Ebook Travelling with Creativity kerjasama antara Twitalk, Indonesia Kreatif, dan Kementerian Perdagangan Indonesia. English version.

2. TRAVELLING WITH CREATIVITY
Builder
Mari Elka Pangestu
Steering
Hesti Indah Kresnarini, Marthin, Dony Edward
Responsible Person
Cokorda Dewi
Coordinator
Pungkas Riandika
Writers & Editing
Ibnu Azis, Iswara N. Raditya, Oryza Aditama
Research
Panca Ardiansyah, Hanna Herlina, Tessi Fathia Adam
Translator
Hanna Herlina
Cover Design & Illustration
Rasefour, Silencer8
Content Design & Layout
Iswara N. Raditya
Contributors
Twitalk Inc, Indonesia Kreatif
Twitalk Inc
www.twitalk.co.id
@twitalkID
Indonesia Kreatif
www.indonesiakreatif.net
@idkreatif
Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia
www.kemendag.go.id

3. INTRODUCTION
The ability to create not only the talent possessed by
few people. Every human being has been given the ability
to innovate and adapt to the surrounding environment. If
creativity is a skill that can be trained, so everyone has equal
opportunity to develop themselves.
This book tells the story of four figures who have come a
long way to earning points and now continue to actively de-
velop their works in a variety of channels and new fields. The
process is never easy and the formula was never the same.
However, there are interesting when we know Adhitia
Sofyan, Aulia Halimatussadiah (Ollie Salsabeela), Enda Nasu-
tion, and Leonard Theosabrata more familiar again. They
have the same pattern as creativepreneur. The fourth figure
is fond of traveling, whether for vacation, work, or study.
From there, they returned to Indonesia and to create new
things at this time we can enjoy his work, whenever it comes.
The search process is what gave birth to new ideas and new
thinking through the network that they cultivated during
travel.
Learning the lessons from their stories was not easy be-
cause it requires interaction to understand the point of view
of the underlying story of success. Are their respective crea-
tive fields is a realm that will never run out multipersepsi re-
viewed lesson. Entering the fourth point of view this figure
to understand that creativity is not a position or title, but a
state of mind.
Let’s go, then let your creativity take us.

5. Bright Radiance of
THE BEDROOM
MUSICIAN

6. “I write and record music in
my room and share it to eve-
ryone in the internet for free.
There’s no income from that. I
like writing music and sharing
it without any burden.”
adhitia.doc
MUSIC has become an inseparable part of Adithia So-
fyan’s life, though it is purely his hobby. Once he tried to
make a career out of it, but apparently God has a different
plan. Even so, his passion for music remains unchanged.
He keeps creating simple notes during his leisure time in
his room and ocassionally in the bathroom.
To Adithia Sofyan, his room is like a dream box and
also a studio where he puts every inspiration. “A room is
often defined as a place to rest or to lock ourselves. But
for me, it’s a place to contemplate and create,” so he said.
From his room, Adithia Sofyan also markets his songs.
6

7. “A room is often defined
as a place to rest or to
lock ourselves. But for
me, it’s a place to con-
template and create.”
adhitia.doc
With a guitar, recording tools, and a notebook con-
nected to the internet, Adhitia has started to be known as
a musician with his own charm. He is known as a bedroom
musician. Anyway, he emphasizes that bedroom musician
is not an occupation, or even a music genre. “I am known
as a bedroom musician just because I play my music in my
bedroom,” says he.
His creative process gets a positive response from
the public. His songs, shared for free in the internet, suc-
ceed in getting people’s attention. As a result, he has be-
come famous from his fans appreciation. His name has
started raising to compete with established musicians and
he often performs on stage with them. He has also ob-
tained quite a few music awards. Adithia Sofyan is one
of the first musicians in Indonesia who started his profes-
sional music career from his bedroom, and it sucessfully
works!
7

8. INDE PENDENCY
without a tendency
“I did not plan anything
to these songs.”
adhitia.doc
EVERYTHING is started from his passion in writing
songs. In the middle of 2007, Adithia Sofyan re assembled
his recording tools. It had been a while since he took mu-
sic seriously. As he recalled, the last time he recorded a
song was in 1999. Eight years later, he had his nostalgia.
He didn’t intend to get into the industry seriously. He was
just playing along with his guitar and his beautiful voice.
8

9. ”Just because I love writ-
ing music, it doesn’t al-
ways mean that I want to
be famous.”
Adithia Sofyan realizes that he is a homey kind of
person and so he doesn’t make a group band. He once
thought of renting a professional studio with experienced
sound engineer, but he didn’t do it for he was not willing
to leave his lovely home at Taman Rasuna, South Jakarta.
He thinks recording at home is effective enough. “Even re-
sults from recording at home are listenable,” Adithia says.
adhitia.doc
9

10. For these reasons, Adithia Sofyan enjoys
his music from home, specially from his bed-
room that he turned into his creative lab. With
his guitar and a warm cup of coffee, Adithia
Sofyan has become a recognized musician. At
first, he created and recorded his songs just for Andre Harihandoyo In-
his personal collections or for his friends. “I did donesia is a musician
not plan anything to these songs,” he admits. who along with four
In the beginning, Adithia Sofyan created 5 other young musicians
formed the band The
songs. He considered his creations as his per-
Sonic People in 2006.
sonal hobby. He did want to be a musician, but Andre Harihandoyo
for some reasons he kept this dream at heart. role as guitarist and
One day, he got a gift from Andre Hari- vocalist. They carry
handoyo , his musician friend. Adithia was a the kind of music that
combines country,
bit surprised because there were only 5 songs
blues, and jazz.
During their work,
they’ve traveled to
several countries and
has produced three al-
bums, namely:
Room Session
(2007), Two
Sides For
Every Story
(2008), and
Good For The
Soul (2009).
sonicpeoplemusic.com
10

11. adhitia.doc
in it. “Hey, i also have 5 songs,” he thought. An-
dre Harihandoyo’s album was indeed a album or
known as Extended Play (EP).
From that point on, Adithia Sofyan was inspired
to do the same thing, though he was not so serious.
That night, he designed the cover for his mini al-
bum. He copied his 5 songs in CDs to share with his
family, close friends and colleagues. Afterward, he
still had 70 CDs kept in a room.
Adithia Sofyan was tempted to send his EP to a
radio and see if it was indeed worth to play. He sent
two of his new songs to chart NuBuzz at Prambors
FM radio station. To be honest, he was just curious
NuBuzz Chart is a program broadcast on the radio
that receives FM Geronimo songs from anyone to
broadcast on air when feasible and elected.
11

12. adhitia.doc
“I did once intend
to make music my
main career path,
but i guess God for-
bids that plan.”
and did not expect much. He thinks, “Who would want to
hear an indie chart besides the one who sent it himself?”.
Dreams came true. Two of his songs, “Adelaide Sky”
and “Memilihmu”, were soon to play at Prambors and go-
ing to be used as untuk Ring Back Tone (RBT). He was also
surprised because Prambors offered some contracts even
before the songs aired.
Once Adithia put music as merely his daily hobby. But
then, these opportunities were his golden tickets though
he did not expect much. With an inch of doubt, Adithia
took the promising contract from Prambors.
He rolled the dice. His songs went into NuBuzz Chart.
“Adelaide Sky” started at the 8th position, and within a
few weeks it was on the 4th. A little while later, “Adelaide
Sky” successfully got into the top of the chart. “I am re-
ally happy! Apparently God isn’t totally against my music
career!” he said gladly.
12

13. “I try hard to stay humble, and cling extra hard to
the chair, who knows I am gonna float around!” he adds.
Moreover, “Memilihmu” was put into NuBuzz 1.1, a com-
pilation album that contains favorite songs in NuBuzz
Chart. Besides Adithia Sofyan’s, there are also songs from
Sind3ntosca and Drew in this album.
His success in Nubuzz and other radio programs start-
ed to earn appreciation. One of them was through MyS-
pace where a lot of people congratulated him. Adithia
then remembered about the 70 CDs of his mini album.
“I put the picture of that 70 CDs of my Ep on MySpace.
adhitia.doc
“Sharing free turned out
to be very enjoyable.”
13

