Chetan Bhagat

Like Steven Dawson, Chetan Bhagat didn’t start of as an author. He worked in a bank called Goldman Sachs company in Hong Kong for 5 years. He then worked in a Bank in Singapore for another 5 years. He didn’t mind his job, but his boss wasn’t that kind to him. Chetan wanted to get his revenge on his boss by LBDN, Look Busy, Do Nothing. But he didn’t. Eventually he wrote a book called “Five Point Someone” in 2004, about misbehaving 3 college students, one of whom dated the professors daughter. This book was actually based on his life and became a best-seller. He continued to write books and quit his job in 2009 to focus on his writing. All his books are based on problems in India. However, not everyone loved his books. His response to that was “I am not the Best author, but am the Best-Selling author.” He later explains that being the Best-Selling author is better than being the Best author as his books are reaching more people about the problems in India.

Along the way to being a good author, he learnt some valuable lessons on how to get a message through, which he later shared with us.

  1. Connect through entertainment – If their’s entertainment, you’re going to pay more attention.
  2. He changes the game –
  3. He defined what “success” was to him – You have to define what “success” means for before you succeed. Real goals come from true accomplishment.

He also gave us some tips on “How To Achieve Big Things.” They were:

  1. Setting a clear goal
  2. Finding out what are the reasons behind the goal
  3. Finding the group – Having people who are going to back you up on your goal
  4. A detailed action plan
  5. Set back dealing mechanism – Get back on after your set backs. Don’t just give up.
  6. Have faith that hard work will get rewarded.

I have learnt a lot from Chetan Bhagat. I will never forget what he last said to us: “Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticise others.”

– Brianna Kuo

Steve Dawson

I never realised how complex it was to be a journalist. I always thought of it as traveling around the world, asking questions and taking notes to try to get the full story, picking out the most important notes then present the story in an article, news paper or live on tv. That is what they do. However, it’s not that straight forward. Their are so many small details that need to be considered carefully. During his talk, I learned the “6 Tips To Get A Fabulous Story.” Tips he follows himself to have a good story and that helped him to become a journalist as he first started off as an accountant, and had no connection to journalism. The tips were to:

  1. Ask open-ended questions – This way it provides a challenge for your interviewee as well as gives you more information you could use in your article/newspaper/tv news instead of just “yes” or “no.”
  2. Set the answer free – Don’t set unnecessary parameters. The best questions asked almost always start with a “How do you feel …”
  3. Don’t interrupt – Let the interviewee finish making their point. Interrupting someone is disrespectful and the point they make will most likely be important.
  4. Be a single shooter – Don’t ask two questions in one. The interviewee will most likely answer the second question and forget about the first.
  5. Listen to the answer – Don’t keep the interview strictly based on your questions. If you hear something which may be important, ask more about it and eventually come back to your original questions.
  6. Be professional – Respect them as well as yourself. If your interviewing one of your “hero’s,” don’t turn into a “fanboy/girl.” If you approach them professionally and respectfully, you can have a great relationship with them.

I learned a lot more about journalism than I thought I would. I’ll defiantly be using these tips in future interviews.

– Brianna Kuo

My Portfolio

Hi, my name is Brianna. I was born in Australia and have lived in Singapore for 12 years. I absolutely love music. That’s why I’m learning how to play the Guitar. I’ve been taking guitar lessons since grade 4. Each year there is a small show where we, the ITP students, perform for our parents. We don’t have to perform if we don’t want to though. This is suppose to build up our confidence for our grading. Unfortunately for the last 2 years I haven’t been attending them because I have stage fright. This year I’m going to perform though as I want to get over my fear. I want to be an actress when I grow up. You have to be comfortable performing in front of people and cameras if you want to be an actress. I haven’t been in a drama production since I was in grade 3, but it’s something I’d like to do this year. I have loved to read ever since I was in grade 5. My favourite series Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I’m interested in learning how to create and run a business in enterprise. I want to run a business that has something to do with animals, like an animal shelter or an animal boarding place. Some activities I want to participate in are drama (as mentioned before) and yoga as I have really tight muscles. I want to sign up for circuit training and voice lessons as I really love to sing and want to keep fit. I’m not sure what other activities I want to do this year yet, but I want to do something art or music related, like beatboxing or dancing.