Enfiniti and Astro to jointly manage Hafiz, Aril & Akim

Last Thursday, my company Enfiniti Productions and Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd co-hosted a press conference to announce the joint management of the top 3 winners of Akademi Fantasia 7, Hafiz, Aril and Akim. This is the press release statement as well as the speech I gave at the PC.



Untuk Siaran Berita

ASTRO ENTERTAINMENT DAN ENFINITI PRODUCTIONS BAKAL URUS KERJAYA HAFIZ, ARIL DAN AKIM BERSAMA

Petaling Jaya, 17 September 2009: Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd (AESB) dan Enfiniti Productions Sdn Bhd (Enfiniti) hari ini mengumumkan pengurusan bersama 3 finalis Akademi Fantasia musim ke 7 (AF7), Hafiz, Aril dan Akim di dalam satu sidang media bertempat di restoran Borneo Rainforest Sunway.

Melalui pengurusan bersama ini, pihak AESB dan Enfiniti bakal berkerjasama di dalam mengurus dan mempromosikan 3 artis tersebut melalui semua saluran media. AESB dan Enfiniti amat yakin dengan bakat besar yang ada pada 3 artis muda ini dan akan bergabung tenaga mengatur kerjaya mereka.

Menurut Pengarah Eksekutif AESB, Zainir Aminullah,

Ketiga-tiga artis ini memerlukan pelan pemasaran yang rapi dan menyeluruh.

“Perhatian bukan sahaja diberikan kepada bidang nyanyian, lakonan dan pengacaraan juga dikenal pasti mampu mengukuhkan lagi kerjaya mereka.

”AESB turut aktif menembusi pasaran syarikat-syarikat korporat untuk memasarkan artis-artis ini sebagai duta produk. Justeru itu, penjenamaan atau ’branding’ memainkan peranan penting bagi artis bersaing secara sihat merebut peluang komersial dari pihak korporat”, terang Zainir.

Beliau menambah AESB amat terbuka dalam menjalinkan kerjasama dengan pelbagai pihak demi kemajuan karier artis.

”Enfiniti Productions merupakan sebuah agensi yang dikenal pasti dapat membantu AESB melaksanakan perancangan ini. Di bawah penyeliaan Yang Berbahagia Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina, Enfiniti dilantik secara rasminya sebagai pengurus bersama dari aspek pengurusan jenama, perhubungan awam dan aktiviti-aktiviti komersial.

Datin Sri Tiara pula berkata, pihak Enfiniti dan AESB telah pun mengadakan beberapa sesi perbincangan antara lain penjenamaan (branding), pemasaran dan pelan kerjaya 2 hingga 3 tahun untuk Hafiz, Aril dan Akim.

Antara perancangan Enfiniti yang utama adalah lanjutan skil yang diajar sewaktu di Akademi Fantasia tempohari, antaranya segi teknik tarian, seni persembahan pentas, lakonan, tatagaya (styling), vokal dan sebagainya. Perancangan juga sedang diatur untuk beberapa projek, antaranya rancangan untuk TV,album, klip video, konsert jelajah dan persembahan untuk majlis koprat. Ada juga kemungkinan perancangan untuk projek filem dan teater. Sebahagian dari projek-projek ini bakal dikelolakan secara usahasama diantara Enfiniti bersama AESB, disamping kerjasama dengan stesen TV yang lain.

“Industri hiburan hari ini penuh dengan cabaran-cabaran baru. Artis perlu ada perancangan karir yang terperinci (detailed career road map), dan pendekatan (approach) yang lebih segar supaya menonjol. Hafiz, Aril dan Akim akan dipakej dengan imej dan “branding” yang jelas, disamping rancangan pemasaran dan promosi mereka tersendiri.

Jelas Tiara lagi, “Saya amat teruja untuk membentuk Hafiz, Aril dan Akim pergi lebih jauh kerana saya percaya dengan bakat murni yang mereka ada. Saya kenal mereka, dan yakin mereka bertiga sanggup bekerja keras.

