Building a life with purpose, meaning
(Editor’s note: These are excerpts from the speech of Pammy Olivares-Vital, president and CEO of Ovialand Inc., during Inquirer Campus Talks’ “She Means Business” forum, held on March 12 at St. Paul University in Quezon City.)
It is honestly still surreal for me to be invited to speak in forums like this. I still remember being exactly where you are today, sitting in a classroom, listening to speakers and wondering what life would look like after graduation.
Let me introduce myself in the way that matters most to me. I am Pammy Olivares-Vital. I am Bryan’s wife, the mom of four children—Therese, Alvaro, Cesco and Lucia. I am the daughter of Jing and Nanette, sister to six siblings, and somewhere in that list of roles, I also happen to be the CEO of Ovialand.
Ovialand is a real estate company that builds housing communities for Filipino families. Our goal is simple: to give our clients the best value-for-money homes their hard-earned savings can buy.
Finding my purpose
In my career, I have been part of more than 10,000 families who moved into their brand new homes. It has been quite a journey, and we still have many mountains ahead of us, but leading this company has allowed me to discover something far more important than success. It allowed me to find my purpose.
But that purpose did not come with a clear plan.
When I entered De La Salle University in 2002, I took Business Management. I imagined myself working in tall office buildings, living what I thought was the corporate dream.
Unfortunately, I did not qualify for that track because of math and accounting. So I asked myself a different question: what is it that I actually enjoy doing?
When I closed my eyes and imagined my future, I saw myself standing in front of people, in classrooms and panels. I did not know exactly what I would be teaching or talking about, but I enjoyed the idea of helping people learn. So I shifted to Educational Psychology and began imagining that maybe one day I would become a teacher, or open my own school.
Then life changed direction quickly.
Family business
A few weeks after graduation, my father told me that our family business was in trouble. We were already selling houses then but there were no expectations that I would join the business.
Sales were declining and the pressure on him was very real. Of course, when your family needs help, you do not say no.
On my third day of work, Typhoon Milenyo hit the Philippines. We had only one housing project then, one source of revenue, and the access bridge leading to our development was washed away by the storm.
But my father, the seasoned entrepreneur that he is, did not look defeated. He simply said, “It’s okay. We will ask the government to repair the bridge… Just make sure we sell the houses. Everything will turn out okay.”
I trusted him. So I focused on selling houses. The problem was that I had absolutely no idea how to sell houses.
No one trained me. I carried a small notebook where I wrote everything I was learning and every idea I had. Most of what I tried did not work. Looking back, maybe eight out of 10 ideas failed.
Building grit
But I kept going. I met every broker, seller, and client I could. I organized open houses. I drove to the project site early in the morning and stayed until late in the evening. At that time I believed that if I expected people to give their best to the company, then I had to give even more.
Meanwhile many of my friends were starting careers in multinational companies and banks. They would talk about their offices, their bosses, their trainings and seminars. They were living the path I once imagined for myself.
I asked them about the trainings they attended. Our company could not afford those programs then, so I researched and started conducting trainings for our team. Instead of holding events in five-star hotels, we held them in McDonald’s function rooms with me holding the microphone.
Doing all those things myself gave me the experience that prepared me for leadership later on.
Growing the business
Slowly, things started improving. Sales began to pick up, and eventually the broken bridge was replaced. But even as things stabilized, one lesson kept repeating itself in our company.
My father would always say: the houses must be good—not “pwede na”, not mediocre. It has to be the best product we can give at that price.
The next decade moved quickly. We grew the company step by step, with modest capital, a lot of hard work, and the courage to keep going. Along the way I also got married, built a family, and became a mother of four.
Meaningful life
Today Ovialand has grown far beyond what we started with.
Every time I visit one of our communities and see a family moving into their new home, when I see children running around the streets, neighbors talking outside their houses, parents watching their kids play safely in their own neighborhood, I am reminded of why this work matters.
And that is the kind of work that gives life meaning.
So if there is one thing I hope you remember from my story today, it is this: You do not have to have everything figured out to begin building a meaningful life.
You only need a vision, the courage to keep moving forward, and the willingness to grow through the challenges along the way. Because when your work helps build something meaningful in the lives of others, you will never run out of reasons to keep going.
