NOBODY would have thought that a Thomasian was behind the genius of Short Messages Service (SMS) technology.
But Nazario Ramon Figueroa, a College of Education graduate, moved mountains and changed the name of Information Technology.
He was known to have provided the cellular phone company, Globe, three personalized features: Pastlife, Isitlove and Fortune Cookie.
Beginnings
Nazario Ramon, or Pom to his friends, was born to Jesus and Angelita Figueroa in Manila on Oct. 14, 1978.
After finishing elementary and high school, he took up Education at the UST College of Education, and finished his degree in 1999.
“We were about 250 students in first year and I can count the people who took the course intentionally in my one or two hands, and I’m not one of them,” Pom related.
Pom’s idea of his course changed when he made friends in the course. According to Pom, he went to school primarily because of them.
He loved his college life more when he was assigned, alongside other students, to develop the College of Education website.
“I can say that it was the best college website during that time. The College of Engineering and the College of Science were shocked,” Pom said.
Immediately after graduation, he entered the IT industry, instead of pursuing a teaching career.
Good Start
His career in IT was highlighted when he “cracked the language” and discovered the principle behind networking. Pom was also one of those who created myAyala.com, one of today’s leading web portals. And then, there was the SMS technology.
Today, he belongs to a small group of IT professionals who have their own SMS gateway.
According to Pom, everything in IT is considered a big break.
“We innovate. Everytime we are successful, that is considered a big break,” he said.
But if success comes along naturally, so does pressure. “The trick is to let the pressure guide you,” Pom added
Away from work
When he is not at work, he can be found sitting in front of his computer at home, studying new programming languages, and creating simple programs, which he intends to sell later on. He can also be heard playing his guitar or be seen writing a song.
“I play music. It’s my simplest way of expressing myself. I’m not that expressive, so everything that I feel comes out in that form,” Pom said.
According to Trissa Lopez, Pom’s friend, Pom is hardworking and very committed to his job, which is perhaps the reason behind his early success in life.
Everything seems to be going the way Pom planned them. After he graduated, he planned to work in an IT company, which he did. In two years, he told himself that he would have his own car. And so he did. He plans to have his own house in five years.
Until then, he will live up to his formulae of success. “Be yourself. Don’t try to be someone else,” he said. “And always ask things you don’t know.”
