I was shockingly surprised to see so many people at the first-ever Unbox Convention held in SMX MOA last June 18, 2022. Unbox Con is an event for toys, shoes, NBA cards, shirt collectors, and everything else (haha). The brainchild of Unbox is Carlo Ople, who announced last year that he was leaving his corporate job to pursue a dream of being an entrepreneur full-time. You can watch the video here.

To do that requires a lot of work and reinvention. And Carlo is no stranger to launching many successful companies while holding a full-time corporate job. He calls it his Project 7 to 1, which stands for 7 pm to 1 am hustle. Warren Bennis said, ” People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out. Carlo embodies this quote by Bennis by inventing and reinventing himself with business and projects he loved doing. What a way to live life and do business!

While walking around the convention, I saw Chal Nolasco, owner of the Hustle Club, who started his shirt business during the pandemic. He had some sweet designs and bought my Tatum shirt! I asked how his company was doing, and he was happy to see it grow when many businesses were closing. The pandemic forced him to invent, and he reaped the benefit of his risk of starting a business.

I was thankful that Carlo Ople created a place where entrepreneurs can thrive and try to invent and reinvent themselves. I am grateful to the Lord for the hundreds of merchants who are in the convention to exhibit their products and make something meaningful when times are bleak.

Another guy who was there and why I was also there was my brother-in-law Raymond Sison, better known in the Nba Cards Community as the Manila Card Collector. Raymond turned his passion into profit by studying the card business. Who would have thought that the last two years of the pandemic were the hype years of the card community? Listening to the panel of collectors made me see that opportunities are endless to people who can see what’s ahead.

It was nice to see others who were there making a profit out of their passion by either inventing or reinventing themselves! For example, Sara De Guzman, who made cycling fun, a fellow UCN creator, Avram, who now works for This is Hype Ph, and my friend IJ covered the event!