Pihak Enfiniti telah pun berkongsi dengan mereka perancangan kerjaya (career plan) yang kami telah atur bersama pihak AESB. Saya sangat berbesar hati atas sokongan padu dan kepercayaan yang diberikan oleh Encik Zainir Aminullah dan pengurusan AESB sejak dari awal perbincangan dalam merealisasikan usahasama ini.”

“Saya bermula di dalam bidang seni lebih 20 tahun yang lalu, bukan sebagai pelakon tetapi sebagai pengurus bakat, melalui syarikat saya Jacquie Eu Productions dan Kit Kat Klub Entertainment. Enfiniti Productions Sdn Bhd ingin dikenali dengan penerbitan produk berkualiti dalam bidang filem dan teater.

Syarikat-syarikat bersekutu kami iaitu syarikat pengurusan bakat D Casting Sdn Bhd, syarikat event management Kit Kat Klub Entertainment dn Bhd, production house rancangan TV Ten On Ten Pictures Sdn Bhd dan juga projek terbaru kami iaitu Enfiniti Akademi merupakan “network” kami sendiri.

“Justeru itu, segala pengalaman, sumber tenaga dan kreatif syarikat-syarikat ini secara bersekutu akan dimanfaatkan untuk menyokong projek pengurusan bersama Hafiz, Aril dan Akim ini. Saya melihat ini juga sebagai satu kesinambungan kepada penglibatan saya sebagai “principal” mereka!”

TAMAT.


Tiara's speech:

"Nampaknya pengalaman saya bersama AF musim ketujuh sebagai Principal membawa kesan yang begitu berpanjangan pada saya, sehingga syarikat saya tergerak mengusulkan proposal pengurusan bersama ini, dengan Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd!

Sehingga sekarang, kami telah pun mengadakan beberapa sesi perbincangan terperinci antara lain tentang penjenamaan (branding), pemasaran dan pelan kerjaya 2 hingga 3 tahun untuk Hafiz, Aril dan Akim.

Antara perancangan Enfiniti yang utama adalah lanjutan skil yang diajar sewaktu di Akademi Fantasia tempohari, antaranya segi teknik tarian, seni persembahan pentas, lakonan, tatagaya (styling), vokal dan sebagainya. Perancangan juga sedang diatur untuk beberapa projek, antaranya rancangan untuk TV,album, klip video, konsert jelajah dan persembahan untuk majlis koprat. Ada juga kemungkinan perancangan untuk projek filem dan teater. Sebahagian dari projek-projek ini bakal dikelolakan secara usahasama diantara Enfiniti bersama AESB, disamping kerjasama dengan stesen TV yang lain.

Industri hiburan hari ini penuh dengan cabaran-cabaran baru. Artis perlu ada perancangan karir yang terperinci (detailed career road map), dan pendekatan (approach) yang lebih segar supaya menonjol dan yang lebih penting, supaya kekal dalam industri ini.

Hafiz, Aril dan Akim akan dipakej dengan imej dan “branding” yang jelas, disamping rancangan pemasaran dan promosi mereka tersendiri.

Saya amat teruja untuk membimbing Hafiz, Aril dan Akim untuk pergi sejauh mungkin, kerana saya percaya dengan bakat murni yang ada pada mereka. Saya kenal mereka, dan yakin mereka bertiga sanggup bekerja keras supaya berjaya.

Pihak Enfiniti telah pun berkongsi dengan mereka perancangan kerjaya (career plan) yang kami telah atur bersama pihak AESB. Saya sangat berbesar hati atas sokongan padu dan kepercayaan yang diberikan oleh Encik Zainir Aminullah dan pengurusan AESB sejak dari awal perbincangan dalam merealisasikan usahasama ini.”

Sekadar berkongsi dengan anda semua, saya sebenarnya bermula di dalam bidang seni lebih 20 tahun yang lalu, bukan sebagai pelakon tetapi sebagai pengurus bakat, melalui syarikat saya Jacquie Eu Productions dan Kit Kat Klub Entertainment. Jadi bidang pengurusan bakat ini sangatlah dekat di hati saya. Saya suka dengan proses menilik dan mengasah bakat-bakat baru.

