One of Her World's 50 Most Inspiring Women!

I can't explain this, but every birthday presents a turn of luck and fortune for me, sometimes for the better and some years not as good as the ones before. I didn't really give much thought to the year that was for me, as this year has been dedicated to developing various projects, anyway, so I've been lying low, barely within milimetres of the radar. Something happened though, this recent "28th" birthday (LOL,yeah). I felt something was changing on a universal level, or on a level I definitely had no control over. The planets must be suddenly aligning in my favor, and everything's happening for me all of a sudden. Well, I'm gonna enjoy this ride for as long and as far as this wave will take me.

Her World has featured me as 1 of 50 most inspiring Malaysian women in their 50th anniversary issue. I'm most humbled to be mentioned alongside some of the most inspiring women I know like Dato' Dr. Mazlan Othman, Madeleine Yong and Dato' Faridah Merican. Happy 50th birthday Her World, may you continue to inspire and energize the women of our time.

MISI RAHSIA TIARA by Abie Abdullah for Metro Ahad

This journalist was right, I usually stay away from the spotlight and publicity whenever I'm not in "publicity and promotion" mode. Fortunately for me, my friends in the media understand and fully respect the way I like to do things. It hasn't been easy avoiding conversation with my media friends, especially over Hari Raya, but everyone understands my "modus operandi" by now, ha ha. Shout only when I have something substantial to shout about.

Thanks Abie for publishing my thoughts whilst not saying too much either! ;-)

You'll be hearing from me when the time is right...

Misi rahsia Tiara

Oleh ABIE ABDULLAH
abie@hmetro.com.my
2010/10/09

AGAK lama juga Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina ‘berdiam’ dan dia punya alasan tersendiri. Malah ketika ditanya pun, pejuang seni ini mengambil masa untuk memberi jawapan yang bukan saja tepat, malah tidak mahu ada yang terasa. Pun begitu, di kalangan rakan media, dia turut dikenali sebagai perahsia, terutama yang membabitkan perancangan seninya. Takkan akan dicakapkan kalau belum masanya.

Inilah ketegasannya tetapi wanita cantik ini pasti mengotakan janji. Dan itulah juga yang membuat pihak media menghormati ‘misi rahsia’ Tiara dalam setiap perhitungan kariernya.

Beberapa projek sedang dipertimbangkan oleh syarikatnya, Enfiniti Productions dan seringnya dinantikan pengikutnya selepas melihat hasil yang menjadi tanda aras karya seni seperti muzikal Puteri Gunung Ledang (PGL) dan P Ramlee yang dipentaskan bukan semusim dua. Pastinya ada yang mengharap lagi dan meletakkan harapan yang lebih besar.

Sedikit menggusarkan tetapi Tiara faham dengan citarasanya mempersembahkan sesuatu. SELEBRITI menghubunginya Rabu lalu untuk lebih lanjut.

Agak lama juga menyepi. Ke mana menghilang?

Bukan lama menyepi, tetapi saya mengambil masa lama untuk membuat perancangan. Berbulan-bulan hingga ia menjadi dalam keadaan yang sahih untuk dikongsikan. Insya-Allah hujung tahun ini saya umumkan projek baru. Ada beberapa dalam pelan itu, semuanya berkaitan dengan apa yang saya ingin buat. Mungkin muzikal, mungkin juga filem atau apa saja yang berkaitan dengan industri seni. Sesuatu yang saya mahu buat, sesuatu yang bagus untuk industri. Memang tidak boleh beritahu lagi. Memang ada projek tetapi belum tentu formatnya. Sepanjang Hari Raya, saya terpaksa zipkan mulut walaupun puas teman bertanya.


Mungkinkah muzikal lagi selepas PGL dan P Ramlee?

Saya sasarkan dua tahun selepas setiap pementasan tak akan ada ‘show’, pembangunan saja. Kalau nak buat, memang boleh sebab kita ada macam-macam skrip dan Istana Budaya (IB) pun sediakan slot. Tapi saya bukan begitu, mesti buat betul-betul bukannya tangkap muat. Biasanya bertahun masa diambil untuk sebuah pementasan atau sesebuah projek. Mustahil bagi saya buat sesuatu projek seni dalam masa dua tiga bulan persediaan. Bukan saya. Ramai ingat senang nak buat muzikal. Ia lain dengan pementasan biasa.

Kalau skrip saja perlu ambil masa tiga tahun, tiga tahunlah saya tunggu biar betul-betul puas. Macam PGL, dua tahun lebih selepas puluhan olahan. Selepas PGL dan P Ramlee, saya tak boleh buat sambil lewa. Perancangan struktur muzikal sebenar amat berbeza, bukan cincai sesuka hati.