14. I asked anyone who wanted it to leave their ad-
dresses,” he said. The remarkable thing is that he
gave them away for free, he even took care of the
delivery costs. Less than 2 months, everything’s out.
“Turns out that giving away for free could be fun,”
he says.
Adithia Sofyan got into the music industry
was for fun, not for the money or to be a celeb-
rity. “Just because I love writing music, it doesn’t
always mean that I want to be famous,” so is his
firm thought.
adhitia.doc
14

15. “Just because I love
writing music, not
always mean that I
want to be famous.”
adhitia.doc
Anyway, Adithia Sofyan as a bedroom musician that
loves to share has been known publicly. 5 April 2008 per-
haps was one of the most exciting days in his life. That day,
he had to go out of his bedroom to perform live in Art Fest
at Atmajaya University. Of course, Adithia was a bit nerv-
ous. Last time he played in public was on 2000, and he had
to have similar experience then.
“Hi everyone, I am Adhitia Sofyan, a bedroom musi-
cian, a bit nervous because today i have to play outside
the bedroom,” he greeted the audience in Atmajaya. At
his initial performance, he sang 4 songs. Turned out that
the audience loved them and asked for more. “Unfortu-
nately i had only prepared for 4 songs,” so he says as he
reminisces.
15

16. After his performance in Atmajaya, Adithia’s name
skyrocketed even more. On August 2008, he got a mes-
sage on his MySpace account. It was from Tyas A. Moein,
the producer of “Kambing Jantan: The Movie” . Tyas told
him that he was very interested in putting “Adelaide Sky”
into his movie. “The title and lyric really matches this mov-
ie,” Tyas told him. Adithia felt really lucky that one of his
songs would take part in a movie played by Raditya Dika.
“Kambing Jantan: The
Movie” is a film adapta-
tion of the blog and novel
Raditya Dika. The film,
released on March 5,
2009 and directed by Rudi
Soedjarwo Raditya Dika
featured in the leading
adhitia.doc
role.
16

17. “Quiet
adh
itia
.do
c
Down
is my
entrance
back
into the
music.”
Actually, at the same time, Adithia was trying to com-
pose his first full album. NuBuzz was interested to produce
his songs in full album format. To fill in the composition
, there were 6 new songs to combine with his previous 5
songs. When the songs were all ready, apparently NuBuzz,
that back then had gone independent from Prambors ra-
dio, was not ready for a full album. “Actually i relied fully
on NuBuzz for this full album matters,” he complained.
Nevertheless, Adithia decided to keep going. Person-
ally, his personal album entitled Quiet Down: Bedroom
Recordings Vol. 1 was successfully produced. Remark-
ably, all the process was done himself, starting from writ-
ing the lyrics, recording process, designing the cover, and
also marketing the album. Aside from the internet, Quiet
Down is also available at music stores in CDs.
17

18. “Quiet Down is a music to relax and rest,” he com-
ments on his first album. He is indeed more comfortable
composing his lyrics and recording his songs at night when
it’s quiet. “In silence, we can hear something clearly,” he
says. Quiet Down has confirmed his identity as a musician.
He became more passionate to fulfill the dream he kept
by heart. “This album is the door for me to get back to
music,” so he states.
The fame of Quiet Down reached Japan. This album is
sold officially in Japan by an indie label called Production
Dessinee. A music fan from Japan, Horiuchi Takashi, gave
his sincere appreciation to Adithia Sofyan.
“It’s been a while since i listened to great acoustic al-
bum like this one,” Takashi said in his writing. “I had my
prejudice to Indonesia. I don’t know Adhitia Sofyan per-
sonally, but i know that this album (Quiet Down) was re-
corded in his bedroom, combining guitar and song, result-
ing in relaxing ambience, warm and calming like the sun,
moreover when listened by a sick person who is resting in
a hospital.”
adhitia.doc
18

19. Delightful public re-
sponse to Quiet Down
urged Adithia Sofyan to
get back to his bedroom
and prepare for his sec-
ond album. This time
with Demajors music
label, Adithia released
his second full album:
Forget Your Plans, Bed-
room Recordings Vol. 2.
A bit different from his
adhitia.doc/repro
first album which theme
is about relationship, the theme for the songs in the sec-
ond album is more various. It tells about the city, death,
and also about love.
A friend from Demajors thinks that the songs in di
Quiet Down are too monotone. As a result, in Forget Your
Plans Adithia added few music instruments such as pia-
nika, kulintang, xylophone, electric guitar, and strings, to
enrich the album. For its distribution, Adithia
also made it in CDs to make it more official, Harmony is a musi-
aside from providing the songs on the internet, cal concert event in
free to download. Indonesia that are
Since the debut of Quiet Down to Forget packed in shades of
majestic orchestral nan.
Your Plans, Adithia has performed in many
Harmony is a national
stages, live or off air in various places in Indo- television station SCTV
nesia. He frequently perfoms in the same stage, aired since early 2010
or in same occasions with national musicians. into a pretty prestigious
On 20 August 2010, Adithia had the honour to event because the music
take his part in Harmoni SCTV, where he per- arranged by renowned
formed with Tantri “Kotak”, Anjie ex “Drive”, composer Indonesia, like
Sandy Sandoro, Rossa, Vidi Aldiano, Kikan ex Andi and Purwacaraka
Rianto.
19

20. “Cokelat”, Andy “/Rif”, and lots of other established musi-
cians. In addition, at A Flava As You Like It concert held at
4 main cities in Indonesia on mid 2011, Adithia Sofyan is
known just as top musician and band from Indonesia such
as Naif, Ipang, Mike’s Apartement, Pure Saturday, Ernest
“Cokelat”, J-Rocks, and many more.
From his bedroom too, Adithia Sofyan has been
known in Asia. His album officially sold in Japan has now
reached other Asian countries. He was also invited to per-
form in Singapore in Singapore’s Mosaic Music Festival.
Adithia, along with The Trees and The Wild and Sarasvati,
came from Indonesia in international music festival held
in Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay at 16-17 Maret 2011.
This was the second time for Adithia to perform at the
magnificent Esplanade. Before that, on 16-18 July 2010,
he performed at the same place in a music event called
Rocking the Region.
adhitia.doc
Singapore’s Mosaic Music Festival is an Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay is the largest
annual grand event independent musicians arts center in Singapore, covering all branches
in Singapore, which invited the musicians of art: music, dance, theater, to the visual arts,
selected from other Asian countries. which focus on Asian culture.
20

21. adhitia.doc
For Singapore’s Mosaic
Music Festival, Adithia So-
fyan departed to Singapore
in advance, which was on 13
March 2011. He came earlier
to rehearse with Ling Kai,
and Mia Palencia from Ma-
laysia, who were planned to
go on stage with him. Adith-
ia Sofyan was to perform for
2 days. On 16 March 2011,
he performed with Ling Kai
and Mia Palencia. In the sec-
ond day, he performed with
Indonesian musician, Saras-
vati, aside from taking the
stage solo.
21

22. His distinctive mu-
sic path has taken
Adithia Sofyan to a
adhitia.doc
higher achievement.
He got the award of
Indonesia Cutting Edge Music Awards (ICEMA) 2010.
Adithia successfully obtained two categories in this award,
Favorite Singer-Songwriter and Favorite Solo Artist. These
awards has proven his quality in Indonesian music.
At ICEMA 2010, famous names are rewarded for each
category. For example, Maliq N D’Essential, Superman is
Dead, Efek Rumah Kaca, The Sigit, Jiung, Barry Likumahu-
wa, Goodnight Electric, Gugun and Blues Shelter, Killing
Me Inside, J Flow, DJ Riri Mestika, Tompi, Shaggy Dog, PAS
Band, and the legend Fariz RM who got Lifetime Achieve-
ment.
And so his postponed dreams to be a musician came
true. Adithia can be proud of himself for being able to
compete along with many first class musicians. From the
dream box in the corner
of his bedroom, Adithia ICEMA is the
sets his footsteps in his first awards in
promosing music career. Indonesia to
the musi-
cians who are
consistent in
the path of
non-main-
stream. ICEMA
untukmereka
given a vibrant
renewal with
new forms of
expression.
lemahsinyal.blogspot.com
22

