Heroes are made, not born.

And only few Filipinos can exemplify this quote better than Manny Pacquiao, the Philippines’ primary source of pride and inspiration. From an impoverished life he fought his way to the top, emerging as the first and only eight-division world champion with ten world titles under his belt. Thanks to his achievements, Pacquiao has gained multitude of fans from around the world, with some experts describing him as the history’s finest boxer.

But what makes Manny Pacquiao one-of-a-kind? What are the forces that have pushed him to excel in boxing and even explore music, basketball, and politics among others?

A Manny Pacquiao fight may last only for 36 minutes.

But in those 36 minutes, crime rate drops to zero.

In those 36 minutes, peace reigns in the Philippines.

In those 36 minutes,  Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao makes the Filipinos forget there ever was a problem of poverty in their homeland.

Manny Pacquiao took the road less travelled to where he is now. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far this man has come with all the millions, cars, houses and huge entourages he now rolls with. But before he was appearing in movies, commercials and donning the covers of magazines around the world, Pacquiao was busy hustling the streets of General Santos City to find something to eat.

Growing up exposed to the realities of poverty and hunger, Manny’s first dream he remembered having as a child was that of a “table of bowls overflowing with food“ and his family smiling as “they ate their fill, and their stomachs were content for an entire day.

Emmanuel “Manny” Dapidran Pacquiao was born on December 17, 1978 in Kibawe, Bukidnon in MIndanao here in the Philippines. Born of a typical poverty-stricken Filipino family, Manny Pacquiao left elementary school when his father left his mother to be with another woman.

He was skinny. He was lost. And just like a lot of adolescent kids in the Philippines, he was an out-of-school youth. But one thing Pacquiao wasn’t and still is not, is lazy. Pacquiao always tried to find ways to better himself based on what he knew. He tried his hand at selling cigarettes and donuts and repacking garlic to re-sell so he can make some coin. He tried doing construction work and moved to Manila to find money making opportunities. And then he found boxing.

When not wandering the streets to sell his merchandise, he would be seen visiting other nearby villages and towns to compete for boxing matches most especially during town fiestas for a reward of just P150 (~US$3) for winners and P100 (~US$2) for the loser. The money that he gets would be a great help for his mom to support their living expenses, and for buying rice.

Sadly, the brutality of Pacquiao’s early years, Dickensian to most western eyes, is far from unusual in his home country of the Philippines, where nearly 6% of children are orphaned and 40% of its 90 million people wallow in abject poverty.

Work Hard if  You Want Success

Such a childhood helped him learn many important lessons. The first of all – for success you need to work hard. Poverty, the lack of opportunity, not having education, these are all challenges. They are not reasons to concede defeat. If you work hard, good things will happen. We all have our gifts and talents. When the means are not there for you, you have to make it for yourself.

Furthermore, when asked about his formula for success, Manny often says dedication, perseverance, courage, extreme self-discipline and prayer are his secrets. He called the system the “Power Three.” This three-step process involves:

1.      Your goals
2.     A  system to reach those goals
3.     Discipline to maintain your system until you reach your goals.

He once claimed:

Anyone will succeed in whatever field of endeavor in life by acquiring the same virtues and character that boxing world champions do.

Truly, Manny Pacquiao is one of the best athletes in the world not only in his profession but also to his friends as well. Although he is universally considered the best boxer in the world and ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 6th wealthiest athlete, he never flashed his money, never wore gold and diamonds to brag to his friends, nor he treated people like they are inferior to him. He kept his same old friends, and these friends are poor, some are missing a tooth, barefooted, and wrinkled shirts with old stains on them. He welcomed them to his mansion, played basketball in the shantytowns of his hometown, and always gives credits to the people who are the dearest to him.

Manny is a pioneer for young individuals who seeks success in life, respect for others, and is a symbol of modesty and professionalism!

The Importance of Education

The other lesson he learned is the importance of education. In spite of having millions, Manny always wanted to improve, to learn, to work on himself, to be a better man. Therefore he wished to continue with schooling he once left.

Pacquiao completed his elementary education at Saavedra Saway Elementary School in General Santos City, but dropped out of high school due to extreme poverty. He left his home at age 14 because his mother, who had six children, was not making enough money to support her family. But, in February 2007 he took, and passed, a high school equivalency exam making him eligible for college education. He was awarded with a high school diploma by the Department of Education. Pacquiao enrolled for a college degree in business management at Notre Dame of Dadiangas University (NDDU) in his hometown in General Santos City. On February 18, 2009, Pacquiao was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities (Honoris Causa) by Southwestern University (SWU) at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino in Lahug, Cebu City in recognition of his boxing achievements and humanitarian work.

