Let’s talk buzzwords. We’ve talked about the meaning of startup, unicorn, bitcoin and blockchains. Those words have definite, though expansive, definitions.

But not so much when it comes to the words “game‑changer” and “innovation.” Those words get used a lot lately, to the point where you might start wondering if the person who used it even knows what it meant. Perhaps you too wasted too many minutes staring at a bottle labelled “innovative drink” going “what?”

Two speakers from the Spark Series x Far Eastern University last January 26 did their best to define these words for us so that not only will we not misuse them, we can also inspire to be game‑changers and innovators now that what they know what they are.

Francis Peña, the Business Lead for HATCH Campaigns under Voyager Innovations, Inc., turned to the dictionary for help during his talk on empowering future game‑changers. Quoting Merriam‑Webster, he said: “a game‑changer is a newly introduced element or a factor that changes an existing situation in a significant way.

He cited basketball player Michael Jordan as an example of a game‑changer in the field of sports, making the then unknown Chicago Bulls team a household name. (Also not to be mistaken with music legend Michael Jackson, though it could be argued that he too made a significant mark on the pop music scene.) Non‑human examples of game‑changers cited by Peña are email and smartphones. Can you imagine life without email? For all of your ‘90s nostalgia, do you really want to go back to the time when cell phones were the size and weight of aged box tortoises?

Now, what turns a person into a game‑changer? Peña gave us three P’s to live by: “palpak, pasaway and palaban.”

Palpak (failure) doesn’t mean that you should actively seek out failure. It means that you will naturally face failure in your life, but you shouldn’t give up because of it. “Failure will teach you more than success,”Peña said. “You have to look at failures as opportunities to learn, to grow and develop.”

Being a pasaway (non‑conformist), meanwhile, means that you won’t just settle with what you have right now. “Don’t settle for what’s in front of you; seek out and discover whether you can do to make things better,”said Peña, citing Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and Pinoy upcycling artist Paco Pili as examples of pasaways who made it. This is also where younger millennials and the centennials might excel over the older millennials, Peña stated, since they are less bound to tradition. “Older millennials like me have a tendency to be traditional… it’s important to know traditions but don’t bind yourself to traditions. Traditions evolve as the population evolves.”

The final P is palaban (possessing a fighting spirit). “Have the fortitude and persistence to follow through in spite of the challenges,”said Peña, concluding his Three P’s.

Now that we know what a game‑changer is, are you ready to know what innovation means so you can step up your game and become an innovative game‑changer? Tough luck, everyone has a different definition of innovation.

But Iggy Javellana, CEO of Pinoy video game company Muramasa Games, made sure that we’d get close to what innovation generally means through these words of wisdom: “Innovation isn’t just about creating something new. First you have to figure out what challenge you want to solve, then you have to execute your idea. But most importantly it has to add value to your brand and your customers.”

Got that? Being an innovator means not only having value but making others (your customers and stakeholders) see the value in you. They chose you for a reason. Be that reason.

And with that, see you in the next Spark Series! University of Santo Tomas get ready to get sparked up.

Just how much should your company be valued for it to be considered a unicorn?

One billion dollars. That’s right, not pesos. Not dong. $1,000,000,000. My bank account is shookt.

How do you know if your startup has the potential to be worth a billion dollars? “Simple ways to determine the value of an idea is that if it solves a big problem where customers will be dependent on your idea, has an extreme organic growth through word‑of‑mouth or referral, if customers are willing to pay for it, and if it’s disrupting an industry,” said Carmina Bayombong, the 24‑year‑old CEO of social enterprise InvestEd during her talk at Spark Series x Far Eastern University: an event powered by BusinessWorld, co‑presented by Accenture and Voyager Innovations, Inc. together with ZALORA, Wingstop Philippines, Parkland and JobStreet.com Philippines, and supported by IdeaSpace Philippines and Philippine Junior Marketing Association | PJMA, with media partners Philippine Star and Bloomberg TV Philippines (you can breathe now).

For example: Facebook when it first started. You weren’t paid to join Facebook. You, like Bayombong, were probably convinced by a friend to join this new social media platform. That’s an example of organic growth. Now you can’t get away from Facebook, (you’re probably reading SparkUp on it right now), which is an example of customer dependence. Everything is on Facebook right now, it’s hard to imagine life without it. You can talk to almost anyone through it, you can buy almost any good or service through it. It’s definitely disruptive. Are customers willing to pay for it? Yes, that’s why there’s a lot of paid ads or sponsored content on Facebook.

There are a lot of unicorn the world over. Other examples given by Bayombong include Amazon, Pinterest and Uber. Asian startups include Traveloka, Lazada and Grab.

What about the Philippines? Is there such a thing as Filipino unicorn? Not yet, according to Bayombong.

Wait, there might be some confusion here. In October last year, news came out announcing Revolution Precrafted, a developer of prefabricated designer homes, as the first local startup to attain the title, following a series B round investment co‑led by Singapore‑based K2 VC, which valued the company at over $1 billion.

But according to Bayombong the company can’t be called a unicorn since it was merely the investment that catapulted its value.

“If you talk to venture capitalists in the Philippines, there’s really no unicorn yet. Although that’s the first startup valued [at more than $1], that’s just based on one investor that set it at $1 billion, but right now if you would really valuate it based on revenues, it’s not a unicorn,” she explained.

The value of a startup is based on its exit through an initial public offering (IPO), after which it ceases to be a startup (“graduate na siya,” as Bayombong put it). The largest exit by a Filipino startup so far is $40,000,000, which is a few zeroes away from being a unicorn.

Is there a potential for a unicorn to emerge from the Philippines? “Yes, of course,” Bayombong said. “I really want you to have the standards of a unicorn, build your business with the standard of a unicorn by bringing great value to your stakeholders. Start as soon as possible. Nothing beats experience in actually doing the business yourself.”

But she didn’t mean starting haphazardly. “Never leave your day job until you have the money to sustain yourself,” Bayombong added, noting that startup founders in Silicon Valley made sure to never leave their day jobs until they were sure that they earned enough from their startups to sustain themselves.

With that said, she advised that you shouldn’t get too bogged down with finances. “If you build a product that has great value, people will pay for it and you won’t have problems with funding,” said Bayombong.

As for Bayombong, she resigned from her first job to put up InvestEd which makes student loans and scholarships more accessible to college students. InvestEd currently gets funding from Villgro, an Indian social enterprise impact investor and incubator that recently branched out its operations to the Philippines and Kenya.

“InvestEd started when I was a student in UP, where I witnessed a lot of my friends drop out due to financial problems,” she recalled. “That got me thinking why is financial aid in education such a hard thing to come by?”

Bayombong, like many other startup founders, hopes that InvestEd will eventually scale to become a Filipino unicorn while being able to help several students finish their college education. But she’s in no great hurry. “I’m dreaming for my startup to be a unicorn pero pacing lang,” she said.