23. “I did once intend to make music
my main career path, but i guess
God forbids that plan.”
ONE NIGHT, little Adithia was taken by his parents
to have dinner at a cafe in Solo. By chance, there was a
live music performance by a top 40 band. When he was
about to enjoy his dinner, Adithia was surprised. The band
played one of Michael Jackson’s hits, the king of pop who
was really famous at that time.
>>>
RISEN OF
A BURIED DREAM
23
adhitia.doc

24. ad
hit
ia.
do
c
He was stunned by the strings of guitar playing the
intro of Black or White. He was amazed by the guitarist.
That time marked his epiphany, the moment he fell in love
with a thing called guitar. He set his heart to learn about
it as he already owned one at home. He never took it se-
riously before. In front of a mirror, he often acted like a
famous guitarist, dancing around with a guitar while lis-
tening to his favorite songs.
At first, Adithia was not enthusiastic to get the guitar
that his mother gave him. Not because he did not like it,
he just did not know well how to play it. He couldn’t play
a simple song, and he even could not put the tones in har-
mony for his little fingers had not been trained yet.
24

25. The night at the cafe was indeed a special night for
Adithia. The guitar played by the guitarist was different
from his. “It was an electric guitar, with its jolly distortion,
played live in front of my eyes and my ears!” Adithia re-
calls his feelings that night. The pounding sound of the
guitar connected to the electricity opened his eyes. It’s af
if he had found his reason to live. He promptly asked his
mom, “Mom, i want to take an electric guitar course!”
“I can not explain
what it means for my
guitar. Guitar is me! “
25
adhitia.doc

26. A week after that night, Adithia Sofyan took a gui-
tar course at Yayasan Musik Indonesia in Solo. He did not
study for long there. “After a year, I feel that I learned
enough, at least to play in my own room,” he says. In play-
ing guitar, Adithia Sofyan does seem very natural. He does
not push himself for something out of his reach. He even
admits that he does not fully understand every chord in
his songs.
When asked by his fans about his songs guitar chords,
he honestly answeres that he does not know the names.
He figures the sounds, as long as they are comfortable on
his ears. “I always let my fingers on the neck of the guitar
and form their own chords. The suitable chords are then
played, until I get familiar with them,” he admits honestly.
So does his way in writing lyrics. Natural and the way
he is, flowing just like that. To him, writing a song is like
writing in a diary in which he has to take care of his emo- c
.do
tions and keep it well at heart. “Like writing a diary, there’s hitia
ad
no rules, no one can say that it’s bad, good, wrong, and so
on,” he says. He never tries to remember the lyrics he has
written. He thinks that lyrics are different with chemical
formulas. “Don’t memorize it, get used to it and enjoy it,”
he advises.
“Writing
music is like
write a diary ...
“
26

27. Not only that, Adithia thinks
that writing music is something
very personal and almost spiritual.
“Music is a creation with harmo-
ny,” so he defines music. He writes
music according to his mood. He
never depends on anything for
his inspiration. Music comes as it
pleases, he just accepts the lyrics
coming.
Though he tends to go with
the flow in his music, it doesn’t
mean that he starts with nothing.
His very basic material is that he
really loves guitar. Yes, Adithia is
a knight with shining guitar, and
he clearly has his own reasons for
that. “Acoustic guitar is the sim-
plest tool to create a song. More
spontaneous, honest, just the way
it is,” he explains. He loves guitar,
even without knowing why. “I
can’t explain what guitar means to adhitia.doc
me. Guitar is me!” he confesses.
It’s beyond question that his love to guitar started at the night
on the cafe when he
was a young boy. Ever
since, he set his dreams:
he wants to be a musi-
cian. Moreover since
singing was one of his
hobbies. Since he was
a little boy he already
liked singing to the
songs in the radio.
27
adhitia.doc

28. adhitia.doc
Sometimes,
little Adhit re-
corded his own
voice with a tape
recorder. At that time he was fond of Bon Jovi’s songs or famous In-
donesian musicians at that time such as Ikang Fawzi or Farid Harja.
His parents house at Fajar Indah Solo Residence was never out of
his lively manners.
Adithia Sofyan grew and was raised in Surakarta, Central Java,
though he was not from Solo. Adithia was born in Bandung. 6 No-
vember 1977. He and his family moved to Solo on 1981, when he
was 4 years old. Adithia was very lucky for his happy childhood in
Solo. He was quite close with his dad, especially to his mom.
He enjoyed his childhood and his youth there from kindergar-
ten through high school. Adithia got into Taman Putra Solo kinder-
garten, then in Bromantakan 56 Solo elementary school. When he
was a teenager, he got into SMP 1 Solo before he went to SMA 4
Solo.
28

29. mahdimuhammad.doc
He did not finish his study at di SMA 4 Solo. On the
third year, he moved to America. Here, his passion to mu-
sic grew more and he wanted to reach for his dreams as a
musician. On 1996, when he was 19 years old, he tried his
luck by registering for Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Unfortunately he failed because his music knowledge was
considered not sufficient to its standards.
29

30. “I feel
reminded, if
want to make music
no need
must pass
Berklee College. “
nisa
mak
mur.
doc
Adithia was a bit shocked, since he went to
America to be serious in music. “I did once in-
tend to make music my main career path, but i
guess God forbids that plan,” he said as he re-
membered about Boston. Still, he held his head
up high. In the future, his patience and diligence
bear fruits. His grave of dreams could still be ris-
en. “I feel like i was reminded, if I want to play
music, it doesn’t have to be through Berklee Col-
lege. God wanted me to wait until 2007 when I
can actually make a good enough song for peo-
ple to listen,” he says.
Berklee Col-
lege of Music
is a leading
music college in
Boston, United
States, founded
by Lawrence
Berk in more
than half a
century ago.
30

31. “Just play what
sound ... “
adhitia.doc
Adithia realizes that his character in music is not based
on any theory. He prefers practicing straightly to learning
about theories. He admist that he never relies on chords.
“Play anything you heard of,” he advises. When he took
his course at Yayasan Musik Indonesia in Solo, for exam-
ple, he already declined anything with theory. Unsurpris-
ingly, his melodies don’t contain complicated chords.
Definition of creativity for Adithia is habit, so don’t
bother in taking care of it. “If it has become a habit, you
don’t have to take care of it. It’s in the nature,” the guy
who likes rawon and nasi liwet says. Play by ear, that’s how
he defines his musical method. This understanding is still
within him up to this point, and in the end its fruits are
indeed positive though he had to wait long enough and
he almost buried his dream to be a musician.
>>>
31

32. Failing his test in Berklee College of Music in Boston
made Adithia Sofyan deflected his thoughts to graphic
design. He decided to go to Australia to study at KvB Insti-
tute of Technology North Sydney and took Graphic Design
and Multimedia. After graduated on 1999, he went back
to Solo.
At Solo, his passion to music was back. With his friends,
he formed a band and performed on campus events. They
also made demos for their songs. They broadcasted some
of the songs in radios in Solo, Yogyakarta, Semarang, and
Bandung. They got positive response from public. More
priyadiimannurcahyo.doc
adhitia.doc
offers to perform came up. Adithia and his band then per-
formed at a radio station in Semarang.
In the midst of his pleasure as a musician, Adithia was
given another choice: he was offered a job in Jakarta as a
graphic designer. On November 2000, he decided to join
Matari Advertising. His education in Australia was then
put to use. Not until 2 years later, he had become a Junior
Art Director.
32