In preparation for his career as a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Pacquiao enrolled in the Certificate Course in Development, Legislation and Governance at the Development Academy of the Philippines ““ Graduate School of Public and Development Management (DAP-GSPDM).

Purpose  of Life Is to Be Useful

Ralph Waldo Emerson, famous poet, once said:

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Manny may never heard of  Emerson, but he lives just according to these quotes.

He came from extreme poverty. Now that he has everything in life he still practices that extreme humbleness in his heart. That’s why he is so loved by people in Philippines.

As a philanthropist, he is spending hundreds of thousands of his own dollars to help those in need. Manny returned to Barangay Tango in Glan, Sarangani, the Filipino village where he grew up, to offer free housing to the impoverished people who currently reside there. The project will benefit an estimated 94 families and cost the pugilist over $2 million. The boxer told his constituents that they would be allowed to live for free but that they must help build their own houses. He helped people who lost their homes after floods ravished the Philippines, donating money he earned from his fights. He donates one million pesos to a hospital in GenSan every time he has a fight.

When one of his sparring partners said he was getting married, Pacquiao helped the newlyweds buy a house. When the poor province in which he grew up in the Philippines needed a hospital, he ponied up some of the money for one. When his country had elections, Pacquiao ran twice for and finally won a post in congress. He helped start one program to give cattle to farmers and another to give small motors to fishermen for their boats.

Manny Pacquiao owns a lottery outlet for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, but this isn’t just a regular lottery outlet. The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office is actually the charity arm of the government, which means that a lot of money that is made from the lottery is put to good use. The money is often reinvested back into public services, such as health care and welfare, and it wouldn’t be as successful without Manny Pacquiao’s name attached to it.

This is just one of the many ways he gives back to his country via charity, as he has also established his Foundation to support underprivileged individuals in the Philippines.

Remember the information from the beginning of the article, regarding the crime rate? Let’s get back to it. Well, when Manny fights, the crime rate goes down, because the entire country watches “” literally. The police in Manila say that crimes drop drastically during his fights, which means that even criminals stop their dirty work to watch. There are also regular squabbles between communist insurgents and Muslim secessionists, but even they put their battles on ice to watch him.

In simpler terms, nearly the entire country of roughly 90.5 million people stops to watch the Pac-Man fight, which is simply astounding.

Whenever he’s got a championship fight, the whole of the Philippines grinds to a halt. Rebels put down their guns, everything stops in the towns and cities as people gather around TVs, radios and in movie houses. But, it’s the same in London: whenever there’s a Manny fight, Filipinos gather in the early evening and spend a sleepless night waiting for him to enter the ring. What Manny means to people is pride.

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Manny Pacquiao is a Filipino world champion professional boxer. At 32 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives. He has also been involved in basketball, acting, and is a retired singer. He is the first and only eight-division world champion, in which he has won ten world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. According to Forbes, he was the 14th highest paid athlete in the world as of 2013. Pacquiao’s purse for his May 2 welterweight title bout in Las Vegas against Floyd Mayweather Jr. may reach $120 million.

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There are all kinds of parenting styles and while the jury is out on the best way to raise a child, two recent studies have some interesting findings when it comes to qualities parents value in relation to how much education they have had.

A Pew Research study compared child-rearing values by parents who came from three different education backgrounds: those who graduated college, those who had some college, and those who completed a high school degree or less. Additionally, a group of researchers from Brown University School of Medicine, Brandeis University, the National Children’s Medical Center, and the New England Center for Pediatric Psychology conducted a study, where they looked at numerous variables, including empowerment parenting versus traditional parenting, and have published a book with their findings, The Learning Habit.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again

According to Pew, while 39% of college graduates and 44% of non-college graduates value hard work and 51% of graduates and 59% of non-college graduates value being responsible, there are some values that demonstrate a marked difference between the groups.

For example, only eight percent of non-college graduates value persistence whereas that number rises to 13% for graduates. Similar statistics occur with the characteristic of curiosity, which is valued by five percent of non-college graduates and 13% of graduates.

These findings are complemented by the information in The Learning Habit, which found that empowerment parenting, which encourages parents to have an open mindset and targets building persistence, or “grit,” in children, is more effective than traditional parenting, which has a focus on discipline.

Thus, it appears that persistence is a highly desirable characteristic, and looking at the history books, we shouldn’t be too surprised by that. What would Helen Keller‘s life have been like, had Annie Sullivan not been persistent when trying to teach her? Or what if Nelson Mandela had given up fighting apartheid? There are many great people who have changed the world, and persistence is one trait shared by them all.

When parental education makes a difference

Pursuing a four-year college degree following high school may not be the right move for every child, but the overwhelming majority of those who have college degrees encourage their children to get degrees as well. In College Board/National Journal poll results released in April 2014 , 80% of those polled who were raised by two college graduates said their parents encouraged them to attend a four-year school after high school. This is in contrast to those raised by two non-college graduate parents, of which only 29% said they were encouraged to do so.

