At the dinner I also meet other Intel friends like Jamshed from Intel Singapore and Dottie (my good friend that recommend me to Becky, thanks much :x) & Hizam from Intel Indonesia.

After a while I just realized that they’re THE Intel people. They’re the people behind processors that make things happened! I want to kiss them one by one! (Okay maybe only Becky & Dottie hehe)

Intel Visual Life videos have been my favorite. Been watching all of their videos because they’re very inspiring documentary. It has everything you need in a video. Good content, great inspiring message, and amazing visual.

So we ended up talking about the making of Indonesian version of Intel Visual Life video, it’s about Batik Fractal. Interesting share from Hizam about behind the scene of the video!

Meanwhile, I want to share you one of the most inspiring videos of Intel Visual Life, it’s about Michael Wolff and his life philosophy.

I have three muscles, without which I couldn’t do my work. The first is curiosity. (You can call it inquisitiveness, you can call it questioning.) The second muscle [is] the muscle of appreciation. It’s not questioning so much as it is noticing… how joyful things can be, how colorful things can be, what already exists as an inspiration. The muscle of curiosity and the muscle of appreciation enable the muscle of imagination. -Michael Wolff

Check it out, you’ll love it!

The writing style of the book is personal, light and page-turning. The author has succesfully written the best-selling book “French Women Don’t Get Fat” before, so we can expect the same quality in this book.

Mireille tells story about her experience as a CEO in a company. She’s opening her book by reminding us that life is lived in episodes and stages. I take it as we have to be flexible on what opportunities life can bring us. Yes we plan things, but if it’s not turned out the way we want, just twist your plan a little bit and shine.

Presentations. When doing this, make sure your slides are simple. Your presentation slides  should support you to deliver your points. Not overwhelming you instead. Check with your boss/mentor about the content and always rehearse out loud before doing it. That’s all important keys to your presentation success.

The style. You must decide how you represent yourself. She’s quoting, “If a woman is not well dressed, one notice her for the outfit, but if she’s impeccably dressed, it’s she that one notices.” If you always find it hard to think nice outfit for the day, spend the night before to think and decide which clothes you wanna wear tomorrow. It works to effectively use your morning time. You can find inspiration from websites or magazine, but it’s not neccessarily means new clothes. You can always mix & match.

To reduce stress, whenever something big happened related to opportunities, risk and decisions, breath then ask yourself: What’s the worst thing that can happen? That way you can be more relax.

Mireille also describing how good leaders should be. One of the most interesting part from this, she said a leader should have a remarkable self confidence. Don’t complicate things. A leader also have to grow thick skin. Thick-skinned leaders can always listen to criticism and learn from it when appropriate, but also understand that there will seemingly always be 20% of just plain noise, so don’t take it too personally or let it divert you from the more important foci. Don’t invest psychic or physical energy on things you can’t control; focus on the positive.

Last but not least, Mireille also suggest us to have our scheduled ‘beach time’ to find balance. Also start the day with healthy routine, I think us Muslims already done it with Fajr/Subuh Prayer

What I’ve learned from this book, French people always try to enjoy the process of every moment. They don’t rush it. They find magic in their activities. And that makes their ‘Joie de Vivre’ attitude more vibrant.

Have a fabulous day!

It’s really hard to measure.

A lot of journalists would ask me about how much my companies make. And of course I’m not comfortable in answering that. But they need numbers to sell in their media. Apparently people still need that to be motivated. So they’d keep pushing me to answer in each and every way. ‘Til at one point I’d answer that now I personally make minimum 20x higher than my last salary and they will all will stop right there and nodding :))

But I never felt I’m successful. I always say, I’m on my way there. It needs courage to actually declare self successful. That’s why I need time to think before writing my business book ‘Easy Biz’ because I don’t think my experience is enough already to share. But now that I got positive feedback on how people motivated to start their own business after reading the book, it makes me confident that no matter where you are in your business stage, you can always inspire others in positive ways. Now, I realize that my definition of success is when I be able to share more with others.

Congratulations to 12 amazing business owners that have the courage to write their inspiring stories. They show us passion, consistency, and values in building their business. And all that really inspire me (and hopefully many others).

