 Jericho Rosales: “Be strong in your faith”
Interview by Tinna S. Bonifacio
He used to sell and haul fish. Today, he is acclaimed as one of the best second-generation leading men, heir apparent to the likes of Christopher de Leon. Intense, driven, and goal-oriented, Jericho Rosales balances his drive with a good dose of faith—a winning formula from any angle.
Here, Jericho shares with JobsDB readers more of the secrets to his success.
You’re back. You’re really back. You starred in a hit teleserye (Kahit Isang Saglit), did a critically-acclaimed movie (Baler) for which you won a Best Actor Award, will be recording an album and starring in another teleserye. How do you feel about the resurgence of your career? Is there anything you’re still wishing for at this point?
I’m very thankful for what’s happening right now, actually forever na ‘yon, and everything else is coming in as a bonus. I think I have achieved contentment. I am someone who is happy with what he has, but if I want to achieve something, maybe it’s just consistency.
You recently returned to your music after parting ways with your band Jeans. We heard Star Records is interested in tapping your talents as a songwriter, giving you yet another career option. Is this true?
Yes it is. I’ve actually written a lot of songs, and after Annabelle (Regalado-Borja) heard them, she asked if Star Records could use some of them. Before, I was pretty possessive about my compositions, but now that they’re out there, I feel I want to do more. I want to write more songs about love, about life, about a lot of things. Siyempre I want to be successful in the music industry.
But you won’t be giving up acting, right?
I want to be doing and creating. When I say creating, I want to be a producer kasi someday, so I want to be doing more meaningful movies, more good movies, movies that have value. Hopefully someday I will be able to direct and produce my own kind of movies. I want to achieve that.
You’re doing so many things. Don’t you sometimes feel you’re spreading yourself too thinly, career-wise?
Well, the priority pagdating sa career is hasain ko pa yung skills ko being a musician, bilang songwriter, bilang actor and a future director and producer.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from life that helped shape your career and make you the person you are today?
Certain situations in my life helped shape my future. There are so many things in my life that challenged me as a person, so many mistakes to be exact. Talagang there’s a course that you have to take, and every time that I would fall, I would stand up and I would get up and accept my mistakes and learn from it and whatever I learn from that mistake, I share with others. I remind myself, hey, this thing doesn’t have to be a step back. It’s a leap forward. Kaya learn from your mistakes and accept that you’re only a person, you’re human, and just have faith. Be strong in your faith and just believe that being a child of God you have the ability, you have what it takes to make it where you’re going. Just always do good, do not harm other people, do not hurt other people if ever you do learn to be humble, literally it is being humble and huwag mong ikahiya kung saan ka galing and be proud.
What is your formula for success?
Success depends on your own personal gauge. If you think that having your own house makes you successful, having that position or that name in the company is being successful, then that’s success. Let’s say I was successful in selling fish, well I sold fish, ‘di ba? Now, I realized that I have the skill and the ability to sell things, I do understand what I’m selling and I can talk to people and say ‘Do you want this and if you want this, you can have it’, parang ganon ‘di ba? So the abilities that you discover in yourself are success points para sa akin. I have the ability to talk, walk, to think, to write and I wil not let anything stop me from reaching that.
What advice would you give to those who want to become successful like you?
Well, poverty should not stop you from becoming successful. It’s just how much you want. How much do you want in life? What do you want in life? It’s about knowing and sitting down and thinking.
And you’ve always said that good health is very important to achieving your career goals too, right?
Yes, definitely. I surf a lot, I skate, I box, I go into different things. I’ve recently discovered parcour which is just climbing trees, scaling walls, jumping—which is like free gym. I used to do motocross, I used to ice skate, baseball, sipa, long jump, wushu. I did a lot of things, talaga basically I’m a very active person and I love it Preparation and taking care of yourself is everything, being healthy, being strong and maintaining. Maintenance is very important to live an active lifestyle. I eat well, I try to sleep well, I protect my time. Before, I would say sige, hanggang umaga tayo mag-taping, hanggang umaga tayo mag-shooting, but I’m not getting any younger. Nung naisip ko yun sabi ko, “What about the future?” Now I protect my time and I have people backing me up. My Genesis family backs me up with my time, say, I can only work up to 4AM, that’s it, 4 AM. Not because we’re making yabang, but because this is my body, ‘di ba? And I want to be able to share a fraction of my energy and time with my family, with my friends, with my sport and above all, to go to church to serve and to be the person that I am, to be an actor and to be everything that I wanna do. And my spirit needs to live and breathe, my soul needs to also. This is overlooked all the time. There’s a verse from the Bible that says “the body is the temple of the holy spirit” and you have to take care of it. Parang if you drink too much, you lose control, you might get into things na parang hindi mo magugustuhan ang mga bagay. It can be fatal. I’m not trying to scare people, but taking care of your body means not losing control of yourself. You have to get a hold of yourself. Do not lose yourself into things that will cause you to fail and stumble, parang ganon. I’ve learned that, I’ve had my share, I’ve had my time I had my solid lessons, hard-hitting ones as well, so parang boom! So I try to stay cool.
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