Apa pandangan Tiara mengenai perkembangan muzikal tempatan sekarang?

Pada 2006, ketika awal-awal PGL bermula, ramai yang skeptikal. Kononnya siapalah nak tengok muzikal Melayu, penaja pun belum tentu berani nak masuk. Lebih lawak ketika itu ada yang tanya, nak pentaskan di mana? Mereka tidak tahu yang kita ada IB. Namun selepas PGL, ramai pula yang semakin berani untuk mementaskan muzikal.

Baguslah, dari satu sudut, lebih ramai audiens didedahkan dengan muzikal. Pelbagai peringkat umur dan bangsa mula kenal IB, apa itu teater yang pada sesetengah mereka teater itu macam tengok wayang di panggung. Untuk industri, ia satu perkembangan yang baik terutama mengajak anak muda mengenali teater dan muzikal.

Cuma dalam masa sama, penggiat yang terbabit seperti produser dan pengarah muzikal harus ada tanggungjawab untuk mengekalkan standard kualiti tertentu agar mereka yang pertama kali datang, akan kembali menonton pementasan lain pula. Jangan bunuh keinginan yang baru berputik itu dengan persembahan yang tidak setimpal dengan usaha mereka untuk ke IB. Malah, bimbang juga kalau penaja yang kecewa untuk menaja pementasan lain yang mungkin lebih baik daripada yang ditajanya itu.

Interview with 16-year old Anesha G. Kumar for NST's Niexter

Victoria from my office emailed me a request from NST's Niexter desk, for me to give an interview to a 16-year old. I have always liked the idea of kids learning and seeing the world from different perspectives, and I definitely welcomed the idea of engaging with the younger generations to see what exactly they might find interesting about "my world". Here's the article Anesha wrote, and a photo of her and me before I changed into a slightly more traditional gear to attend NSTP's Open House right after that. (Thanks a million Anesha, I really enjoyed our chat last week!)

Tiara for a Princess

2010/10/06
Anesha G. Kumar, 16, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

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WHEN I stepped into the room, I prepared myself for a more than an interesting interview with Tiara Jacquelina, who was Gusti Putri in 4 sold-out seasons of Puteri Gunung Ledang, The Musical including one in Singapore. I must admit I was a teensy bit nervous meeting someone like her, well-known for her fame in both the film and musical. But the moment she stepped into the room, she brought warmth and a sense of ease with her dazzling smile. It was overwhelmingly awesome!

Putting aside her unique and beautiful Burmese-Indonesian-Chinese looks, her down-to-earth personality was what shone the brightest. Now, it’s easy to understand why she stands out in the crowd, with a colourful aura surrounding her.

Tiara’s passion in the arts started during her schooling days. She was always so active as a producer, director, choreographer, dancer, singer, actor in the school annual musical productions, concerts and the cheerleading team that she said it’s a wonder she managed to get decent grades!

“We went to other schools including our rivals, promoting our plays. I spoke to the students before their class,” says Tiara who got her early education at SMK St. Mary.

“You can see how my formative years at school have definitely led me here. Students were always encouraged to explore and develop their creativity and leadership skills out of the classroom. We had a fantastic bunch of very supportive teachers, who believed that creative and artistic development of a child was just as important as scoring 17 A1s.”

Even being the captain of her cheerleading squad in school has helped build her to be who she is today. Tiara says, “Cheerleading is great. It’s all about encouraging that person across the finish line, motivating them all the way.

And in the end, it’s not only that person who is happy but the whole sports house shares the joy. She applies that same concept even today in her life.

She was very sure about one thing right from the onset in her career-to lead every project she undertook. In her mind, she had a clear idea of the outcome of every project and she could only achieve this if she was in the driver’s seat.

As a college student in KDU she started her first venture as an entrepreneur by setting up one of the country’s first talent casting and management agencies, then called Jacquie Eu Productions, with her best friend and college mate Jennifer Ong. They discovered talents like Sofia Jane, Linda Hashim, Sasha Bashir, Nasha Aziz, Maria Faridah, even Meer Habib, as well as many others, during this time.

In 1987, her agency was approached by Bustal Nawawi, Indonesia’s most well-respected film producer, to cast Malaysian actors for the first Malaysia-Indonesia joint venture movie called Irisan-irisan Hati. They auditioned everybody in the business – actors, models, singers, even TV newscasters, but the producer wasn’t happy.

