A farmer's son

In the year 1984, an electrical engineer named Diosdado Banatao also known as ‘Dado”, is a Filipino engineer who designed the first ever Personal Computer chipset. Because of his amazing technology, Dado is now considered as Bill Gates’s counterpart here in the Philippines. Diosdado “Dado” Banatao graduated at the Mapua Institute of Technology with a degree in Electrical Engineering. His story illustrates a perfect example of ‘Rags to Riches”. He showed and proved that poverty is never a hindrance in fulfilling one’s dreams. He worked very hard to achieve what he already achieved. Diosdado “Dado” Banatao grew up in the rural part of the country in a small barrio called Malabbac in the town of Iguig, Cagayan Valley, Philippines. Way back when he was young, Dado dreamed of becoming an engineer someday because he wanted to build new things that will make people live life more comfortable

Dado grew up with a simple life, with no electricity and no telephones. He used to walk barefooted along with the dirt road of his hometown just to reach his primary school. When he was in elementary, his teacher taught him math by using bamboo sticks. As the years went by, Dado observed and realized that almost all of his classmates stopped going to school after sixth grade to help their families. Most of his classmates sacrificed their dreams to help bring food to their tables. Diosdado “Dado” Banatao’s father was a farmer; his father worked very hard to sustain his education. His father never asked dado to help him work in the fields because they have an agreement that dado must focus on his studies. When he graduated elementary, Dado went to a High School which is a bit far from his home. This scenario made Dado feel very sad and made him feel so isolated from his other classmates. He knew that most of his classmates have a different type of living compare to him, but this doesn’t stop him from pursuing his study. Every time his friends go out and play basketball outside, he chooses to stay and study his lectures. This shows how Dado gave up his leisure time to make time for studying because he doesn’t want to waste and throw his parent’s effort and support.

When Dado graduated from college, he is very excited to apply his knowledge and skills that he acquired at school and earn money for his family, but unfortunately things didn’t go out according to his plan. He found out that there are no “true design jobs” for him here in the Philippines, where he could apply the knowledge he has in his chosen engineering field which is Electrical Engineering. After many months Dado finally had the chance to train as a commercial airline pilot with Philippine Airlines, but again he felt that the salary he is getting from his job is quite small, so he decided to move to United States of America (U S A). This decision led him to his dream job. When he arrived in America, Dado was pirated by a Company called Boeing. He was trained and assigned as a design engineer for Boeing 747, which is the company’s newest commercial airliner and cargo transport aircraft in the United States at that time. When Dado was in the U.S, he grabbed the opportunity and chance to take his engineering studies further. He took up his Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University in 1972. Dado felt excited, but at the same time, he felt intimidated because everyone in his class seemed smarter than him. But instead of letting his insecurity drag him down, he took this as a challenge, and it made him more determined to study twice as hard as he usually does. 

After he graduated from college, he acquired many working experience and knowledge from different technology companies that he worked with such as the Intersil and the National Semiconductor. Dado developed the first single chip, which is a 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator under Commodore International. He was able to reduce 300 components into three with that computer chip. As he jumped to different companies, Dado never stops innovating, and he kept on inventing new technology. 

In 1981, he designed his second invention, which is the first 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS with silicon coupler data-link control and trans-receiver chip under the company SEEQ Technology. As he kept on experimenting with a computer, He went on to create the first system logic chipset for IBM’s PC-XT and the PC-AT; which is the local bus concept and the first Windows Graphics accelerator chip for personal computers. 

Diosdado “Dado” Banatao along with his business partner Francis Siu put up a high-technology company called Mostron. Dado and his business partner started with a half a million US dollars as capital to launch a manufacturer of motherboards. Then a group of Filipino Electronics Engineering Students created a device that generates electricity out of wastewater a year later; the company made a five-chip set which marked the formation of a new company Dado cofounded that is called the Chips and Technologies. In this company, a system logic chipset for IBM’s PC-XT and the PC-AT was developed which got them a profit of 12 million US dollars in just four months. The Chips and Technologies Company went into public after a little less than two years. With Dado’s expertise with computers, he didn’t stop with two companies (“Mostron” and the “Chips & Technologies”) and launched S3 Graphics. This startup focused on enhancing the graphics capabilities in personal computers by using a graphics accelerator chip. Dado’s secret to this is his invention of a local bus. By 1996, Dado’s startups are forces to be reckoned with in the technology industry.  Dado’s S3 Graphics was in the front line of the graphics-chips market at that time and defeated its strong competitor which is the Cirrus Logic Inc., while the company Chips & Technologies was sold to Intel for about 300 million U.S dollars. Dado’s place in the business sector doesn’t end there. In 2000, he established a venture capital firm named Tallwood Venture Capital with a capital of 300 million U.S dollars. Then ten years later, Dado was named as Ikanos Communications’ CEO.

