Monthly Archives: October 2009

On the plane

Hahahaha… I think cannot lah.. must wait until I reach Singapore, then I can upload everything.. But eventhough I have a late night sleep last night, I woke up this morning feeling grateful.   Grateful that I’m still alive Grateful that I am blessed with everything I have today, healthy parents, loving husband, cute baby, wonderful friends, and many more.   In the book that I wrote: “A GIFT FROM A FRIEND”

Hello everybody! Apa Kabar? (hehehe.. in English means: How are you?)  

I just reached Jakarta on early Sunday morning. Had fun spending time with my family. And of course eat a lot of yummy Indonesian food!  

But today (Monday) was a very busy day for me. Though a lot of people thought that I'll be having my holiday here in Indonesia, actually I am not… In fact I am equally busy (or even more busy) compare to when I'm in Singapore. Today was a day full of meeting. I'm doing some exciting and interesting new project over here in Indonesia.  

Anyway, tomorrow I'm heading off to Bali. Although my Internet access might be limited, but I'll do my best to keep writing this little notes of mine.   Stay tuned !

Without Love, Days are

Sadday,

Moanday,

Tearsday,

Wasteday,

Thirstday,

Frightday,

Shatterday

So, be in LOVE everyday …    

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana

Winning doesn’t always mean being first, winning means you are doing better than you have done before.  

And I believe that exactly what happened today.   I was very happy with myself, because I managed to accomplished many new things today. Even things that I have never done in my life before. For the very first time, I did my catwalk in a runway (Thanks to FEMALE again for making this a reality for me)  

Yup.. this is the photo of the stage that I took just before the ‘show time’ haha.. I didn’t really know how well did I do my catwalk, but I believe I did my best, and was very happy that a lot of my close friends and families came down to support me.   Initially I was quite worry because from the backstage, I couldn’t find any of familiar faces among the crowd. I mean, I know that they were there (because they told me that they will come to support me), but since there were so many people, I couldn’t able to locate them. Only until the MC mentioned my name, I went up to the stage, and then I heard people are screaming and cheering, and when I looked, first one I see was my husband standing together with all my friends.   I was so happy, suddenly my energy and confidence shoot up by 100%. At that very moment, I wanted to go down and meet them, but unfortunately I have to rushed back to the dressing room to quickly changed for my 2^nd outfit.

This is our dressing room. It is located just outside ION Orchad

During the 2^nd catwalk, I was even more surprise, because while I was posing in a runway, then one of my friend went up and gave me a bouquet of flowers. So sweet ! Thank you you guys were really made my day !

Thank you all for being there for me I know I can count on you !

Also, very happy because today I get to know many other 49 gorgeous people. Well, too bad didn’t really have enough opportunity to get to know ALL of them, because most of the time we were all busy with the rehearsal, make up, hairdo, etc.   But I was really having a good time chatting with some of them. They are all very nice and good people Some of them even came to me and wished me “Happy Anniversary” .. so sweet..  

To: Annabelle, Sandy, Audrey, Juanni, Lili, Sarah, and Grace, Thank you for helping me to kill time, while waiting at the dressing room.  

For Hafidz. Sharky, Hubab, eventhough we could only talk more while we were queuing for our turn to go on stage, but really nice to get to know you !   And Edmond.. heheh.. really hope that our interview with Razor tv turns out well   Oh yah.. I was surprise to see my old acquaintance, Leon Huang. From the photo I found him very familiar, only today then I confirmed with him ! Hahaha.. anyway.. nice meeting you again, Leon. So many things that I want to share, but I guess for today I have to stop here, because in about 3 more hours I have to be at the airport (going back to Indonesia…. yippie !! ) and I still have to finish a few task first before I left Singapore. I guess, probably I won’t even have time to sleep today… :p

Anyway… I wish you all a great weekend! And see you in my next post LIVE from Indonesia !  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
MerryRiana

Today, 23rd October 2009 is a special day for me. It is my 5th year Wedding Anniversary.  

"All weddings are similar, but every marriage is different."

And I could proudly say that it has been a wonderful and unforgettable 5 year of marriage   By right today I’m supposed to be at Bali, celebrating our Anniversary. It was already planned many months back, but then received the email from Female, mentioned that on the 24th Oct (which is tomorrow !!!) I have to be at the Ion Orchad for the Female 50 gorgeous preview. I definitely wouldn’t want to miss the event, so I told my husband about it and he was kind enough to postpone our celebration to next week.