33. On mid 2002, Adithia resigned from matari to get
more experience. He went to Singapore. For 6 months
there, he took a portfolio course at Singapore Institue of
Advertising. He also became an intern at Lowe Advertising
Adgency in Singapore.
Actually Adithia wanted to work in Singapore, “... but
apparently what i learned from matari is not enough yet
here,” he said. At the same time, he got an offer from JWT
Advertising Adgency to be an Art Director. So, on January
2003, he got back to Jakarta. Soon afterward, he married
the woman he loves, Iim Fahima Jachja.
While he was working in JWT, Adithia had a very pleas-
ing performance. Almost every year he got creative award,
such as Citra Pariwara and ADOI Awards, few among those
adhitia.doc
was result of good team work. He worked in
dd.doc
JWT until he became a Senior Art Director. He
resigned on September 2005, “I left national
advertising behind me and I went for online
advertising industry,” so he said.
33

34. With his wife, he then founded an online marketing
consulting firm called Virus Communications. His work is
pretty much the same with the previous one in the adver-
tising adgencies, making creative ideas for clients adver-
tising campaigns. “There is one fundamental change: the
battle ground is the internet,” he says.
virtual.co.id
Virus Communications is a consulting
firm in the field of online marketing that
later became a new division in the com-
pany that has been established previous-
ly, Virtual Consulting, which is fronted by
Nukman Lutfie.
That way, internet becomes his new ground in Adith-
ia’s career. Thanks to internet, he has now had the atten-
tion in his once neglected music life. Now, after delegat-
ing to his wife to take care of the business, Adithia can
concentrate more to rise his buried dreams though he is
not heading just for money or fame. In the name of love,
Adithia Sofyan has returned to the music world, the world
that he has always kept in his heart each day.
34

35. NO one, just MOM
“Crying in
front of Ka’bah
makes me
feel like I’m
back to myself
when i was
adhitia.doc
3 years old. I
once cried on
her lap when
I was hurting HIS HABIT singing loudly was never
absent from his mother’s attention. His
from a fall, or mom definitely had her own reason why
just because I she would give her 14 year old a guitar.
Yes, why guitar? Why not other mu-
missed her and sic instrument or other stuffs? No need
she got home to find the answer, for the mother is the
person who understands most about her
late from the child. Because of her particular instinct,
office, while Adithia became a person who loves mu-
sic, and now has been known as unique
she would just musician that no one can underestimate.
smile and pat It is very possible that Adithia puts
his mother as greatest figure he has ever
my back.” known. His mother’s warm hug is like a
comforting room for Adithia. When his small lips whined for falling
down and getting hurt on his childhood, he would cry while cringing
from pain in his mother’s lap. His mom would try to comfort him with
her smile and nice pat in his tiny back. For he loves his mom so much,
Adithia admitted that he was never ashamed to cry if he thought that
his mom went home late from work when he was little.
35

36. Adithia Sofyan’s parents are open
minded people who don’t want to burden
their child with pressures. As long as he is
being in the right way, Adithia’s mom and
dad never interfered much but kept guid-
ing and reminding their child.
His path to future has been complete-
ly his own choices. As a solid proof, his
adhitia.doc/repro way of life was not one of those common
choices people usually take, and not in subjects that parents usu-
ally want or even force upon their children.
Art is not a promising world for most people. Adithia, in the
contrary, deliberately chose this unusual path, and even dared
to gamble on his future by going to America and Australia to
learn more about art. Music and design that Adithia chose as
his grounds in life were not a problem for his parents. Adithia
then succeeded in proving that what he chose was not a mistake
though his parents have never asked for any.
Thanks to his mom, Adithia knows and loves guitar. We can
say that Adithia is unseparable from his guitar because his mother
always reminds him. “Every time I leave home for few days with
friends, mom always asks: Are you sure you aren’t taking your
guitar with you?” says the man who has Cole Clark FL2A, Larrivee
OM3R, and Guild GAD50.
His mother doesn’t only pay attention to his musical talent.
Little Adithia also liked drawing. In the end, those two hobbies
has indeed become his choices in life, singing and drawing. It was
not a surprise that his mom was so pleased
when Adithia went to America to learn
about music and then to Australia to im-
prove his graphic design skills.
36

37. The freedom to think and act given by his parents forged Adithia’s
character when he grew up. He is very natural but competitive and ef-
fective in making the most of what he has. Besides, he is not reluctant
to share, and to sacrifice for people’s needs. He even feels happy for
making others happy.
Adithia Sofyan also doesn’t mind about what people judge of him.
The most important thing is that he already gives his best and tries to
maintain his quality. He gives it to society, to judge him and his songs.
“I write songs purely from my love to music. The listener of my songs is
myself. It’s for me to listen, to enjoy, to smile at myself,” he says.
The man who loves oxtail soup emphasizes that music is a part of
happiness in his life, not only for material purpose. “I am not from mu-
sic industry, I make mu-
sic just for my personal
delight,” Adithia adds,
“Whether there are peo-
ple who listen or not, I
will keep writing songs
since it makes me happy
and fulfill my needs to
create things.”
Adithia never relies
his creative process on
his idols. The songs he
write are purely from his
own creativity. He never
knows how those songs
adhitia.doc/repro
could come out, how the
lyrics considered mellow
by many people could
pop and combined to a likeable song. He just holds his guitar, try some
notes while once sipping his warm coffee, and there they go, simple
yet charming songs. For him, inspiration sometimes comes just like
that but sometimes doesn’t. When he plays his guitar, lyrics will just
flow over his head.
37

38. adhitia.doc
Though he is not idolizing anyone, it
doesn’t mean that Adithia doesn’t have
musician or band that influence his songs.
He has quite some of them. Teitur, Iron and
Wine, City and Color, The Swell Season, Fionn
Regan, Jack Johnson, Bon Jovi, and John
Mayer , more or less they influence his mu-
sic. Some people even say that his guitar play
sounds like John Mayer. In addition, in one of
the interviews in a social network, he men-
tioned Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kurt Cobain.
Adithia has been known as a musician
who specializes in singing melancholic songs
because of his mellow lyrics. He himself ad-
mits this. “My songs are proven to help peo-
ple sleep,” he says. Who would think that
Adithia’s music when he was young was met-
al. When he was still in Solo, he admits that
he often listened and played hardcore mu-
sic, such as Sepultura, Iced Earth, Manowar,
Prong, Sevendust, Megadeth, Kreator, and
those similar with them. He also had his fa-
vorite local metal band, which was Melan-
cholic Bitch from Jogja.
nisamakmur.doc
38

39. adhitia.doc
In Adithia’s music path, Michael Jackson (MJ) came
across. As mentioned before, his interest to guitar start-
ed when he heard of the intro of Black and White sung
by MJ. Though he points out that he thinks that there is
no strong correlation between MJ music style and his, he
can’t deny that MJ was on his music story. “What made me
wanted to play guitar was not a song from (Eric) Clapton
or Van Halen, it was a song from MJ,” he admits. In fact,
when he heard that MJ passed away, he was so sad and
wrote about MJ in his personal blog.
As for local musician, Adithia never explicitly express
his idolization, though he admits that he enjoyed Ikang
Fawzi and Farid Harja who were very popular on 1980-
1990. Some also think that his music style sounds similar
to Ebiet G. Ade. Again, Adithia doesn’t confirm, but he
thinks that Ebiet is a legend. Apparently, he had a con-
nection with Ebiet. “One of my guitar is his now,” said
Adithia.
Apart from many musicians that directly or indirectly
influence Adithia, his mom is still the only prominent fig-
ure. If it wasn’t for his mother’s precise instinct, Adithia
would not consistenly keeps his passion to music. If his
mother did not give him a guitar, he might not have fallen
in love with music, especially to guitar, and he could have
been attracted to other things in his life. We can say that,
his mother is most important thing to Adithia Sofyan. Not
because of anyone, just mom.
39