“He finally asked me to audition, and I did so quite reluctantly. He apparently liked what he saw and offered me the role, but I turned him down, saying I had no intention of being an actor, that I was happier to run a business.

He then promised me that if I signed on to do four films under his company, he would teach me the business of film production as well. That did it for me – the chance to learn from the best, first hand as well. I signed on and never looked back as an actor and producer”, says Tiara.

Tiara Jacquelina was also the soulful voice behind the hit song Asmaradana from the soundtrack of Puteri Gunung Ledang. Tiara says she had always wanted to change the music landscape in Malaysia and so they tried out a more ethnic fusion. They also experimented a lot with dance form to add more funk but still keep its traditional vibe to it.

She is also a diligent (producer). She’s always on the go and wants to explore what has never been done before. She saw the opportunity for a magical story in Puteri Gunung Ledang, and even while the movie was being filmed, the version had its own parallel journey. “There wasn’t an industry as such when we first announced we wanted to put a musical version of PGL on stage”.

“To be quite honest, it seemed like the odds were dead against us – we couldn’t find performers who could act, sing AND dance, nobody had the experience to put on a large-scale production, but most worrying of all was that nobody went to the theatre in Malaysia – people didn’t even know WHERE Istana Budaya was, or that we even have one,” she says.

According to Tiara, her favourite aspect of being a part of a musical would definitely be the magic of being able to share it with the audience. “It’s an experience that money can’t buy,” she says. “You always know the applause or standing ovation at the end of it all is genuine because it comes from the heart of the audience.”

As for advice for aspiring musical actors, Tiara says that you always have to be prepared mentally and physically because nothing is going to be easy. She says, “I had to sing day and night as well as learn how to dance for the Puteri Gunung Ledang role”.

Tiara Jacquelina who is also the managing director of Enfiniti Vision Media, says that in her eyes, working with young and dynamic people is always important as you need people around you to be hungry for work. “Having the right spirit and personality is important,“ she says.

From experience, coming into the entertainment business cold, she is currently working on a variety of short courses catering to all ages; children, youths and working adults through Enfiniti Academy.

“We hope to nurture the talents early in children and youths but we also understand that there are many out there holding stable jobs and yet have a stifled love for musical theatre. Our courses will allow them to juggle their passion and responsibilities. In fact, some corporate seminars will teach them how to get the best of both worlds by incorporating musical theatre theories into their everyday lives,” she says.

And of course, I couldn’t leave without finding out her favourite musical of all time. “Oh, Miss Saigon of course, that’s my favourite,” she says with a huge smile sprawled across her face. “When I saw Lea Salonga on stage, I said, ‘If she can do it, I can do it too!’,” she says. She also admires Andrew Lloyd Webber because “he’s a genius” and I couldn’t help but agree.

I must say now that I have been very fortunate to have met someone like Tiara, who has been gracing the stage for years with her vibrant persona. To sum her up in a word would be hard because words cannot define what an amazing and remarkable individual she is. All I can say is that she is definitely a ‘Puteri’ of the musical scene.

Her last words, “Think big, think (like) Obama! Do what you’ve never dreamt of. You have to lead to determine the outcome, be it in life or in a performance”.

Read more: Tiara for a Princess http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/TiaraforaPrincess/Article/#ixzz11enH4etF

Malaysian Women's Weekly article

CEOs- Here's One 4-Letter Word You Need to Start Using

Ok, so we know by now that Indian astrologer was wrong about the World Cup. It was an interesting concept though, you must agree.

Hi everyone... I haven’t posted anything for a while, been too distracted by FB and Twitter lately... but I thought this was an interesting read my girlfriend sent me that was definitely worth sharing, since most of us are or will be leading in some way or another.

It talks about leading a team/organisation/project using a 4-letter word called LOVE, and uses the analogy of bringing up children, which I agreed with for the most part.

However, I always feel that even with children, or rather ESPECIALLY with children, you need to use "strong love" rather than "soft love" (learnt this from attending a parenting talk with Steve Biddulph, author of Raising Boys, years ago), so they know you mean business when you do, but they know they're always cared for and loved, and that security always acts as a buffer for the times you may have to reprimand them for not doing the right thing.

In any case, it’s the weekend, and I'm still celebrating Malaysia day. Malaysia needs to cheer up, to loosen up, smile a little and embrace life a bit more. Stop and smell the roses. Not take everything TOO seriously that we forget to live a little in between.

Here's to the leaders and CEOs of tomorrow, lets make Malaysia a better place for all of us.