Thank you Es Teler 77 @77EsTeler  and Mbak Felicia Nugroho @flishn  for supporting the Entrepreneur Story book, self published at NulisBuku.com @NulisBuku .

Quoting Sary, the winner of the writing challenge: “Success is when we start to do something we love.”

Hope you can define your own success!

The Regional Entrepreneurship Summit talks about entrepreneurship, but it’s really talk about dreams -Hillary Clinton

Lucky me to be invited to Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI) – Regional Entrepreneurship Summit (RES) in Grand Hyatt, Bali from 22 – 24 July 2011 represent #StartupLokal.

In Bali I was staying and spend time with the amazing girls from WomenPreneur Indonesia community @womenpreneurind . From them, I see a whole new world of offline business, and from me they see a whole new world of online business (digital startup), so we kind of amazed by one another

With great Indonesian womenpreneurs

I want to share you several points that caught my attention in RES event.

Wearing batik at the conference

I was very fascinated with Ibu Mari Elka Pangestu keynote speech. There are a lot points that make me nodded. And I must say to Anne, the girl from NGO beside me, “She can read my mind.” :))

Ibu Mari Elka Pangestu delivering her fantastic speech

Ibu Mari said, “Real role of entrepreneurs stretches beyond business, because entrepreneurs great assets are their idea, creativity and innovation. Entrepreneurs tackle group problems of poverty and inequity and their innovations enable us to have a better life as well as to lead from development, so it is also about reducing poverty.”

She also mentioned the terms of productive poor and it struck me. The 70% productive poor are women. They are poor but that it doesn’t mean that they are not productive. They can be productive if you give them training to the point that they can become entrepreneurs. It’s a very eye opening statement.

Eric Schmidt from Google said that Indonesia has a loud democracy, a flourishing society, and an integrated media. Thank you Mr. Schmidt. Indonesian freedom of expression is something we should be proud of. BBC said Indonesia is the best place in the world to start a business, and I think it’s a sign for all of us to maximized our potential.

The lessons I learned on the second day panel discussion with social entrepreneurs like Tri Mumpuni: find out what’s the problem in society and offer solutions.

Tri Mumpuni saw problems on how Indonesian people in rural area are less developed than the urban. She analyzed that it could be because the lack of access of technology, because there are no electricity in those areas.

She & her husband then starting to find solution, helping villages to create and manage their own electricity, using it for their village development to the point where PLN from the government buy the electricity from them and the fund can be used to build schools and access to education. Amazing!

Notes from the handsome and charming Pak Gita Wirjawan (ehm), chairman of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), he said the key of success are the confident to take risk and not afraid to make mistakes (as long as you learn from it and don’t do the same mistake again), education (never stop learning), networking (don’t be timid) and luck that you get from opportunities meet preparation.

The most interesting in day 3 of the conference was the break out session about womenpreneurs. Of course, the nature of women is we love to talk. And our session lasts longer than any other breakout sessions :))

Quoting secretary Clinton, “And we particularly want to encourage women entrepreneurs, because, as the minister said, no economy can thrive if it leaves half the population behind. In fact, a recent United Nations study estimated that in the Asia Pacific region, the untapped potential of women has cost the region more than $40 billion in lost GDP over the last decade. So we’re supporting new micro finance projects, building peer networks, and offering mentorships with American businesswomen.”

Secretary Hillary Clinton

Board of speakers: entrepreneurs, investors, NGOs

I totally in sync with Secretary Clinton and Ibu Mari Elka. I also strongly believe in promoting technology as catalyst for women development, either in personal area or in business.

From my conversation with Mbak @bril , editor-in-chief Sekar magazine, Indonesian young women already familiar with social media (we’re #2 Facebook Users after USA), but they have no idea on how to use technology more than chat or status update. For the older women, the problem is different. They’re afraid and don’t want to complicate their life with technology hehe. That’s the challenges.

From the breakout session I’ve learned that, women entrepreneurs face the same problem all over the world, one of them is the fear of failure (self confidence in building business). Aside from training & education, Indonesian women need more mentors & role models for womenpreneurs that they can look up to. So, women(tech)preneurs, if you are there, show up and be an inspiration for others.

