I have had some personal experiences with insurance here, and I thought that this would probably be a good time to share my experiences along these lines.

The person who asked about such insurance is PaulB.  Paul left the following comment on my recent article about Warranties in the Philippines.  Paul wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the information.
My request is a little along the path from warranty…. Can and does Insurance operate in the Philipinnes! I want to get basic contents, flood insurance for the house we have just built. Any ideas how I go about this,? Who would do you recommend in Davao? If I did get it, would it pay up if required? I think the answer is ” Are you kidding!” but I thought its worth a comment…..

I offered this reply to Paul:

Hi PaulB – I am going to do something on this comment that I have never done before… I am going to specifically NOT answer your question. The reason is because what you are asking is too complicated to put in a comment. I need to write an article about this, and I will do that soon. So, tune in again, and I will write an article in the next 2 weeks answering your question about insurance, and my experience with insurance in the Philippines.

What is Insurance like in the Philippines?

The reason that I did not answer Paul’s query in the comments was several fold:

1. Not all readers of the site read all of the comments, especially on an article that is a few days old already.  Since this is an important topic, I wanted to give the topic a little more proper venue than in a comment, a place where everybody interested would see that the information is available.
2. The topic is a little complicated, and perhaps too long-winded for just a comment, and actually deserves fuller coverage in the way of an article.
3. I felt that the topic of Insurance was quite different from the topic of the previous article – Warranties, so I decided to make it a new article altogether.

As I said earlier in this article, I have indeed had experience with insurance here in the Philippines.  When living in the West, in the USA for me, it is the common practice to have insurance on practically everything you own.  It is just part of our western culture to carry such insurance.  Here in the Philippines, most people do not carry insurance on many of the things that a westerner would normally insure.

Car insurance is mandated by law here, however, the amount of insurance that you must carry is very small.  In the past, I carried full insurance on my vehicle.  However, as my car is now over 10 years old, I no longer carry such full coverage insurance.  I go with the minimal insurance that is required when you register your vehicle.  I personally would recommend getting full coverage if your vehicle is relatively new, perhaps newer than 5 or 6 years old.

What types of insurance do you have?

As a renter, we do not need to worry about homeowner’s insurance, that is the responsibility of the house owner.  So, this is not something that I concern myself with at all.  If you are renting your place of residence, though, the thing you need to think about insuring is your household belongings.  This would include anything in your house – furniture, appliances, whatever is under your roof.  Homeowner’s insurance is readily available here, as is insurance on the contents of your dwelling place.

Other types of insurance are also readily available.  I am sorry, but I do now know about flood insurance, though.

Now, let me relate my experience with insurance, and you can decide what kinds of coverage you should have, based on my experience.

In 2000, we moved to General Santos City.  One thing we found there was that we experienced earthquakes on a fairly regular basis.  We had contents insurance on our goods, but that insurance did not cover earthquake damage.  If you wanted earthquakes to be covered, you needed to buy a separate rider for your insurance policy to cover any damages from earthquakes.  Upon consideration, Feyma and I decided that it would be a good idea to purchase an earthquake rider for our policy, so we inquired with an insurance agent that we knew.  I do not recall the price of the earthquake coverage, nor does Feyma, but I have it in my mind that it cost us about P15,000 in 2000, which at that time was roughly $375.

On New Years morning, 2002, at about 5am, we were shaken from our sleep by a 7.2 Magnitude quake in General Santos City.  It was a real shaker!  I have experienced many earthquakes in my life (I’ve lived in California and other earthquake prone areas), but never one of this size.  I honestly thought at the time that we may die in the quake!  As it turned out, thankfully, we all lived through the quake, but there was substantial damage to much of our belongings in the house.  Things like bookshelves, cabinets and such were almost all shaken to the point that they fell over.  Dishes fell from the cupboards.  Many things were broken.

After everything calmed down, the cleanup effort began.  Mostly it was a matter of picking things up, putting them back in place and such.  I told Feyma to contact the insurance agent so that we could find out what to do in relation to our insurance coverage.  The agent told Feyma to gather any broken items into one place so that they could be inspected and a claim made.  So, this is what we did.  The agent was supposed to come and visit our house to check on the damage.

Notice I said “supposed to”.  Well, she never came.  We went to the office and some papers were filled out, but that was the end of it.  Nothing was ever paid to us.  No further contact came from anybody in the insurance company, except for frequent inquiries from us, but nothing in return.

