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Who would have thought that this veteran entrepreneur and
capitalist in no less than Silicon Valley is also very similar in terms of life
story. His life is something we can relate. I am referring to Dado Banatao entrepreneur,
master investor and philanthropist. Surely he comes a long way. And he surely
is an inspiration.
Dado was born to a rice farmer and a housekeeper in Iguig in
Cagayan Valley Province. He remembers walking barefoot when he was a kid to
school. He went to Mapua Institute of Technology and took up Electrical
Engineering where he graduated cum laude. He then applied as a pilot trainee at
Philippine Airlines. From there, he was pirated as a design engineer and was
brought to the US. While in the said country, he pursued Masters in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University.
After graduating, he then works at the National
Semiconductor, Intersil, and Commodore International. There he designed the
first single chip. After which he was then tasked to look for an efficient way
of linking computers. That led to one great discovery. From there, he decided
to start his own company. With an initial capital of $500,000 from friends, he
established Mostron I 1985. The company develop chip sets. His company developed
the first system logic chip set for PC-XT and PC-AT that aided in lowering the
cost of building up personal computers and making it more powerful.
Then Dado created his second company which is Chips and
Technologies (C&T). The company is dedicated to improve graphics adapter
chip sets. Their sales in the first quarter rose to $12 million. Less than a
year, the company went public. It was tagged as the fastest IPO listing in the
US stock market. In 1996, Intel bought C&T making Dado richer by $430
million.
Now, Dado is a multimillionaire investor. He currently has
many investments and other joint ventures. Aside from that, he also manages
several businesses. He got Cielo Communications. He also has the SIRF
Technology and also Marvell Technology.
Presently he has more than three homes in the US with resort
properties in Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. When he used to walk barefoot when
he was a kid, he now drives high performance luxury cars and even got his own
jets. In spite of his success, he remains grounded. He contributes a lot to the
society and to the country. He built a computer center back in his hometown and
has varied students who he helps to finish a degree in engineering.
Dado is a manifestation that indeed nothing is impossible. With
the right attitude and the right amount of hard work, farfetched dreams can be
realized. Indeed Dado is an inspiration to every Filipino.
P.S. To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge and 52 Week Money Challenge Version 2, it is Week 20 already! Did you deposit the next amount yet?
P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.