Sometimes, being successful means trekking a path that is different from what was offered.

That was the case for Philips Monitor sales and marketing manager Jack Salamia.

Salamia, 41, told DAILY TRIBUNE that after graduating at the Technological Institute of the Philippines with a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering in 2005, he opted to take a corporate job at Smart rather than be a cameraman, which was the common route for his colleagues.

“Our normal route to class was as a cameraman for GMA News and Public Affairs. The majority of my classmates were there,” Salamia said.

“But there was an offer coming from Smart to become sales. So, I said ‘let me try a different path.’”

Changing his path didn’t happen overnight as Salamia found his calling while selling pirated CDs and DVDs while he was in college.

“I’m a type of guy who’s a bit of an extrovert and I love selling items so that I can have personal money. So, when I was studying, I was selling pirated CDs and DVDs,” Salamia said.

“I used to also sell SIM cards. At the time of my college, SIM swap was still popular. So, if you have Globe, you’ll swap it to Smart and then, you’ll swap the Smart to Globe.”

He worked for Smart in Customer Sales from 2005 to 2008 before becoming an account manager for LG Electronics from 2008 to 2011.

In his current position with Philips, where he started in 2011 and remains there to this day, Salamia said there are only 20 people in the team, including Philips country manager Kan Yeung.

“We are only 20 people who run the business for the entire Philips monitors in the Philippines for the past years. Because we go through distributors. So, it’s more on bringing the monitors in the Philippines and then we manage the distributors,” Salamia said.

One of their biggest breakthroughs was last May where they partnered with Vespa Philippines Motoitalia for their “Ride Fast, Play Fast” promo where consumers would buy Philips monitors for a Vespa S125.

“I think our milestone for Philips was the partnership with Vespa because the partnership brought us a lot of exposure out of the box. We were able to partner with non-IT and then with the media’s help, we were able to experience a good turnout of sales,” Salamia said, who also handles the sales of AOC, a sister brand of Philips.

“For AOC, we are still No. 1 and I can say this is a milestone because it’s hard to maintain AOC as No. 1. There are months or quarters that we are not on top but maintaining AOC as the top gaming monitor in the Philippines is already a milestone for us.”

Currently, Philips is now offering their services to the esports teams of colleges and universities in the country.

Salamia said one of their goals is to provide monitors for one of the teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

Two of the three games played in UAAP Season 87, NBA 2K24 and Valorant, were played using monitors and Salamia believes this is a good opportunity for them to further push their brand.

“If we can’t sponsor the whole league of UAAP Esports, then my plan this 2025 is to talk to one of the eight schools like De La Salle University or UST (University of Santo Tomas),” Salamia said.

“We can just go there and then, we want to show them that when you use Philips monitors, you will maximize your gaming experience.”

For Salamia, playing on one’s strengths will always be something that will bear fruit, even if it isn’t the one that is printed on a diploma.

“My advice is very simple: Where you are good, make sure that you focus there,” Salamia said.

“I believe in multitasking but I also believe when you are focused on one thing, you will excel more in that part and then you will enjoy it. For work, an employee should be happy or a person, their career he or she should be happy.”

Yes, Salamia raised a lot of doubts when he carved his own path away from the one laid out to him when he graduated 20 years ago.

But it didn’t matter. It was his skills, hard work and talent that helped him get to where he is now.