This experience turned my mind around about insurance in the Philippines.  I cannot say for sure that this experience is common, or normal, but what I know is that it was my first and only experience with insurance in the Philippines.  After this, we have pretty much gone with only very minimal insurance at all, and mostly no insurance at all.  Things that must be insured, like the car, have the minimal insurance required.  Other than those minimal policies, I consider myself to be self-insured.  If something is broken or destroyed, we just replace it ourselves.  Is there risk in this?  Sure there is, but life has risk.

So, PaulB, this is my experience with Insurance in the Philippines.  Your experiences may vary from this, and I wish you the best of luck in this type of thing.

In my time living in the Philippines, more than a decade already, I can recall dealing with warranty issues three different times.

My first warranty experience in the Philippines involved the warranty on my automobile, a 2000 Mitsubishi Adventure AUV (Asian Utility Vehicle).  Anytime you purchase an new automobile, invariably there will be things that need adjustments, or parts that may fail within the warranty period.  When I had such issues, which were actually very few, I always received excellent service from the Mitsubishi Dealer in General Santos City, where I purchased the vehicle.  In terms of the quality of service, and the treatment we received, it was at least as good as a car dealer in the States would have given us, and we were always very happy.

My second experience in dealing with a warranty issue was not as good, though.  In 2002, I purchased a CD Writer for my computer.  I bought a high end one, one of the higher priced units being offered at Columbia Computer Center in Davao City.  I used the CD Writer for only a month, and it quit working.  I removed the unit from my computer and brought it to Columbia Computer Center for service.  The unit had a 1 year warranty, and it was a major brand, although I do not recall the brand name any longer.  Columbia Computer Center sent the unit to a service facility in Manila.  Although I kept calling and visiting the store to check on the status of my unit, it took 11 months before I got it back.  When I tool it home and hooked it up, the CD Writer still did not work.  So, let’s see, I used it for one month, and it was in the service facility for 11 months, so the 12 month warranty had already expired.  I went back to the store and explained that the unit still did not work after warranty service, and they basically told me – “too bad.”  So, basically the warranty was useless, even though this was a high end major brand name product.  At that time, about 8 years ago, a CD Writer was not cheap either, although they sure are today.  I had no choice but to throw it away.

My new Samsung Monitor

Back in February, I bought a new PC, and also a new 22″ Samsung Monitor.  I loved both the PC and the Monitor.  Without a doubt this was the nicest Monitor that I had ever had for a PC.  I use my PC extensively, it is my business, and also my lifeline to the outside world, so owning a high quality monitor was something that I thought would be worthwhile for me.  I had a bit of a hassle buying the monitor, but I considered it all worthwhile, because when I finally was able to purchase it, I really loved it, and felt that the quality was very high.

Back in mid-July, though, I came into my office to check my e-mail, and the Samsung monitor did not work!  I tried all kinds of things to check it, but could not get it to function.  I even hooked it up to a different PC in case the video on my PC had quit working.  All of this, though, was still not able to get the monitor working.  The next morning, we contacted the store where I purchased the monitor, and they advised us that since the monitor was 6 months old, it was still within the warranty period, which was 1 year.  They advised us to take it to the Samsung Warranty Center, and told us the address where we could find the Samsung Center.  We took the monitor to them on July 24.  They told us that since it was a warranty issue, they would work on the monitor right away for us.  We called 5 days later, and they said that they were waiting for a new main circuit board from Manila.  We called again in about 5 more days and they told us that the monitor was fixed and ready for pickup.  I was very happy.

Warranty Issues in the Philippines

When I sent my niece to pick it up, though, they told her that the monitor still did not work.  They said that they were in error when they told us that it was ready for pickup.  They advised us that if the monitor could not be fixed within one more week, they would give me a new monitor.  By the end of that additional week, they were still unable to fix the monitor.  So, at that time, we asked where we should go to get the replacement monitor, but they told us that before they could give us a new one, they had to “get approval from Manila.”  Hmm?  They said nothing about that earlier.  They told us that it would take up to a maximum of two weeks to get the approval required, but no longer.

Over the weekend, as two weeks had already passed, Feyma called to inquire about the replacement monitor.  Remember, by this time, they had my monitor for one month already.  They advised Feyma that they still had not heard from Manila, and it would not take much longer because all that was required was an e-mail from the Manila Samsung Philippines Headquarters.  Well, an e-mail only takes seconds to transmit, and they already had been waiting for two weeks!  Why should more time be needed?

Over the weekend, I filed a complaint via e-mail with the Samsung Headquarters in Manila, and I also posted a message on Samsung’s Worldwide Facebook page, explaining the situation.  So far, no word from Samsung, though.