“The big questions finally is how can we have a program and an ecosystem for this entrepreneurs that makes the good idea to help them turn these ideas into reality and help them to nurture it for it to become sustainable,” said bu Mari Elka.

As one of initiators of @StartupLokal , co-founder of @projectEden   and also a woman, I feel the urge to do something. I immediately request a quota in @projectEden incubation space special for women founders (which already approved by my partners, thank you very much). And after Eid, @startuplokal plan to create a meetup with topic “Women Founders” where we will invite some women tech startup founders in Indonesia and we’re going to throw a pitching session special for women who have great ideas, hopefully from there they can find partners (as there are many great technical people in #StartupLokal community) or of course if it’s fit with @projectEden vision, some of them can also join the incubation

Meanwhile my friendship with the girls from Womenpreneur Indonesia community still going strong, just had a followup lunch with some of them, and they plan to invite me to speak at some of their events. Hope I can help spread the sparks!

With the girls enjoying Bali sunset

Indonesia now only have 0.38% entrepreneurs of our population while Malaysia has 3% and Singapore has 7%. We need the minimum 2% of population to be entrepreneurs to gain nation’s prosperity. As entrepreneurs create jobs and change life one person at a time.

We still have plenty of room to grow, more than 50% of population are young people under 29 years old, and we have the biggest market out of 650 million people in South East Asia. All we need to do is starting. Big or small business, the most important thing is to start moving. Because as you move, no matter how small step you take, you’ll be ‘lucky’ - Create Your Own Luck!

With Mr. Djauhari Oratmangun Director General for ASEAN affairs after his closing speech. He really make sure I'd put this photo on my blog :))

I know not all of us can be billionaire, but as Tarun Khanna from Harvard Business School said, “It is better to create billions of entrepreneurs.” I couldn’t agree more!

Happy entrepreneurs after closing ceremony

Let’s enlarge our view and we could see the organizer of this event: Hakuna Matata. Hakuna Matata products are t-shirt with motivational message in it. I met the owner of Hakuna Matata @dithadoank  when I speak at The Urban Mama entrepreneurship  seminar at @america 2 months ago.

Usually after I speak, there are people who personally come to me and shoot me with spesific questions about their business. Ditha is one of them. In that 1 or 2 minutes conversation, I told her to bundled her t-shirt with a motivational seminar and closed our short conversation with a message: “Just Action!”. And for her, it’s like a command.

To be honest, I totally forgot we ever met, ’til one day Ditha message me and she said she want me to speak at a seminar she’s going to make. I met a lot of people that I’m trying hard to remember her face and associate with her business. I remember it blurry. We met and chat for only 2 minutes!

Then I finally meet her again yesterday, with bunch of people coming for an event she make for the first time, with 2 great inspirational people: Prita Laura & Bong Chandra, with all her family surround her. I salute her and so proud of her.

While listening to Ditha speak to me with excitement, I try to hold my tears, I’m overwhelmed of how words can move people that far. I told her: “A lot of people come to me for advice, only a few totally act on it. And you’re one of them!” People like her, motivate me to do more and make me realize that all what I’m trying to say all these times are actually heard and indeed matter for others.

She has created her own luck! She make her first move & open the gate of success, to a bigger opportunity.  From this moment on, things will only be better and greater for her & Hakuna Matata!

That’s my friend’s reaction when I told him that my goal is to retired before 35.

What I meant about ‘retired’ is the joy of financial freedom. That I no longer HAVE TO work in order to fulfill my expenses. I work just because I WANT TO work, not because I have to.

At @GirsinTechID meetup about financial planning, I met @mrshananto  and I ask her about the possibility of my financial goal. She said, that basically, the concept of retired now means: your passive income can cover your monthly expenses, and of course it’s achieveable.

Wiki says, Passive Income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.

Ways to get passive incomes are varies. I get it from my book royalties and businesses  that I ran with partners. But of course I need more, can be from property, dividen from stocks, etc.

