You can't be good at everything

JAKARTA (JP): When the Thai soccer team snatched the men's soccer gold medal from Indonesia in the recent SEA Games, some Indonesian soccer fans raged through the main stadium, destroying whatever they could to vent their anger, cursing at anybody who could be blamed for the loss. The Senayan Sports Complex was plunged into a chaos. Many vehicles, displays, and other objects were destroyed, causing yet further loss.

The wave of anger also raged in my office the next day. People kept complaining the whole day.

Why are they so angry?

"Because the Indonesian soccer team has robbed everyone of the excitement of being the Games overall winner," said a friend in my office the next day.

"But we are the champion anyway, what with winning the most medals," I said. "We have outnumbered the other teams in terms of medals and met all the organizations' targets."

"But it's not complete without the gold medal in soccer," complained someone else. "It is the most prestigious competition. The loss is a painful blow."

"Why are you so fussy? We can't win a soccer match. So what, Thailand is better than us. We can't be good at everything," I said.

My comment was just like a red rag to a bull. Now I was the one they cursed. I was suddenly accused of not being a nationalist.

To be good at everything is the target of most people. Take a look at our TV artists. How many of them stick to their original profession? You don't need all the fingers on one hand to count them. The rest of them hold many titles at the same time; actress/actor, singer, director, fashion model, song writer, and highly paid Master of Ceremonies.

A successful commercial model, for instance, can easily get a role in a soap opera, known as sinetron in Indonesia. No acting ability is required to do the job as long as you have the name and the looks.

Then comes singing. Nowadays, to be a singer you don't need a divine voice. All it takes is a name plus looks. The rest is taken care of by sophisticated voice manipulation by electronic instruments. For those who make it in either singing or acting, all doors suddenly become open.

In business, the grab-everything-in-sight attitude is increasingly becoming the trend. Success denotes the line of business you are in. Whenever possible, a group of companies controls all the products both upstream and downstream.

Tanto used to be a successful poultry breeder, which is relevant to his agricultural background. But in the last decade, he has diversified his business. Now he has control of 32 companies covering most economic sectors. This sure makes him look like a superman.

And that's not all. Being just a businessman is no good. He needs to show that he is also good at something else. He spices up his business success with an affinity for the arts. Claiming that he comes from an art-loving family, he began to paint. And to confirm the "credentials," he acquired an art gallery where he held his first exhibition. Rumor has it that the paintings were done by one of his employees, an unknown painter who doesn't mind giving up his works for a hefty check.

Being a singer? Why not! Tanto invested in a recording company and produces his own songs, his own composition. Now he is not only a businessman, but also a painter, a singer, a composer, an art lover, poetry reader, you name it. It is only the economic recession, due to the plummeting value of rupiah, that can stop his rate of expansion. Sky-rocketing bank interest rates has made him give up most of his business ventures and left him with heavily in debt. And he now feels sorry to have left his not-so- prestigious core business, poultry breeding at which he was very proficient.

I was once tempted to become somebody who could do everything. Taking the successful publication of my first book as the point of departure, I tried different writing styles, including script writing, which I expected to pave my road to movie directing. But success was far beyond my reach.

I did win a magazine competition for writing a humorous serial and I had a contract to fill the humor section in the magazine for a year. But that was all. I soon realized that humor was not my cup of tea. And finishing the contract was a nightmare that delayed the completion of my third book.

"Get back to your original khitah (the ideal)" is the wisest suggestion I have ever been given, and it was from the good old friend who happens to be my wife.

-- Carl Chairul