How many times do we become the person we are today because someone else believed in us first, even before we believed in ourselves?
Let’s do some reflection.
In the era of AI, we often use the tools to check almost everything. It can be like where to eat or which color of dress we want to wear.
I even read that some people use AI to check their love relationships. People seem to rely on machines much more and, by doing so, lose their confidence.
The same thing is happening in recruitment. Many companies now utilise AI to filter candidates. With hundreds of CVs the HR department receives every day, it makes sense that they use AI to make a selection.
The system scans for keywords, and oftentimes, a good candidate, especially a fresh graduate, gets left out simply because they did not use the “right” words.
And that one question brings me back to the time when I got my first job, around the millennium era, at a big international record company in Jakarta.
I remember that my best friend, Agung, asked me to come to an office on Johar 13 to meet his cousin.
My CV was four or five pages long, which I believe also includes copies of my kindergarten certificate. A bit too much, but that was me. His cousin, a popular radio DJ, Fajar Indroharyo, greeted me, and we had a good conversation about the job. It was quite a tedious role, preparing more than one thousand radio samplers and sending them by post to radio stations across Indonesia.
At that time, I was inexperienced and still struggling to finish my studies as a Computer Science major, not exactly related to the music business.
“You can start next Tuesday!” He closed the interview session, and that one sentence marked the beginning of my career in a big corporation. I stayed there for about eight years and eventually left as Assistant Manager, Digital Business.
I still find it hard to believe that I became part of the music industry. That path later brought me to Singapore.
I think there is a truth in this saying, “The first company you join can shape your life.”
But more than that, it is the people inside. At Sony Music Indonesia, people believed in me. They trusted me with projects. They challenged me. The feedback was tough, sometimes very direct, but never felt personal. It was part of the process: a way for me to grow.
Allah writes our story in ways we cannot always understand at the beginning. Sometimes, we are just asked to take one step and trust.
“There is a difference between living as a human and living like a machine,” a quote from the book Against The Machine.
We should not forget the importance of human connection. This is the basis of our needs: to be acknowledged and to be validated by others. To be trusted and to trust our fellow humans.
So now it’s your turn.
Do you still remember the person who believed in you first before you believed in yourself? In what manner? Let’s reflect and maybe tonight make a prayer for them!
