Nene and Her Businesses: Entrepreneurship by Necessity (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Nemesia Magbuhat was born in 1937 in the city of Batangas (123 kilometers or 77 miles south of Manila), Philippines (Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation, n.d.). Soon thereafter, she was affectionately nicknamed "Nene", a variation of the Spanish word for young girl, nina. Nene is the second among ten siblings and the oldest among four sisters. Her family was poor. Her father was the sole income-earner who supported the large family with his meager income as a bus driver. The family was able to afford a college education for only one of her siblings, her youngest sister and the third from the youngest. Although she loved school and dreamed of being a lawyer and was quite a strong student in grade school, she had to quit school after sixth grade to begin working to supplement her family's income and support her younger siblings. Later, she replaced her father as the family's primary income-earner following a terrible accident in which her father was involved while he was still a bus driver. It was the combination of her family influence and circumstances that taught her independence and leadership from an early age. Given the climate of the time in the male-dominated society in which she lived, Nene's take charge attitude, strong drive to succeed and apparent self-esteem put her ahead of many women of her time.