Mark Choon

I was browsing through the New Paper today and I was surprised to see someone I know being featured.
He’s none other than photographer, Dominic Khoo.

If you’ve not read the New Paper article, basically, Dominic is launching a book with lots of photos of famous local people in a variety of emotions, entitled “Pure”. Proceeds of its auction and sale goes to charity (see below for update on this). I won’t elaborate much on it as you can find more information about this special project here. Login to Facebook to view though. Pure’s main site is here http://www.whatisthesight.com/pure/

Regrettably, I do not really know Dominic personally, merely acquainted through a few dinners with him along with my wife and her friends.

What struck me about Dominic is that, in my humble opinion, he is a great networker.

I’m sure if you looked at the list of people involved in the project, list of donors, list of sponsors, one would notice many familiar names, some big ones too.

Dominic is not just the photographer but also the project leader and to get these people involved, advising, working together and all, does not happen overnight. He definitely would need connections to make things happen. For those connections to be built, for this project to happen, he has to be a very good at networking and communicating with people.

I’m sure by reading the above, some readers might reason that he has these opportunities to network because he is a photographer, yada yada and because he’s won YYY awards yada yada. I’m sure that might have some truth, but to even photograph celebrities, one would need to have connections! Anyway, even if one were to rub shoulders with well known people, to seize the opportunity and build on the relationship to launch such a huge project requires a lot of good networking skill.

Recently my wife mentioned that she was having coffee with her friend and it so happens that Dominic was at the same cafe. According to her, she didn’t see him at first until he came over to say “Hi, how are you?”. When I heard that, the thought that “this guy is a great networker, a people person” just popped in my head. Just for the record, the missus and I are not celebs or anybody famous, just “normal folk”. From what my wife told me, it was evident that Dominic left her with a very very good impression, that he was sincere and bothered to say hi. The feeling that I get from this is that he treats people as equals and nothing lesser than that, celebrity or not.

The lesson I learnt today is that to achieve something, being a good people person is really a must. For some, it comes naturally, but for others like me, it is not easy. I confess that on many occasions when I see people I know, sometimes even at about arm’s length away, I am guilty of not going over to say hi. I’ll just look away, pretend not to notice. I’ll then just excuse it off by saying “let’s not bother him/them.” Somehow there is a fear of rejection and a sense of embarrassment inside. Now imagine if someone like me needs to meet and talk to strangers… It can be quite a challenge!

But all is not lost. For shy people like me, I think a good step up is to just take the leap and say hi to the next acquaintance we see when we’re out. Of course the prerequisite is to do it with sincerity and without bias :P. Who knows, after a couple of times doing this, the shyness and fear of rejection just disappears.

I know its easier said than done and that there will be times actual rejections happen, but we’d never know till we’ve tried right?

So from today on, I’m going to do just that. Wish me luck!

*update* Dominic just corrected me regarding the proceeds. In his own words , ” It’s not actually the proceeds that is going to charity - we’re trying to educate people on the word - proceeds means profit minus cost. In this project, 100% of the REVENUE goes to charity! that means if you buy a book for 10k, ALL 10k goes to charity! “