Kini, Enfiniti Productions Sdn Bhd ingin dikenali dengan penerbitan produk berkualiti dalam bidang filem dan teater. Syarikat-syarikat bersekutu kami iaitu ajensi pengurusan bakat D Casting Sdn Bhd, syarikat event management Kit Kat Klub Entertainment dn Bhd, production house rancangan TV Ten On Ten Pictures Sdn Bhd dan juga projek terbaru kami iaitu Enfiniti Akademi merupakan “network” kami sendiri.

“Justeru itu, segala pengalaman, sumber tenaga dan kreatif syarikat-syarikat ini secara bersekutu akan dimanfaatkan untuk menyokong projek pengurusan bersama Hafiz, Aril dan Akim ini. Saya melihat ini juga sebagai satu kesinambungan kepada penglibatan saya sebagai “principal” mereka!”

Mercy’s angel spreads her wings-farewell Dr. Jemilah

Do you ever get that feeling sometimes when you want to hold on to something even though you know you should really let it go, because it needs to be let go in order to continue to grow, continue to fly? I'm feeling like that, upon receiving an SMS from her in Geneva telling me the good news of her appointment to the UN, to be posted to New York.

The selfish me wants to just talk her out of it, because I will lose one of my personal heroes and a mentor I have always looked up to, because of her bravery and passion in whatever she does. That the country will have lost a gem of an icon and an outstanding Malaysian who more than lives and breathes the term "towering Malaysian" is second to my selfishness.

The faithful, adoring niece in me, however, knows that her place lies way beyond our shores, that she was meant for much greater things. That she should really be in a place where her talent, passion and expertise will be much more appreciated.

It breaks my heart to see our country continuously losing all our best people. I guess it is true that we never know what we have until we lose it. I hope we learn from this and just like it was in the case of Michael Jackson and Yasmin Ahmad, also learn to acknowledge talent and help talent to grow and flourish DURING a person's lifetime. All the tears and the tributes in the world once you've lost them won't mean a thing.

Aunt Jim, you will always be my hero, my angel, my Mother Theresa, you've even been even my Florence Nightingale on many occasions. It is with a heavy heart that your loving niece lets go, but I wish you all the success you deserve and every time I look up to the skies, I will know in my heart that you have taken that golden flight, that journey, the next step.

Farewell, Angel. Love you with all my heart. ;.-(

Sunday August 9, 2009

Mercy’s angel spreads her wings

By SHAHANAAZ HABIB

EVEN before Mercy Malaysia, Dr Jemilah Mahmood was always passionate about giving back to society.

“Whenever people came to her for money for this cause or that, she was always digging into her purse. She would give out RM50, RM100, RM200 until she had no money left.

“She’s that kind of person, always wanting to do something for others,” says her close friend Farah Hamzah, who describes Dr Jemilah as “very intense” and very attached to the issues that she pursues.

“If she believes in something, she is relentless. And she ups the ante all the time,” adds Farah.

Dr Jemilah: ‘I love Mercy too much and I didn’t want it to be Dr Jemilah. It has to be more than that. I want it to sustain itself and outlive me.’

And Malaysians are seeing that side of Dr Jemilah.

She gave “birth” to Mercy Malaysia 10 years ago, and along with a team of able doctors, nurses and ever-ready volunteers nurtured the organisation into what it is today – a respected world-class relief organisation.

Whenever a crisis struck the region – be it a tsunami, earthquake, a cyclone, war or military conflict – Mercy Malaysia jumped on board the first plane and headed out to help the victims.

In countries like Myanmar, Sudan, Sri Lanka and North Korea, where a number of international aid organisations are perceived to have an agenda and are not welcomed even during times of humanitarian crisis, Mercy Malaysia got in – at times before everyone else and in some places, like Sri Lanka, with unlimited access to the afflicted areas.

And now Dr Jemilah is upping the ante again by leaving Mercy and heading off to New York to take on a position as Chief of the Humanitarian Response branch for the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA).