40. “I like sharing my music
with people who are willing
to listen.”
INTERNET is a virtual
world. In which, a world
without limit, dimension,
space and time. We can
get anything from the in-
ternet. The boundaries,
ethics usually obeyed in
the real world no longer
exist in the internet. The
Create
law ruling internet has
long been discussed and
executed. Nonetheless, it
to SHARE
is not effective yet, moreo-
ver to threat one’s privacy
and safety. If indeed, there
is such threat, people will
not bother since there are
lots of loophole to get
away from the law.
c
.do
itia
adh
40

41. Anything put into internet, be prepare
to take it as universal belonging. If we
know how to use it, everyone can enjoy
anything from the internet for free. Re-
sults of a very long and tiring effort are
very possible to consume directly in the
internet. For these reasons, many musi-
cians, writers, journalists, photographers,
researchers, or film makers who are up-
set because their efforts seem like worth
nothing when they get into the internet.
They can be hijacked, copied, claimed, or
even sold by those who haven’t known
yet, or don’t want to know, that even
on the internet there are ethics and
rules to obey.
Adithia Sofyan is aware of this phe- adhitia.doc
nomenon. He is sure that this is going to last for a long
time. In addition, internet has not reached every level of
Indonesian society. If internet has become the basic needs
of most people in Indonesia, what would happen? Finding
and fulfilling needs for free would be all over the place.
The only solution one can do is to learn giving away for
free.
For these reasons, Adithia Sofyan intently put his
songs in the internet for free. Furthermore, he himself
provides his songs to be downloaded for free so people
can enjoy them. There are only few musicians in Indone-
sia who have the sense to give away their creations for
public consumption without expecting people to pay for
it. It is only natural, since one’s creative process must be
appreciated equally.
Luckily, Adithia has hold firm that he did not expect
anything from his music. Not even money. He never
thought of living from music. “I never had the intention
to be a serious and dedicated musician. I dedicate my life
for my wife and my daughter,” he says. This way, he did
not hesitate to provide his songs in the internet for free.
Everyone can download his songs without having to pay
any cent.
41

42. According to Adithia Sofyan,
the method of sharing for free will
fasten the brand building and ease
the songs for people to know and
to talk about. On the other side,
willingness to share is a new trend
for music lovers which is unavoida-
ble because of the rapid progress of
technology. Not only providing his
songs to be downloaded for free,
Adithia also welcome those who
wants to remix his songs, as long as
it is not done commercially.
Anyway, Adithia doesn’t think
that he is alone in sharing things, at
adhitia.doc/repro
42

43. least globally since sharing free of charge has not be-
come a usual thing in Indonesia yet. Internationally, a
lot of musicians have done this, sharing their music free
of charge. Adithia feels that sharing is something fun.
He is glad that he can do something usefull for others.
“Sharing is fun, easy, and Insya Allah brings you bless-
ings,” he says.
As the result, Adithia Sofyan’s songs spread quickly
in the internet. People responded, wrote in their blogs,
put his name in social media network like Facebook,
Twitter, Kaskus, and many more, and they even recom-
mended it to their friends. To Adithia this is very use-
ful for voluntarily spreading his works, admittedly or
not, his name skyrockets and he is now known by more
people.
About copyrights, Adithia doesn’t mind that much
at this point, because that’s the reality in this country.
“Clarity about copyrights is not very good here. Even
songs with copyrights are also violated. Is there such
thing as preventing and dealing with it?” he asks about
the solution taht is impossible to banish in the mean
time from the internet.
Apparently people need to get used to Adithia So-
fyan’s principle in sharing his works for free, while keep
doing things to maintain people’s appreciation to other
people’s creations. It is very possible that this kind of
trend will last as long as internet is still needed and as
long as people can get away from rules that are not set
yet in the digital world. So, welcome to the world of no
boundaries.
“The people who work in
the world should be able to
bring creative ideas in any
condition.”
43

44. “Still everyday I think about you.
I know for a fact that’s not your problem.
But if you change your mind you’ll find me.
Hanging on to the place.
Where the big blue sky collapse.”
Hanging on
to the place
WHERE
THE BIG BLUE
SKY .do
c
COLLAPSE…
itia
adh
44

45. adhitia.doc
AFTER a series of impres-
sive episodes in his once dead
music life, Adithia Sofyan starts
to think maybe he can be more
than just an amateur musi-
cian. Still, without commercial
tendency and purely to satisfy
his passion in music, Adithia
aims to be more serious in mu-
sic. Unsurprising, since he has
always been professional in adhitia.doc
any career choice he has had,
starting from graphic design,
conventional advertising, on-
line marketing, and finally in
music.
“Whether or not anyone would
listen, I will continue to write
songs because it makes me
happy and fulfill my needs for
work.”
adhitia.doc
45

46. To focus on his music, Adithia
leaves managing the company to
his wife. Although, he still has his
part of work there. He is used to
working under pressure but can
still manage to come out with qual-
ity. For him, those who have chosen
to be in creative world have to be
capable of delivering new ideas in
any circumstance. And so currently
with his double responsibilities. He
is required to be balanced and pro-
fessional in two different grounds,
adhitia.doc/repro online marketing and music.
Adithia Sofyan will not waste a moment. He will surely
take his musical works into a more mature stage. Every plan,
including the business-wise matter and partners in music
have to be well-defined. Even so, Adithia promises that he
will not leave his habit of sharing to others, for it has been
one of the reasons of his popularity. He doesn’t consider it as
a loss for making other people happy.
“I dedicate my life to be with my wife
and daughter.”
adhitia.doc
46

47. rentalsoundsystem.com
Adithia Sofyan chooses to hang on to the place. Though
he was once disappointed there, he will still hang on to the
place, where the big blue sky collapse.
nisamakmur benablog
47

49. Successful WOMAN
in DIGITAL WORLD

50. Writing and technology are the most important things
in Ollie Salsabeela’s life and career path. The woman born
in Yogyakarta was originally named Aulia Halimatus-
sadiah. She is not only good at playing with words, but
also has owned 6 online start ups and has written several
books. All these have been successfully accomplished at
her very young age, 28.
For Ollie, writing is her second world. Almost every day
she spares her time to write. Though Ollie feels that she’s
been quite successful in this indus-
try, she remains humble. She feels
more comfortable to be known
as a writer and that is indeed her
pure passion. “I am a writer and
that’s the real me!” she says.
“My passion is in book and
writing,” she emphasizes. Yes, Ol-
lie loves writing. Not only writing
online, like in her blog, she also
writes books. Dozens of books are
“I have a dream, and i have
another dream.”
50
ollie.doc

51. ollie.doc
born from through her fin-
gers, starting from novels, in-
spirational books, and guide
books or how-tos. She was
one of the famous bloggers
on the early golden age. She
has known blogging since
2003 when she started a pho-
toblog filled with her daily
activities.
Her love to books and
writing were also brought
to virtual world, specially in
the information and technol-
ogy industry. Along with her
IT knowledge and also with
kind help of several close
friends, Ollie made a break-
through: an online book
store which was then known
as www.KutuKutuBuku.com
and an online self publishing
site which was launced on
October 2010 and known as
NulisBuku.com. Photoblog is a
photo sharing
“I had problems purchasing books at existing online
through such
book stores. I really love books and I like buying books. media blog.
When I found these problems, as a person in web industry This is a little
I asked myself: Why not fix this?” Ollie explains. She re- different than
ally wanted to open a book store, but she did not have a regular blog
enough money to build one. The solution was an online which generally
book store, and so she made www.KutuKutuBuku.com. only focus on the
We can say that this is one of the first online book stores text. Photoblog-
in Indonesia. ging (the act of
posting photos
to a photoblog)
started to bloom
in the early
2000s with the
advent of mobile
blogging and
cameraphones.
51

