A Killer View

There are easier ways to see Sydney from above. You can book a rooftop table, ride an elevator to an observation deck, or simply find a hill and wait for the light to change. I did some of those too. But there is something different about earning a view with your own effort and volition.

So, on the crisp winter morning of June 9th, I made my way towards The Rocks to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I took the ferry from Drummoyne into the city, approaching Barangaroo and a transfer to Circular Quay from the water. Sydney reveals itself gradually unfolding from the harbour: the Opera House, ferries cutting across the water, and then the bridge—massive, industrial, and almost absurdly familiar. Getting around was remarkably frictionless. Tap to pay worked almost everywhere, and the ferry was clean, efficient, and on time. Perhaps it is the Filipino in me, but seeing a city move with this kind of ease inevitably made me think about home—and about what our own cities, businesses, and institutions can still become.

The Climb

By the time I reached The Rocks, the bridge no longer felt like part of the skyline. Up close, it was heavy, imposing, and far more industrial than photographs suggest. It was somehow peaceful at the foot of the bridge, and not much was happening. Steel beams cut across the sky, traffic moved above and around me, and the entire structure seemed less like a monument than a machine still doing exactly what it was built to do. People jogged around, walked their dogs, and everything was quaint and breathing. It was a short photo walk for me, and I enjoyed it, spending almost 15 minutes at Argyle Street!

The BridgeClimb experience begins well before the ascent itself.

I entered the BridgeClimb center, where you check in at the desk and relax by their cafe/giftshop. Since I was an hour early for my noon-scheduled climb, I had ordered a nice breakfast–a sort of Spanakopita and a hot chocolate.

In our cohort, I was joined by an Asian Family from Texas, a couple from Taiwan touring Sydney, and an Australian couple celebrating their anniversary. There was a mother and her eleven-year-old daughter celebrating her birthday today at this climb. The little girl took the lead!

There was a briefing, a slew of safety equipment, the climb suit (a sort of temperature-regulated coverall), and a careful sequence of checks before you were finally attached to the bridge and led onto the structure. Phones, gadgets, and anything that came loose is left behind. Your sunglasses are fastened with an accessory to secure them, and you were provided with radios to help with communication.

Summit Status

The climb is measured rather than extreme, but height has a way of making even simple movement feel more deliberate. You move across steel catwalks, ladders, and stairs. Cars shrink. Ferries become small moving shapes. Buildings are no longer seen from a worm’s-eye view. With every step upward, the city starts to look less like a place you are moving through and more like something you are finally able to observe.

We stopped several times to catch our breath and admire the view—one already experienced by the likes of Oprah, Nick Kyrgios, and even Zoolander himself, Ben Stiller.

Eventually, I reached the summit.

The Argyle Stairs are located at Argyle Street, just before Cumberland Street, where the BridgeClimb center is located at The Rocks.

Feel free to read through the photos on the gallery.

Luckily, the commute was pleasant compared to Manila's tragic daily commute. The ferry continued towards Barangaroo, perfectly on schedule. A five-minute wait for the ferry to Circular Quay (CQ), and I was on the way. And there I was, a Filipino tourist admiring another country’s public transport system while mentally conducting an unsolicited audit of my own. Some habits are difficult to leave at home. Dito kasi, hindi masisira ang araw mo!

I had alighted from the ferry at CQ and it was a ten-to fifteen-minute walk towards the Rocks. Passing through the Museum of Contemporary Arts, I found myself exploring a small part of the city and saw how layered the vignettes of buildings and their architecture were.

I had passed through Argyle Street, the Argyle stairs, up to the Sirius building.

Sirius is a brutalist piece of architecture that was in its past a form of housing for the people displaced by developments around the Rocks in the 60's. Recently renovated from years of urban decay, its current form is now a luxurious apartment complex. I could totally live here!

Photo taken after climbing the Argyle Street Stairs leading to the brutalist Sirius Apartment Building at Cumberland Street.

"The climb is measured rather than extreme, but height has a way of making even simple movement feel more deliberate."

In the distance stood Salesforce Tower, the tallest office building in Sydney.

The word summit had become a recurring theme that day.

In the distance stood Salesforce Tower, and the coincidence was difficult to ignore.

For nearly five years, Salesforce had been part of the language of my professional life. At Third Pillar, I helped build and protect a brand that had earned Summit Partner status—one of the highest distinctions within the Salesforce community and, for us, a reflection of years of work by many people.

CRM, digital transformation, sales, technology, marketing—these were once simply parts of my job. Looking at that tower from the top of the bridge, I realised how much they had quietly shaped the way I understood business itself.

And in a strange way, it felt full circle. I loved my time at Third Pillar.

I loved it largely because of the people around me—the personalities, the energy, the shared history, and that strange chemistry that can make a company feel more human than corporate.

Over the years, colleagues became friends, mentors, and collaborators.

We watched the Salesforce ecosystem evolve, learned how Philippine companies bought technology, and helped organisations rethink the way they sold, served customers and operated. It was a challenge, especially during the transitions.