So tonight we probably just going to spend our time here in Singapore and have a nice dinner together   And of course.. tomorrow, you'll get to see me during the preview at Ion, Orchad. Not only that, you 'll get to see the other 49 gorgeous people too So, make sure you don't miss the event, I purposely missed my Bali trip just to see all of you tomorrow  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana

I believe Elim Chew is someone who doesn’t need any more introduction. She is a very well known figure in the entrepreneurial world, at the same time she is in the hearts of many young Singaporeans.  

Her business, 77th Street is an iconic street wear retail fashion chain in Singapore, dealing with the hip and trendy youth culture of today. In addition to expanding her retail businesses, Elim lends her expertise, experience and time to various youth organisations in Singapore.   Elim’s accolades include being named Most Promising Woman Entrepreneur awarded by The Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) in 2001, Mont Blanc Businesswomen Award in 2002, Young Woman Achiever Award awarded by Her World and Leadership and Mentoring Award awarded by Research Communications International in 2003. And the list goes on…  

I actually met her couple of times in many other occasions, but today was more special because she revealed more of her success stories through an audio interview with me.  

 Not many of us know that Elim, the icon in fashion industry, initially started her career as a hairdresser. Having passion about streetwear, she then started opening a small retail shop at Far East Plaza. It was just a 180 square feet space, but from there it eventually grow to a multi-million dollar business. She shared how does being flexible really help her a lot when she first started her business. She said: “Entrepreneurship is about experience”  

How does Elim came with the name 77^th Street? Is 7 her lucky number? Or was there really a street name 77^th Street?

What is the secret to her success? What are the advantage of being a woman in a business world? And what are the disadvantage?

She also said that many young people wanted to start their own business, but eventually they failed because most of them don’t really have a proper plan. But besides good planning, what are the other factor that need to consider when setting up a business?  

All of the above questions will be answered in my audio interview with her. I will definitely update you guys again when is up. (Apparently there were a limit on the size of the audio file that I can upload. I’m still in the midst of sorting it) To sum up, it was a wonderful experience chatting with her. Even after we finished with the whole interview, we still chat about many things, about our life, our faith, work, etc. She even bring me over to her warehouse (which is huge !) and tour around her office. She has snooker tables and Nintendo wii at her office too. So cool !  

Thank you, Elim ! Will definitely visit 77^th street @ Ion Basement Level 3 (B3-45/46) after the Female 50 Gorgeous Preview this Saturday  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,

Merry Riana

If you haven’t been reading my blog, you better start reading one. Because from today onwards, I’ll be blogging not only about my own personal experience, but also I'll be sharing with you the secrets of various successful and inspiring people from all sort of lives.

One of the reason why I became where I am today is because I have the attitude of always wanting to learn more. I learn from books, seminar, school of hard-knocks, and many more. Most of all, I am grateful to have the privilege to be able to learn from many successful people that I know.

Just a few days ago, I had this crazy idea, I've decided to interview 10 of the most inspirational people that I know, so that you will benefit too. I contacted them one by one, and guess what?? They were all willing to share their precious time to do my this small little project. I was so excited! Yesterday morning, I actually did my very first audio interview for this project. Guess who was the first person that I interviewed? Let me give you a bit of hint: He is young and yet very successfull. He also made his first million by age 26. He is good looking. He wrote many books (you probably read one of his books) He is a peak performance trainer. Hahaha.. enough hint.. just scroll down if you want to know the answer…  

In my car, going to meet my first special guest for my audio-interview

He is none other than Adam Khoo ! I first met him about 8 years ago, when he did his talk at my university, NTU. Now he is an entrepreneur, a best-selling author and a peak performance trainer. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he owns and runs several businesses in education, training, event management and advertising, all with a combined annual turnover of $30 million. He is the Executive Chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd and a director of seven other private companies. WOW ! Definitely a lot of things that we can learn from his sharing.  

Me and Adam Khoo

In the audio interview that I had with him, Adam shared about his proudest moment (in term of his business). He shared that his proudest moment was when he was able to stepped down as CEO and managing director for his company. Yup… you didn’t read wrongly. I was as surprise as you when I heard that too. But Adam then explain, he said “That shows that the business can run without me, that I build a business that truly runs by itself. I always believe that the test of good entrepreneur is someone who can make himself obsolete.” Also, Adam shared about how he manages his time . I’m sure we all want to know how can he accomplished so many things in his life and yet still can play golf, spend time with his family, and sleep 7-8 hours per day, right?