At this point, I am starting to think that my warranty experience with Samsung is going to be the same as what I experienced with that CD Writer years ago – they will keep dragging it out and end up giving me back a broken unit with the warranty expired.  Is this the way that manufacturers deal with warranty issues in the Philippines?  Samsung is a major worldwide company and they should take care of their customers, but at this point, it appears to me that they don’t care about their customers.

We shall see what happens as time goes on.  At this point, however, I am left unimpressed with how manufacturers handle warranty situations in the Philippines.

Update: Apparently, somebody at Samsung Philippines reads LiP.  I got a phone call from Samsung in Manila today.  They mentioned this article, apologized to me for the problem, and told me that the new monitor was approved for me earlier today.  They told me that they only have to work out the logistics of getting the monitor to me.  We shall see what happens!

I like to be engaged.

These are two of the main things I am looking for when I read blogs in the Internet.

There are millions of blogs on the Internet, literally.  A large number of those, though, are sort of on autopilot – posts show up, but beyond that, there really is nothing much more.

To me, a blog should be interactive.  You post an article.  If you have a big enough reader base, some of your readers will respond by posting a comment with their thoughts and opinions on the subject that you wrote about.  Should that be the end of things?  In my opinion, no, it should not.  As a blogger, you really should respond to those who took time to read your article and make a comment.  Engage the person, turn it into a conversation instead of just a one off comment.  When you do this, what happens is that your blog becomes more than just a one-way information channel.  It becomes a community.  It becomes more interesting.  People come back to see what has been said, and join in.

Blogging means engaging your readers!

Let’s face it, if you took the time to put up a blog, and to write articles there from time to time, you want people to read it.  I mean, why write it all down if nobody is going to even visit or read what you write.  Right?  So, if you want to become more widely read, to be more interesting, you really should engage your readers!  Engaging your readers is what can take you up to the next level and bring more and more people to read what you have to say.

Sometimes I find a new blog that interests me.  I find an article or two that I can really identify with, and I leave a comment there.  After a few hours, I come back and see if the writer responded to what I had to say.  Nothing.  I come back the next day, still nothing.  If there is nothing there after a few days, I forget about it and move on.  It is likely that I won’t be visiting the blog again.  That is unfortunate.  I lost a potential source of information and interaction, and the writer lost a potential new reader.  In addition, by engaging with me, the writer could have picked up on new ideas for future writings on his site.

If you love blogging, interact with those who love you!

Recently, I found a blog from a writer who was from Manila.  He wrote about how he had moved to Davao City (where I live) many years ago, and had come to love the City.  It was my first time to visit his site, and I left a comment.  Within the same day, he replied to me.  He said he knew me through word of mouth, and he was so happy that I had visited his site.  He wanted to meet me.  I replied to him, and said that we should meet up for a cup of coffee.  That was a cuople of weeks ago, and so far he has not responded to me.  Well, he said he wanted to get together, and I responded in the positive.  Does he really want to get together?  I suppose not, because he didn’t even take the initiative to respond and set something up.  Oh well…

I find that these kinds of encounters when you are basically ignored by the writer to be frustrating.  If you don’t care to engage with your readers, why have a blog at all?  I mean, at the minimum, just turn off the comments, because you obviously are not even reading them anyway.

If you want to take your blog up a level, create interest, and build a community, you really should engage your readers.  Try it- you will find that it makes a world of difference!

Always chase your passion

Two guys who are focusing on what they are good at - Bob Martin & Matt Mullenweg

1. When you do something that you are truly passionate about, the money will come.  There are other things you can substitute for money – fame, satisfaction, etc.
2. You should focus in on things that you have knowledge about.

In truth, you can be smart, yet also be ignorant.  Smart only entails the ability to learn, not that you actually have learned many things.  Having a high IQ would mean that you are able to learn, not that you have actually accomplished the task of learning.

Albert Einstein was smart and also well learned

The truth is, though, that on average, people who are smart have also gone to the trouble of learning many things.  Still, though, smart people are very likely ignorant on some subjects, even many subjects.  For example. a person may be very intelligent, yet they may also have a total lack of interest in history, and have avoided the subject, thus they might be quite ignorant on the topic.

Does your brain have the capacity to learn?

Other people may have a great capacity to gain knowledge, but have lived a sheltered life that did not afford them the opportunity to learn very much in the way of a formal education.  Not having knowledge does not mean that a person is unable to learn, only that to this point they have not learned, even if they can easily do it.

So, a couple of things come to mind.  Firstly, if you are an intelligent person, it is not a good habit to get into to consider yourself a “know it all” or to think that you are overly informed on any topic under the sun.  If you give off this sort of aura, you may find it difficult to find friends, or people who even want to spend time with you.  Secondly, if you are smart, and come across another person who seems to have little knowledge, you should not assume that the person is stupid, only that they have not had the opportunity to learn the things that you know.

