Lessons Learned from Pia's victory

(1)  Perseverance

It took Pia Wurtzbach three attempts before she was able to wear the "Philippines" sash at Miss Universe. But it was actually Janine Tugonon who started the trend of re-joining the pageant to clinch the much coveted title.

When Venus Raj became a Finalist at Miss Universe in 2010, the Binibining Pilipinas pageant became a fierce battle ground for beauty title. Most girls who are joining nowadays have previous pageant experience. Some even represented the country in a minor beauty pageant abroad.

And with Beauty Schools left and right, girls who are just a pretty face and lack the queenly skills will be in serious trouble on stage.
 

 

When Pia won, she says this "It was a long journey getting here. I'm not going to waste this."

“If there is a connotation I wanna change, it's that you have to join a beauty pageant to be successful. That's not true. I don't want to give the wrong impression to girls that for you to become like me, you have to become a beauty queen. It's not like that. It just so happen that this is my job, that I am fit for this job. I am working with what I have and that's why I am a beauty queen. But it’s different for everybody.”

(2)  Focus & Mastery

After winning the title, people noticed a tremendous weight loss with Pia's body to every send-off of her other sisters in Binibining Pilipinas. This was because she was training relentlessly for the pageant.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted her as saying,

“More on the workout. I don’t really think I have a problem with Q&A for now. I just need to keep updated on current events. We’ll also do some public speaking training eventually, but I’m not worried about that. This early, I’ve been working on my own. I’ve been working out because I really think that’s the aspect I need to focus on.”
 

 

(3)  Support group

Shamsey Supsup who won 3rd Runner Up at Miss Universe in 2013 was instrumental in giving tips to other representative like MJ Lastimosa and Pia Wurtzbach.

It is because they belong to the same training camp which is the Aces & Queen.

There was a saying also, "Never fight a team alone cause you will surely fail."

The Aces & Queen training camp is a team with individual expertise. One is assigned for catwalk, another for hair & make up and another for question and answer.

On the day before the preliminaries, Pia's gown was far from sight. And who made the rush to contact Filipino designers based in the U.S. It's actually the team member of Aces & Queen. Without this support group, Pia would be left empty–handed.

(4)  Knowing the purpose or core mission

Each beauty pageant has its own advocacy or tagline where their business evolved. Many viewers are just fascinated with the grandiosity of the presentation of the pageant without realizing that this could be ephemeral only.

Another quote from “Philippine Daily Inquirer,”

“When I started with the training, like everybody else, I was afraid. But my Q&A trainer, he would correct you if you were wrong but he would also give you the confidence that you could answer whatever was thrown at you. You don’t have to be formally educated to answer these questions. It’s not rocket science, ‘di ba? They’re vague, and basically what it calls for is for you to go to your core.”

And what is the "Core" of it, Miss Universe tagline is "Confidently Beautiful."

As for other pageant like Miss World, it's "Beauty with a Purpose" and for Miss Earth "Beauties for a Cause"

Pia was able to integrate the core values on her final Q&A answer:

“To be a Miss Universe is both an honor and responsibility. If I were to be Miss Universe, I will use my voice to influence the youth and I would raise awareness to certain causes like HIV awareness that is timely and relevant to my country which is the Philippines. I want to show the world, the universe rather, that I am confidently beautiful with a heart. Thank you.”

(5)  Intensive Training
 

 

Gone are the days when Philippine will be sending an unpolished girl to an international pageant especially the Big Four.

Because of the enthusiasm of pageant fanatics that Beauty schools sprouted like mushroom in the country. Each has different curriculum and they are all geared to just one purpose, "To produce a polished beauty queen"