What is Adam’s hidden talent? What is Adam’s view about Woman & Motivation ? and What does ‘gorgeous’ means according to Adam Khoo ?

All are also revealed in this audio interview. There are so many great things that we all can learn from him. You just need to hear it yourself.

Click here to listen.

And of course, after that great interview, I can finally reward myself with 3 piece chicken meals for my lunch

My lunch – 3 piece chicken meal. Oh no… so fattening !! :p

And of course, if you like what you read, please leave me some comments, ok  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,

Merry Riana

Life is really full of surprises. Never in my imagination or plan that I ever stepped into this side of life whereby I will be one of the 50 Most Gorgeous People.  

To be honest with you, if you ask me, do I think I’m gorgeous?

Well, in terms of look, I don’t think I’m bad looking, but compare to those professional models who have high cheek, sharp nose, long leg, slim figure, perfect complexion, etc , I’m definitely not one of them.  

So, why am I here?   Like I said in my previous post, it all started on a very beautiful Saturday afternoon. I was walking together with my husband at Wisma Atria. Then, one young beautiful lady came and approached me, introduced herself from Female Magazine, and told me that she would like to take a picture of me. When I asked for what purpose, then she mentioned that they are in the search of 50 Most Gorgeous People.  

WOW!

I felt so FLATTERED. Simply because I never expect that would be applicable to me, especially knowing that it was just about 7 months after I gave birth to my first child. Yup!! I have a very beautiful baby girl, her name is Alvernia (nope, she wasn’t born in Mt. Alvernia hospital) hehehe… and she is currently 11 months now.   So, a mixture between feelings of surprise, flattered, plus encouragement from my husband, therefore at that moment I voluntarily followed her to the Female booth to be shot by their photographer. At that time I thought there is no harm, and anyway it’s just for fun! Plus they would give me the photo on the spot. Cool!   I actually still have the picture… Here it is… (I re-shoot the original photo using my Canon Ixus 110 IS, and change the setting to digital macro fuction, specially design to shoot close object, and the result: as clear as the original !)  

 @Wisma Atria 2009

Few months after that… Here I am writing this blog, talking to all of you, and sharing this platform with 49 others gorgeous people… Wow!!   Initially I’m not used to it, because this platform is so much different from the normal thing that I do daily. As some of you probably know, I am an Entrepreneur, I run my own businesses. At the same time I’m also a trainer and author. Those are the things that I’m very familiar with. If you ask me about modeling? Or doing catwalk? That’s really not my cup of tea.   Of course sometimes I have to do some photo shoots, but normally it is for media coverage or my own business purposes.  

Having said that, being here, talking to all of you really excite me, and one of the biggest reasons why I’m still writing regularly despite my busy schedule is because it’s aligned with my passion and my mission which is “To raise up a new generation of successful young people, who take charge of their lives, live their dreams, and eventually, contribute back to society”   And that’s why I have decided not only to blog about my personal life, but also to add value to you. To sum up: Style with Substance !

Hopefully with everything that I will share in this tiny space for these 5 weeks will inspire you and will contribute positively to your life!   To end today’s post, I would like to share the message that I wrote in my facebook last week:  

“Life is like a book, everyday has a new page with adventures to tell, lessons to learn and tales on good deeds to remember. Have a good episode today!”

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana

Having Monday Blues?   Definitely not for me. How can I be having Monday blues when I have been receiving many good news every Monday since beginning of this month? Starting from a Surprise email that I get from Madeline on Monday, 5^th October 2009  

Then the following Monday, 12^th October 2009.   Double Happiness,

firstly because it was my fitting day for the preview. I went to Bebe at Vivo City and I was really having fun trying all those contemporary clothes. Very difficult to choose because all are gorgeous, luckily I got the help from the great stylists who eventually chose the best 2 outfits for me to wear for the preview. Thank you all !  

Secondly, that day I got my first Canon Digital Ixus Camera. Thanks to Canon who is kind enough to lend the Canon Digital Ixus 110 IS set for me to use during this period of time. I was so excited, because this will be my very first Canon Digital Camera. All these while I’ve been hearing a lot of good review from my friends who are using Ixus, but I still used my old camera because I thought it is still in a working condition, and also how much different can it be in terms of the quality of the photo?   So the first thing that I did after that was to test it. On the way back, while I was inside my car, I decided to take a random picture. And to my surprise, the quality was much better than I expected, definitely way better than my normal camera.

Taken with Canon Digital Ixus 110 IS

It’s so clear and sharp, even when it was taken while I was moving. I was so impressed! I guess it was because of its image stabilizer function. Will definitely explore more on what other functions that Canon has.  

