Redefining Success: Recent Episodes
BFM Media
Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly success means to you? Is it money, fame, power? All of the above or none at all? On Redefining Success, we speak to passionate people from various fields about their lives, what makes them tick and what the word ‘success’ means to them.
Jonathan Toyad is a video games journalist and the content director of Kakuchopurei, one of the most prominent video games news sites in this region. He joins us to share how he made a career in video games content creation in Malaysia.
Image Credit: Kakuchopurei
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William Tiong, a Malaysian music business creative currently residing in Boston. He’s currently completing his final year in Berklee College of Music. In this episode, he joins us to talk about his passion for music, which only bloomed when he was pursuing A-Levels, his idea of success and whether pursuing music for your tertiary education is a good move.
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Professor Dr Azhar Ismail, the Vice Chancellor of Nilai University is an entomologist who was recently awarded the US Alumni Impact Award at MACEE’s Homecoming Gala 2023. He joins us on this episode to discuss why he’s so passionate about insects and how he defines success.
Image Credit: Nilai University
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Richard Wee grew up wanting to be a lawyer. He says it's the concept of fairness and later justice, that drove him to pursue this career. What's interesting is, he also found a way to incorporate his love for sports into his legal career. He joins us on this episode to talk about his journey.
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Eunice Martin Lim is a food stylist and professional food photographer. She’s the founder of Through My Lens, a production house which has served over 100 brands since 2014. She joins us on this episode to share her journey and how her idea of success has changed over time.
Image Credit: Eunice Martin Lim
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Liew Xian Jiong is the Co-founder of Biang Biang Noodle Bar, where they serve a type of ‘hand-smacked’ noodle that originates from the Shaanxi region in China. In this episode, he joins us to share his journey. We chat about why he decided to leave the advertising field despite pursuing so passionately in university, working for his dad’s construction company and finally opening his own noodle bar.
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Dr Chua Sook Ning, is a clinical psychologist, researcher and founder of Relate Malaysia, an NGO that raises awareness on mental health, provides mental health services and does advocacy too. She joins us on the show to share why she’s so passionate about psychology and how she defines success.
Image Credit: RELATE Malaysia
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Samson Thomas (who goes by Saint TFC) is an emcee and rapper for close to two decades now. On today’s show, he talks about what it means to be a Tamil rapper in Malaysia, the challenges he has faced and what it meant to him and his family when he was called to rap in an Indian Malayalam language film.
Image Credit: Saint-TFC
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Carmen Lim is a para swimmer. In 2015, when she was merely 15 years old, she broke the 50m record in the ASEAN para games and this year, she won three gold medals at the event. On top of being a brilliant athlete, Carmen is also a law graduate from Cambridge University.
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Yang Fairuz is the Chief Commercial Officer at Iraya Energies, an organisation that gathers and transforms unstructured data of the subsurface of the earth and surface facilities to find and produce the best sources of energy, using AI-enabled and cloud-native software. She joins us on the show to discuss what the jargons in the previous sentence mean, why she decided to become a geophysicist and how her career evolved since then.
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Kannan Murugasan has been a freelance personal trainer, who specialises in cycling, for more than 20 years. He joins us to discuss the challenges and joys of being a personal trainer, his passion for cycling and how his idea of success has evolved over the years.
Image Credit: Kannan Murugasan
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The Story Book is an event space for storybook-themed activities and events. It was launched in 2018 by Jeanisha Wan whose teenage dream was to create a space where pages of storybooks could come alive and the limits of your imagination could be challenged. Jeanisha joins us on this episode to talk about her journey and how she plans on cultivating a generation of storytellers.
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Chew Kok Lynn a Coral Ecologist and Senior Scientist at Coralku, a research-driven coral restoration and conservation non-profit enterprise. With a deep love for the ocean Chew Kok Lynn has dedicated the past few years of her life to understanding and restoring coral reefs. She joins us on the show today to talk about her passion and the most fulfilling aspect of working with nature.