52. The story of NulisBuku.com is pretty much the same.
Her bitter experience when she got her script rejected
prompted her to launch the first online self publishing
website in South East Asia. “At NulisBuku.com, not only
I publish my dream books, but I also make other writers
dreams come true,” Ollie explains. “This site is a free ser-
vice portal for online self publishing-print on demand,”
she adds.
Thinking one step ahead, quick in seizing opportuni-
ties, and loves challenges are the qualities of an entrepre-
neur. Ollie who is a writer has proven herself capable in
combining these qualities as a writerpreneur, and to add
up information technology in writing and business. It is
a bit hard to find women who excel in information and
technology, and Ollie is one of them. Yes, Ollie Salsabeela
is a modern Kartini that struggles in the digital world.
ollie.doc
52

53. “I am a writer and that’s
S
the real me!” T
R
U
G with
GB
LO
EO
K
O
llie has started writing ever since
she was a teenager. It was back on
her junior high wheh she started
writing comic strips. She did not get
the skills instantly, but through years of prac-
tice. When she was in senior high, she wrote
so many times though she did not think that
it was good enough. She kept trying until she
figured out the right method and finally her
efforts paid off.
53

54. ollie.doc
Her habit of writing online
started when she read an in-
spiring and interesting blog.
“What is this well designed
website filled with people
heart-to-heart stories?” she cu-
riously wondered.
Ollie started to know about
blogging on 2003 when she was
living in Depok, a suburb near
Jakarta. Ollie used many blog-
ging services in the internet,
such as TextAmerica, Tabulas,
Multiply, Wordpress, Blogspot,
and finally she used a domain
with a personal hosting: Salsa-
beela.com.
In Multiply, Ollie did not only
blog, she started a small online
business. Multiply is one of the
pioneers of blogging platform
in In-
donesia. It has tremendous features such
as photo sharing, video, reviews, guest-
book, and so on.
Taking these as benefits, Ollie started an
online shopping based on Multiply. She in-
spired many people to do similar thing. This
particular moment put a publisher called
Mediakita to contact her and ask her to
write “making Online Store with Multiply”
that was published on 2008. “It was my first
how-tos and it became a best seller,” says Ol-
lie.
Her name is already familiar on the ears of book readers. She has
written a number of books ranging from novel, inspirational books,
how-tos and guide books, motivational books and even books about
cuisines. One of her novels is also very interesting and briliant in captur-
ing the readers at heart.
54

55. Her novel called “Je M’appelle Lintang” (2006), a love story
about “Lintang” in chasing her love to Paris, has successfully
obtained great appraisal. How come Ollie who has never set
her feet in Paris could actually put the live in Paris in such a
detail? “I have only one answer, research!” Ollie explains. This
experience was the foundation when she wrote an inspiring
book called “Inspirasi.net” (2008).
Ollie transformed her personal blog, Salsabeela.com, into
a motivating and inspiring
blog. She admits, at the first
time she became a blogger,
the blog’s content was only
personal things, more like an
online diary. But since 2007,
Ollie decided to change her
mindset in how she blogs.
“Now I think more when I
want to post. I think more of
the benefits to others so that
I can motivate and inspire
them,” she adds.
This blog is like her dis-
play. Viewers can see her ide-
as, her daily activities and her
businesses. It is not surprising
that for her efforts in inspir-
ing others, Sindo (Seputar In-
donesia) Newspaper regards ollie.doc
it as Blog of the Week (2009). Not only
that, Salsabeela.com was also reviewed in
CHIC Magazine (Desember 2008).
Way before he decided to learn about
IT at Gunadarma University, Ollie has fa-
miliarized herself with technology since
senior high. She has been using internet
since 1997. “At first i saw people made
Geocities, then I learned it myself. In my
high school years, I made a company web-
site for KalongDesign.com. Afterwards, I
made a website for the teachers and the
school band,” says Ollie.
55

56. Way before he decided to learn about IT at Gunadarma University,
Ollie has familiarized herself with technology since senior high. She has
been using internet since 1997. “At first i saw people made Geocities,
then I learned it myself. In my high school years, I made a company
website for KalongDesign.com. Afterwards, I made a website for the
teachers and the school band,” says Ollie.
After she graduated from Gunadarma University in 2004, Ollie
joined Plasmedia-Plexis, a national IT company in Jakarta. Ollie was a
web developer, a position she was keen of. She was very happy since her
activity that once only her hobby could be appreciated well.
Here at Plasmedia Ollie met Angelina Anthony, another key figure
behind KutuKutuBuku.com. Ollie and Angeline was like the inseparable
twins. They helped each other in every project. They have many things
in common, specially in their hobby: books. They both really like to read
and buy books.
So then came the idea to make an online book store called KutuKu-
tuBuku.com. “There were two bugs (kutu) since behind all these there
are two book lovers,” Ollie explains. At the first time, KutuKutuBuku.
com was not that much of a breakthrough. Though internet had been
known widely in Indonesia, but people were not used to e-commerce.
This did not apply only to the customers, but also to the sellers or pub-
lishers.
KutuKutuBuku.com that brought the publisher and reader close had
to struggle hard in introducing and educating about e-commerce, es-
pecially among publishers. Most of them did not understand well and
were reluctant to adapt with online transaction culture. “We explained
about online stores, how to cooperate with us besides keep working
with conventional publishers. We really started from nothing,” Ollie
“My passion is in book
and writing.”
56

57. reminisces. Along with Angelina, they did everything: as the owner,
CEO, OB, and also the admin.
Though the idea of KutuKutuBuku.com was started on Decem-
ber 2005, the site was officially launched on February 2006. One of
the moments supporting the progress of KutuKutuBuku.com was
the publishing of JK Rowling’s phenomenal books, Harry Potter.
“We got a really good chance, because Harry Potter was just been
launched,” Ollie says.
After 1,5 years of KutuKutuBuku.com, Ollie and Angelina was at
a crossroad. At one point, their business was developing. But at the
other side, they still had the responsibilities to the company they
worked for. After a careful consideration, including asking for an
advise from an online marketing maestro, Nukman Luthfie, Ollie
and Angelina resigned from Plasmedia after been working there for
2,5 years.
“We had been thinking a lot to resign from the office. But to
actually did it, we always thought that we could not. Until one day
I and Angel went out for lunch with a peculiar guy, a role model
in online marketing,” Ollie mentions one of her mentors, Nukman
Luthfie.
57

58. Nukman Luthfie, one of the pioneers of online marketing in Indonesia.
Founder Virtual.co.id, PortalHR.com, Juale.com, GilaMotor.com, Musik-
Kamu.com, and black coffee lovers.
To their mentor,
they poured out their
worries about the fu-
ture. Nukman Luthfie
only said, “So, when
will you guys resign?”
When they were both
shocked, Nukman Lu-
thfie promised them,
“I will show you the
way,” he convinced
them. vivanews.com
Though surprised at first, these women did what was suggested by Nuk-
man Luthfie. They decided to develop KutuKutuBuku.com. Ollie and Ange-
lina officially resigned from Plasmedia on 30 August 2007. To get away from
stress, they went around South East Asia.
After the fun trip, Ollie and Angelina had to get back to reality. It turned
out that doing the operational of KutuKutuBuku.com was not easy at all. In
their so called office with a very small room, Ollie and Angeline chased their
dreams, expanding their online business. They never gave up though they
had a lot of financial problems. Finally KutuKutu-
Buku.com had a more decent office in Pancoran,
near Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.
The success of KutuKutuBuku.com in its break-
through for transforming conventional book
shopping to online shopping got the public atten-
tion. Many people started asking, how to make an
online store like KutuKutuBuku.com, how to start
it, what’s the key to success in e-commerce, and
so on. These many questions were the triggers of
TukuSolution.com, a web developer service that
first handled e-commerce problems. The title,
TukuSolution.com, came out of nowhere. The
unique thing is, “tuku” was a reversed “kutu”.
And so, still with Angelina, Ollie built TukuSolu-
tion.com.
After the successful innovation with KutuKu-
58

