STORIES, STORIES

This is part of a mini project of Q&As with people I know whom I look up to for doing what they want to do. Read all the posts from the series HERE .  Meet Chukwudi Barrah .  Where do you live, and what do you do? I live in Malaysia; I recently moved to Kuala Lumpur city centre from the suburbs (Damansara Perdana). I'm a copywriter in corporate communications and marketing with a digital engagement platform startup—we provide SaaS solutions to help companies better engage employees and customers. I create and edit internal and external communication materials, content for offline and online media (including social networks), as well as dialog for mobile apps. Which specific part of your job do you enjoy the most, and which do you like the least? I love writing new feature dialogs for the app and creating fun emails—it’s not something I was used to doing. I usually do business writing, so making my writing more fun and happy is a good challenge—for now—that als...

This post is part of a small series of Q&As with people I know whom I look up to for doing what they want to do. Here's the previous post .  Meet Mariam (also Mellie).  Where do you live? In the present moment.  I wish. I live in my head mostly. I spend most of my waking life at Humming Tree , which is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. What do you do? Most of the time, I'm just struggling to get my heart, mind and actions to work harmoniously. I also manage a community center and co-working space that focuses on creativity and well-being ( Humming Tree ). Which specific part of your job do you enjoy the most, and which one do you like the least? I love that I get to deal with so many different kinds of passionate people and listen to their ideas and goals and be part of the journey of it evolving into something tangible and seeing that person grow and transform along the way. I learn so much, grow and get inspired along the way, too. It's an ...

This post is part of a small series that has big meaning. 2016 was filled with internal reflection for me, especially in the areas of productivity and creativity. During this time, I sought inspiration from so many famously successful people, but at the end of the day, it was always the people in my phone book that I turned to for real advice and motivation, who ultimately helped me inch along towards my goals. To pay this forward, I've asked them about their work process and now share them here. The hope is that you, reader, get inspired, get pro-tips, and get entertained by these people and their dedication to their work, just as I have been.  Meet Alia Makki . Where do you live and what do you do? I’m nomadic. I live between Jeddah, Jakarta, Jatibarang and Ubud. I live out of a suitcase. My office fits into a backpack. In every place, I have a different job role. In Jeddah and Jakarta, I freelance (online), meet people and read Tarot cards. In Jatibarang, I serve my t...

Making (Radio?) Waves by Nessreen It’s Sunday, the sun is shining painfully bright through my window and falls right on my bed, where I have thrown my laundry. I’m sorting through my clothes thousands of miles away from Jeddah, here in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, and I’m laughing into a freshly laundered shirt.  Listening to The Low Priority Que (The LPQ).  “And where the hell was Ghost this whole time?” Hakeem says, outraged, in the middle of a discussion about -SPOILER- Jon Snow’s demise on Game of Thrones. “Sam gets in a minor scuffle and mashallah Ghost is there to save him, but while his master was getting shanked by his own people, where was this Ghost direwolf?”  “He was probably up there on the wall, heard Jon Snow was in trouble, looked around and thought, Uff meshwar ,” says Tamim .  Well, never mind that I bungled the transcription of that sound clip (you can listen to it yourself and point out where I made mistakes right here ), and never min...

IN SEARCH OF THE ARC by Kathryn Narciso She takes a long, deep drag off her cigarette, stares a hole through me, and blows tendrils of cloud into the air between us. What is he? she interrupts my pitch. It’s like telling the story of Jesus in two sentences, and just as I have crucified him all over again, the blood red-lipped evangelist goes back to the major character’s obsession. She blows a split second smoke in my face again. He is…   She exhales another.  I watch it curl up in the air and disappear into everywhere. He is a carpenter? Except he’s not. If I were really telling the story of Jesus, I would have not seen her eyes narrowed at the unsure tone of my voice. You didn’t watch it. But I did, I approached her cautiously. I just can’t remember. Perhaps teased by her own sneaking suspicion, she smiles at me. No, you didn’t watch it. I really did. Let me tell you another story. FIRST ACT Against her genius, ready to prey on any si...

One of the suckiest things about starting projects is that you are reminded – at almost every turn – of how close you are to failure. This is even more pronounced when you have a tendency towards perfectionism (also sometimes called "illusions of grandeur" and "ambition"). Given my proneness to starting all kinds of shit in all aspects of my life, you can imagine how familiar I am with this affliction. It manifests in all sorts of ways: I suddenly feel like it's a bad idea, that I want to give up and shut it down, that I'll walk away from the project and start something else and clean-slate it, or just simply a bottle of wine paired with a generous helping of self-pity on a weekend. To fight these waves of negativity, I've taken to listing down my "weekly wins", to remind myself that I'm not a (complete) failure. These little wins add up to one giant Band-Aid that I cover my first-world wounds with. For the week of 20 July 2015, ...

Here's something that has bothered me and a few friends for some time now - the idea that we are working for free. Seth Godin's post  on the topic clarified some things for me. Should you work for free?   That depends on what you mean by "work" and by "free."  Work is what you do as a professional, when you make a promise that involves rigor and labor (physical and emotional) and risk. Work is showing up at the appointed time, whether or not you feel like it. Work is creating value on demand, and work (for the artist) means putting all of it (or most of it) on the line. In my day job - where I DON'T work for free, this is what I do (because I get paid for it): * I show up at the appointed day/time, and if I don't, I get deducted money. * I do what I'm hired for, or what is expected of me, whether or not I get praise for it (presumably because I don't need the praise, I need the money). * I set goals a little above the usual an...

Our writing session today helped me deal with one of the things I find difficult when it comes to writing - tone. Probably because I've been a blogger for so long, I'm so used to being purely subjective and moody about any topic, and it's become difficult for me to turn it off when I need to write, say, a magazine article. Like I said before , what I love about the workshops is that it's a safe place for us writers to admit that we are Not Good (Enough) as a way to improve our craft. When I do this around non-writers, it always comes off as low self-esteem or a glaring lack of confidence in my skills. This Lifehacker article really said it for me. I have a friend—a designer—who's convinced she's not very good. She doesn't believe her work is anything special. She doesn't even believe the fact good work is a result of her own discipline, preferring instead to give the credit to her environment or others' expectations. This belief is very deep...

Our 2nd writing workshop set is now in session, and I'm pretty psyched about it. [Who says "psyched" anymore, you guys?] For this set, we're doing Creative Blogging workshops where we try to break out of the old, boring "I did this and this happened" writing method that we employ on autopilot as personal bloggers. I love these sessions, and not only because I've put in a lot of hard work to make them happen (this is our 4th session overall). In general, the goal is to: * Meet other serious writers in Jeddah who are willing to put aside some time out of their busy schedules to sharpen their writing. * Create a community of writers. * Tackle different genres of writing that we all have - or want to - dabble in. * Raise the bar for the writing industry in Jeddah. * Encourage self-learning and peer-to-peer learning, as well as good form in giving and receiving constructive criticism from fellow writers. * Develop critical th...