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Ts Uma Shangery Aruldass is an Aerospace Engineer and a Professional Technologist (Ts) in Aerospace and Aviation technology. She’s now the technical services and planning manager at Berjaya Air. She joins me to share how her curiosity as a child led her to become an Aerospace Engineer.
This episode is part of our Women in STEM series, where we’re highlighting brilliant women in the field of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
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Ts. Sharifah Zaida Nurlisha is the CEO of MMC Oil & Gas Engineering, an engineering company providing comprehensive technical services for various industries such as oil & gas and petrochemical in Malaysia. She joins me to discuss her journey from instrumentation engineer to CEO of an oil & gas company, and how she did it while taking care of five children.
This episode is part of our Women in STEM series, where we’re highlighting brilliant women in the field of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
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Dr Oon Chern Ein is an Associate Professor at INFORMM – the Institute For Research in Molecular Medicine, Universiti Sains Malaysia. In 2019, she received The Most Promising Academician Award from the Ministry of Education. She joins us to talk about her passion for science, which only started to bloom as she was doing her PHD, and why she thinks it’s important to strive for excellence, not perfection.
This episode is part of our Women in STEM series, where we’re highlighting brilliant women in the field of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Image Credit: Informm
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Prof Dr Jane Labadin is a computational mathematician. She’s a Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She joins us on the show today to share how her curiosity about how the world works led her to pursue Science and Mathematics, how her family has been her biggest support, and more.
Image Credit: Unimas
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Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan is a biotechnologist. She’s the executive director of Malaysian Biotechnology Information Center (MABIC), and is listed as 100 most influential people in the field of biotechnology by the 7th edition of The Scientific American Worldwide View: A Global Biotechnology Perspective Journal. Her list of accolades and accomplishments is endless. But what drives her to keep doing what she’s doing, at the highest level?
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Cynthia Gabriel is a human rights activist and one of the founding directors of C4, which is the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism. Over the past 20 years, she has dedicated her life to fighting corruption and promoting accountability and transparency in Malaysia. Cynthia Gabriel played a significant role in exposing and fighting against the corruption scandal involving former Prime Minister Najib Razak. She has also received numerous awards including the prestigious democracy award from the National Endowment for Democracy at the United States Congress.
This episode is brought to you by BMW. Drive home the fully-electric BMW iX from only RM3,999/month. Visit a BMW showroom or make a booking now at shop.bmw.com.my.
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Dr Norilmi Amilia Ismail is an Aerospace Engineer. She’s an academic at the School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and also the founder of SpaceIn, a company that focuses on Small Satellite System, High Altitude Platform System and Space Education. Last year, she was selected as the sole Malaysian to participate as a mentor in the United Nation’s Space4Women programme. She joins us on the show today to share her story.
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Lydia Lee was once an up-and-coming litigation lawyer grinding away at a medium sized law firm. She was great at her job. But one day, she decided to give it all up, join an NGO and proceed to live off the grid amongst the locals in rural Sabah. So, what prompted Lydia to take this leap? She joins us to share her story.
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Since his university days, Raymon Ram has been fascinated with criminology, especially if it relates to white collar crime. Today, he's a certified fraud examiner and an anti-money laundering specialist running his own firm (Graymatter Forensic Advisory) and also doing advocacy work. He joins us on the show to discuss what drives him to fight white collar crime.
Image Credit: Facebook/Raymon Ram
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Sivaranjani Manickam is the National Workers Bureau Coordinator of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, and also a part of Asylum Access. In this episode, she joins us to discuss why she decided to become an activist, if it’s a sustainable career in Malaysia and finding the right balance between helping yourself and society.
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Melanie Hwa's passion to explore the natural world has been her guiding compass throughout her career. On this episode, Melanie joins us to share why she decided to leave the corporate world to pursue a career in diving and of course, how she defines success.
Image Credit: Facebook/Melanie Hwa
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As a veterinarian who happens to be Muslim, Dr Salehatul Khuzaimah is constantly criticised for treating dogs. However, she believes that vets should care for all creatures equally. She joins us on the show today to share what propelled her to become a vet and how she deals with some of the negativity that comes her way.