And I found a very interesting book that in-sync with this, it’s The Lazy Millionaire by Marc Fisher. In his book, he points out about the good habit of a lazy millionaire with passive incomes.

Habit of a Lazy Millionaire according to Marc Fisher:

• Work less, get more
• Effectively manage time: prioritize! Do the task that is the most profitable for you first
• Capable to delegate and let other do the work. The Lazy Millionaire knows that 80% of the key to successful delegation is… choosing the right person
• Have other sources of alternative revenue, especially residual
• Always have clear objectives/goals

The book is a very great book. Seriously, you must get one!

By the way, I still have 7 more years to get more passive incomes before reaching 35. So, hopefully I can make it. I’m ready to plan it with my financial planner *try to erase the image of new car in my mind* :))

Geniuses often accomplish more when they work less -Leonardo da Vinci

So, let me share a story about my Office Girl. Her name is Susi. She works for a cleaning service company in my office building, and I hire her (thru her company) to help in my office. I see her a lot, we smile to each other and she’d greet me every time she meet me, but we never actually talk.

Then several times I see that the girl and boy who’s cleaning in my office is changing. I don’t see Susi much around anymore. Then one day, after 3 years, I finally tap her shoulder and asked to chat with her. She seemed confused but agree to sit down in the hallway with me.

From the conversation, I found out that she already become a leader in her office. She’s a boss now. She would be the person who hire new office boys/office girls. She’d teach them the ‘cleaning skill’. She’d be the person who control and manage everything. And I could see that she could handle it very well.

At first, she was afraid to take the opportunity given to her by her boss, but she took it anyway. She learned everything by doing, and perfecting her leadership skill each and every day. She actually listens to her team, and because she once part of them, she understands her team and protect their needs.

I asked what’s her plan for the future, and she said: “I want to have my own business. But meanwhile, for now, I’m going to continue doing what I do. I enjoy it. Because by working in my current office, I have more time to do some part time jobs.” She’s been working on several part time jobs to be able to save for her child’s education fund. She told me that also invest in gold. Which is for me, her way of thinking is absolutely amazing. Many Jakarta people with extravagant salaries trapped in consumptive mindset that make them tied in lots of (credit card) debts. I once was one of them. Maybe still is (consumptive) hehe.

We certainly need more women like Susi. She’s independent, willing to learn, effective   leader, a mom who care for her family, and I hope I could contribute to create and empower more powerful women in the making (like Susi) for our better future. Hope you are with me!

Education is life, it should never stop
-Mas Indra of #PerpusKreatif

I have a concern about children education in Indonesia and been wondering if there’s anything I could do about it. After my blog post, @inandatiaka email me directly. We manage to meet and talk more about this. Well, I do most of the talk :)) Basically I push her & Satrio to finally act on their ideas about grassroot movement on education. And to my surprise, they work fast. They make Child Can Lead movement (twitter @ChildCanLead ) with @emiralda joining the team. And after couple of months, yesterday, I can finally see #perpuskreatif, a library they create to facilitate their activities and I’m so proud of them.

Meet Mbak Nur. She & her husband, Mas Indra, maybe two of the most amazing people I’ve ever known in my entire life. They live in a small space in Tanjung Priuk area, North Jakarta. Yet, they giveaway HALF space of their house, for children’s library. Their concern in education and social issues around the neighborhood, with limitation in their life, has really really amaze me (and make me truly ashamed of myself).

The event starting with me, as the writer who published several books, try to motivate them to write. I really need to learn more on how to do this properly, because I got more invitation to speak in front of children and I’ve been clueless about it. Just follow my instinct :))

Then a group of children gathered to start writing. I have a group of little children age around 6 years old. I tried to find ways to build their imagination. Sukesih, the girl with the green tee, is doing a good job. She can describe what clothes she wear when she went to the zoo with her family and she said in her writing that he actually want ice cream when her mother give her something else. Sukesih won the third prize and she got to read her piece in front of her friends.

Fany, won the first prize. She’s 11. She wrote about how she wanted to be a doctor. And why she wanted to be a doctor. It’s a very amazing piece. Very proud of her. She can expressed her dream. She knows what she wanted.