Those years taught me far more than marketing. They taught me business. And for that, I will always be grateful to the people of Third Pillar who shared that chapter with me.

"Perspective, after all, is shaped by how far one is capable of climbing."

The view of the Sydney Opera House from the top of the Bridge.

"It was one of the most life-changing experiences I've gone through."

Standing above Sydney, I found myself thinking less about what had ended and more about what those years had made possible.

Third Pillar introduced me to a post-pandemic world that, years earlier, I would never have imagined becoming part of: enterprise technology, CRM, sales transformation, automation and the systems behind how modern organisations actually work.

My career had started much closer to cameras, publishing, storytelling and creative production. Somehow, the path had taken me from media into e-commerce, from e-commerce into enterprise technology, and eventually into rooms where conversations were about Salesforce, customer experience, revenue operations and digital transformation.

Looking back, the trajectory no longer feels as random as it once did. The common thread was always the same: understanding people, building systems around them, and communicating ideas well enough to move something forward.

Maybe careers make more sense in reverse. You live them as a series of unrelated decisions and only later discover the pattern. There is another reason I remain grateful for that chapter.

Companies like Third Pillar matter.

The Philippines does not only need more large corporations. It needs more ambitious Filipino companies capable of building intellectual property, developing specialised expertise, creating high-value jobs and competing in industries where knowledge—not simply labour—is the product.

Technology consulting, software, CRM, design, engineering, creative industries and professional services are part of that future. Businesses like Third Pillar prove that Filipino teams can sit across the table from global technology companies, understand complex problems, build solutions around them and create value locally.

That possibility matters to me more now than it did when I first joined. Because wherever I go next, I suspect some part of my work will still be about building things here despite a corporate landscape where many of the Philippines’ largest companies still move cautiously, adopt technology slowly, and remain stubbornly comfortable with outdated ways of working.

From the top of the bridge, however, it was difficult to take any of these changes and joint ventures seriously in a world of much larger FAANG/MANGO companies, bigger markets, and more consequential players. Perhaps these people who had us replaced have never seen things from quite the same height. Perspective, after all, is shaped by how far one is capable of climbing.

With shaky knees and tired legs, our cohort eventually began the descent. We emerged on the other side of the steel arch, moved back through the structure, and slowly returned to the scale of streets, traffic, and people. It was one of the most life-changing experiences I've gone through.

The Salesforce Tower dominates the cityscape from this view.

BridgeClimb Sydney uses dynamic pricing, with rates varying by climb, date, and departure time.
Adult day climbs are generally priced in the A$300-plus range, so check the official booking calendar for the exact rate on your chosen date.

Touching Grass and Musings on Life

The experience did not simply offer a better view of Sydney. It created distance.

From the summit, things that normally occupy enormous amounts of mental space suddenly seemed smaller—not because they were meaningless, but because they were only parts of a much larger life.

For the first time in years, I am standing at a genuine crossroads. I could return to corporate life. There are certainly parts of it that I enjoyed, and there are people and organisations I would gladly work with again.

But I am no longer convinced that another corporate title is necessarily the next summit I need to climb.

There are businesses I want to build. Ideas I want to test. Creative work I want to return to. Technologies I want to understand. Communities I want to create. And perhaps most importantly, there is a version of my life I have not yet given myself enough room to explore. That uncertainty would once have made me uncomfortable.

Today, it feels strangely liberating.

I had approached the bridge from the water, moved through its steel, climbed to its summit, descended through its structure, and was now looking back at it from a hill (Observatory Hill Park).

The bridge had not changed.

Sydney had not changed.

Only my position had.

Perhaps perspective is often that simple.

The world remains where it is, and we move until we are finally able to see it differently. The view was romantic.

I don't know exactly what comes after this chapter. Maybe I return to corporate life. Maybe I build something of my own. More likely, the next few years will contain pieces of both. But I know I am leaving this chapter with considerably more than a job title.

I leave with a fresh perspective on friendships, an education in business, an unlikely career in technology, a lasting fascination with CRM and the systems behind companies, and enormous gratitude for the people who allowed me to grow alongside them.

I dedicate this bridge climb to my Third Pillar friends and family: thank you–Jen, Kel, Jonsy, Alfonso, Dean, Andie, Sid, Roselle, Tin, Glenn, Regj, Rad, Z, Naicy, Cher, Raffy, Pinky, Pia, Pau, Nic, Liyahn, Sheryll, Des & Mike (RIP). It was a meaningful chapter.

And perhaps seeing Salesforce Tower from the summit of a bridge on the other side of the world was simply life's unusually literal way of reminding me that one summit does not have to be the last one.

Sometimes you climb high enough to realise that there are several directions you can go from here.

For now, that is enough.

Third Pillar Business Applications, Inc. is a prominent IT consulting and systems integration firm headquartered in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Founded in 2013, the company specializes in delivering cloud-based enterprise software solutions and digital transformation consulting.

In August 2020, Philippine telecom giant Globe Telecom Inc. acquired a 67% majority stake in the company for ₱173 million, integrating Third Pillar into its portfolio as a Globe Business company to scale up its corporate cloud business suite.