Good morning, friends! I join at least four literacy discussions by patjarmerah this weekend! The first was "meramu sejarah Indonesia dalam novel komedi" by Adhitya Mulya, the 2nd was "bincang buku : Na Willa" by Reda Gauidamo, then "menemani kata-kata bekerja dalam puisi" by Aan Mansyur and the last "literasi digital - personal branding" by Alexander Thian (@aMrazing). In this post i will tell you what i've learn from the last author i mention before.
If you active on instagram or twitter i'm sure you already know who Alexander Thian (Ko Alex) is. He is traveller - story teller - influencer who have beautiful perspective. Becaming curious girl who wants knowing about the world more but have limited time i decide to follow him on instagram (and twitter too). I'm so happy and enjoying when he make some instagram stories about Europe (like how to get free water in France, how his feeling when finally he found lavender land, how the happy is when you get sunset in airport before fly) - not everyone can share "that feeling - that lesson - that experience" into the simple - accessible instagram stories and he does.
I got my seat 1 hour before his event begin. Imagine he finally "real" in front of me, real - real; not just on my phone, i'm nervous actually but i keep myself to act as normal as i can. If Dewi Okta Briana (my close friend) come i'm totally sure she will be super happy, but she can't and it's okay, I'll record some videos for you Wi! Oke back to the main story! Ko Alex using colourful jacket and simple pants, he look so bright. Different from previous speaker, he don't just sit on the chair but he stand, walked over to us! OMG i still can't believed it!
First the MC introducing who is he, then Ko Alex open his section by asking audience some questions.
"who want to be rich?" - then everyone raised their hands, also me.
"who want to be famous?" - just two or three or four people, then he ask
"who want to be an author?" - half of audience
"who want becoming famous author?" - most of audience, and he ask again
"and what's wrong being famous?" - everyone laughed.
He also ask why we do business, what drives business, what the real cord in business (cmiiw) - and the answer is a content - personal story. He said everyone can make story, but not everyone can tell the story, that's the point. Then he ask again who want become a writer, spontantly i raised my hand and he came to me! (HE CAME TO ME! CRY !!!!!)
"what kind of writer you want to be?"
"i wanna write beautiful stories and poems like lang leav"
"waaah.. who else?"
"actually i'm nervous so i can't remember well"
"i flip my body, just pretend i'm not here"
".......(trying to remember) amanda lovelace .. rupi kaur.."
"waah... berat-berat lho bacaan mbak ini (cmiiw).. then what you have done to get there?"
"i write my first book...." - all audience give me applause
"what is the title?"
"to hold what i don't understand"
"to what..?"
"to hold what i don't understand" - repeat my words, i just think i should take english speaking class soon to fix my pronunciation problem :(
"oh .. to hold what i don't understand"
"then what you have done to introduce ur book to be known by others"
"still don't have the answer yet -" - i don't know why i answer like that, actually after publishing my book by local publisher - now i'm make some proposal for Andrews McMeel Publishing and Penguin Press - add my book at good reads too - i hope it will work.
Ko Alex give me some explanations, not just for me but for all audience, at least he give 7 lessons, and the best lesson i can remember is the fact "networking is pain" - we need time - we need process. He tell us his experience about his first book. He said "i only got 10 people who were interested in my book, and the 5 of them were my friends, i realize who am i, i'm not raditya dika whom in 10 minutes his book could be sold out, but don't worry, keep working and time will pay everything"--- and i believe it :'> thank you Ko Alex .... i'm so happy spend my weekend with you and ur fans this saturday.... i will never regret telling people how i feel, spend my time with those who matter the most, i'm excited!