Image Credit: Facebook/Salehatul Khuzaimah Mohamad Ali
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Dr Noraishah Mydin Abdul Aziz was a lecturer in University Malaya, under the Department of Parasitology. Today, she’s the only candidate representing the OKU community running for GE15, and she’s doing so under the Pakatan Harapan banner. She joins us on the show today to talk about her disability (Spina Bifida), her years in education, and why she decided to give frontline politics a go.
Image Credit: Twitter/Dr Noraishah Mydin Abd Aziz
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Criminal lawyers often get asked "You spend your days defending bad guys. How do you sleep at night?" But what is it that criminal lawyers actually do? On this episode of Redefining Success, we're joined by Goh Cia Yee, who's a criminal lawyer.
Image Credit: Goh Cia Yee
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Kularetnam is the programme manager at Yayasan Tunku Abdul Rahman, an NGO that focuses on helping bright Malaysians, from less fortunate backgrounds to climb up through education scholarships and more. Prior to this, Kula was also a teacher at a school and teaching assistant at a university. Safe to say, he's incredibly passionate about education. He joins us on the show today to talk about what exactly he does in the field of education and how he views success.
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Michael Cheang is the assistant editor of The Star’s Lifestyle section. He has been a writer and pop-culture commentator for about 20 years and also has a column called Tipsy Turvy where he writes about alcoholic drinks. He joins us on the show today to share his passion for writing and what it takes to sustain yourself as a writer in Malaysia.
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As a conservationist, Natasha Zulaikha has engaged in various projects since embarking on this journey in 2016. She has worked with MyHutan and Reef Stakes and is now a PHD candidate with the Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME). She joins us on the show today to share what exactly a conservationist does, the challenges she faces and more.
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Sheril Bustaman is a documentary filmmaker, writer and mother of three. On this episode, Sheril joins us to talk about why she dropped out of college to pursue filmmaking, how she ensures stability while pursuing an unpredictable career path and the challenges she faces as a woman in the industry.
Image credit: Facebook / Sheril A. Bustaman
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Ivan Lim is the founder of and a teacher at NextGen Academy, an online school (focused on math and add maths) centred around the philosophy that every student can unlock their highest potential. Besides that, Ivan also runs a snack business (Hou Sek Gourmet Snacks) and previously ran a cafe. He joins us on the show to discuss what “highest potential” means and the lessons he’s learned from unsuccessful business endeavours.
Image credit: NextGen Academy
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In 2019, Nadiah Hamzah released her first feature film, Motif, which was screened in theatres and international film festival circuits and garnered mixed to positive reviews. Nadiah is also the co-founder of Wayangworks, a commercial production house. She joins us on the show today to discuss her idea of success and the challenges she has faced as a female filmmaker in Malaysia.
Image credit: Facebook / Nadiah Hamzah
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YB Kasthuri Patto is a member of the DAP and has been serving the Batu Kawan constituency as an MP since 2013. She's also the only Indian woman in Parliament. She joins us on the show to share why she chose to become a politician, what it feels like to be the only Indian woman elected as an MP, and more.
Image credit: Flickr / Stortinget
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At one point in her career, Bihzhu, just like many other musicians, measured success by awards and accolades. But over the years and especially after an incident at an awards show, her perspective changed. She joins us on the show today to share why she thinks singing is her spiritual calling and how challenging it is to sustain a career as a musician in Malaysia.
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Sevan Doraisamy is the Executive Director of SUARAM and has been an activist for more than two decades. On this episode, he joins to share his perspective of success and striking a balance between the need to make money and doing a job that doesn’t centre around making money.
Image credit: Twitter / @DoraisamySevan
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Megan Chng was always told by doctors that dancing can be damaging to one’s body and that injuries are inevitable. One not-so-fine-day, she sprained her ankle, badly. She was advised not to dance anymore or risk aggravating her injuries. As a theatre practitioner, that was naturally disheartening to hear. Yet, Megan has kept dancing and performing since. And she’s done so, without picking up any serious injuries. On this episode, Megan joins us to share how fitness training changed her life, and why her perspective of success always changes.
