Yearly Archives: 2009

The theme of the event was "The Rainbow Journey"

It was a very simple theme, and yet it has a very deep meaning behind it. Life is often hard, it can bring you so much pain. But to truly appreciate the rainbow, we must first endure the rain. I really cannot guarantee your success, but I can guarantee that there will be obstacles in pursuing your success.

I personally experienced it many times. In the process of becoming what I am today, I faced many 'heavy rains'. From struggling to survive with just $10/week in Singapore, lost my life savings in stock market, facing rejections after rejections in my early career in sales, and many others. But what keeps me going is because I know that after all these rains (sometimes can be even monsoon season) I'll be able to see my 'rainbow'.

Success is measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, but by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.

I believe you have heard many stories of successful people who went thru ups and downs before they reach their success. One of the good examples that I want to share today is J.K Rowling. I'm sure you know who she is. She is the highest-earning woman in Britain, thanks to her 'Harry Potter – series'. When J.K Rowling was young, she gave up her dream of writing novels to study something more practical. Nonetheless, she ended up as an unemployed single mom. She suffered through a period of poverty and depression while she struggled to earn a living and take care of her daughter. But during this rock-bottom time, she realized she still had a wonderful daughter, an old typewriter, and an idea that would become the foundation for rebuilding her life. It was during this difficult time that she finally completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the U.S. edition. Within 5 years, she managed to bring herself out from poverty to become a Multi-Millionaire. Amazing ! I hope the story that I shared can give you an inspiration. That no matter how big the obstacle that you are currently facing, no matter how tough your life right now and how heavy is your 'rain' now, You must not forget that there is a beautiful rainbow, waiting for you at the end.

Here's some photos that was taken during my seminar in Jakarta

Have you ever dreamt of producing your own film, pitching your own story, and conveying the burning message you have to thousands of people? Being a producer may not be as difficult as you think, unless you’re looking at producing a long haul drama series or a big hits movie. With the current modern technology, anyone can easily produce a short video anytime.

Satisfying the hunger for creative arts, Aaron has always involved himself in the creative process since young, grabbing any opportunities in school, and learning from the people and resources around him. He once aspired to be a musician, an actor. But fate or chance, he lands himself in the film making industry. To date, he has already been in this industry for 7 years, and he is still flaming his passion for film making with the never-ending process of learning and testing new grounds.

Filming process usually requires the whole production team tons of hard work. Ideally, the shooting process inclusive of pre- and post-production, it takes at least one to two months per episode of the film. However, that occurs for TV productions or movies. If you’re one of those aspiring film makers, making your own video and posting it up through online channels such as YouTube may fulfill your desire for film making a little. This has also allowed film making to be more accessible. Cost of production becomes cheaper, and more user friendly, and the creative process can now flow more freely, which in turn empower film makers and even viewers to a certain extent.

“People can broadcast their work, without waiting for an executive in a suit to give them the green light, and viewers can also decide for themselves what they like and don’t like. So if they don’t like it, they can just click on something else” Aaron said. Film makers can now test out their ideas, be a little more experimental in their production, and there is no commercial pressure in terms of appealing to the sponsors or niche group of audiences. You’ll be surprised when you realize that this kind of freedom emancipates much more innovation and exciting ideas among people. Through an online medium, you’ll also get to obtain immediate response from the viewers, and you need not wait for it to be up on theatre screens or broadcast on television to know that you’re doing something that people likes.

Advanced equipments or technology can assist in the creative process in a certain way, but the essence of making a great film truly comes from a solid story behind it – a story that touch on the pulse of human condition and universal struggles. “Equipments are just story telling tools. A film maker with a very compelling story to share can produce something extraordinary with just a camera, and maybe the creative use of existing light sources, and some basic editing equipment” says Aaron. Equipments may assist film makers to a certain extent, but qualities such as passion, commitment, dedication, a good eye for visuals, and the ability to observe, listen and tell a story cannot be substituted by even the best equipment in the world.

Aaron’s suggestions to all budding film makers out there, is to never stop learning and absorbing information. Be really passionate, committed, and humble, be prepared for a lot of hard work, and have a never-say-die attitude no matter what happens. And because of this attitude that Aaron holds on to all these years, film making has helped him experience things that many other don’t have a chance to experience, and these years of hard work have expanded his horizons, allowed him to meet a broad spectrum of different kinds of people in life.