:-)

CEOs: Here's One 4-Letter Word You Need to Start Using

From : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-robins/ceos-heres-one-fourletter_b_715917.html

And that four-letter word is LOVE. Love is the value proposition most CEOs still don't get. ROL (Return on Love) will radically and rapidly increase your ROI (Return on Investment). When CEOs the world over take the word love out of their closet and use it as their primary driver for success, businesses will experience unprecedented creativity, unprecedented profitability, as well as unprecedented human happiness.

Here's why.

At our core, all human beings want the same thing: to be loved (def: cared for, nurtured, and protected). We also want to give love. On top of that we want to avoid the absence of love, to protect ourselves from being hurt.

When you stop and take a look, the desire for love is all around us. The world's greatest religious and spiritual leaders have preached about the power of love for centuries, we have written more songs about love than any other subject, and we've developed a thriving therapeutic industry to help people successfully navigate their need for love.

Yet in our quest to conquer the business world, we too often disassociate ourselves from love, one of the most important aspects of who we are. We live by the credo "the business of business is business." Guess that's why 75 percent of all Americans say they're unhappy with their jobs.

Consequently, they take their upset home to (and out on) their spouse, life partners, children, family members, friends, neighbors, pets, vendors, and the cable TV repair person.

The modern day plague that impacts every one of us isn't a physical illness like typhoid or polio. It's an emotional disease -- unhappiness -- being fueled in large part by our mismanaged work environments.

However, the companies that have awakened to human capital as their organization's greatest asset are raking it in, for example, Whole Foods, Google, Seventh Generation, Trader Joe's, Organic Valley, Ben and Jerry's and Timberland. They have discovered how to capitalize on our human need for love by creating caring cultures that reap extraordinary innovation and profitability while simultaneously adding value to our society.

According to published data, by 2007, the "best places to work" companies were creating twice the wealth of the S &P 500 Index! If you don't believe me, read Jeffrey Hollender (co-founder of Seventh Generation) and Bill Breen's new book: The Responsibility Revolution -- How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win. If you are in business and authentically care about your world, this is a MUST READ. Fear based, top down cultures aren't going to cut it anymore. People want to connect. They want to be a part of a community. They want to feel loved.

Here's what is known about the value of love.

Love:

➢ Gives you self confidence
➢ Motivates you to overcome your challenges
➢ Helps you accomplish your goals
➢ Provides emotional and intellectual strength
➢ Energizes you to uncover, ideate and surface new ideas, approaches, solutions
➢ Enforces integrity - greater truth, transparency and moral choices
➢ Makes you feel more optimistic about living - ignites a sense of possibility
➢ Makes you more tolerant
➢ Makes you want to align with others - perform as a team/unit/family
➢ Makes you more inclined to help someone else
➢ Makes you more open to sharing your experiences
➢ Makes you more patient
➢ Makes you more willing to sacrifice for an important goal
➢ Engenders more loyalty
➢ Creates a positive energy that can be infectious/viral
➢ Injects endurance when a goal has to be accomplished over time
➢ Provides peace of mind - calmness in the face of adversity
➢ Is a great equalizer, connects you to something universal
➢ Provides a sense of meaning and purpose
➢ Engenders more laughter
➢ Generates more fun

Sounds to me like the necessary conditions for companies to succeed in a rapidly changing global economy. Aren't confident, motivated, strong, innovative, honest, positive, tolerant, problem solving, purposeful, happy, determined people who want to play together to win and to do it with integrity what you, as a leader, want?

If your answer is yes, then it's time to take the word LOVE out of your CEO closet, dust it off, and put it to work. Here's what love looks like (behaviors) in the workplace.

Behaviors of Love Leadership:

➢ Listening
➢ Asking questions
➢ Allocating
➢ Feed forward (different than feedback!)
➢ Sharing information
➢ Being transparent
➢ Prizing - finding what's right first, then suggesting what can be improved
➢ Reframing challenges as learning opportunities
➢ Supporting others
➢ Using humor in a positive way
➢ Mentoring
➢ Engaging others opinions
➢ Communicating in a clear and caring way
➢ Taking accountability
➢ Encouraging top down innovation
➢ Investing in growing others
➢ Celebrating wins together
➢ Cheering on personal growth
➢ Setting clear boundaries
➢ Presenting challenges
➢ Encouraging self care

Countless studies show that babies who are insufficiently loved and nurtured are impaired in their social development. Presently, 70 percent of a person's life is spent at work; thinking about work, preparing for work and trying to get over the toxic effects of work. When insufficient caring is present in our work life, our mental, emotional and physical health is impaired too.

CEOs: to whom much is given, much is expected. It's time to end this terrible trend of placing financial capital ahead of human capital. Don't make money less important than people. Simply make your people as important as your profitability. That shift, in and of itself, will radically change our world.