59. tuBuku.com and TukuSolution.com,
Ollie did not stop there. Her obsession
to get the best out of digital world
made her want to do more. That time
Ollie took her brother to build a new
product. As his hobby was to play
games, they agreed to make a game
studio that developed flash games,
mobile games, and social games for
Androids, iPad, iPhone, and Blackberry
PlayBook. TempeLabs.com, was the
name of the start up built by the sib-
lings.
Her writer and business instict
kept bearing fruits. Based on her dis-
appointment from getting her writ-
ings rejected by publishers, she started
NulisBuku.com. The online self pub-
lishing site launched on October 2010
is the media for Indonesian writers
to publish their books. “I want
to give everyone a big chance
to publish what they write, and
that’s the idea about online self
publishing,” she says.
ollie.doc 59

60. “I want to give a great NulisBuku.com was born from Ol-
opportunity for every- lie’s discontent when publishers re-
jected her writings. She believed that
one to her writings were worth of publish-
publish his work. “ ing but she could not do a thing since
the publishers turned her down. Be-
sides this rather emotional reason,
Ollie once had a dream of building
her very own publisher. NulisBuku.
com was then born from the team-
work of Ollie and Angelina, also with
two other people, Oka Pratama and
Blilian Yotanega. The great thing is,
NulisBuku.com is the first online self publisher in South East Asia.
As a writer, seing one’s very name printed in a book cover is priceless. Not
every writer can feel that pride though. Not every writer can publish his or
her writing into a book. The conventional publishing system that has a high
sales target and complicated scheme makes it difficult for aspiring writers to
compete. They find it hard to get to known publisher and finally have to let
go their dreams to publish a book.
Ollie who has been familiar in book industry knew this well. And so
along with her partners, Angelina, Oka Pratama and Blilian Yotanega, Ollie
transformed the publishing world. “We can be a writer, and publish our own
books for free!” she explains.
60

61. Actually NulisBuku.com was start- “NulisBuku.com provide
ed from a simple but powerful idea, es- maximum opportunity
pecially for those who want to publish
their own books. The concept offered to the authors without
is really different with conventional leaving the commercial
and complicated book publishing with
its problem of pricing and royalties. values​​.”
To have a book printed, one should
have 25 million rupiahs, because a
book must be printed into at least
3000 copies to meet the distributor’s
demand. “While through online self
publicher, the writer don’t have to give
out their money but can still earn the
royalty,” says Ollie. Every sold book,
60% of the royalty will be given to the
author and the rest of it goes to Nulis-
Buku.com. “NulisBuku.com will give a
big chance to writers without leaving
the commercial values,” Ollie explains.
“I do not just publish a
book of my dreams, but also
realize the dreams of other
writers.”
61

62. Since it started out, NulisBuku.com has had the visi-
tors grown to 300% up to June 2011. It has more than
6000 members. Though only 8 months old, NulisBuku.
com has published more than 400 book titles with vari-
ous genres and sold more than 9000 copies of books. The
sales average each month is 1000 to 1500 books.
Not only helping self publishing process, NulisBuku.
com also helps the communication among its members and
form a community of writers. NulisBuku.com takes the most
of social media in connecting with its members. The admin al-
ways update its Facebook and Twitter with various information
about events and gatherings, competitions, writing tips, and
also giving personal support to its members.
As a result, NulisBuku.com successfully got the SparxUp
Award in 2010 for Best E-Commerce category only after the
first month of its launching. It’s not surprising to mention the
founders, Ollie, Angel, Oka, and Brilian, as “The Dream Team”.
Besides KutuBuku.com, TukuSolution.com, TempaLabs.com,
and NulisBuku.com, Ollie also develops other online sites such
as LangsingMulus.com, a web about Weight Loss Product Re-
tail and HearyBoutique.com. The later is an online boutique
specially made for her mother who has retired early. HearyBou-
tique.com also has an offline boutique.
Ollie was also noted as one of the owners of GantiBaju.
com, a site that eases the members to design, print, and sell
T-shirts the way they want it. Anyway, on February 2010, Ollie
resigned herself from GantiBaju.com.
Her activity in business is well balanced with Ollie’s social
live. She is registered at many online communities in various
SparxUp Award is a competition for
digital web startup in Indonesia. Sparx-
Up present to open a digital opportu-
nity for startup in Indonesia to be more
62 advanced and can continue working.

63. areas, such as Fresh, Girls in Tech Indonesia, Bincang Edukasi,
Tangan di Atas, Jakarta Daily Photo, and #StartUpLokal. She is
one of the committee at those groups. At #StartUpLokal, Ollie is
one of the founders along with Natalie Ardianto, Nuniek Tirta,
and Sanny Gaddafi.
#StartUpLokal is community
for those who own start ups, peo-
ple in digital world, developer,
investor and the media to meet
and colaborate. The community
started on April 2010 has shown
its potential. Besides media sup-
port, it attracts many foreign in-
vestors. In fact, on March 2011,
the initiators of #StartUpLokal,
including Ollie, was invited to Ire-
land by Ireland Enterprise, a start
up incubator in Dublin.
Dublin, was known as the
Silicon Valley of Europe. There,
the initiators of #StartUpLokal
learned and observed many
things from the Ireland’s start
ups. Ollie has her own dream for
her community. “One day, Indo-
nesia will be the Silicon Valley for
South East Asia,” and that is her
dream.
63

64. “As a child of a
thousand islands, CHILD
I’ve been every-
where with my A THOUSA
father. That shapes
my character.” ISLAN
AULIA Halimatussadiah or widely known as Ollie Salsabeela,
was born in Yogyakarta at 17 June 1983. However, the first daugh-
ter of Moch. Isnaini and Harti is a child of a thousand islands. Many
regions in Indonesia helped shaping Ollie’s character such as Yog-
yakarta, Makassar (South Sulawesi), Kupang, Banjarmasin (South
Kalimantan), and also Bengkulu. From her elementary school years
to her senior high, Ollie had been moving a lot because of her fa-
ther’s work.
A bit different from what she is know, little Ollie was a shy girl.
She was so thin and tall. Because of her posture, she was dismissed
from the dancer club in her elementary school at Makassar. For Ol-
lie, it was just a memory though she was truly disappointed.
From Makassar, Ollie, who was just in her sixth year of elemen-
tary school, had to move to Kupang. The hard and straightforward
life in Kupang changed her. It was in Kupang Ollie spent his ado-
lescent. She started writing in junior high. Her hobby in reading
comic books got her interested in drawing her favorite cartoon
characters.
64

65. D OF
AND
NDS
Ollie also started to excel English around
that time. Her passion started because she
was upset to a friend calling her stupid.
“That stupid word shocked me!” says Ollie
reminiscing her young age. Therefore, Ollie convinced her-
self to excel English. “That prompted me to take English as
my major in college,” Ollie says.
Still in junior high, Ollie moved to Banjarmasin, South Ka-
limantan. After a few years there, she had to move again to
Bengkulu, Sumatera. In Bengkulu, she had her senior high.
During that time, Ollie became a star. She had the courage
ollie.doc
to shine among her friends.
Aside from that, Ollie grew
fond of writing and Bahasa. In con-
trast, she hated exact science such
as Physics and Math.
After high school, Ollie came
back to Yogyakarta to continue to
college. At first, she wanted to be
in English major at Sanata Dharma University. But finally
she took information technology because she started to like
technology. This would later bring her to internet.
Ollie realized that technology was her goal. “Once, if
asked to choose, I would learn English and write a poem
every day. But I realized that technology is a stimulus and a
tool for me to reach my dreams. So, I want to improve my
skills in that field,” she explains. For this misson, Ollie fled
to Jakarta.
65

