I was watching The Apprentice last night....
I was watching The Apprentice last night, and it got me thinking of versatility.
The task this week was to set up a bridal shop and sell as much bridalwear in several hours.
Donald trump has the participants in the show do all kinds of different tasks every week- it's always something different, different types of businesses.
In business I guess you never really focus on one thing totally. You gotta go with whatever works, and that requires you to try everything.
You might fail at a restaurant business at first, but later on you might discover that you do better at doing a business of making furniture. You'll never know what you're good in until you try. And people like Donald Trump, I'm sure, have multiple businesses that makes loads of money.
The same can be said in being an actor.
You will have to play every type of role. You can never stay as a type-cast actor. If you keep playing the same type of characters, your job would get freaking boring.
And an actor has to submerge himself in different worlds for each role he takes.
He might have to live with fishermen for a month just to play a fishermen role.
He might have to talk to pimps at Chow Kit just to get a feel of how to become a Bapak Ayam.
He has to learn cooking if he's going to play a chef.
The same is true when you are a reporter. You have to be versatile. Versatile to write about anything and everything under the sun.
One day you're at an Umno mesyuarat bahagian in Cheras, and everyone's backstabbing each other because they want that elusive post.
The next day you're at Press conference for an international music concert, rubbing shoulders with Anuar Zain, Sheila Majid, Innuendo and Dayang. Sharing a smoke with stylists and PR managers, asking questions about peace, love and rock'n roll.
Then another time, you're at a crime assignment. You're at the KL hospital morgue and the bereaved family is waiting for the body of their loved one who got murdered. You see them. Their eyes welled up. Children running around not knowing what's going on. And all the crime reporters staring at you, thinking: "Who the fuck is this guy? Haven't seen him covering crime before." Then when the body is taken out , you see women crying incessantly. You have the male relatives shield you from interviewing the women relatives: "tolonglah, bang. tolong jangan ganggu kami sekarang." You interview the police chief who'll give you the official statement which you can use as quotes, confirming the incident.
And then another time, you're covering a marathon officiated by the sports minister. You don't understand a thing the minister says so you refer to a sports reporter. You brief your boss and your boss says you gotta give the story to the sports desk. The next day that short itty bitty story becomes your first sports page byline.
That day I had to do a follow up diesel subsidies.
Tomorrow I will interview a theatre actor.
And the next day I'll be doing a story about the Bar Council's new proposals for the
judiciary.
Versatility.
The other day, an editor sat me down during breakfast and talked to me about my transfer. the editor said that I was one of the best candidates to get transfered because I was versatile. They couldn't send anybody else because other reporters were not as versatile as reporters like me.
The Businessman
The Actor
The Reporter
Three very different occupation, but quite similar.
In life you gotta be versatile. Just because you're something now, doesn't mean you're gonna be this until you die. This job might not work out as well in five year's time compared to how it is now. Now you may be enjoying it, but in five year's time, who knows?
Even entertainers can't really stick to one thing throughout their career. The artiste needs to push himself constantly and evolve. Try new things. He might be acting now, but in two years he might want to dabble into painting, then in five years he'll be writing a screenplay for a TV sitcom. In ten years he'll start singing in the pub scene and then in a decade's time he'll start designing his own fashion line.
The sky's the limit.
The possibilities are endless.
And my possibilities in this life- are endless.
I was watching The Apprentice last night, and it got me thinking of versatility.
The task this week was to set up a bridal shop and sell as much bridalwear in several hours.
Donald trump has the participants in the show do all kinds of different tasks every week- it's always something different, different types of businesses.
In business I guess you never really focus on one thing totally. You gotta go with whatever works, and that requires you to try everything.
You might fail at a restaurant business at first, but later on you might discover that you do better at doing a business of making furniture. You'll never know what you're good in until you try. And people like Donald Trump, I'm sure, have multiple businesses that makes loads of money.
The same can be said in being an actor.
You will have to play every type of role. You can never stay as a type-cast actor. If you keep playing the same type of characters, your job would get freaking boring.
And an actor has to submerge himself in different worlds for each role he takes.
He might have to live with fishermen for a month just to play a fishermen role.
He might have to talk to pimps at Chow Kit just to get a feel of how to become a Bapak Ayam.
He has to learn cooking if he's going to play a chef.
The same is true when you are a reporter. You have to be versatile. Versatile to write about anything and everything under the sun.
One day you're at an Umno mesyuarat bahagian in Cheras, and everyone's backstabbing each other because they want that elusive post.
The next day you're at Press conference for an international music concert, rubbing shoulders with Anuar Zain, Sheila Majid, Innuendo and Dayang. Sharing a smoke with stylists and PR managers, asking questions about peace, love and rock'n roll.
Then another time, you're at a crime assignment. You're at the KL hospital morgue and the bereaved family is waiting for the body of their loved one who got murdered. You see them. Their eyes welled up. Children running around not knowing what's going on. And all the crime reporters staring at you, thinking: "Who the fuck is this guy? Haven't seen him covering crime before." Then when the body is taken out , you see women crying incessantly. You have the male relatives shield you from interviewing the women relatives: "tolonglah, bang. tolong jangan ganggu kami sekarang." You interview the police chief who'll give you the official statement which you can use as quotes, confirming the incident.
And then another time, you're covering a marathon officiated by the sports minister. You don't understand a thing the minister says so you refer to a sports reporter. You brief your boss and your boss says you gotta give the story to the sports desk. The next day that short itty bitty story becomes your first sports page byline.
That day I had to do a follow up diesel subsidies.
Tomorrow I will interview a theatre actor.
And the next day I'll be doing a story about the Bar Council's new proposals for the
judiciary.
Versatility.
The other day, an editor sat me down during breakfast and talked to me about my transfer. the editor said that I was one of the best candidates to get transfered because I was versatile. They couldn't send anybody else because other reporters were not as versatile as reporters like me.
The Businessman
The Actor
The Reporter
Three very different occupation, but quite similar.
In life you gotta be versatile. Just because you're something now, doesn't mean you're gonna be this until you die. This job might not work out as well in five year's time compared to how it is now. Now you may be enjoying it, but in five year's time, who knows?
Even entertainers can't really stick to one thing throughout their career. The artiste needs to push himself constantly and evolve. Try new things. He might be acting now, but in two years he might want to dabble into painting, then in five years he'll be writing a screenplay for a TV sitcom. In ten years he'll start singing in the pub scene and then in a decade's time he'll start designing his own fashion line.
The sky's the limit.
The possibilities are endless.
And my possibilities in this life- are endless.
Comments