When human beings feel loved, all aspects of their psyche are primed for peak performance. Unshackle the human spirit. End CEO-centric organizations. Broaden the distribution of strategic innovation. Move towards love leadership. Embrace the responsibility you have to positively impact the world.

Debbie Robins
Named one of the top executive coaches in the country by Marshall Goldsmith
Executive, leadership, career coach, Huffington Post blogger, best-selling author
www.debbierobins.com

* images from gerrykirk.net, uollibraryblog.wordpress.com and 123rf.com

Astrology and The World Cup?

My girlfriend Noren sent me this, I think it's worth pondering:

Some Indian astrologer has come up, once again with some interesting numerology!!



This world cup is already determined by the numbers....

1. Brazil won the World Cup in 1994; before that they also won in 1970. Adding 1970 + 1994= 3964

2. Argentina won its last World Cup in 1986; before that they also won in 1978. Adding 1978 + 1986= 3964

3. Germany won its last World Cup in 1990; before that they also won in 1974. Adding 1974 + 1990= 3964

4. Brazil also won the World Cup in 2002; before that they also won in 1962. Adding 1962+ 2002= 3964

5. Therefore if you want to know what nation is going to win the World Cup in 2010, you only have to subtract 2010 from the magic number that we have determined: 3964.
3964 minus 2010 = 1954... In 1954 the World Cup was won by Germany!!!

Probably not scientific... but pretty interesting..
LETS WAIT & WATCH......

West Side Story at Istana Budaya

I was invited to watch West Side Story last night at Istana Budaya. Had seats with a fabulous view, thanks to Joe and Zubaidah (thank you!), and it’s always such a pleasure for me to “return” to IB, ESPECIALLY when I’m in the stalls instead of up onstage.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this staging of West Side Story mostly because the traveling productions that have previously come our way really left much to be desired.

I also never watched the movie in full before this and never got the chance to watch West Side on stage anywhere in the world.

I spent Sunday evening watching the movie (with my kids too, as I wanted to prepare them mentally before I decide if it could even be a good idea to bring them to IB). I must say Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer will always be a hard act to follow. Their performances of Tony and Maria were just so engaging, riveting and believable, you really want to see them run away and be together forever.







The production that came our way, the one I watched at IB last night, was probably the best of the “From Broadway” offerings to Malaysian audiences so far.

Putting on a show of ANY kind is a huge challenge in itself, with logistics, talent, preparation and set-up to figure out amongst so many other things. I always take my producer’s hat off to anyone who gets a show ON stage.

If anyone asked what I loved BEST about WSS, I’d say the music was really tight considering most of the musicians were assembled locally.

The choreography deserves 2 thumbs way up too, as well as the dancers. Pat Ibrahim was right, “makan hati” is the right term to describe it. He would DIE to have an ensemble of dancers trained so well and able to execute moves to perfection. We have a long, long way to go in this area but we’ll get there.

What did I LEAST like about the show? Hmmm…

The leads who played Tony and Maria had fabulous singing voices, and Maria put in special effort to adopt a Puerto Rican accent. The other actors had trouble hiding their accents though, I could tell they had trouble pulling off a New York accent without their native accents that sounded Scottish or Irish coming through. That’s not major though, and it shouldn’t put anyone off watching the show because of it.
What was a put off for me though was the acting. When I read that the show was directed by Joey McKneely who was also the choreographer of the show, I imagined 80% of the preparation for the show would definitely have been in the choreography and not in directing the actors or working on characterization or the actor’s emotional preparation. I didn’t feel for the two lovers, so I didn’t root for them and didn’t care for them much.

It's not easy for me as part of audience investing 2-3 hours in a captive space when you're not emotionally involved in the journey of who's on stage.

Still, just for the experience of watching a classic Broadway musical, since it's so rare an opportunity for us to enjoy such productions here anyway, I'd say go catch it, if you can afford to pay almost rm600 for a ticket.

I came across a website offering tickets at 15%, here it is:

http://www.offerstation.com/offers-promotions/49284/15-percent-off-west-side-story--the-original-broadway-musical-tickets.htm

Enjoy 15% off your tickets to the West Side Story - The Original Broadway Musical from New York at Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur from 12th till 24th May 2010 with your HSBC Credit Card.

Ticket prices (before discount):
RM590, RM490, RM390, RM290, RM190 (excludes RM3 ticketing fee)

Call Tickets People at 03-2287 2727 or visit website to book.

Offer valid for HSBC Credit Cardmembers only.