Having seen all kinds of people from all walks of life, Aaron’s definition of gorgeous person “means someone who is passionate about life, and what they do, someone who believes in their own potential and the potential of others, in making a difference to the world,” Aaron defines. For anyone who is interested in knowing more about Aaron or has got any burning questions to ask him, you could email him at tanmienshawn@gmail.com.

And if you want to have a piece of Aaron’s works, well, you came to the right place. Here’s the music video of Ming Bridges’ rendition of the Christmas song “Let it snow” that was done by Aaron himself.

You’ll see Ming skiing around Singapore, how interesting ! =)  

I've just been browsing through the videos at RAZORTV when I stumbled upon a particular video that has really made my day.

It was one of the videos on the day of the Grand Finals @ Zouk. This video featured the Interview with the Overall Winner, Annabel Tan, after the event.

In the video, the RAZORTV journalist, Bryan De Silva, asked Annabel this particular question: "Besides yourself, who do you think could have won this competition?" To my amazement, Annabel actually answered: 'Merry Riana'. And then she continued to share how she was inspired by me. As I've mentioned, watching the video had really make my day.

Here is the link to that wonderful video: http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/lifestyle/39710.html

I would like to really thank Annabel for her kind friendship. She truly deserves to win the title of the Most Gorgeous Female 2009. Because not only is she good-looking and smart, but she also has a big heart.

This photo was taken behind the scene, just before the results were announced. We were both posing with our number tag, but the photographer decided to just took a close up picture of us. hahaha

Once again: Congratulations Annabel!

This is the photo taken when Female Magazine was in the search for Most Gorgeous People.

Few months later, they told me that I was selected to go for the next round, and asked me to come down for photoshoots. I went to Dempsey Road for the photoshoot and the interview (Yup..!!! There was also an interview)  I had to answer many different questions. I think total there were 50 over questions.. hahaha.. That's really a lot of questions. Here's the photo that was taken. I would say it was not easy for me to pose for this picture, because the photographer asked me not to smile. And it was very difficult for me not to smile on camera (almost ALL my photos taken with me smiling widely). Nevertheless, I did it anyway..

Especially for Female Magazine.

Not long after that, I received another email, saying that I was selected as one of the 50 Most Gorgeous People 2009. Wow! I then went for my fitting for the first Preview at ION Orchad. It was during the fitting time that I met Bryan from RAZORTV, and that's how I ended up being interviewed by him.

(Click on the photo to watch the clip.)

Then, come my very first catwalk… I was very anxious because I never done any catwalk before. Thank God I have many friends who came down that day to support and cheer for me. [

My 2nd outfit – Female 50 Gorgeous People Preview at ION Singapore

From the Preview to the Grand Finals, I was very fortunate to be featured in a few media, like The New Paper (Thank you Shree Ann for the great article.)

The New Paper – Merry Riana (1st Nov 2009)
Click on the picture to view the article

And DivaAsia.com 
 

(Click on the picture for the complete article)

Also, during the journey as Female 50 Gorgeous People finalist, one thing that I enjoyed the most was to write this blog. I really hope that many people who visited my blog can benefit positively. That's also the main reason why I started to  interview and featured many successful public figures from various walk of lives to share their success stories.

(You can click on the picture to read and listen more about my interview with them) [

With Adam Khoo, Executive Chairman and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd

With Elim Chew, Founder and President of 77th Street (S) Pte Ltd

[

With Irene Ang, Actress & CEO of FLY Entertainment Pte Ltd

With Jasmine Tye, Singapore Idol Season 2, 2nd runner up

And many more to come I'm so excited to share with them their experiences. Just keep reading my blog, ok Oh yah.. of course, lastly, the most unforgettable night, was the GRAND FINALS.

With Ms. Gorgeous, Annabel, Practicing our pose before the catwalk

With Rachael, Grace, and Juanni, eating our dinner (McD) just before the event

With Hanz Medina, the gorgeous male who can sing !

With Mel & Ashley, just before our 1st catwalk (Thank you Anna Sui and Loreal for the make up and hairdo)

for more photos, you can visit  my facebook (www.facebook.com/merry.riana) and of course if you happen to have photos of me, do let me know or tag me, ok The Grand Finals itself was a very glamourous night. And I feel so blessed to be inside the Top 10 Finalist. That makes me the Top 5 Most Gorgeous Female (WOW ! I feel so honored)

The New Paper, 28th Nov 2009. I was the one with the flowers =)

All thanks to my dearest friends, family and supporters who already votes for me. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!

