Roland del Rosario: ‘Hardwork works’

CEBU, Philippines — Instead of allowing multinational companies and foreign employers to capitalize on his skills, Roland del Rosario pushed himself up from just a mere monthly earner to an entrepreneur.

At 43, Roland now co-owns an American contact center company called Ameera Tel, and an IT Solutions company he founded, the iConnect.

His companies hire Cebuano skilled programmers and IT engineers to serve the worldwide market, including local firms that are determined to fight and outdo competitors in the middle of technology disruptions.

Hardwork works

For Roland, his only ticket to arrive at the top of the ladder and becoming his own boss is hard work.

“Hard work works,” he shared this open-secret with conviction, experiencing first-hand the miracle that comes with living by this mantra.

An Information Technology graduate from Asian College of Technology (ACT), Roland did not really plan of becoming an IT expert.

Growing up, he wanted to be in the military. But, he was eventually convinced by his father to forego his ambition of joining the Army, instead settled to a much safer profession, an engineer in technology, which eventually captured his heart.

“In college, I learned to love what I was studying for,” Roland recalled his ‘love-at-first-sight’ encounter with IT skill.

He was never an academic star in school. His stature as an ‘ordinary’ student was enough for him. What mattered to him that time was: he was learning and falling in love with the skill, one-day-at-a-time.

He is adamant that hard work always pay its rewards. High grades and recognitions in school were not his cup-of-tea.

After college, he worked for several companies to help their respective Management Information Systems (MIS), Roland put his heart in every task given to him.

On the side

At the age of 23, while working for a company, Roland started to build his little empire, on the side.

His skill was too in-demand, heightened by his hard-to-find work ethics, that companies would go the extra just mile just to get his services.

From 1997 to 2005, Roland was worked as systems analyst for multinational manufacturing firms at the Mactan Export Zone and in a huge outsourcing company. The paycheck was great, but he discovered that it was much greener outside.

Roland jumped outside of his 8-5 work-cycle and signed up for his freedom of making his sidelines “pay the bills.”

Working with different companies, meeting people, making new friends, owning his time are just the few perks that Roland enjoyed as he started his luck in entrepreneurship—being an IT analyst consultant.

Slowly, he commissioned other local IT talents to work for his projects.

What he had was talent, solid work ethics, and everything follows on its own course. He doesn’t have to compete.

The fall

In the middle of his consultancy and early entrepreneurial phase, Roland was spotted by foreign capitalists who were planning to open a call center firm in Cebu.

Roland gave in to the partnership offer, and opened one of the first call center companies in Cebu, the Direct Access.

While the business was thriving, the foreign partners mismanaged earnings and left Cebu and unpaid employees altogether.

Because he was the local frontliner in the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registration, Roland tasted his unforgettable “baptism of fire” in business.

Instantly, Roland became a “celebrity” appearing on tri-media channels in 2012, in what was considered as one of the hottest call center failures that time.

Roland had to face not only the authorities and the media, but also the over 600 unpaid employees. In papers, Roland owned majority of the corporation’s share, but in actual set up Roland was just managing and heading the entire operation. He was a victim too.

Instead of running away from the problem and defend himself, Roland faced everything. Everyone. He had nothing fear, he said.

That fall, where everything was shattered, including his untarnished name, Roland made his first heart-to-heart conversations with God.

He plead. He blamed God. He poured out his heart like a child in tantrums. But, he said his prayers were all noted by his greatest boss. This time, he was convinced that while hard work works, prayer and fasting also turn things around.

Wiser

After the taxing phase in his journey, Roland came out as wiser, sharper, and discerning IT wiz-entrepreneur.

He understood that he had to go through the rough edges in his journey in order to learn the tricks.

In 2012, Roland co-founded the AmeeraTel, a complete provider of outsourcing call center solutions. In partnership with an Arab-American capitalist Ahmed Salem.

Salem, a Chicago based businessman is Roland’s God-sent angel. “Prayers do work” too.

Today, the company has 150 employees and is transferring to its new home office in the Arthaland-developed Cebu Exchange building, as its business is constantly growing.

Simultaneously, Roland is also running his own IT related businesses, outside of AmeeraTel.

Expert to learn

Roland was able get back on his feet again. Higher than it was. His call center business is stable and growing, His own businesses are thriving. But, he continues to nurse his love for his profession.

He puts his money in traveling around the world to learn from the experts. He also becomes an expert in feeding his hunger to learn.

“I invest in constant training—online abroad and expositions,” he frequent to United States, Singapore and other countries to update himself.

For him, learning has no dead end. “I invest on my talent.”

Roland rose from the bottom; an employee to sidelines, failed business, got up and started over again. Braver. Wiser.

He is indeed, an inspiration in transforming passion into a money making venture, at the same time raising the esteem of local talents in IT to capitalize the most in-demand skill in this age and time.