateful for
- What would make today great
- Daily affirmations
- 3 amazing things that happened today
- How could you make today better

Recently I would find myself doing a mix of the two. You can experiment on which one feels more natural to you. While there are no hard rules on how to write on your journal, it’s important to use it to allow your mind to empty itself on your notebook.

It can be cathartic and therapeutic.

-Belg

Do More of What Makes You Happy

It can be simple. Let’s eliminate the stressors, and double-down on things we love to do. Yep, easier said than done I know. But you need to at least find a way to give yourself a chance to make this quarantine life work for you.

I haven’t discovered the secret to happiness but I kinda discovered a hack to find just that every day.

SO… as an exercise,

Get a piece of paper and write down all the things you love- as in ANYTHING you love from the most mundane thing to the things that you are passionate about. Be generous and write them all down. (I have mine below as an example)
Highlight the things you can easily accomplished or achieved any given day. Given the lockdown situation, some things may not be attainable. BUT we’re not here to talk about the unattainable stuff. Focus on what you can achieve.
Once you have identified those things, make sure you include those activities in your schedule everyday or at least allot a day for those activities. 🙂

I know I made it sound super simple. But try it!!! 🙂 – Belg

Winning Your Day during Quarantine

One of the things I struggled with during the start of quarantine was the disruption of my daily routine and trying to separate work from my personal life given the work-from-home setup. Fortunately, I ran across this book on Scribd called The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma.

I have been following the morning routine mentioned in that book on how to set up yourself to win the first hour of your day.

The rules are simple. Just follow the 20-20-20 method: 20 minutes of workout, 20 minutes of meditation/journaling, 20 minutes of reading. This way you’re conditioning your mind that you have accomplished the most important tasks in the first hour of your day.

It was a struggle to do at first especially waking up at 5AM. But having just to do it consistently after 1 week made it easier. I don’t struggle to wake up early anymore even at 4:30AM, even on a Saturday or a Sunday.

It’s super rewarding because you get to accomplish a lot in the morning with zero distraction. I wasn’t really a morning person before but it’s a whole new different world out there at 5 in the morning.

Anyway, love this line from the book: “Elevate your morning, elevate your life!”