Image credit: Megan Chng
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Samuel Lim is a film critic and a teacher. On today's episode, he shares with us how films have shaped his life, what propelled him to teach primary school kids and how there is no success without kindness.
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Tanvi Shah is the first Indian woman to win a Grammy award. She received the award in 2010 for ‘Best Song Written For Motion Picture’, for writing the Spanish lyrics of the song ‘Jai Ho’, a track from Slumdog Millionaire. Apart from that, she’s lent her voice to a truckload of monumental Indian films over the past two decades or so. She joins us on the show today to discuss her journey and how she views success.
Image credit: Facebook / Tanvi Shah
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Grace lives and breathes music. Not only is she the keyboardist for the funky indie jazz band, FAZZ, but she's also a multi-instrumentalist and a music teacher too. On this episode, she joins us to share why music means so much to her and how it ties to her idea of success.
Source: FB Cho HeeWon
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Lau Chak Onn, the founder of Cilisos.my, MYMP and Watakala, believes that if you buy into the idea that success is luxury hotels, sports cars and the likes, you're setting yourself up for failure and a life of misery. So, what is Chak's definition of success? And what motivates him? He joins us on the show to discuss.
Image credit: Facebook / Lau Chak Onn
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Dr Eugene Tee has been in academia, particularly in the field of psychology, for more than a decade now. He believes that success is living a life that harmonises his inner and outer self. But what exactly does that mean? Dr Eugene joins us on the show today to discuss success, his passion for academia, overcoming challenges and more.
Image credit: @eugene_tee/Twitter
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Growing up, Vanizha Vasanthanathan was obsessed with fashion shows like American Next Top Model. But, she always wondered why none of the supermodels she saw on screen looked like her. So, one can imagine what she felt like strutting up and down the runways of Milan Fashion Week, as a dark-skinned Malaysian Indian girl. She joins us on the show today to share her journey, what drives her and how she views the word ‘success.’
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Jason Wee is the co-founder of the non-profit, Architects of Diversity. He joins us on the show today to discuss what the word success means to him and if money is factored into the way he measures growth.
Image credit: Jason Wee/LinkedIn
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Dr Surinderpal Kaur loves language. She has dedicated her life to it and is now the Dean for the faculty of Languages and Linguistics at University Malaya. On this episode, she joins us to share what language means to her and why she’s averse to the word “success.”
Image credit: Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya
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Suzanne Mooney is the founder of the Lost Food Project, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to rescuing ‘lost’ food and giving it to those who need it most. In this episode, she shares what success means to her and ponders about why society values wealth accumulation over pushing to build an equitable and sustainable world.
Image credit: The Lost Food Project
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To Phung Yi Jun, success is not something that can be quantified with a metric, but rather, is intrincsicly tied to her values. Despite working in the corporate sector, she doesn't look at her career as mundane and dry, but something that is fulfilling and adds value to herself and others. She joins us on the show today to discuss.
Image credit: Phung Yi Jun/LinkedIn
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Jared Lim is a singer/songwriter for the indie island pop band, Jumero. Not only that, he’s also a mural artist with a unique style. He joins us on the show today to talk about how he made art a career and if it’s a sustainable path to tread on in Malaysia.
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Gajen Nad is a comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy back in 2012, while working as an IT consultant in a huge corporation. Interestingly enough, he actually really enjoyed his job. But something made him leave his job in 2018 to pursue comedy full time. He joins us on the show today to share why he left his corporate job, his definition of success and what it takes to make stand-up comedy a career.
Image credit: Gajen Nad/Facebook
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Nalini Elumalai is a fearless human rights defender. To her success isn’t about her own personal growth, but about the collective growth of society or nation. In this episode, she joins us to discuss her unique outlook on growth and success and shares what drives her to keep doing what she’s doing.
Image credit: Twitter - Nalini Elumalai
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Irfan Rizzqin (more commonly known as Riz) is a fitness coach, who specialises in body transformation. He joins us on the show today to share why he left his job at sales to focus on fitness, and the kind of dedication required to make it in the industry.