Despite the success he has, he never forgets to give back and share the blessings he has for both here in the Philippines and abroad. Dado provided annual funds for five aspiring engineer scholars under the Dado Banatao’s Educational Foundation. Another foundation that he founded is the Philippine Development Foundation that offers free education for deserving young Filipinos and to help these brilliant young Filipinos to reach their full potential. Dado also put up a computer center in the grade school where he went in his childhood town of Iguig. It is the only public school with the most modern computer network in the Philippines. Aside from his local foundations, he also has an international foundation in Northern California called the Banatao Filipino American Fund, where he financially assists high school students of Filipino descent who want to become engineers. 

In 2016 Dado shared his formula for success in the Anvil Business Summit 2016. In this summit, he says that the Filipino entrepreneurs should understand their target market if they really want to compete globally. He said that Filipino entrepreneurs must understand the dynamics of their target market, the size of that market, the velocity of revenue, the volume of that market and the dynamics of whether it is growing or not. He keeps on reiterating that the common cause of startups failures are the skip of the market requirements and people come up with products only to realize that no one will buy it. “Profitability” is largely about good design, Dado says. He said that “if you have good design, you will instantly sell your product.” That is a good lesson for an engineer when they were trained to design and to create products. And it must be associated with an application that is very important for productivity. In his speech in the Anvil Business Summit 2016, Dado Banatao points out a big flaw in the Philippines that prevents the flourish of technology companies which is the lack of venture capitalists. Dado Banatao cited that entrepreneurs and investors must build a Silicon Valley. He also called out the attention of the Philippine elite and challenged them to live up to an obligation of helping the society called The corporate social responsibility. He said that they must do it as a gift and not for charity because “Charity destroys societies,” Dado says.

Dado Banatao’s life story and his life’s experiences and struggles are truly an inspiration to everyone most especially for millennials. Despite all the Odds and failures he experienced, Dado remained strong and positive. He is never afraid of trying and taking risks and chances which are the attitude that made him what he is now. Dado showed four elements to succeed in life, and these elements are dream, determination, passion and Good heart.

Dream:

When Dado was just a young boy, he has his vision and dreams in life. People, who don’t have so much money and have a wealthy lifestyle like him, seem to have an impossible dream of becoming an engineer. But he showed that no one should be afraid of dreaming bigger things because it’s free and no one will judge you. Having a vision in everything that you do is the essential thing because your vision is the one that will propel you to the success that you really dream of. But vision alone is not enough to fulfill your dreams; we must also put in our minds that we must give our hearts and souls into this vision.

Determination:

From scratch, Dado Banatao’s father is the person who showed him how to be determined despite all the odds and struggles they experienced. Dado’s father showed how much he loves his family and showed how determine he is to get his family out of poverty. His Father never stops working in the fields just to give them and provide them a better life. Dado’s father’s determination inspired him to be determined as well.

Passion: 

            Dado as a student, showed how much passion he has for his studies, he even sacrifices most of his leisure time just to have extra time to study his lessons. And as a Boss of his company, he never failed to give passion to his work. Dado never failed to put his 100 percent passion towards his innovations and inventions which gained success.

Good Heart:

            Dado gained a lot of blessings from his genius mind and talent. And to repay the blessings he received; never forget to give back his blessings to those who needed it. Dado knows how hard it is to go to school without money and without anything that will aid students in their studies because he been to that situation, that’s why he helped unfortunate people by providing them free education through his foundations and giving them study aids such as computers to enhance and to broaden student’s knowledge. He also never forgets the people who gave him wisdom and experience when he was young. Dado has the heart to give that’s why he is blessed.  

            To sum up my reflection for Dado Banatao’s life story (“A Farmer’s son”), his story gave me a chance to have time to self-reflect. I realized that I am very lucky, since I never experienced some of his struggles in life because I live a with a comfortable life compared to him,and I feel that students like me who lives today in this digital world are very fortunate to experience these new technologies that we have today compared to them who don’t even experience any technology way back then. And if given a chance to meet this guy, I would definitely ask some great advice from him, and I would also love to share those advice to other people to give inspiration.