Today, Monday, 19^th October 2009, I got a chance to drop by SPH Media Centre at Genting Lane to collect my Canon battery charger and also the USB Cable. It wasn’t really planned, because initially the battery charger and the USB cable supposed to be sent to my office by courier service. But since I had a bit of time in the late afternoon I decided to call Dee and asked whether she preferred me to go down and collect it personally and she said OK J   So there I was, at Female office. I got a chance to take picture with Dee (she looks cute right?)  

With Dee, the Birthday gal

And surprise surprise…. I met Madeline too And after much convincing, she finally said yes when I asked her to take picture together… Thanks, Madeline! Your photo looks great too…  

With the Famous Madeline

Also another thing, I just knew from Madeline that today is actually Dee’s birthday!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dee!!  You're older today than yesterday, but younger than tomorrow

May this birthday be just the beginning of a year filled with many happy memories, wonderful moments, and shining dreams. And especially for you, I have this video for you to watch. Hope you’ll like it.  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana

I want to say a BIG Thank You to all of you.

Ever since I shared the good news of me being one of the 50 Most Gorgeous People 2009, I have received many messages, comments, emails, calls and sms. And I would say that all are very encouraging. Thank you, again !

For the next 10 weeks, I will actually write my blog regularly on their website. http://www.female50gp.com/2009/blog/author/merry/  And I will probably did a bit summary of what I wrote over there. But for more details and more updated stuff, you can visit the above link. See you guys there !

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana

“What can you do with $10 ? ”  

 Well, for me, that $10 was the amount of money that I could use to continue my life here in Singapore for 1 week.  

How was that possible?   Let me bring you back in time, 11 years ago in the year 1998.  

1998 was the first time that I came to Singapore. Initially it was never in my whole family plan to send me overseas to study because it will be too costly for my family to afford it. I thought I will continue my study in some local University in Jakarta.   However, 1998 was the time of the Asian economic crisis. At that time, Indonesia was not a very safe place for a young girl like me as violence and riots were everywhere. So, I really didn’t have much choice except to leave Indonesia. Singapore seemed to be the best choice because of its nearby location, safe environment, and good education system.   Since it wasn’t my parents’ original plan to send me overseas to study, therefore to overcome the financial burden, I have to take up many loans, i.e. study loan and tuition fee loan. On top of that I must also be very careful in spending my money, since I only have very limited resources.   I was a very thrifty student back then. I still remember vividly how I have survived living in Singapore with just $10 every week for my whole 1 year in NTU. Definitely not easy, but I had no choice. Sometimes I just ate instant noodles, bread or even skipped meal.  

My turning point was actually when I celebrated my 20^th birthday.   Just a few days before that, I actually did a lot of thinking. I was so fed up with my life. I felt that I deserved more. I knew that my parents have already sacrificed a lot of things just to send me here in Singapore, so I MUST make it a success. Even if one day I have to go back to Indonesia, I want to go back as a successful person.   So on my 20^th birthday, I made a resolution. I gave myself 10 years, before I celebrate my 30^th birthday, I must already achieve my financial freedom, whereby I don’t need to worry any more about money. Most importantly I wanted to clear my study loans as soon as possible and give a good life for my parents while I still can.   If you ask me, whether at that time I knew how I am going to achieve that, or do I already have a plan? the answer is NO. I totally had no idea. But I knew one thing. I knew that I am deadly serious about my resolution and I knew why I MUST achieve it.   Sometimes in life the WHY is more important than the HOW.   Because when you have a strong enough WHY, you will eventually find the HOW.   And that’s how it all started.

3 years after that (after I graduated from NTU), I was able to earn more than $200,000 in just 1 year of working. And I was very happy to be able to clear my $40,000 study loan in just 6 months.   Of course I’m not saying that having a vision in itself is enough. Definitely not! It took a lot of hard work and effort for me to be where I am now.   But it really all begins with having a clear vision and believing in that vision.

Again, I’m not telling you all these to impress you, but really to impress upon you how important it is to dream big.   If you already know what you want in life, good for you ! If you don’t, I suggest before you sleep tonight, you should really think about it.   Imagine the great times ahead. Imagine many great things that will happen.   Your subconscious mind has such power that whatever you can imagine, it will help you to make it a reality. Whatever you dream of, start it now. You will be amazed at your own magical power to achieve things that you may never dream of to be possible.  

Touching Hearts Changing Lives,
Merry Riana