05/06/2024
The epitome of a builder 🚧
: Engr. David M. Consunji, known as the "Builder of Landmarks" and the "Grandfather of the Philippine Construction Industry," began his career in the late 1940s with a second-hand one-bagger Jaeger concrete mixer.
He bought it for P500 in Gagalangin, Tondo, and spent P200 more refurbishing and fitting it with an engine, totaling P700.
A prominent builder later offered P3,500 for the mixer—five times what he had spent. Though tempted, Engr. Consunji did not sell.
In his memoir, "A Passion to Build," Engr. Consunji reflected on this decision as a defining moment.
He realized that selling the mixer for a quick profit wasn't aligned with his true passion for building. He saw the mixer as essential to his craft, akin to a musician's instrument.
Refusing the offer, Engr. Consunji prioritized his long-term vision over immediate gain, which ultimately laid the foundation for his construction company, DMCI.
"That mixer would serve me faithfully for several decades. In a very real sense, that P700 cement mixer was the foundation of my company, DMCI, which is considerably larger now than it was in the 1950s. It was my first major expense as a builder and the P700 l used to buy and refurbish that cement mixer was derived in part from money I had saved up for over 17 years, ever since I was a child, saved up from various allowances, and even money I had earned from a small poultry business I had when I was only 10 years old.
I think we only stopped using the mixer sometime in the late 1980s. Whatever the margin being offered to me by that prominent builder, that cement mixer has more than repaid me a million times, affirming the correctness of my decision to keep it.
This was one of those moments that I knew building was not about making money but putting up structures, making buildings, real things that brought real benefits to other people.
That was where I derived my real satisfaction in construction. Of course, I was never intent on losing money in construction; I did my best to make a reasonable profit. But making money is not the happiness I sought; I was not really a businessman but a builder, first and foremost."
Source: A Passion to Build: A Memoir of David M. Consunji
