I went through the draft folder and found this written in 2012. To make it more current, let me throw in a recent Today's Outfit picture in here :D
Montreal Sweater by KNOTHINKNEW | Zara Pants | YSL Tribute Shoes
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Last Friday, I had quite a hectic morning schedule. I had 8 AM appointment with my trainer, so I left the house around 7:20 with Jehan, and she dropped me off in the gym first before going to school. I took a shower in the gym and went to hair salon right away to get my hair blow dried because I was about to get my picture taken for my profile in SWA. And then I stopped by at Starbucks, by 10AM I already sat in the meeting room with our partner from Singapore.
One of the things that I'm forever grateful for is the living arrangement I have now. My house is not far from the office and the kids school. Even Oki's office is still considerably near. Not to mention that I live practically in the same roof with my mom and my sister family. Everything is available in Kemang (where the office is located) area, so our activity is just revolved around the area.
So when people ask me how I can do all that, the answer is simply because I'm just lucky to have everything within reach. I cannot imagine if I have to go through the horrendous 2 hours traffic to get to the office or if I don't have a driver to take and pick up my kids to school. I don't want to sound righteous by claiming I have a good time management skill or that I work really hard to get to the point of where I'm at right now. Some things I experience is based on my own hard work, but there are luck factor that contributes into the whole thing. Like when we found the house that have two different areas in one compound so my mom and I can still live together. Or my luck in finding and keeping domestic helpers and other things.
A lot people thought that having a business means you will have a very flexible schedule. That is somewhat true. Although I go to the office everyday, I have more freedom to manage and rearrange it should I have family matters I need to attend to. But there are also many times when I can't come to the briefing in my kids' school because I already set a meeting with clients or people from overseas that make you feel bad about cancelling the meeting. And workload wise, it is way heavier than if you're employed by a company because you don't have a specific job to work on, you have almost everything on your plate.
As an entrepreneur, we don't have a job description. I don't work only whenever I want to. I go to the office everyday, most of the time among the first few people arrived. And it's not rare I found myself the last to go home too. Often time, I bring my laptop home and would continue work until past midnight or find myself in a coffee shop on the weekend. To have more time for work, I rarely take long lunch. Most of the time it's a delivery or a takeout. I never go out with friends! Well, maybe once every 3 months to have dinner or lunch. I never walk around mall just because. I only go to malls to have meetings or press event to attend, or if the kids need to buy something. I also don't watch TV! It's been more than a year that I never turn my TV on. Oh and I also never go to a spa, not even once and if I go to a salon it's because of a haircut, or a quick blow dry for big events, not for luxury treatment. To shorten time, I usually shampoo the hair at home so I can just get it blow dried right away.
What else? I'm sure there are more things that I do/don't do to accommodate my role as an entrepreneur, a mother and a wife (and daughter, granddaughter, sister, daughter in law, etc, etc). One thing for sure, there are a lot of things that we sacrifice or giving up too.
So anyway, I'm just rambling :D
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can always start today and make a new ending. And Sophia Amoruso is a living proof of that statement. Bayangin aja, dulu dia nggak pernah jelas sekolahnya, nggak pernah enjoy sekolah sampai akhirnya home-schooling dan nggak kuliah. Kerjanya ya sebatas low-paying job di Subway atau di toko buku. Pernah makan bagel dari tempat sampah saking nggak punya uang dan bahkan sering shoplifting!
But it's all changed when she started selling vintage clothing on eBay during her boring job checking ID at the University. Little did she know it turned into NastyGal.
The rest you just have to read it yourself. I love this book because it's written in a very personal way. I can relate with so many things written in the book, being a #Girlboss as well, starting something from zero out of boredom. And she takes her email password very seriously too! haha. Many of my passwords are actually something on my wish list and I have encouraged the people in the office to do the same. That way, you are always reminded of your dreams and they stay close to your heart. But now that every password is in auto save, I have to find another way.