Other children been struggling to write, and one of them even have difficulties in writing that I finally asked her to just tell me about it. Check the video, where she tell the story, and her friends been passionately writing and asking what more should they write. And I didn’t allow them to use the eraser. Because they could never finish their writing. Ps: for you who read this, yes YOU, when you write, don’t push the backspace, ok? :P

After playing some more games, we finally wrap the writing workshop. It’s been a lot of fun. Hopefully they can publish a book together. I’ll be glad to publish it with NulisBuku.com

I’m touched to see how children been so excited to greet us, their brothers & sisters. They even make an effort to create some crafts and welcome message for us!

My new friends, volunteers of #perpuskreatif, keep the spirit!

We’ve been trying to research new method to effectively educate children. If you have experiences in this matter, please do leave comment on the box, we could collaborate or discuss in any way.

Last but not least, if you care about children education in Indonesia, because they’re our future, please spread the words!

Follow @bincangedukasi too, bimonthly event about grassroot education movements in Indonesia.

I wrote a story for Indonesia Bercerita’s book: 22 hari bercerita #2 called: Cerita Selma. I never write a children story before and I was confused on what to write. That’s when I attend my famous writer’s friend Raditya Dika’s writing class. He could teach really well, even to a 10 years old girl name Selma. And I was inspired to write about them. The message in my story is that you should be brave to try and make your dreams come true.

About dreams, NulisBuku.com & I try to make people dreams of having their own book come true. And when you make a little action and effort to write, we will publish your dream. And the outcome of that braveness could be amazing! Just heard from Kika @theonlykika  that just after 2 months self publishing Ber317an a major publisher is interested to republish the book, she just launched her book with GPU (one of the biggest major publishers in Indonesia) called Cemburu itu Peluru, she will have interview with TvOne and will soon writing a non-fiction about urban lifestyle with other  major publisher. How cool is that!

Nulis Buku club actually started in Jakarta. Because of our concern that there are no such thing as writers club in Jakarta. Out of 240 million people in Indonesia we could only produce around 20,000 books every year. What’s happened? To Raise awareness of writing coolness, we start to meet regularly every month. Inviting great writers like Trinity, Alberthiene Endah, Sefryana Khairil and many more. Soon, other cities are interested to make their own writing club and we encourage them to copy our model. We show them how we do it in Jakarta and they can improvised depend on their city characteristic. And I must tell you, Nulis Buku Club Surabaya rocks! A lot of great talents, initiative, and passion!

It was great meeting you all at #NBCSby3 in the lovely cafe Cannoli >> @lalapurwono  @WangiMS  @theonlykika  @ninaniena  @nonInge  and many more. Til we meet again!

At the journey back to Jakarta, inside the plane, with the city lights, I was sobbing silently  while holding these book & DVD from @netkirei  & @christpramudia .

The book titled Aku Kamu Kita & Cinta. I’ve read the book. It’s professionally done from the cover, layout and editing. Love the stories so much. And I can feel her passion and dreams coming out of the book. The Curhat Cinta Colongan DVD contain a movie that Christ produce out of stories from Curhat Cinta Colongan book, a project that @nulisbuku  community do together. It was very emotional book and the movie + soundtrack has been done carefully. The movie is amazing and soundtrack is beautifully touching heart. I know they both have realizing their dreams. And this… is why my partners & I created NulisBuku.com in the first place. The feeling is unexplainable and I’m overwhelmed.

It is very clear that the gate to success is simply starting. Even with small simple step. So… would you start (writing) NOW?

Mr J. H. Abendanon, the Minister for Culture, Religion and Industry in the East Indies, collected and published the letters that Kartini had sent. The book was titled Door Duisternis tot Licht (Out of Dark Comes Light) and was published in 1911.

Now, Indonesian women have the same opportunities to study and pursue highest career. In technology & social media era, we also have the chance to express our mind.

So, what’s next?

For me, (all of) you are today’s Kartini. And your job is to empower other women, use the tools we’ve widely known and use: internet, laptops and smartphones, and to inspire others that, whatever they want to do: doing business, writing, crafting, etc, they’re too can make a difference, one step at a time.

Happy Kartini day!