With “The Gem Collection”, author Joseph Bismark hopes to impart to readers the same lessons he learned all those long years he spent in an ashram in the Sierra Madre.

MANILA, Philippines — As a young man, Joseph Bismark never dreamed about  becoming the head of a multi-million dollar multinational company, much less becoming the author of a book.

Growing up in an ashram – a usually secluded residence of a religious community – Bismark was much more concerned about simpler things such as living a vegetarian lifestyle, and helping out the communities that surrounded their ashram deep in the forests of the Sierra Madre.

At 18 years old however, Bismark decided to leave the ashram. This would change his life and put him on a path that has seen him go out of the country to head the Qi Group of Companies, that engages in diverse businesses such as e-commerce, direct marketing, property development, telecommunications,lifestyle and leisure in nearly 180 countries.

It has also seen him come back to the country, recently launching a book of aphorisms entitled “The Gem Collection: A Compilation of Wisdom,” at the National Bookstore at the Shangri-La Mall.

And yet despite of the success he has achieved in his life, the 48-year-old Bismark is quick to deflect attention, maintaining that all of it is the work of something beyond his control.

“I believe that I’m put in situations that are meant to happen and I can’t do anything about it,” he says. “It’s not like I planned 10 years ago that I would be a general manager. Just did what I needed to do.”

Nine year-old yogi
Bismark’s road to riches and recognition has been a long and circuitous one, one that started when he was a nine year-old sharing a house with a band called Gypsy.

“My dad was a consul and he used to send bands to Vietnam. There was a band called Gypsy and they lived in our house for a month,” he recalls. “All of them were vegetarians. They brought me to a slaughterhouse in the Philippines and I was shocked.”

That initial shock would pave the way to a lifestyle change for Bismark, who at nine years old, resolved to become a vegetarian.

He even joined a group of vegetarians that had an ashram in Panay, deep in the forests of the Sierra Madre.

“They were a bunch of yoga practitioners and they had a property. It started out as a retreat for me and then I started going back every weekend. I decided to live there eventually,” he says.

Taking that step at nine years old was certainly like jumping off a cliff. The ashram was completely off the grid – no electricity, no radio, no television or newspapers – and Bismark had to live a life with just the essentials.

“We would wake up early in the morning and do meditation. We took care of plants and trees and go to neighboring barrios and teach them about hygiene,” he says of his life in the ashram.“We would go from barrio to barrio and we would bring our doctor friends and give them vaccines and basic medicines. We were doing some humanitarian work.”

But after nine years in the ashram – learning martial arts and yoga along the way – Bismark found the need to assert his own independence. He left the ashram and re-entered life in the city – and was there met by immense culture shock.

“All of my friends were smoking. I tried two sticks but I stopped. I tried beer, got tipsy, but it didn’t fit. Vegetarian ako, kahit saang party ako pumunta, alangan kung ano ipapakain sa iyo. They thought it was a fad, but I stuck to it,” he recalls.

Vision to blog to book
Because of his martial arts involvement back in the ashram, Bismark found himself getting involved in the World Taekwondo Federation for 20 years. He also tried to engage in some businesses that failed.

“I tried a few businesses. I brought in Adidas, exclusive distributorship of sports equipment, that failed. I had gyms that I ran, it was ok,” he recalls. “But those experiences helped me when an opportunity came, it wasn’t difficult for me to see it.”

That opportunity would be the Qi Group of Companies, a multinational conglomerate with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

With more than 800 employees working under him, Bismark thought of utilizing the company’s internal Internet to let his workers know about his own vision for the company and his personal philosophy.

“I wrote about life in general, I wrote about were what I believe helped me in the ventures I got into. My determination, perseverance, came from that learning I had. I wanted to share it with my staff because it might help them with their work,” he explains.

The internal communications would soon become a blog (gemsofwisdom.net), and pretty soon his company’s publishing department breached the possibility of him turning his essays into a book.

“Our publication department decided that it would be good to put the blog out as a book because 80 percent of our customers don’t use the Internet,” he says. “During our last convention, were we had 8,000 people from 27 countries, they printed the book and they sold it.”

Nuggets of wisdom
Bismark says that “The Gem Collection” is not just a compilation of the essays shared among his employees, but of all the things he learned growing up in the ashram as a young man.

“I realized that spirituality is not a location or a place. You can practice it wherever you are. Before I was anti-money, but as I deepened my understanding of spirituality, I realized that money is neutral. I started seeing that material things could actually be used for the benefit of others,” he explains.

He also says that he has no illusions about his writing, saying that he is only reinterpreting old wisdom for a new generation.

“I don’t think that I’m the first one to think about the things that I write about. As a matter of fact, these are ancient stories and lessons that were somehow forgotten, and I’m reviving it in my own words and time,” he says.

With “The Gem Collection”, Bismark hopes to impart to readers the same lessons he learned all those long years he spent in an ashram in the Sierra Madre.

“I want readers to know that there’s more than what our eyes see. We’re all in this perception that we are the material body and this is it. There is more than that,” he ends. “You must understand the spiritual side of you so that there will be a balance to your life. Material things without the balance of spirituality can ruin you.”