He already got ₱80,000.
So I thought the hard part was over.
I was wrong.
Then I watched him explain to a group of farmers what could come next.
₱80,000 at the provincial level.
₱150,000 at the regional level.
₱500,000 at the national level.
Then he joked,
"You could even become millionaires."
But what stayed with me came after that.
Melvin still hasn't reached the next level.
So I asked him:
"What score would you give yourself from 0 to 10?"
"Almost seven."
Almost seven.
After everything he has already built,
he still saw himself as someone in progress.
There was still another level he wanted to reach.
Still Learning.
Still Exploring.
One step at a time.
Melvin had already built something real. He'd built something out of nothing, and I'd just watched him explain to a room of farmers exactly how much bigger it could still get — ₱150,000, ₱500,000, maybe more. He said it half-joking. Millionaires.
I remember him telling me ₱80,000 felt too big for someone who started with nothing. Now I was watching him talk about ₱150,000 and ₱500,000 as the next steps.
So I asked him the only question that mattered to me by then. Not about cassava. Not about the facility. Just: out of ten, where are you?
Almost seven. Not seven. Almost seven.
I don't fully understand why that number stayed with me longer than any of the peso figures did.
The real number that stayed with me wasn't ₱500,000 — it was "almost seven," the score Melvin gave himself after everything he'd already built.
| Date | July 19, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Location | Amancion, Catmon, Cebu |
| Event Type | Business Growth & Self-Reflection |
| Access Method | Invited by a local contact (Melvin) |
| Food Featured | None — focus shifts from cassava to business growth |
| Cost to Attend | Free (by arrangement) |
| Rarity | 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ — A personal, one-on-one conversation rather than a public event |
| Bayanihan Index | 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ — Farmers remain part of the conversation as Melvin looks toward the next stage |
Whether "almost seven" is modesty, honesty, or simply what it feels like from the inside to have built something real, is still something I don't know.