With friends and family. LOVE you all !! =)

Congratulations again to Annabel and Adrian for winning the Most Gorgeous Female and Male 2009! And lastly I would like so say a HUGE THANK YOU (again) for Madeline and Dee !! For this wonderful and unforgettable journey. Rest assured that the journey doesn't end here. Will definitely continue to write more positive, inspiring and interesting posts here. It's style with substance, remember? =)

Leaders are Readers, so keep reading my blog, okie =)

With Sylvester Sim, Singapore Idol Season 1 Runner Up

Turning into an Idol

“American Idol”, “Britain Got Talent”, and “So You Think You can Dance”, all of which are familiar reality shows that became great hits and exceeds beyond the description of being popular in America. Everyone tune in to these reality shows is an indication of one thing – dreams of becoming an Idol. People are using this kind of channel to release their desire, showcase their talents, and realize their dreams.

And not only is this happening in America or Europe, this irresistible Idol “wind” has blown towards Asia, particularly in Singapore as well. “Project Superstar” and “Singapore Idol” are clear examples of such reality shows, and MediaCorp has successfully held seasons after seasons for these programs, attracting tens of thousands of people to go for the auditions in being part of the shows.

I was pleased to have Sylvester Sim, or widely known as Sly by his fans, to do this audio interview. If you are one of those budding talents, and would probably love to know more about the life of being an Idol contestant, you may want to hear from his sharing, learning more about life as Sylvester Sim of Singapore Idol Season 1.

Sly was the first runner-up of Singapore Idol Season 1 and he has also released his debut album “Take Flight” in April 2005. In this album, much of the production is handled by Sly, from singing to composing, and 9 out of the 11 tracks in this debut album actually came from Sly himself. It was tough in recording for his album, but hard work pays off as the album was sold more than 15,000 copies in Singapore.

Sly’s favourite song in the album is a mandarin song called “所以” where this is the song that he wrote solely by himself from composition of music to lyrics. “所以 is a very simple song which is really from my heart, and it’s just plain and easy. And surprisingly, the song is quite popular on the net as well,” he said. This song was also widely known and popular in China, where everywhere you can hear his song and even ringing in the phones of people in China.  

Born with an acute sense of musicality, Sly has already involved himself much in the music industry, doing stage performing as a band even before the competition. Thus, going for an audition for Idol wasn’t as nerve-wrecking for Sly. At the young age of merely 12, Sly has already started to pick up guitar. From there, he went on to compose his own songs and pick up singing as well.

Sly joined the Singapore Idol Competition with a desire of wanting to gain more exposure for his songs, wanting share his songs to more people and have them knowing what he is writing. Being in the top 2 of Idol Season 1 was an unexpected surprise for Sly.

Life being an Idol changed Sly’s lifestyle during the period of competition. He had to learn to cope with the sudden swarm of attention of the public and the sudden twist of turning into an overnight star. “It’s like today I might be going downstairs in my shorts eating Char Kway Teow, and the next day everyone is like saying ‘look at him’. So we got to learn how to handle this on our own in a quick way, and that’s the biggest change in my life” he said. However, being happy-go-lucky by nature, it makes it easier for Sly when bad publicities crossed his path, as he chose to handle it in a happier way.

Years after his competition in Idol, Sly is still following down the music path, where recently, he has changed his style from rocker, that everyone associates him with, to a more Hip-hop and R&B style. He is very much into dancing now, and is taking up dance classes. The reason for his change – It’s the trend in music. He said, “I believe everyone is not listening to rock anymore. It’s more into dance music, R&B. This is what is popular. So, even songs that I write nowadays are more R&B and Hip Hop, which is what people like to listen, because I think as a composer, I can’t write things that I like and others can’t accept. I have to go for what they like and make them accept. And when they like my songs, I can put a little more of my style inside so that that will make it more unique”.

In time to come, Sly would like to his own album more established to himself and maintaining a more stable life by writing songs for artiste, taking up a more supporting role in the entertainment industry.

