Inspiring stories
Women took centrestage at the WOW! Fiesta, and the crowd listened.
PETALING JAYA: College student Amman Syafie Zulkeple came to the WOW! Fiesta 2019 for two days because he wanted “to understand women better”.
“I live with five women – my grandmother, mother and three sisters – and it’s not always easy. I hope to get some insights at these talks and also learn new information that I can share with them since they were unable to come to the Fiesta,” said the 22-year-old who attended the March 16-17 event with his girlfriend, Khairunnisa Noor Ismail, 20.
Amman’s favourite sessions were the the health talks by ParkCity Medical Centre doctors.
The talks continued to be a hit with visitors on the second day of the Fiesta, with many willing to wake up early on a Sunday to learn and be inspired by the line-up of speakers.
Nur Balqis Zaulkefli came for Dr Jaspal’s talk with her husband because they have been trying to get pregnant since they married 10 years ago.
“We learnt a lot at the talk, especially about how important it is for women to get screened before they think about starting a family. We adopted a child last year but I am still hoping to get pregnant. I will go and get myself screened,” said the 37-year-old who also enjoyed shopping at the WOW! Fiesta bazaar.
“I bought a bottle of perfume and the next thing I knew, I had won a lucky draw prize of more than RM1,000 worth of Duck cosmetics,” said Nur Balqis.
For others at the Fiesta, it was also an opportunity to learn and be inspired by women’s success stories.
They listened attentively at the panel discussion, “What No One In Business Will Ever Tell You”, featuring social enterprise Picha Eats’ (formerly The Picha Project) founder Kim Lim, The Accidental Bakers’ co-founder Ee-Lyn Tan, defunct fitness apparel brand’s founder Ash Be Nimble Hui Matthews and fashion brand Mimpikita’s co-founder Nurul Afidah Zulkifli.
The four were candid about the successes and pitfalls they faced and answered questions openly.
“To be an entrepreneur, you need to be young,” joked Lim, who endeared herself to the audience with her humour.
“I am only joking but you will need a lot of energy, passion and a really good team,” she shared. “If your team breaks down, your business will go down too, so it is very important.”
Former The Star journalist Tan quit to start her own cake business, and failure just wasn’t an option.
“My business partner and I had put everything into this. For one year we just took part in every single bazaar and fair in town to build our brand and got people to start following us. But it was hard work. We could never switch off.” she shared.
Nurul and her sister’s fashion brand Mimpikita is in its 11th year, and they have learnt that negative feedback is vital too.
“You have to listen, especially to criticism, whether you like it or not, because that’s the only way to learn and improve,” said Nurul.
Providing a different perspective was Matthews who had to close her business last year, after four years, partly due to the woes of a weaker ringgit and tough competition.
“No job prepares you for what you will have to do when you start your own business or the challenges you will face. For sportswear material, we traded in dollars. So we were struggling.
“It was a hard decision to close down but we had to face the tough questions. You have to confront your fears and be prepared,” said Hui.
The WOW! Fiesta, which ended yesterday, was the highlight of The Star’s month-long WOW-Women do Wonders campaign, held in conjunction with International Women’s Day for the third year running.
Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care and Bursa Malaysia Berhad are the sponsors of the WOW-Women do Wonders campaign.