Near noon on the 20th of May, Enrico Emmanuel Chua Angtuaco, Rico to his friends, left this life. For those of us who knew him, his family, his students, and his colleagues at the Asian Institute of Management, it seems appropriate that he would leave with the sun at its peak, when the world was bathed in sunlight. That was, of course, how he lived his life – with never a deed that could not be held up to full scrutiny.
I received the news at the tail end of the offsite weekend of batch 2018 of the Asian Institute of Management’s Master in Entrepreneurship program. It was a weekend devoted to life planning and team building, a weekend replete with looking back, reflecting on what is truly important, of making choices and looking forward, of building bridges and choosing happiness.
So this week, we talk about journeys and destinations. We talk about the paths we choose to take and the life we choose to live.
Teacher’s Teacher
I met Rico on the instigation of a common friend who had decided that I should teach. The theory was that conversing with Rico would give me clarity. It was two years after I had helped found a business, six months after I had left my full-time job and right about the time when I hadn’t fully decided how to shape the rest of my professional life. In one meeting, Rico both provided me with enough information to make a decision and set me on the first step to implementing my decision. That decision? Joining the teaching staff of the Asian Institute of Management.
Rico was my definition of the teacher’s teacher. I was lucky to be teaching in the same field he was teaching. It was Rico who shared his notes, calculations and slides with me. It was him I went to with my finance teaching questions. Cases for a topic? Go to Rico? How to set up the lesson plan? Rico. What to anticipate? Rico. How to prepare for class? You got it. Rico.
It was Rico I set up as my personal benchmark for finance teaching. I learned early on that, if Rico had taught a case, he would have analyzed it in every way and would have all sorts of advice for running the class. The first time I asked him for help, he pulled out a clear book with everything he had on the case and the topic. But it wasn’t until he drafted me to help him teach a new topic that I truly realized how extreme Rico’s personal definition of preparedness was.
Rico had said yes to teaching finance to sales managers in the financial services industry. This was in the 1990’s when the idea of financial advisory was still relatively new and, quite understandably, there were no exercises or cases that perfectly suited many of the topics we needed to teach. We needed short cases that still provided enough depth for our students.
As we went through the design for the course, Rico, in a perfectly normal voice explained that we would just have to create mini-cases and exercises for these topics. In fact, for some of the topics, Rico actually expected that we would provide either a short lecture or a reading.
Guro
That was the day I truly understood one of the most enduring affectionate jokes I had heard about Rico. It was during a late night chat session when we were running down the list of professors we admired. When I mentioned his name, there was general affirmation and this comment: “In a Filipino dictionary, beside the word guro, there should be a picture of Rico Angtuaco.”
Wikipedia explains that guro is the Filipino word for teacher and that it derives from the Sanskrit word guru. The online etymology dictionary defines guru as more than just a teacher. The word derives from a word with the literal meaning of “weighty.” This explains why guru is usually used to mean someone who not only teaches skills but also mentors the individual.
For me, this was a highly satisfying explanation. One of the words we use in AIM to characterize the professors who are able to dominate the classroom simply be their presence also has the same roots – gravitas. But Rico, unlike many for whom we would use the word gravitas, was never one who would attract attention or raise his voice or throw his weight around.
Rico was always that quiet voice of reason. Rico was the person who would try to resolve an argument with reason and humor. It is a testament to his character that even as his family mourned his passing, they celebrated his life and his humor.
There are many stories from his children about Rico but the one I loved the most was the one from his youngest child. She explained that, being the daughter of her father meant that they were always ripe ground for recruitment to initiatives meant to help others. One of the things Rico taught to his children is also one of the things he taught his students, and me. It is important to choose the right path.
In his life, Rico made many difficult decisions. I always admired this about him. He consistently chose meaning and love over fame and fortune. What he leaves behind, in those of us who learned from him, is an enduring legacy of conscience, steadfastness and purpose.
As I begin to close the pages on a week of looking forward and looking back, that is the lesson I want to remember. Ultimately, life is about choices and choices are about trade-offs. You can’t have everything. But you can choose to have the important things. Choose love. Choose meaning. Choose happiness. I think Rico would approve.
Rest in peace, dear friend.
Readers can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com. Or visit her site at http://integrations.tumblr.com. For academic publications, Maya uses her full name, Maria Elena Baltazar Herrera.