As a seasoned businessman, Francisco "Jay" Bernardo III continues to share his entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to make others think creatively about financial freedom through a Netflix-like education tool, and even about defense of the country against a possible war through camp-based recreational activities.

Speaking before officers and members of the Rotary Club of Makati last Tuesday, 12 September 2023, Bernardo shared that his group, Bayan Academy, is expanding its entrepreneurship literacy project with digital programs featuring other business leaders to teach the poor on how to earn more while helping solve other people's problems.

Democratization of entrepreneurial education

"We're doing a Netflix-like project where entrepreneurship education is democratized, providing business literacy at an affordable price," Bernardo, who is also an entrepreneurship professor at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, said.

For P20 a month, he said the public can gain financial and business knowledge from the digital programs with talks by highly trusted company leaders and business coaches, such as Bo Sanchez and Francis Kong. "It's learning on demand," Bernardo said.

There are now around 450,000 members of the entrepreneurship literacy program, he added.

One common lesson from entrepreneurs, he said, is how to turn problems into meaningful businesses or social enterprises.

"I realized that it's much more difficult to make an impact on millions of people than earn millions of pesos," Bernardo said.

From a supplier of Johnson & Johnson hygiene products, Bernardo expanded into being a co-working space provider as well as educational and marketing programs through Start Up Village.

The latter is where aspiring entrepreneurs gather to brainstorm and test business ideas, learning how to spot problems in society and create high-impact solutions.

Bernardo said village members visit different countries and global companies like Google to study innovative solutions.

"If you're going into business, just look at your personal crisis or other people's crisis. The endless crises in society offer opportunities somewhere," he stressed.

Critical situations

One of these critical situations, Bernardo said, is the aggression effected by Chinese naval authorities against the Philippine Coast Guard and fisherfolk over the Philippine-China West Philippine Sea territorial dispute.

As a solution, Bernardo, who is called by his students as the Guru of Entrepreneurship and Ambassador of Fun, suggested to the Armed Forces of the Philippines that the AFP train and educate the Filipino public  on defense through such recreational activities as paintball shooting games within military camps.

"I sat down with the AFP generals at the camp and we were talking about the Russia-Ukraine war that might happen with China. Our group was saying that they could open their camps and let people in but in a fun way to get themselves physically fit, do paintball shooting, learn the values of discipline and love of country," he said.

"I said I'll have the people but they (the AFP) will have to provide the facilities. This will be fun and people will post about it and we can learn how to stand up when the situation calls," Bernardo continued.

He clarified that he is not directly forcing the public to fight but simply stressing how entrepreneurship can be used to solve a range of problems and provide alternative styles of livelihood.

"We want peace and also teach the military about entrepreneurship, especially those in the provinces who have no time to fight," Bernardo said.