PRIZE WINNERS’ DINNER
MAYBANK FOUNDATION-PERDANA LEADERSHI
Celebrating young Malaysian writers and photographers at the prize-giving of our Writing & Photo Contest
The Perdana Leadership Foundation kick-started the year 2016 with a bang; the long-awaited and anticipated Prize Giving Ceremony for the Maybank Foundation-Perdana Leadership Foundation Writing & Photo Contest was held on 27th January 2016. The ceremony opened with a welcome remark by Tan Sri Dato’ Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor, Director and Chairman of Maybank, and Chairman of Maybank Foundation.
The ceremony then proceeded to a speech by the first guest speaker, Jonathan Yabut, winner of The Apprentice Asia Season 1. He shared his experience during his time in The Apprentice and likened the show to a( really long) job interview.
He then shared his big tip on being successful:“ After having been part of The Apprentice Asia and working with Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, I realised that success also requires knowing when and how to say no. Humanity and research tells us that scientifically a person can accomplish one or two things at the same time. Trying to accomplish so many things in your life will only make you weaker because you will be spreading yourself too thin. Trying to become too many things will get you nowhere. This is where the media is wrong. The media tells us that we can become Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg, and Mahatma Gandhi all at the same time. But really, we need to focus on one big thing, make a good name for ourselves out of it and work hard on it for many years.”
Next to take the spotlight was our nation’ s own super-talented artist, Red Hong Yi. Born and raised in Kota Kinabalu, Red always dreamed of becoming an artist. She shared her struggles with the audience, as well as videos of her artwork which utilises many different mediums, including flowers, celery sticks, chopsticks and coffee stains! 1.
1 Red’ s videos can be viewed on her You- Tube channel( https:// www. youtube. com / user / ohiseeRED / videos)
WINNING PHOTO | 13-17 age group
WINNING PHOTO | 18-21 age group
“ The hardest part of creativity is not in coming up with an original idea. The hardest part is to make something happen despite your fears and doubts. I still have fear and doubt in me, even though I have created these bodies of work. The secret to creativity is, instead of running away from it, welcoming that fear and doing it anyway. So go out there and make something happen today!” Red urged the audience.
PRIZE WINNERS’ DINNER
We organised a super-special prize winners’ dinner before the prize-giving ceremony with the top three winners of all categories of the contest. The catch was this: while they knew they were in the top three, they did not know the final placing. So no one knew who the 1st prize winners were!
The dinner took place at the prestigious Berjaya Times Square Convention Centre. The CEO of Maybank Foundation, Encik Shahril Azuar Jimin, and the Executive Director of Perdana Leadership Foundation, Tan Sri Nik Mohamed Nik Yaacob, delivered the opening remarks, both eschewing formality for some welcome doses of light humour. Also in attendance at the event were the trustee of Maybank Foundation, Datuk Seri Paduka Marina Mahathir, contest judges, and representatives from The New Straits Times Press and MPH.
Guests of honour were our Malaysian-born international artist, Red Hong-Yi, and The Apprentice Asia 2013 winner, Jonathan Yabut. After dinner, tokens of appreciation were presented to all judges and contest partners before the highlight of the evening began: a dialogue session hosted by Malaysian sports commentator and columnist Ben Ibrahim, where both Red and Jonathan shared their journey as artist and young business leader, respectively.
16 PERDANA MAGAZINE 2016