Something from the book:
I believe in magic. I believe that everything you say and do and every intention that you have and every password that you type in and every scribble that you make and every hair that falls out of your head is related somehow to something else that is manifesting in ways you may or may not be aware off.
Last week, we were interviewing people for some position in the office. We always do a back to back interview in one batch, unless it's a director position, then we'll take a more personal approach.
Anyway, of course there's all kind of people with their own characters and personalities. And we usually know either we want to hire them or not within the first 5 minutes. There were many times when I told them straight away at the end of the interview that there won't be a follow up. I did it to save my time and their time and energy. And I don't have to feel bad because they won't leave the office with a false hope.
To my surprise, one of the interviewees last week has disability. He had physical disability as well as problems in speaking where he spoke in garbled manner, which is hard to understand what he was saying word per word. On paper, his experiences look really good, which is why we invited him for an interview. I couldn't help but wonder whether he was born like that or is it something that happened recently. Either way, his accomplishment is amazing. Not once he mentioned about his limitation, making it an excuse. He didn't even see the need to explain himself. With him, it's all business. He was also full of life, excited to take on more challenges and shared his past experiences with pride.
On the other hand, the next interview was this young woman who looked promising on paper. She get both her bachelor and master overseas and just started a new job but already looking for another opportunity because she wants something...err...closer from her house. And her current office is not too far from Kemang. She doesn't know anything about Female Daily and she asked how multitasking is her job gonna be and did/said other interview mishaps. Argghh, I was done after the first 5 minutes. It's just so sad when people have all the privileges but they don't use it to their advantage. And worse, they have this deep sense of self entitlement even before proving their worth.
So there, two very different individuals. One of them is grateful to be given the opportunity to live by doing more. The other one just seems to take things for granted.
Anyway, of course there's all kind of people with their own characters and personalities. And we usually know either we want to hire them or not within the first 5 minutes. There were many times when I told them straight away at the end of the interview that there won't be a follow up. I did it to save my time and their time and energy. And I don't have to feel bad because they won't leave the office with a false hope.
To my surprise, one of the interviewees last week has disability. He had physical disability as well as problems in speaking where he spoke in garbled manner, which is hard to understand what he was saying word per word. On paper, his experiences look really good, which is why we invited him for an interview. I couldn't help but wonder whether he was born like that or is it something that happened recently. Either way, his accomplishment is amazing. Not once he mentioned about his limitation, making it an excuse. He didn't even see the need to explain himself. With him, it's all business. He was also full of life, excited to take on more challenges and shared his past experiences with pride.
On the other hand, the next interview was this young woman who looked promising on paper. She get both her bachelor and master overseas and just started a new job but already looking for another opportunity because she wants something...err...closer from her house. And her current office is not too far from Kemang. She doesn't know anything about Female Daily and she asked how multitasking is her job gonna be and did/said other interview mishaps. Argghh, I was done after the first 5 minutes. It's just so sad when people have all the privileges but they don't use it to their advantage. And worse, they have this deep sense of self entitlement even before proving their worth.
So there, two very different individuals. One of them is grateful to be given the opportunity to live by doing more. The other one just seems to take things for granted.
She was browsing about The Wild West in Google Image when I took this picture and told me she wanted to move to The Wild West! She wanted to live with Cowboys and ride horse everywhere, she said. Right before this, she was about to eat Spaghetti Aglio Olio that she sort of made by herself the night before, with my help and supervision, of course. She took the food from the fridge and then she asked me to get her a plate. Her words were..
"Mommy, can you please get a plate for your little angel?" lol. I was stunned. I'm all for promoting independence but how do you say no to such request?
One of the things I like is meeting fellow entrepreneurs, or other inspiring people to keep me motivated. When I started this journey, it was haaard to find mentor that we had to figure out everything through a lot of trial and error. So I make it a point to spare time to talk to new entrepreneurs and share my journey. Most of the time though, it was me who learned from them, not the other way around.