The encouragement appears to have the desired effect: in the same poll, 76% of those raised by two college graduates said they entered college (either a two-or four-year school) following high school; only 37% of those from families with two non-college graduate parents did.

Think about goals for your child

Maybe you have a parenting style – then again, maybe you don’t. Raising successful children is as much about the needs of each child as it is about any particular parenting style. So think about your child and her needs as well as your goals for her. If obtaining a college degree is one of these goals, for instance, think about the values you have worked to instill in her. Are they the ones that have been found to lead to empowerment and success when it comes to graduation? You may be right on track or you may want to adjust your values to help meet the specified goals.

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Shines a light on what has been an overlooked subject for society and the economy. The findings demonstrate for the first time just how far-reaching and damaging the consequences of bullying can be.

Thus, it seems a bad experience in our childhood, such as bullying, is more likely to lead to failure later in life. A 2008 study from  The Heritage Foundation  noted that numerous education reforms in the past few decades in the United States had little or no impact on student achievement. Instead, it showed that stable family structures and strong parental involvement were closely linked to positive educational outcomes such eagerness to study and college completion. Thus, instead of wasting time and money on ineffective education forms, the system should aim at strengthening family structure and should encourage greater parental involvement, in the US. Indeed, many children are raised in poverty, whether in developed industrial countries or in poorer societies. In our Western societies, many mothers have to work multiple jobs for long hours, in order to make ends meet or to advance in their careers. The downside is that they are then too busy and tired to give them the attention they require. As a result, one may claim that our childhood environment, education and the involvement of parents can determine non-cognitive skills and character. These studies, along with many more, point to the facts that our childhood affects our ability to succeed: a happy, wealthy and stable childhood will lead to success, while a troubled one will increase our chances of failure. According to another article from the  Annual Review of Psychology, social classes also determine attitudes that people develop towards success. Higher-income families tend to encourage kids to follow their dreams and tend to nurture a caring and hard-working environment. They may give them the tools and support to pursue various interests; to think creatively, to work independently and to take initiatives. Less wealthy families tend to emphasize pride in hardships and let their children figure out their limits on their own. Their children are not made aware of leadership skills in the same ways, and tend to do what they are told without taking risks and maybe even challenge authorities. It seems then that material success in early childhood has a positive influence on success, while poverty-stricken communities and families are less likely to succeed. However, this is highly debatable and  poverty does not necessarily mean inability to succeed. Building and supporting a stable and caring home environment is key for children to develop happily and to want to be successful later. Yet again, the definition and interpretation of such an environment is for each of us to determine. This will in no doubt influence young people’s character and non-cognitive skills such as creativity, critical thinking, willingness to take risks and taste for entrepreneurship. In turn, those skills can be powerful tools and drivers of success. What other factors from our childhood would you say affect our future success? What impacts do family structure, parental involvement and educational attainment in our childhood have on our ability to succeed?  Do you agree that our childhood can in any way lead us to be successful adults? Or is it all up to luck, right timing, taking risks and grabbing opportunities?

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Motivating a child to do well in school is one of the difficult tasks of parenting, especially because most of what is going on in school is beyond your control. Environment created by teachers, other students and the school itself can have a strong effect on children’s motivation. However, there are several things that parents can do at home to increase children’s motivation in school:

• Talk positively about school

Children listen and hear very well. So when they hear us talking negatively about school, teachers, a class teacher, or a director, we undermine their faith in the people who influence them and teach them every day. Look for the things that teachers and school are doing well and talk about them loudly. When children hear you talk positively about their school, they will feel your enthusiasm and thus feel the same about their school.

• “¨Remember that mutual human relations are important

Encourage and stimulate your child to develop positive relationships with other children in school. If the environment where а child stays is safe, interesting, comfortable and pleasant, your child will feel more motivated than if they are surrounded by negativity, teasing, etc”¦

• “¨Your relationship with teachers should be positive

ҬӬLook for ways to talk with your children about what their teachers do well, as well as the positive aspects of their relationship with them. By cherishing a positive outlook on school relations, you increase the chances of your children being more motivated in school.

• Encourage exercise and error and not just a result and perfection

“¨”¨In order to develop certain knowledge and skills, it is necessary to make mistakes, and practice. Encouraging repetition is necessary because “repetition is mother of all learning”. If your boss has ever stood over your head, you will know that the pressure about the result can affect you. It can also lower your motivation. When children know that they will not be scolded because of their grade, they feel free to experiment, make mistakes and try again. Having reduced the pressure about getting the best grade, learning becomes the process in which one can enjoy and motivation thus grows as well.