On the other hand, if you are only of average intelligence, or below, you should not assume that smart people know a lot more than you do, because in fact, they may not.  They only have the ability to learn more information than you do.  Being able to learn and actually doing so are not the same thing.

Frankly, I had never heard of this TV mini-series before, but last week I was thumbing through a guide of TV shows, looking for something that I might enjoy viewing, and came upon a listing for this show.  I almost passed it by, not having a huge interest.  But, then it struck me.  Hmm… BBC.  BBC? Of course, the BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation. The thought came to my mind…  “Hmm… I have never thought about the American Revolution from the British Standpoint!” So, I decided that this might be an interesting show to watch.

The end of the American Revolution. The British Surrender to the Americans as the French look on.

The show was a series of four 1 hour programs.  As I sat down to watch Episode 1, which was entitled “The Shot Heard Around the World” I was ready to see what this was all about.  The show was hosted by British Historian Richard Holmes.  He seemed a nice and likable fellow, but as he got started in Episode 1, I found myself feeling a bit hostile toward him.  I could not really understand my feelings, because I have no anti-British feelings.  After all, I am an American, and the British are among our very closest of allies.  We have a rich history of cooperation with the Brits.  Of course, not during the American Revolution, though, because the Americans were fighting against the British for our freedom and liberty at that time.  So, as Holmes began the show, he was in Boston, MA, and he was talking about the American Rebels who were going against the British and trying to “stir things up” in the colonies so as to start a fight against the British.  He had some harsh words to say for American heroes like Samuel Adams and other early voices in the revolutionary movement.  In fact, he called them “propagandists.”  I felt offended and angry at some of the things he was saying.

British General Cornwallace

Of course, this was all coming from a British perspective, and I was looking at this through an American perspective.  We were on polar ends of the debate, something which I was not used to for a Brit and an American.

After the first episode aired, I spent some time thinking about my feelings and reactions to the show.  I did find the show quite interesting and eagerly awaited the next episodes.  As I analyzed my thinking, I calmed down a bit, and wanted to just try to watch the show dispassionately to see what was said, and compare that to the things I learned during my American Education.  I realized, of course, that the education I received may be tainted a bit in favor of the American side, while the TV show seemed most certainly tainted toward the British.  Naturally.

One of the comparisons that Holmes kept bringing to the forefront during the show was that the American Revolution had close parallels to the Vietnam War in the 1960′s and 70′s.  Hmm… I had never thought of that before.  How could it be.

Of course, the comparison was that the British forces were equivalent to the US forces in Vietnam, while the American Revolutionaries were equivalent to the Viet Cong.  This kind of sat uneasily with me.  I am a bit young to say that the Vietnam War was the war of my generation, yet I was just becoming a teenager as the conflict ended.  As many Americans would testify, the Vietnam War was a very decisive subject among American people.  The American Revolution would have nearly complete support as an honorable war among Americans, though.  So, how could the two be compared with each other?

Well, from a British perspective, the analogy was pretty spot on, as I kept listing to the comparisons throughout the series.  When we Americans went into Vietnam, we were the powerful force, a world power, yet the lowly Viet Cong beat us, or at least fought to a draw, depending on the perspective.  Same thing in the Revolution, the Brits were no doubt the world Superpower at the time, yet a rag tag band of American “rebels” (the show was constantly calling the Americans rebels, which I suppose they were from the Brit view) beat the Brits.  Another comparison which was given was that in Vietnam the Americans won almost all of the battles, yet lost the war.  Same thing with the Revolution, the Brits won the vast majority of the battles, yet lost the war there.  Probably the most accurate comparison was that the British were fighting in a land that they were not familiar with, just as the Americans did in Vietnam.  Being unfamiliar was a disadvantage and helped the superpower be overwhelmed by a less powerful force.  Anyway, there were plenty of such Vietnam War vs. Revolutionary War comparisons, and the more I listened, the more I started agreeing with the comparison.

In the end, this was a highly interesting TV series for me, and I learned a thing or two – both about the War itself and also about myself.  I had never considered the war from the British perspective, nor, do I think, have most Americans.

So, what does this have to do with Habits for Smart People?  Well, it is a good habit to view a problem or a situation from multiple viewpoints.  Don’t get pigeonholed into a single point of view if you are making an evaluation, if you do that, your final results may not be accurate.

I want to tell you a story today about a time when a lady believed so much in personal responsibility that she even accepted responsibility when the event in question was not even really her fault.  I believe that this lady did a very honorable thing, even if it was far beyond what her true responsibility was.  This story revolves around a very painful event in my life.