66. Ollie chose Gunadarma University and Infor-
mation Technology to improve her skils. For 4
years, from 2000-2004, she had been a student
of Gunadarma University. It was at the early
time of college people started calling her Ollie.
“I had another friend named Lia, similar with my
name, Aulia. To not confuse people, I changed
my nickname to Ollie,” she says.
The story about her name continued. Aulia
Halimatussadiah is now widely known as Ol-
lie Salsabeela. Her last name was inspired by
an auntie’s grandkid. “At that time my aunt’s
grand daughter was born and named Salsabila,”
says Ollie. To differ, Ollie wrote her last name
with a double “e”, so it’s not “Salsabila” but
“Salsabeela”. Eversince, she was known as Ollie
Salsabeela.
Along with her college time, Ollie decided
to cover up and started wearing hijab. She ad-
mits, there was no request or influence from
anyone to wear it. ”My parents did not ask me
and there were no weird stories behind this. It
just felt right. There was not any contemplation
in this,” she says.
As she matured, Ollie grew her talent in
business. She joined a Multi Level Marketing in
college. “Selling cosmetics, getting downline,
surprisingly I got many members. It was not bad,
I expanded my network here,” she explains. Her
business activity has been started ever since she
was in elementary school. At that very young
age, Ollie sold Idul Fitri’s parcel to her friends.
66

67. During college, Ollie also tried writing in her
personal blog. She started to know about blog-
ging in the mid of 2003. At an internet cafe in
Depok, she wondered about a very interesting
site with many inspiring posts. “While I was con-
fused seeing many great blogs, I tried to make
my own blog. At that time I uploaded it into a
free hosting service,” she recalls.
TextAmerica is the first blog that Ollie used.
She filled out the content with many of her daily
pictures in college. After she wore out the capac-
ity of TextAmerica, she moved to Tabulas. For 2,5
years, Ollie posted about her life. Finally at 2007,
Ollie decided to use her own domain and hosting
to fulfill her needs. Salsabeela.com was born.
At her personal blog, Ollie only posted about
ollie.doc
her daily life at first. It was in photos, videos or
writings. But then Ollie realized that her writing
should inspire and help others instead of only ex-
pressing who she was. And so Ollie started to be
more serious in developing Salsabeela.com.
Her diligence had drawn quite many people.
She got a number of awards such as Bubu Award
in “Tourism Blog Writing Competition” category
on 2009 and New Wave Marketing Picture from
MarkPlus on 2008. Personally Ollie also got her
awards, for example she was one of the 10 Beau-
tiful Women in Indonesian IT World 2011 accord-
ing to Info Komputer magazine.
TextAmerica is one of the first online photo album or a mobile
blogging site that allows users to upload images directly from
digital cameras / camera phones or images manipulated with
photo editing software for personal pages.
67

68. Ollie who was once a shy girl now becomes an inde-
pendent and bright woman. Her strong, straightforward,
and spontaneous character was born from her journeys.
Ollie yang awalnya adalah gadis pemalu telah menjelma
menjadi perempuan yang handal dan mandiri. Karak-
ternya yang keras, tanpa basa-basi, dan just go with it,
merupakan hasil dari perjalanan hidupnya yang sering
berpindah. “As a child of a thousand islands, I’ve been
everywhere with my father. That shapes my character,”
she says.
Being the owner of several online companies and suc-
cessful writer, what else can she want? Apparently there
is, and even more of it! “I have a dream, and i have an-
other dream. A dream leads me to another. So, now I want
to be well-off in the virtual world,” says Ollie.
Bubu Award is the digital industry awards for ground
water that was started in 2011. Categories include:
Digital Campaign, Web Award, Mobile Application
Award, Digital Talent Award.
ollie.doc
68

69. TWO
BOOK
.do
c
Lovers
ollie
T
HE TEAMWORK of Ol-
lie and Angelina started
when they both were
working for the same
company. They were at Plasme-
dia-Plexis, an IT company based
on Jakarta on 2004. They have
many things in common, and
one of them is that both are
bookworms.
“Technology is the
catalyst. Therefore, I
deepen capabilities in
that area. “
69

70. Beyond the similarities there are differences that complete each
other. Ollie prefers novel and fictions. In the other hand, Angelina
prefers more serious books. Though they are different, but both are
book enthusiasts, and that is the beginning of the success story.
Having the same hobby made Ollie and Angelina discussed about
books a lot. Besides, as they had a job connected to the internet,
they often imagined working at Amazon.com, a well-known online
book store. Who would have known that their dream worked its
way out. They did not get to work for Amazon.com, but they got
so much more than that. Ollie and Angelina then created their own
online book store. On February 2006, KutuKutuBuku.com was of-
ficially launched by Ollie and Angelina.
Ollie and Angelina are more than just partners in business. We
can say that they both have the role in each other’s career. They
complete each other in achieving their dreams. Angelina, a Multi-
media Bachelor from Victorie University of Melbourne, Australia,
was always in Ollie’s side, executing their ideas. They both also
worked together in a web consultant where Ollie was the project
officer and Angelina was the web designer. Angelina is more than
just work friend to Ollie. She has been there for her as a close friend,
a shoulder to lean on. “Angel is my ‘girl love’. I take her picture and
upload to my blog since 2006,” Ollie sincerely wrote in her personal
blog. They are indeed two different characters. Ollie admits that
there are opposing characters between them. “Angelina doesn’t
talk much, different from me who is not an introvert,” she says.
70

71. Many successful works are born from
their hard work. Starting from KutuKutu-
Buku.com, TukuSolution.com, TempeLabs.
com, LangsingMulus.com, HearyBoutique.
com, and the one that takes most of their
time, NulisBuku.com. Ollie and Angelina
always think to just go with it in their eve-
ry project. They never take much time to
think. Once they have an idea, they directly
execute it. Luckily, it has always resulted
well. Implicitly, Ollie has put Angelina as
one of the most influencing figures in her
career path.
Both of Ollie’s parents also have a
very important role. She was once wor-
ried about their responses on her choices
of life. Her parents were both working
for the government, without any side job.
ollie.doc “Would they understand
their daughter’s decision to jump into a misty
valley?” she asked worriedly. After they talked
about it, turned out that her parents under-
stand and even supported her.
Besides Angelina and both her parents,
Nukman Luthfie is also a prominent figure
in shaping Ollie’s creative passion. He was
the spiritual guide for Ollie and Angelina
when they were at the crossroad of their
life: choosing between being an employee
or to work independently.
There are many creative people in Indo-
nesia who put more colors in Ollie’s career.
Ndoro Kakung, Budiono Darsono, Paman
Tyo, and Goenawan Mohamad are inspira-
tional figures for Ollie. She explains, those
figures have one thing in common, be-
ing creative.
71

72. “We certainly will
be if it used to!”
As a blogger, Ollie is not only sharing and
inspiring people through her personal blog, but
she also noted as a Professional (Pro) Blogger.
Ollie was recruited by a company in America for
3 months to blog. She was asked to make qual-
ity posts in English 3 hours each week. The top-
ics were various, and she was paid according to
the numbers of the posts.
Apparently, Ollie’s decision to accept the of-
fer as a Pro Blogger was inspired by Budi Putra,
a former reporter of Tempo and former country
editor of Yahoo! Indonesia. “Budi Putra can be
considered as the starter of Pro Blogger Indo-
nesia. He resigned from his job at Tempo just
to blog,” Ollie mentions her adoration to Budi
Putra.
Ollie has now become a great woman fighting at digital world. With
many supports, Ollie is capable to combine her hobby and technology
into a promising business. Ollie hopes that there are going to be more
Indonesian women that dare to compete as the era advances. One shall
not fear of conquering new borders. The prejudice that doubts women
to connect with technology should be dismissed. “We are surely capable
when we are used to it!” Ollie firmly adds.
72

73. MAKING
writing and reading
A CULTURE
“I do not need a certain
mood to write. I called it a
mechanical writer!” 73