Succession plan

Some, like her good friend Farah who is an appointed Mercy Malaysia exco member, believes that Dr Jemilah has simply outgrown Mercy.

Dr Jemilah herself discloses that the Mercy succession plan has been in the pipeline for at least five years because she knew from the start that she was going to leave her “baby” after 10 years.

“I knew if I stayed longer, I might put the organisation at risk in the sense that you have this ‘founder syndrome’.

“The founder feels they own the organisation and people cannot differentiate the founder from the organisation, and Mercy Malaysia gets drowned somewhere in between.

“I love Mercy too much and I didn’t want it to be Dr Jemilah. It has to be more than that. I want it to sustain itself and outlive me,” she says.

And it is precisely Mercy Malaysia’s achievements on the international front that have made it so easy for Dr Jemilah to walk away.

The turning point came last year.

Dr Jemilah was in Geneva waiting for a friend to pick her up near the Broken Chair monument on Place des Nations. A group of Sudanese women were gathered around there after a meeting and one of them came up to ask if she was from Malaysia – probably guessing from the way she tied her headscarf.

When Dr Jemilah replied that she was, to her surprise the woman then asked if she knew Mercy Malaysia.

“I froze. I said ‘yes. Why?’ She said ‘I am from El Geneina in West Darfur and now we don’t have to be afraid to give birth because Mercy Malaysia has built a reproductive health centre. They also trained our midwives and doctors so no one has to die in childbirth.”

Dr Jemilah was doubly shocked when the woman then asked if she knew Mercy’s Dr Jemilah.

“I panicked because I was wondering how I was going to answer that. And the woman fished out her call card and she was from a Sudanese local organisation so I fished out mine.

“When she saw my card, she couldn’t believe it. There was an uproar and she started screaming in Arabic and a lot of people started crowding around me,” she says.

At this point, Dr Jemilah was “rescued” by her friend who was honking from the car. So Dr Jemilah excused herself and got in.

“Gosh, would you imagine in your life that you get someone who doesn’t know you from Adam and is one of your beneficiaries who comes up and tells you a story about the impact of your work?” she ponders, still pretty much in awe of the experience.

Then two months later, Dr Jemilah was at a conference in Bangkok when a man came up to her and asked if she remembered him. She didn’t, but it turned out that he was a colonel from Pakistan who was now the defence attache in Bangkok. He remembered her from the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and told her how much he appreciated Mercy Malaysia’s volunteers working through the cold of winter in the mountains of Bagh to provide health care for the victims.

“He asked me if I knew what happened when I left. I said ‘no’. He said when Mercy left, the people took a piece of rubble from their homes and built a monument. And he said your organisation’s name is on it!

“At that point I said to myself ‘why am I hanging on?’ Leave when you know you have done your job and have people to carry on and groom them to succeed.

“A succession plan is only successful if you will let go,” she says.

And let go she did, handing over the mantle to Dr Ahmad Faizal Mohd Perdaus.

Why him?

Dr Jemilah says Dr Faizal is a good speaker and excellent communicator and has been vice-president for two terms.

“He’s very smart. I’ve known him for many years. He was my student. He’s a doctor and has been on missions so he has had the experience. He is a mix of all this. He’s ideal,” she says.

She says she told Dr Faisal not to ever try to walk in her shoes but to chart his own course.

“I foresee Mercy becoming a better organisation when I depart because, as it is, Mercy is a very emotive organisation. It is full of emotion and passion and I am, by nature, like that. I believe when I am not there, it becomes more calm, very strong and solid and nothing can shake it after that. I am very optimistic. I have great faith in the people I am leaving behind.”

So she advised Dr Faisal not to be afraid to make his own mistakes and learn from them as he steers Mercy in a new direction.

“I said you can change the process, hardware, software, structure, logo and anything else but just don’t ever change the values and principles the organisation is built on, which is a platform for people to do good and putting Malaysia on the world map to show that we can do things differently and better.”

Dr Jemilah has also told the team not to feel any pressure that she is going to watch and feel disappointed with them.

