ONE ream of office stationery. A box of calling cards. A borrowed table in a rented apartment. One client.

Twenty-five years ago, Ramon Garcia was probably considered by his peers as a dreamer or a fool. Barely 26 and with only a few years of experience, he bolted from a prestigious accounting firm to set up his own business. He had neither money, partners, nor a roster of clients to support him, but this wasn’t reason for him to stop believing.

This man’s unsinkable faith more than made up for everything he lacked.

Today, Garcia sits as managing partner of Ramon F. Garcia and Co., CPAs and recounts his past struggles with a knowing smile. He’s seen the company rise from its one-client days in a cramped corner of the family’s apartment, to that of a multi-partner organization that has successfully carved its niche in the industry. 

Accounts continue to pour in, mainly due to client referrals, (since Garcia himself never markets their company’s services directly), and he attributes this to the brand of integrity he has carefully built his business with all these years.

Yes, in an industry that merely turns a blind eye on the “two-book” policy, Garcia encourages his staff, and more importantly their clients, to come clean---all the time.

He cited instances where businesses have lost huge sums of money, including their savings and profits, after being caught with tampered records. Obviously, this translates to bigger losses in the end.

“Sometimes integrity will cost you in the short-term, but what people do not realize is that it is really a long-term investment,” Garcia explains, having learned this very early in his career.

In fact, this self-taught entrepreneur ranks this virtue much higher than hard work and determination as the instruments to his success.

“Hard work will make you succeed. Determination makes you consistent and will cause you to persevere, but only integrity will sustain you. Without integrity, everything would turn into a roller coaster ride, “ Garcia stressed.

As for hard work and determination, his life can be considered a testament to harvesting their fruits.

The eighth of ten siblings, Garcia knew what it was like to be poor and hungry. At times, he recalls, there would only be enough on the table for one meal a day. But hunger can be used as fuel, and in his case, it only made him more determined to leave this kind of life behind.

He was taken in by one of his elder brothers and put to school, but the young Garcia still had to earn his keep. Apart from household chores, he tended a small tires, batteries and car accessories store and still managed to be at the top of his class.

At this stage, Garcia already showed an affinity for numbers, and an exceptional knack for running a business. While taking up B.S. Commerce, Major in Accounting at Far Easter University as a working student, he already knew his destiny wasn’t tied to becoming an employee until he’s gray and old.

The first few years that he was running his own firm taught Garcia to be even more humble and persevering. Sure, he balanced books and added up numbers, but he was also buying goods in Divisoria and selling them on installment basis to office employees, acquaintances and friends.

“There has to be a line between the needs of the business and your personal needs,” Garcia said, stressing on the importance of not touching a cent of what the business was making for his or his family’s personal expenses.

Company profits were reinvested on the business, or allocated to increase employees benefits and professional development. His family contented themselves with what he earned on the side.

He was frugal. He was shrewd. He worked long hours and studied the ins and outs of the business until he knew it like the back of his hand. But somehow things were still not falling into place for Garcia.

“The turning point of my career, and my life as well, was when I became a Christian. From then on, my whole perspective changed. I realized that I was too much in a hurry. I wanted things to happen, how I wanted them, and when I wanted. But that’s not how God operates---everything in its given time,” shares Garcia, who is now an active member of the Victory Christian Fellowship.

Consider it cliché’, but everything was really added unto Garcia after this encounter.

“I learned the Christian way of running a business and dealing with people,” he says, adding that it’s this code of ethics that has kept the firm afloat and stable amid rough waters. 

Garcia’s faith-- in himself but mostly in God---has steered the course of his life into the success he had always believed he would achieve when he first put up the firm 25 years ago.

His only wish for the years to come is that his partners and staff continue to practice the values and brand of service they have become known for long after he’s gone.

“My vision for this business is that we become number one someday. I tell everyone this may not necessarily happen in my lifetime, but I wish for it to happen. This is not a firm that will fold up after I'm gone,” Garcia says with confidence.