The one thing that always came out whenever I meet people who have just started a business is "Enak yaa FD udah gede, udah banyak teamnya, kalo kita kan masih kecil". And all I could think was oh boy you didn't know what you are signing up for, did you? haha. The bigger the company will never translate to the less headache you will have. It's the other way around, really.
So anyway, we meet with Inda and Gerha a while ago and learned a few things about the wedding business. All of you bridezilla out there now have many resources to look for when organizing a wedding at The Bride Dept. We have The Wedding Bells section in the forum and it's one of the busiest. A few things that amazed me from the conversation:
- Wedding dress have pockets now. You know, to take selfie on the pelaminan and document everything as well as to share the excitements on social media.
- Best tweet/picture using the official hashtag during the reception will win a prize!
- Bridezilla choose makeup artists or photographers or other business supporting their wedding based on how many followers they have on the Instagram. Why? So they will take pictures of the wedding and mention the bride and the groom so they get many likes and new followers.
Wow, we do live in Social Media era, don't we? I'm glad I got married in ancient time when miRC still ruled the Internet world, so there's no pressure from the outside world at all.
For all the brides and grooms to be. May your marriage be more beautiful than your wedding.
I've been really good this week in the #FitNFab department, I did power walk twice and Muay Thai once and a strengh exercise at home once. I was also strict with my food intake and had my Skinny Minnies for lunch and dinner. But it was all canceled out with a trip to Applebee's for lunch yesterday!
The restaurant has just opened for the last few weeks in Plaza Senayan. It wasn't our favorite back in the States but hey let's just try it and see how it is here. The Pretzel Cheese Dip was the bomb! So good that I brought home the remaining cheese dip -__-. My quessadila burger was really satisfying. And it didn't make me feel so guilty knowing I picked a better option. Hey, at least the bun is thinner than the usual burger, and I shared it with Oki. Jib sirloin steak was good he said. The chicken finger and the aglio olio are not something we will reorder. It was still empty at noon so our food came out fast. It was still a bit too early for lunch on the weekend but the man has to rush tending the weekend job..he is been so busy over the weekend. So, thank you for making the time :).
I went to Ikea last week with Je and as we were approaching the place, there were a huge empty land around the area. And Jehan casually said "Mommy, I think we should build something like Disneyland here. So while the parents shop in Ikea the kids can just wait here and play" :D
Wow. I was amazed that she can spot business opportunity and was very spot on. She knows there's a lot of family go to Ikea and she is also trying to solve her own problem because her parents often drag her to Ikea and spend hours there. The playground they provide just doesn't cut it anymore because it's only limited to a few kids and there's only one hour time limit. She really believes that it's a good idea and that we should make one asap!
Speaking of business opportunity, I find there's more and more people looking into entrepreneurship right now. Which is good and exciting. The country needs more entrepreneurs and there is soo much that we can do.
Oki and I are recently venturing into F&B business. We opened up a specialty coffee shop called Goni in Kemang last December, along with my award winning barista cousin and his coffee specialist friend as well as Rudy & Nopai, which is a business partner in Female Daily and heyspice :). So that's where I get my coffee everyday.
In defining your dream, be sure to aim beyond what you are capable of.
You must develop a complete disregard for where you think your abilities end.
Try to do the things that you’re incapable of.
If you think you’re unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim.
If you think you’re incapable of running a company, make that your aim.
If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of Time Magazine, make it your business to be there. Nothing is impossible.
The photo below was taken during New Year's Eve. Anak umur 6.5 tahun ikut nungguin tahun berganti dan baru tidur sekitar jam 1:30am . Nggak ada acara khusus, sih. Barbequan aja di rumah sama ade dan sepupu trus main kembang api sama..petasan :D. Heboh juga ternyata kembang api di sekeliling rumah ya. It was quite a show!
We made our new year wish before we went to sleep. Hers were:
- To grow strong and have muscle! I'm especially proud of this one because that means I have successfully instilled in her the importance of exercise.