“I won’t because I understand what transition is all about. In any organisation, when there is a transition there is a slight dip and then it comes back. They should expect that.”

Softie at heart

While she might look like a tough cookie, Dr Jemilah admits that she cries all the time when she comes across painful situations and that even watching a video of the situation brings her to tears.

But this only makes her stronger.

“If you can’t cry, you can’t feel that it is so painful to watch and see. I cry and say to myself ‘No point crying. You gotta do something about it.’ I am not tough. I am a real softie but pushed to a corner I can be quite a tiger,” she admits.

On her new UN job, Dr Jemilah says it would include planning, monitoring and administering the UNFPA’s emergency response fund in its work in conflict, post conflict and natural disaster situations as well as prepare for present and future threats, among other things.

Dr Jemilah who is a gynaecologist says the work would also focus on reproductive and gender issues during humanitarian crises, adding that “even in war and conflict there are women who want to give birth.”

In the last 10 years, she says, she has witnessed “too much pain” of women having been sexually abused or having no access to healthcare sometimes because of difficult circumstances, like in Afghanistan where people basically hide their women.

So she is excited about the prospect of “this woman in a tudung going to a difficult Muslim country and challenging the system and all these men.”

Naive maybe, but Dr Jemilah is among those who are “terribly optimistic” that global peace and development are achieveable and what it needs are agents of change in the world to bring about the shift.

“I want to be a change agent. Maybe I am born for that. I want to shake things up and move things and push. I never say die and I never say no. If we have a defeatist attitude, we’ll never achieve anything,” she says.

Dr Jemilah says she is lucky that her husband, Dr Ashar Abdullah, is her number one fan.

“He really feels that I can shake and change the world. He pushes me all the time and says ‘Go. You can go for that. That’s too small for you. You can go higher and do more good.”

Stressing that she is just a normal person who is “just very, very steadfast”, Dr Jemilah says the humanitarian cause is something that really drives her.

“I just feel right now that I can do more. Mercy can do only so much but Jemilah can do more. I want to use whatever strength and whatever talent I have globally.

“Whether I succeed or not is a different matter but I want to continue to try to change the world and not give up.”

to dance with abandonment... and live as though heaven is on earth.

Ok, today's entry may sound rather random, but yeah...feeling a bit random right now sitting in front of the ol' iMac looking for inspiration to write a Merdeka piece for The Star.

I found this really inspiring quote from Michael Jackson on the joy of dancing, how sacred dance was to him, and "the eternal dance of Creation". I can't tell you how it's so wonderful to completely lose yourself for a few minutes when you dance or sing or paint or just completely lose or abandon yourself completely. I experience it when I listen to classical Javanese Gending music, I find my thoughts completely leave me and I'm able to almost "detach" my body from my thoughts for a few minutes. When I put on my dancing Kain and Sampur, all I wanna do is to glide along with the music and dance for as long as the music plays, lost completely in the beautiful music. It's absolutely therapeutic, and I completely recommend it to anyone who has never experienced the liberation of self-abandonment. Sigh. Why am I feeling so...random...maybe I need to put on my dancing Kain again, been too long.

"Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On
many an occasion, when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred.
In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that
exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I
become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I
become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on
dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and the
creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing until there is
only. . .the dance."

Michael Jackson

Yasmin's Malaysia in the united colours of cinema by Dato' Johan Jaafar

NST Online bsmallJOHAN JAAFAR/small/B BRYasmin's Malaysia in the united colours of cinema

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Written by one of my heroes, my old friend from my early days as a budding theatre actor doing plays with the boys of Dewan Bahasa, my old Teh-Tarik-at-Benteng kaki, Dato' Johan Jaafar.

JOHAN JAAFAR
Yasmin's Malaysia in the united colours of cinema

2009/08/01


IT could have been a scene from one of her movies. Old and young, people of different races, filling the floor of the hospital in Damansara where she drew her last breath last Saturday night. Some were sobbing, others huddled together and consoling each other. Many were red-eyed. Sadness and loss filled the air. For a couple of days after she was taken to the hospital, her family members, friends, even strangers, stood vigil hoping for a miracle. Some had never met her in person. They had only seen her movies and TV advertisements. They were drawn to her for her ingenuity, frankness and above all, unpretentiousness. She made commercials she believed in and movies that were almost personal statements of her faith and conviction.