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Nazira Roslee knew she wanted to become a teacher ever since she was a little girl, simply because she wanted to make a positive change in the lives of children. She joins us on the show today to discuss her philosophy of teaching, what drives her and how she defines success.
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Alena Murang is a Malaysian Singer-Songwriter and Sape Player. She joins us on the show today to discuss her passion, transitioning from a conventional job to a musician, and if she’s ever faced discrimination in the industry because of her gender.
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Angeline Tan is the CEO of Maria’s SteakCafe. What started off as a small cafe in Ipoh by her parents, has now grown into a franchise of sorts, with multiple restaurants in the Klang Valley. Angeline joins us on the show to share why she left her field of actuarial science to focus on her family business.
Image credit: Angeline Tan
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Ushar Daniele has been a journalist for about a decade. Interestingly enough, this wasn’t necessarily a lifelong dream, nor did she attend journalism school. Journalism was something that came her way while she was a radiographer. She joins us on the show today to share why she decided to pursue journalism, what it takes to be a successful journalist in Malaysia and how she measures growth.
Image credit: Ushar Daniele
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Did you know that a Malaysian worked on the sound mixing for the Disney film, Encanto? Sarawakian Alvin Wee, an award-winning producer, mixer and musician, has been nominated for an accolade at the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Awards 2022 in Hollywood, for his work in Encanto. We speak to him about his passion, what makes him tick and what success means to him.
Image credit: Alvin Wee
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Gary Chong is founder of Gary Chong Studios, a cinematic video production agency. He’s been making commercial films for 11 years. Gary joins us on the show today to discuss how he views success, his growth over the past decade and what drives him to keep doing what he’s doing.
Image credit: Gary Chong
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Heidy Quah is a refugee rights activist and founder of NGO, Refuge for the Refugees. She joins us on this episode to discuss what success means to her and if she’s ever contemplated leaving this field to pursue something more stable such as a corporate job.
Image credit: Refuge for Refugees Facebook
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Kenn Leandre has been a video games journalist for about a decade. He started off writing for IGN APAC and started his own news portal, Kakuchopurei in 2017. He joins us to share how he made a career in video games content creation in Malaysia.
Image credit: Kakuchopurei
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In a country where even dreaming to be a theatre performer is seen as something too unorthodox, one must be insane to ever realistically dream of becoming a pro-wrestler, what more, own a wrestling company, here in Malaysia. But that’s exactly what Ayez Shaukat Fonseka did. He joins us on the show to discuss how he found the courage to not only dream of becoming a pro-wrestler, but actually pursue it.
Image credit: MYPW Facebook Page
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Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly success means to you? Is it money, fame, power? All of the above or none at all? Redefining Success, a show where we speak to passionate people from various fields about their lives, what makes them tick & what the word “success” means to them. On this episode, we’re joined by Ee-Lyn Tan, one of the founders of The Accidental Bakers. She talks about why she left a corporate job that she loved to become a home baker.
Image credit: The Accidental Bakers & Ee-Lyn Tan Instagram Page
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Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly success means to you? Is it money, fame, power? All of the above or none at all? Redefining Success, a show where we speak to passionate people from various fields about their lives, what makes them tick & what the word “success” means to them. On this episode, we’re joined by Dominic Lucien Luk, co-founder of Monday Show School, which is a Musical Theatre School.
Image credit: Monday Show School
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Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly success means to you? Is it money, fame, power? All of the above or none at all? Redefining Success, a show where we speak to passionate people from various fields about their lives, what makes them tick & what the word “success” means to them. On this episode, we speak to Rupa Subramaniam, who wears her heart on her sleeve. She wrestles with what the word success means to her and if her parents would be proud of her if they’re alive.
Image credit: Khanthan Nair
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Have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly success means to you? Is it money, fame, power? All of the above or none at all? Redefining Success, a show where we speak to passionate people from various fields about their lives, what makes them tick & what the word “success” means to them. On this episode, comedian Prakash Daniel joins us to share his journey and what drives him.
Image credit: Prakash Daniel Facebook page
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