In September 1979, my younger sister was killed by a drunk driver.  She was only 15 years old at the time of her death.   Her name  was Charlotte.

One day, after school, Charlotte had to stay late for a practice session for a fire baton twirling group that she was a member of.  The practice session lasted for several hours after school ended.  After the practice ended, Charlotte was driving home.  Yes, although Charlotte was only 15 she was driving.  This was perfectly legal, because we lived in Louisiana at the time, and the legal driving age there was 15 years old, and she had a legitimate driver’s license.

We lived about 10 miles outside the city.  As Charlotte drove home, out in the countryside, she came to a hill, and as she reached the top of that hill, her life changed in a heartbeat.  There was an older man, perhaps in his 60′s, although I don’t recall his age, who was coming to the top of the same hill from the other direction.  He was drunk, and he was driving on the wrong side of the road.  Because they met each other at the very peak of the hill, they had very little time to react to one another, since they didn’t see each other coming.  The man was drunk anyway, so perhaps he would not have been able to react in any event.  Charlotte was a young driver, so perhaps her reaction time was slower than an experienced driver.  Whatever the reason, they hit each other head-on at the top of that hill.  The drunk fellow died instantly, as he was thrown from his vehicle.  My sister, Charlotte did not die immediately, but rather lived long enough to be sent to a hospital.  But, as I said, her life was changed, because before she was able to make it to the hospital, she passed away.

It’s a sad story, no doubt, and it had a major impact on my life, but how is this related to personal responsibility?  Well, that comes a bit later.

A few weeks or maybe a couple of months after this traffic accident, a lady showed up at my father’s office.  My father didn’t know who the lady was, but she said that she wanted to speak to my father in private.  So, my father invited her into his private office, and they sat down to talk.  The lady told my father that she was the wife of the man who killed my sister.  She apologized to my father, and begged his forgiveness.  My father, as would be expected, was quite shocked by this.  It is not often that somebody would do something like this.  The lady was taking personal responsibility for something that her husband did!

This really had a deep impact on my father.  He told the lady that he could understand how she felt, because they had both lost a loved on on that highway that night.  He did not blame the lady, or get mad at her.  It was not her fault, after all.

I thought about this incident the other day, and it really struck me how honorable this lady was in her actions.  I had not really thought about this for perhaps 20 years or more, and when I remembered it, it brought a bit of a tear to my eye.  Both for the memory of my sister, and the honor that this lady showed in a trying time.

That was more than 30 years ago, and I don’t know for sure, but suspect that the lady has passed on by now.  Wherever she is, I hope that she is resting in peace, or living in peace, because she did an honorable thing, no doubt.  I certainly harbor no ill will toward her. In fact, I don’t even feel any anger toward her husband either.

I thought of this saying just this morning when I was reviewing my earnings from some advertising that I had placed on one of my websites.  I have been using this advertiser on a number of my sites for several years now, and the income that they produce for me is very good.  I would say that they are probably my best advertiser on any of my sites, without a doubt.

Over the past two months or so, my earnings from this advertiser have really increased greatly, and very quickly.  You see, I get paid based on results.  The better the ad performs for the advertiser, the more they pay me.  If the ad is on my site, but the advertiser makes little or no money, well, like them, I make very little myself.  So, over the past couple of months I have been very happy with the performance, and with my earnings in particular.

Oops, these aren't chickens, but it's not good to count any birds before they hatch!

However, in the past few days, I have seen a downturn in earnings.  Today, my earnings sprang back to previous levels, though, so everything is good.  But, results of the past few days left me feeling somewhat bad, because earnings that I had started counting on just were not there.

Ah, those are chickens. Some have hatched, some have not!

That’s the bad news… I had been counting my chickens already, and they had yet to hatch!

The fact is, when we start seeing results to our hard work, it is not time to rest and watch as everything starts to pay off.  When the results start to come in, it is a good sign for us, the things we are doing are right!  However, now that the work we did has been shown to be producing the results we expected, it is time to redouble our efforts and make sure that things continue going down the right path.  If we start to rest, we will forget things.  We will become weary of hard work, and we won’t follow through.  Seeing the results that we want is a good sign that we are doing the right thing.  It should also be a sign to us that we need to keep working if we want the results to continue paying off for us.

Counting your chickens before they hatch is an old saying that might not hold much meaning for us when we think about it.  However, as with many such “old sayings” there is some truth there, and we should be sure to follow that truth.

Good luck to you with all of your projects, and keep your nose to the grindstone if you want your work to continue paying your dividends!