Being in a ‘flowery’ world of entertainment industry, Sylvester’s definition of ‘gorgeous’ can be simply described as attractive. To him, the person may not be particularly good-looking, but he or she must possess the X-factor or charisma to attract people around him or her. “I like someone who really dares to showcase their talent, and maybe like someone who can sing, dance, who has a similar talent to me” Sly said. The kind of attractive girl that Sly is looking at? The answer is the talented Korean singer, BoA.

For those who are still hesitating whether to be part of the Idol series, Sly’s advice to you is to go ahead as we only lived once! Take a step out and begin to realize your dreams now. For the supporters of Sly, or even those who want to know more about Sylvester Sim, you can now contact him through St James, as Sly would be performing there every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

Click on the pucture below if you want to listen to Sly singing LIVE in my audio interview with him.

Time really flies, before we know it, today is already the Grand Finals. =) There are just so many things that I still want to share with all of you. Recently I’ve done a few more audio interviews with many outstanding people. Looking forward to upload it for you guys…

Being part of 50 Female Gorgeous People is something that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life. I feel honored and at the same time grateful to be given this opportunity.

I have a long list of various people that I want to say THANK YOU. But since I only have less than 30 mins to get ready and go to zouk, (reporting time is 2pm, and time now is 12.58) I'm just going to keep it short first. Will continue the rest after the BIG PARTY tonight.

A HUGE THANK YOU to FEMALE MAGAZINE and ALL the SPONSORS  

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS A REALITY FOR ME

Also, not to forget HUGE THANK YOU for all of you who has voted for me, and reading my blog =)  

I have this special early Christmas gift for everyone of you. This song is personally sung by me. No, I’m not a professional singer, but I LOVE to sing, and about 2 years ago, I was inspired to produce a Christmas CD which can be used by the churches and other organizations to raise funds for their causes now and in the future. What followed next was nothing short of a miracle.  

To know more about Project: A Christmas Gift, you can visit  

www.AChristmasGift.com.sg     or      www.merryriana.co.id/pages/contribution/6     

Well, I really hope you’ll enjoy the song. (click on the picture for you to listen to the song)

Especially for my fellow Gorgeous People…  Thank you for your kind friendship See you guys later!    

When was the last time you prayed? ….

Seriously! Was it just a few minutes ago? Was it this morning before you go to work? Was it last week? or Was it many years ago until you can't even remember?    

Well, if you already answer my 1st question, then help me to answer my 2nd question. What did you pray for?   …    

Did you pray for a good health? Did you pray for you to have more strength? Did you pray for wisdom? etc…  

Now my 3rd questions …  

Have you ever thought that maybe, we don't really need to ask for all those things?  

Maybe we already have all those things. Maybe everything that mentioned above are already within us. When God created us, He created us with wisdom, strength, knowledge, and all the positiveness that a person could ever have. So when we already have all those things, does it mean that we don't need to pray anymore?   Definitely not. We still need to pray, but instead of asking for those things mentioned above, I believe the most important thing for us to ask is to have FAITH.  

One of my mentors recently shared this analogy with me. He said that we are similar like TVs. When you see a TV that is not on, you will not be able to see anything, or hear anything. But you actually know that everything is actually inside the TV: the movie, the sound, the motion picture, etc. There are many channels that you can access and there are many things that you can enjoy. All you need to do is to turn on the TV.  

Similarly like our lives. We as an individuals are full of potential, everything is already inside us, but we need to have FAITH to 'on' it and to be able to see it.  

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible  

So remember, the next time you pray. Ask for FAITH !  

The FOUR BLESSED LOOKS:

Look back and Thank God

Look forward and Trust God

Look around and Serve God

Look within and Find God

Just did another of my Project: Pay It Forward last Friday.

This project was launched because of my passion to share my experiences with other young people. Although I am regularly engaged to conduct professional trainings in the region, I have pledged my time to conduct free Talks for institutions/schools/clubs whose members are young people aged 15-35.

During this 60-minutes Talk, I share my personal success journey – from school into the business world.

So last Friday, I went to Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

I’m happy to see so much energy and enthusiasm that they had during my talk. Knowing that they have been benefited from my sharing has definitely made my day =)

Me and some of the students =)

To know more about Project: Pay It Forward, visit www.merryriana.co.id

Last but not least,

“True Success in life is not measured by how much money you make, but how much of a difference you make in the life of others”