Yasmin Ahmad left us all distraught. She went away too soon, too early. She was in her prime. She was supposed to have many more fruitful and creative years ahead of her. We were expecting her to churn out many more great movies and loads of stylish TV commercials. After all, Yasmin had given us interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking yet memorable, mostly evergreen works for many years.

She started a movement, "Yasminism", single-handedly, to mean not only her tryst with cinematic excellence but a cause associated with it. You know what to expect when you watch a Yasmin movie or TV advertisement -- they are about how our people ought to be -- as one, united and very much Malaysian. Yasmin's works are made of these -- Malaysian at heart and in spirit. Yasmin's Malaysia is thoroughly rooted, not merely attempts at aggrandising the hopes and aspirations of our people like some politicians do.

She was a contrarian among her contemporaries. It is not that they do not believe in films that portray multiracialism, just that many are more comfortable harping on tested formulas. They would rather make movies about their own kind.

Nothing inherently wrong with that. P. Ramlee made largely Malay movies but he captured non-Malay audiences, too, in his glory days. His attempts at multiracialism came late professionally. Perhaps it is better to play safe than invite controversy.


Yasmin's middle name was never Controversy. She was a film-maker first and a propagandist last. She made movies to attract audiences. I am sure she did not want to be Michelangelo Antonioni with his dense and notoriously difficult films. She would rather make movies that touched the hearts of millions. She wanted to make movies in the tradition of Majid Majidi -- the famed Iranian film-maker who celebrated simplicity and warmth in human beings. She was said to be inspired by Majidi whose Children of Heaven and The Colour of Paradise "praised the glory of God". I am sure she had other Iranian directors as her reference. Iranian films are noted for their identity contestation and fearless experimentation. The likes of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, his wife Marzieh Meshkini, his daughter Samira and contemporaries Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami, Parviz Sayyad and Dariush Mehrjui have all made waves in Iran and outside. Many won international film awards.

Yasmin also made movies about little people, their trials and tribulations, but mostly about hope and aspiration. But unlike many of her brethren, Yasmin dared to be different. She walked a cinematic minefield trying to tell stories deemed sensitive by most. The Iranians deal in a predictable mono-cultural society. Yasmin had to grapple with a society steeped in racial sensitivities and emotional baggage. Yasmin's cinematic domain can be contentious, even dangerous. Sepet was a difficult film to make. A story of love between Ah Long and Orked is not meant to be easy. Undeterred, Yasmin made it into a cinematic feast, visually arresting, emotionally fulfilling and intellectually challenging.

Just take her Muallaf and the controversy surrounding its making. Even the title elicits caution. But Yasmin was determined to tell the story of two Malay sisters and a 30-year-old Catholic school teacher like it was -- without fear or favour.

Yasmin's Gubra, Mukhsin and her latest film Talentime are all about the audacity of spirit and the power of determination, yet anchored in the belief that the subject matters transcend race and creed. We must salute Yasmin for taking a risk meandering through the uncharted territories of race relations in the country.

But why shouldn't she? It is ironic that, despite the protestations that we have been living harmoniously since time immemorial and that we celebrate our differences, we are in fact drifting apart. We live in our own racial enclaves, barricading ourselves from others, most of us, that is. Our values are being pigeonholed by our prejudices and suspicion. We are supposed to be one, but not yet.

Listening to Yasmin narrating her ideas is like watching her movies. My colleagues and I at Media Prima had the honour of watching her tell those stories. She would act them out, replete with dialogue, her voice changed to emphasise, her hands expressively making a point. She made us see the world through the lens of her camera. We were working on some "unity films" before her untimely demise. The story of three lost boys from an orphanage was among our favourites.

