Richard Juan is one of the successful young entertainers in the country. Having recently appeared on CHiNOY TV’s podcast, Rise Up with Janeena Chan, he shared his personal journey towards success, his current projects, along with tips for the youth.
As a student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, he pursued a part-time modeling career — from school event posters to fashion shows like Coca-Cola and Adidas. He was also featured in several magazines like Candy and Chalk magazine. He gained popularity through Eat Bulaga’s “You’re My Foreignoy” and won the Dabarkad’s Choice Award.
Soon after, he started hosting several shows on the GMA Network, and took part in Pinoy Big Brother: 737 and UPFRONT at the UAAP. In that time, he also graduated cum laude with a degree in broadcast communication.
In the podcast, he shares his journey and tips for self-growth:
Fake it till you make it — but in a good way.
From living in Hong Kong to moving to the Philippines just to study for college, Juan decided to change his lifestyle to become more open and confident.
“Kasi I moved to the Philippines just to study in U.P., the same school that my dad graduated in na I told myself na okay I’m going to be … I’m going to fake it till I make it, meaning I’m gonna fake that confidence, I’m gonna fake being an extrovert until I actually fully feel like an extrovert, feel comfortable talking to random people, or new people, and it worked!” Juan shared.
“When people say ‘Fake it till you make it,’ sometimes people think na parang like, it’s a negative tone ‘cause you’re faking something,” Juan stated. “But when I say, ‘fake it till you make it,’ it’s more of the type where you force yourself to leave your comfort zone and do something that you never or rarely do, because that’s kind of how you like grow e. Leaving your comfort zone is the only way you can grow.”
Don’t be complacent and keep growing.
“As humans in general, we always just wanna find comfort in every single thing that we do,” Juan explained. “We wanna find the equilibrium, we wanna find homeostasis, but once you find that homeostasis, you don’t grow na e, kasi that’s human nature. But the thing is to grow — you need to — you cannot always be comfortable. Being comfortable is a place where you don’t grow,” Juan stressed.
“There were so many small moments na I was like, “Oh, my God, should I just be comfortable? And be complacent?’ E, wala e, you really have to force yourself to grow e,” Juan said. “Parang, for example, when you’re working out, you don’t feel comfortable when you’re working out, [since] your muscles are being strained, your muscles are being [torn] apart. That’s how you grow e. And that’s how it also is in life, where your mentality, your emotions are being torn apart. But that’s how you grow.”
Don’t let your failures, or the fear of failure, get in the way.
“The fear of failure is honestly the biggest thing that holds back most people, if not everyone, in this world,” Juan said. “Me, personally, I had the fear of failure. I mean, I failed many times. I’ve failed businesses before, I’ve failed videos, I’ve failed posts before, [in the end], it doesn’t really matter, kasi like, right now, people forget their failures very quickly.”
“It’s just in your head,” Juan emphasized. “Once you have that one success, they will always remember that success, and you just gotta build on that success.”
Be self-disciplined.
“Schedules are so important,” Juan said. “Right now, my schedule is I work my — every single week, I plan out my week na, to the hour, like I’m sleeping at this time, I’m going to work out at this time, I’m going to have this thing with you in this podcast at this time, like it’s blocked out, ‘cause that’s how to be effective in time management.”
“If you just have a list of things to do, sure, it’s a great start if you have a list of things to do,” Juan said. “But if you don’t jot them in, if you don’t have the urgency, you don’t have the time pressure, hindi siya magiging effective.”
Strive to become the best version of yourself.
Juan shared how thankful he was to explore the opportunities set before him during 2016-2018, but at the same time, he has the tendency to look back at his batchmates who were succeeding in their own chosen fields.
“The comparison is always gonna be there,” Juan said. “But at the end of the day, it depends on what you really, really want. As long as you know what you want, and you’re working towards what you want, I think that’s fine. It’s always a mental gain. It always is, always will be, and you just gotta — you cannot always compare yourself to other people, you oughta be comparing yourself to yourself, whether or not you’ve grown more from the year before, or from the month before, or from the year before, like it’s always a constant battle with yourself.
“It shouldn’t be a constant battle with someone else, you should be comparing yourself to yourself to see if you’ve grown. And that’s the most important thing out of everything. You just got to be the best version of yourself.”
“Not everyone can be the best in the world, but everyone can be the best versions of themselves,” Juan said. “I may not be the best host in the world, but I know that I can be the best version of Richard Juan.”
For more advice from some of the successful Chinoy personalities who have guested on Rise Up with Janeena Chan, check out our articles on goal setting for the new year with Belle Du Jour planner president Darlyn Ty-Nilo, embracing life’s turn of events with events planner Christine Ong Te, and life advice in the form of 5 F’s with Plains and Prints owner Roxanne Ang Farillas.