- To be able to do splits. I notice a lot of girls her age into gymnastic now.
- For her parents to stay and look young. Oh Je, is this even possible?
- To have the magic wand. This girl still believes in magic somehow :)
The next day I forgot what the conversation was but I remember I was making joke and she said.."Mommy, don't go cray cray"...hahahaha this girl cracked me up. I don't know how she learned about the phrase.
She is currently into black clothes. She loves to wear her black legging with her black Uniqlo tanktop and a black or dark blue cardigan. She said black is cool!
Ohh and recently she just told me not to call or associate her with sweet or cute anymore. "Don't call me sweet, don't call me sweetie pie, don't call me sweetheart. I'm COOL, not sweet" -__-
Her recent milestone was going on school-camping for one night. She's been out of town or sleep in my grandma's without me but this school-camping was the first without any family member :)
Don't grow up too fast, Je!
Attended #ScaleupIndo conference yesterday which was organized by Endeavor Indonesia. This was the second time they organized #ScaleupIndo. Last year was around February as well and I remember there were so many take aways from that day. One thing that really stuck in me was the GROW or GONE message. Thank God that now, a year later, I can safely say that Alhamdulillah, we are growing :)
The session was opened by Raoul Oberman (not the one in the picture, that is Chris Zook), my #1 mentor, one of my biggest supporters I'm so thankful to have his presence in my life. Things that he briefly mentioned yesterday:
- 5 Mega-trends reshaping the global economy: The rise of emerging markets (Asian company made it to 500 Fortunes company has doubled), Aging populations, The Digital Age, Resource Scarcity, The Market State.
- Laeaders have tougher job than ever. In order to survive, leaders have to be: Ready for 'trend breaks', Tri-Sector Athelete (government, civil society & the business), Receptor and Connector, Equipped with Strong Sense of purpose, Calmed in the eye of the hurricane, Always ON, Marathoners & a Sprinter, Telescope and Microscope
Since it was about Scaling Up your business, there were a lot of talks about taking your company to the next level and unleashing it for exponential growth. Sustaining profitable growth is a lot harder than just creating a startup, and 85% barriers are internal! Normal things that happen to a company ready for scale up:
Yes, let be optimistic that there will be 2nd, 3rd & 4th trip :D
We went to Singapore & a day trip to Legoland, Johor Baru Malaysia two weeks ago. Just want to share some tidbits from the trip.
Airline: Air France, which has a very sleek and chic interior.
Hotel: Mandarin Orchard
Food: Food Village Takashimaya, Rasapura Masters @ Marina Bay Sands, PS Cafe Paragon, Cineleisure Orchard
Hotel: Mandarin Orchard
Food: Food Village Takashimaya, Rasapura Masters @ Marina Bay Sands, PS Cafe Paragon, Cineleisure Orchard
Coffee: Tiong Bahru Tangs, The New Black (recommended!)
Outdoor Activity: Far East Organization Children's Garden, Somerset Skate Park & morning run around Orchard
Shopping: Sephora, Chanel Beauty, Under Armour
Shopping: Sephora, Chanel Beauty, Under Armour
Je had a fever 3 days before we left, it went down on the D day but then it went up again when we got to SG. Since it was already the 4th day, we took her to Kinderclinic in Paragon and got her blood tested. Thank God it wasn't dengue, just a viral virus and she was back to normal the next day :)
I found this quote the other day and show it Jibran and told him to imagine his idols as his rivals when he becomes a professional soccer player in the next few years.
He looked excited in the beginning but then he got confused..
But Mommy, Ronaldo will be too old to become my rival, I don't think he'll still be a soccer player. Most of the soccer players I like will be retired by then.
haha, he is right!
Then I asked him to find a much younger player but he couldn't find one right away. He did finally said 'Maybe it's Enzo Fernandez (son of Zinedine Zidane)'
Oh well, at least he gets the idea :D