Like her, we believed a story like that could help bring our people closer. She had a track record to justify that. True, Yasmin can change very little the residues of racial stereotyping in this country. But she tried hard. She made Tan Hong Ming in Love effortlessly for she saw in the characters the innocence and sincerity in children. Hong Ming and the Malay girl in the advertisement are as close as we get to the celebration of oneness. Just watch her Petronas advertisements, simply awesome -- hey, where were we when we saw them?

Yasmin wanted to show Malaysians as Malaysians -- in the united colours of cinema. Let's keep her idealism alive. Let's remember her as, to quote Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, one of the champions of "One Malaysia", the concept the prime minister is pushing forth for the nation. Let us pass on the torch of hope for a truly united Malaysia.

She couldn't have asked for more.

zulujj@tm.net.my

Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs

My hero, Steve Jobs, address the graduates of Stanford University, and talks about pursuing your dreams and to see opportunities in life's setbacks, including death itself.







Below is the transcript:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

change a child's life - give him an education...

I'm so relieved the press conference for Mont Blanc/Unicef charity which put up 5 paintings by 4 other ladies and myself went well. I shall so miss the piece that has been occupying a prime spot in my living room overlooking Sentul Park for the last week or so. I wonder if all first-time artists feel as emotionally attached to their first pieces?

When Mont Blanc approached me to participate in this project, it seemed a perfect fit for everything I support and believe in which includes child welfare and the right to quality education for all.

I cannot imagine that in spite of all our economic progress and being surrounded by every form of modernization, there are still maybe 10 percent of the children of our own country who may never know the beauty and the inspiration of the words of Shakespeare, Hafiz, Pablo Neruda, A.Samad Said or Maya Angelou.

Every child deserves the basic right to knowledge, the one thing that can change a person’s life, empower him or her to make the most informed choices, be more aware of basic human rights, be exposed to the teachings of the greatest minds, the most inspiring scriptures and holy books.

I am very proud to be a small part of Mont Blanc and Unicef’s efforts to continue the fight against illiteracy. As Confucius once said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For those of us who are able to read the words on this page, know that with every bit of help no matter how little, you can change a child’s life forever.

Tiara's collaboration with Mont Blanc and UNICEF for their "Signature For Good" campaign

Long time no see...

I've been stressing over a painting I promised Mont Blanc in aid of their UNICEF "Signature For Good" campaign, in between planning Enfiniti's next 2 years' campaign. Finally finished my piece, what do you guys think?

1. Rationale behind the artwork:

Looking for some form of inspiration to get started on my piece, I turned to Google and typed in "the need for education for children" and these words jumped out at me:

"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."

What a wonderful concept, I thought! I asked my 12-year old daughter what she thought of it, and she said, "Yeah mum, it's like if you tell the kid the answer to a question, he will only know the answer to that question, but if you educate him and he can think for himself, he will have the answers for everything all his life!" That floored me, and when I finally recovered, I took out that huge piece of canvas I'd been staring blankly at for more than a month and started work.

2. A quote on my participation on this project to include in the press release.

I have always believed that Art, Creativity and the Performing Arts should be given much more prominence in and out of the school syllabus. Studies have proven that exposure to the arts help students build self-confidence, express their creativity, and perform much better in math and reading. Fine arts training can help children develop emotional and moral sensibilities and the discipline that goes with mastering a craft.
In fact, I myself am living proof that art improves math, going by my own SPM results!

When Mont Blanc approached me to participate in this project, it seemed a perfect fit for everything I support and believe in. Children and the right to quality education have always been a favorite cause of mine, and I've always loved painting but never got round to ever really finishing a piece! This will be my fourth collaboration with Mont Blanc, a brand that strongly supports art and culture, two causes very close to my heart. This will also be my second collaboration in support of Montblanc’s and UNICEF’s fight against illiteracy, the first being the "Power To Write" campaign when Mont Blanc put my signature on a limited edition pen. I hope that my participation in this "Signature For Good" campaign will add to Mont Blanc and UNICEF's efforts, towards empowering future generations to break out of the poverty trap.
Every bit helps bring us all a step closer towards realizing the dream of better education for the children,as I continue to sing a song of hope for a more promising world of tomorrow.