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By Mihar Dias October 2024
Sometimes, you wonder what people actually talk about during a two-hour lunch meeting.
Is it business deals? Life updates? Or just idle chatter over a plate of pasta?
Recently, I found myself at such a lunch with three entrepreneurs at Modesto’s on the 36th floor of TA Tower, overlooking the Kuala Lumpur City Centre.
These three were brimming with excitement, convinced they had an idea that would revolutionise tourism in the city.
The idea itself was simple enough. From what I gathered, it could have enormous financial potential—millions, perhaps—if carefully conceptualized, branded, and launched on an international scale.
They wanted me to write a column promoting their vision, but I was hesitant. Why? It wasn’t fully formed. No trademark, no brand, not even a concrete plan beyond an enthusiastic conversation over chicken briyani.
I had to explain to them that an idea, no matter how brilliant, can’t be copyrighted.
In the tourism industry, products and experiences are developed daily by savvy tour operators spotting opportunities to lure tourists. Their idea, while promising in their minds, was just one of many that come and go. It wasn’t groundbreaking, not yet.
When I was growing up, my siblings and I would often share our grand ideas with our grandmother. We’d tell her about the businesses we dreamed of starting or the gadgets we imagined inventing. Her response was always the same, even if, years later, some of those ideas did turn into successful ventures: “So, what else is new?”
It’s a phrase that’s stuck with me. After all, how many truly new ideas are there in the world?
What Elon Musk is selling today—electric cars, reusable rockets, space tourism—isn’t exactly new either. It’s simply a better way of doing what’s been done before.
We’ve been building cars, launching rockets, and dreaming of space travel for decades. Musk is just refining and rebranding those age-old concepts.
As our lunch drew to a close, I glanced out at the balcony. A large red love sign stood prominently, framed by the sweeping views of Kuala Lumpur.
Three well-known personalities from the world of journalism and tourism were posing for photos next to it. It struck me as a fitting metaphor for the afternoon’s conversation.
Love, like ideas, takes on many forms, but ultimately, it’s the same feeling expressed in different ways.
Grandma would have laughed at that scene. "You'll always find ways to express love for the people you care about," she once told us. “Today you're carving love signs on my mango trees. Tomorrow, you’ll probably paint it in the sky.”
I thought she was joking—until I saw a plane draw a heart over the Manhattan skyline during my college years.
So, what else is new?
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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