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How Two Bullets Blasted My Life Away & How One Cold Email Changed My Family's Life Forever

by Marx Vergel Melencio
10 replies
That's right, that's my story. I've been totally blind, permanently, for more than 9 years now, after being gunned down at 23 years old, twice, by a complete stranger last Nov 2003. The video documentary below's my story, particularly how two bullets blasted my life away, and how one cold email changed my family's life forever, for the better...


The video documentary above was produced by the Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability of the United Nations, and they give it away in seminars and conferences around the world about the role of ICT in providing gainful employment and business opportunities to people with disabilities. The video was uploaded to Youtube by a very good friend, Mr. Thomas Ng, former Asia Pacific CEO (for more than 25 years) of Asea Brown Boveri, the world's largest power engineering firm, and now owner of Genashtim, a company that employs people with disabilities across Asia in 90% of their manpower base. Thomas and I are now board members of DigiBridge (a non-profit organization that aims to provide gainful employment and business opportunities to people with disabilities in Asia, and soon, around the world), along with Mr. Guy Russo, former Asia Pacific CEO of McDonald's Asia and now CEO of KMart Australia, and Mr. Ben Chang, MD of a publicly listed logistics company in Hong Kong, among other very good friends. And yes, I was given the 2008 Most Inspiring Entrepreneur of the Philippines award by the Philippine Center of Entrepreneurship, a Philippine government office headed by presidential consultant on business and entrepreneurship, Jose Concepcion III, who also owns and runs RFM Corporation, a giant in the food and beverage industry here in the Philippines and in SE Asia. Yeah, that's how two bullets and one cold email changed my family's life, for the better, forever...
#blasted #bullets #changed #cold #email #family #forever #life #rest is history #then one cold email #two bullets
  • Profile picture of the author WeavingThoughts
    Thanks for sharing. My best wishes are with you.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
    Jolly Good.

    By the way how are you reading the posts? I'm not being facetious.

    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Michael
    Sorry to hear man.. I wouldn't say the first part changed your life for the better tho. Thats not cool.

    That is exactly why I keep my piece & have my CWP.

    You never know who is gonna do what, so ALWAYS trust your instincts.

    If something doesn't feel right, dont just brush it off. People need to be aware of their surroundings at ALL times, and be prepared to either fight or flee if that time should come..

    This world is going to hell in a hand-basket. You can never be too careful.

    But I applaud you for looking at the bright side of things. I don't know if I'd be that calm if this happened to me. I'd be out for revenge.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marx Vergel Melencio
      Originally Posted by Whos That Guru View Post

      I'd be out for revenge.
      That guy's life won't ever be the same again, permanently. Trust my word on that one...
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      • Deep Learning & Machine Vision Engineer: ARIA Research (Sydney, AU)
      • Founder: Grayscale (Manila, PH) & SEO Campaign Manager: Kiteworks, Inc. (SF, US)
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      • Profile picture of the author Sue Bruce
        For those of you who are not familiar with software for the visually impaired JAWS outputs in voice or Braille. Totally amazing the first time you hear or feel it.

        Sue
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        • Profile picture of the author Marx Vergel Melencio
          Originally Posted by Sue Bruce View Post

          For those of you who are not familiar with software for the visually impaired JAWS outputs in voice or Braille. Totally amazing the first time you hear or feel it.

          Sue
          Haven't studied Braille yet though, just committed to memory the fundamental concepts behind writing in Braille, but reading Braille is an entirely different animal, especially if permanent total blindness (0% eyesight) was acquired in adulthood, like in my case, and being a bassist of a metal band here won't help your fingers accurately feel Braille content, either...

          I'm a touch typist though (became one after I went totally blind) and could also troubleshoot and disassemble and assemble a desktop and a laptop computer a few months after checking out of the hospital (a month after this incident). Anyway, let's re-rail this thread to offline marketing:

          In my experience, almost everything in your cold calling or cold emailing or cold contacting or cold prospecting (or even cigarette cold turkeying) campaign depends on:

          • THE OFFER •

          What's in it for the recipient of the offer is primary to what's in it for you, the sender of the offer, so:

          =>> I recommend instantly communicating, in one fell swoop, what's in it for them, then how those things can be logically achieved with your help, then show them verifiable facts that they can use to substantiate the value of your help in achieving those things for them, though this is second only to:

          • THE NEED •

          You should initially know what they need and what they will see as a valuable unique selling proposition at your end, especially since they'd most likely justify to themselves what's in it for you after learning what's in it for them and the factual value of your help in achieving these things for them. So, it goes around these lines:

          YOUR SPECIALIZED SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, RESOURCES and EXPERTISE =>> THE NEED =>> THE OFFER =>> THE CONTRACT =>> THE VALUE OF YOUR OFFER IN ACTION =>> BIGGER CONTRACTS and MORE REFERRALS =>> LOOP FOREVER
          Signature
          • Deep Learning & Machine Vision Engineer: ARIA Research (Sydney, AU)
          • Founder: Grayscale (Manila, PH) & SEO Campaign Manager: Kiteworks, Inc. (SF, US)
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    You got an inspiring story, Marx. I'll write a blog about you shortly.
    Do you have a Facebook Group where we can collaborate together with those like-minded Filipinos?
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