• Emphasize the importance of effort “¨”¨

When your child tells you their grade, make sure you point out the effort they invested in learning something and not the grade itself. Ask your child if they thought they had tried hard enough. Tell them what the teacher thinks of the child’s effort and ask them, “Is your teacher right? Did you invest less effort than you could have? “By doing it, you will let them know that work and effort are more important for you than the grade they got.

• Share with others the successes of your child

When a child demonstrates their knowledge and skills at school, let them hear your praise. For example: “Cathy has been trying really hard to do well in school and today she has been rewarded for it!” Or “John got a B for his work in Art, that’s just great” and “Rob has put in so much effort to well on this test. I’ve never seen him studing so much. We do not know the grade yet, but I’m so proud of him for trying so hard!”

By telling people about the success of your child and highlighting what they do well, you will motivate children to work hard, practice and do well at school.

How do you motivate your child?

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DID YOU KNOW that when Shaquille O’Neal was drafted to NBA, he spent the first million he earned within 30 minutes. O’Neal then received a phone call from his banker, who scolded him, and told him that he would end up joining the list of former athletes who ended up broke if he continued with this kind of behavior.

That prompted O’Neal to go back to school and work more on his education.  He  completed his Bachelor degree, followed by his M.B.A, and lastly, his Ed.D. Today Shaquille O’Neal  is Dr. Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaq is also the successful businessman. He is the joint owner of 155 Five Guys Burgers restaurants, 17 Auntie Annie’s Pretzels restaurants, 150 car washes, 40 24-hour fitness centers, a shopping center, a movie theater, and several Las Vegas nightclubs. He obtained knowledge and education that helped him protect all that he earned as a basketball player, and that made him a full, independent and intellectually strong person.

This is just one example how sports and education can and must go hand in hand.

The next story is about the basketball club “Sava” from Belgrade, Serbia. They’re connected in a way, you’ll see.  

All matches of the basketball club “žSava” in the category of cadets and juniors have been cancelled until further notice. The reason for this is that a big  number of players have  earned bad grades at school. Matches will be scheduled and played later on, only if they fix them. We are aware of possible consequences this decision might have for our club, but we’re convinced that the academic success of the players is far more important.

This warning on the board at the entrance to the basketball court was not a prank. The coach Milos Ristic was serious in his mission to raise awareness of these young athletes for the importance of education. “Only if you have good grades, you can be in the team, and deserve the status of the top basketball player”, he said.

“Coach, I got a good grade in math! Instead of C, I now have an A“,  speaks a blond boy with a bag over his shoulder, as he enters the club before the training session. There comes another one. He takes off headphones, and politely greets the coach.

His name is Ilija Gunjic. He has all A’s in school and has taken two classes at once. He wants to finish school earlier, in order to enroll in college as soon as possible.There are many other whom we are proud of, like Milos Gvozdenovic, the second best young physicist in Serbia. Other players are doing just fine, as well. It shows school and sports can work together just fine  – says Ristic.

Coaches in the club keep a record  of  all 121 children  who are part of  the  club with detailed reports of their grades, behavior at school, school attendance, absences for the period before the quarter, after and at the end of the school year. They talk to each player about the things they have to learn at school, helping them to be better students. On the other hand, players collaborate among themselves, and function as a team. It is nice to see how older ones advise and help younger players while sitting at lunch, just outside the court after practice. There are no cell phones, no quarrels or conflicts. You can only hear something that has to do with trigonometry, math, geometry”¦ or basketball. Most of the time the kids do their homework at the club, and study together, in groups. This helps them to perform well when they go to school.

But, the education they take care of in this club is not just about fractions. Attention is paid also to proper nutrition, history, biology, life, family, respect, tradition, and music.

“When we heard that our players were listening to folk music in the locker room, we let them be. But, then one of the coaches took them to another room and played them music of Jim Morrison and the Doors. He wanted to show them that there are different types and styles of music, apart from the songs they have listened. We did not want to force them to change their mind. We just wanted to give them the opportunity to learn something new and then make their own choices”.

So what is the whole point of this text? It is to show you that education and sports can, in fact, go hand in hand and supplement one another. Education is as essential for sport, as sport is for education. Sport teaches you many valuable lessons, but paired with education, it gives you the edge to succeed in  life. And isn’t that what we all strive for?  

In the end, it doesn’t matter how much money the basketball player will earn one day, or how popular he will be. More important is to get good education in time, and master various skills that will help you face any future challenges. Even if a talented kid plays one day for the biggest club in the world, and becomes enormously rich without knowledge to support all that, he can easily lose everything. In no time. Education will prevent such things. Education can only help.

In Shaq’s own words:

“It is not about how much money you make. The question is are you educated enough to KEEP it.”

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