About Wilmar Calaguas
My Story
I was born in the Philippines, and when I was just eight, I had the fortunate opportunity to come to the United States. My uncle was in the Navy and petitioned my parents. My parents eventually immigrated to the United States in 1988. Since my parents were unsure if they can provide and sustained my twin sisters and me, we stayed with my grandparents for two years before joining my parents in San Diego, California.
If you lived in the Philippines at that time, the United States Military had three bases and one stationed in Pampanga City where I lived. My Dad worked on base as a civilian. When I was a child growing up, there was a big buzz about living in the United States, and the wealth of opportunity to live in American was a dream for many. As a young kid, I didn’t know what that meant. After all, I was happy and didn’t see my life as anything less than anyone else.
In 1990, I got on a plane and moved to the United States. It was an experience I will never forget. The first thing I noticed is how clean the air was and how I thought it was odd that there was an empty park near where I lived but no kids around. I was bone skinny when I arrived and quickly introduced to all kinds of food. It was an eye-opening experience and culture shock to how different living was from a third world country to the wealthiest nations in the world.
It wasn’t long until this new experience would also have its downs. When I started school as a 2nd grader, I quickly notice how kids can be so cruel and mean. In the Philippines, it was simple, and kids were kind. Shortly after attending school, I was bullied and felt alone. Not being able to speak English, and taking ESL(English Second Language) classes was a disadvantage. Fortunately, I was an athletic kid and dominated all the sports activities on the recess courts. I eventually grew up playing baseball and Badminton in high school. Being good at sports, kids had to respect me because I was better than them.
Growing up in the Philippines, I was exposed to religion, and Catholicism is the dominant religion in my city. I wasn’t religious at all and only went to church with my parents because I had to go. On November 8, 2008, at 2 pm, I got “saved” and surrendered my life to Christ. Not too long after, I enrolled in a discipleship school HSE(Horizon School of evangelism), where I learned the practical side of serving others in a faith-based environment. Then I went to Bible college to receive my Bachelor of Biblical Studies and Theology from Horizon University. After studying and practicing my faith. I realized that there was a gap in teaching that wasn’t being taught in the biblical text. In my years in college and churches, I was involved with didn’t teach the subject of the Kingdom. That is why I created a project teaching the very subject that King Jesus taught in the three years he was on earth, which was the Kingdom. The Birth of KingdomAcademy.Online started and will be one of my lifetimes’ work.
My introduction to the business arena started when a friend got me into a multi-level marketing company, and the founder had introduced me to reading books plus other concepts of thinking outside the box of going to college to get a job. This experience is where I started my journey into entrepreneurial pursuits. I eventually went into the real estate and mortgage industry. During my ten years in the industry, this is where my love for systemization and running a business developed. I had successfully helped my brokers set up systems and processes for their mortgage department. Even for one my employer for a hotel in San Deigo still, today capture 10-15k a month they were losing before I set up systems for my department. These experiences are how SystemizeTheBusiness.com was birth doing what I love and what I am brilliant at in bringing value to businesses.
I had a strong calling to teach about my faith and developing a stable business that I loved. I still had a desire to teach beyond those two topics. At 36 years of age, I had an urgent desire to do something with my life and to honestly figure out how I was going to use my life to make an impact in the world plus add value to others. More importantly, what was I going to leave and contribute? From being an immigrant in the Philippines, my search and work to attain the “Good Life” was still a reality for me to fulfill. I am still on this journey of attempting to manifest the things I want in different areas of my life. So another project was birth from this search, which is the 7 Parts of the “Good Life.” 7 Parts that gave me an unlimited amount of content I can produce for the rest of my years, and in that, I can share my journey with others — hoping to inspire many never to give up.
As I approach my forties, I have a sense of direction in terms of life purpose, and what will occupy my time and energy as I labor every day to make my mark in the world. I am a believer that when the purpose is not known, then abuse is inevitable. We will abuse our time, resources, abilities, and people because it leaves us no direction on the day to day life. So we end up passing the time rather than build something that will outlive us that can be used to help others and the future generations. Although, this doesn’t necessarily make life easy. I think it will simplify and will give a better chance of finding fulfillment in life.
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but what is required is hard work to live the life you want to live and become the person you are capable of becoming. Today I am a husband to my wonderful wife Vanessa, dad to my beautiful daughter Olivia, Son to the best parents (Maria and Wilfredo) in the world, brother to my supportive sisters (Wihermina and Wilhemina), fantastic relatives that encourage me, and I have a small group of friends I can count on for anything. I am enjoying life as much as possible with the ups and downs. I am pursuing my big dreams and doing my best to love the process of life. I am finally in a place where I know my purpose and my personal goal to impact a billion people with my life. What’s your purpose in life? Let’s connect and use our gifts to help each other achieve them. Let’s go!