UrbanWire speaks to Singapore's up-and-coming image guru Kathryn Lim about life, spirituality, being a young entrepreneur, and her new inspirational book Wealth from Within.

By Mary-Ann Russon • UrbanWire
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At 24, Kathryn Lim is already an entrepreneur, an image consultant, a life coach, and she's just written her first book Wealth from Within, a 150-page inspirational book dealing with issues like failure, jealousy, goals and creativity. After spending 2 years doing this project, she is donating all proceeds from Wealth from Within to PRASAD (Philanthropic Relief, Altruistic Service and Development), a non-profit organisation helping to bring humanitarian programmes like disaster relief, education, health and medical care to 3rd world countries. UrbanWire catches up with Kathryn to find out just how she got started.

What inspired you to write Wealth from Within?
What sort of observations are these?
Your mentor is internationally acclaimed image guru Robert Panté - how did you meet?
What makes Wealth from Within different from a self-help book?
With each copy of Wealth from Within, you're giving away sunflower seeds. Why sunflower seeds?
What sort of lessons should we be learning from Wealth from Within?
What would you say then to someone who had tried to go after his or her calling, and had failed?

UW: What inspired you to write Wealth from Within?

Kathryn Lim: "It started off with a few pages of journaling when I was in Australia doing a course. I was at this beach, and I was sitting there alone, looking at the sea and the sky, and something was triggered inside me, when I was in this state of aloneness, something deep, like a feel[ing] you are suddenly exposed to whoever you are, whatever you have inside, and I started journaling, writing down my thoughts, my feelings, whatever I feel about life, my observations around me about people [and] things, and it just started off as a few pages, … and in the final stages, I met a group of people who actually asked me if I'd like to write a book. And it was like a sign… sometimes you get messages from people, from things around you, and I thought it was a good idea."

UW: What sort of observations are these?

Kathryn Lim: "Observations of people's actions or responses toward things, like perhaps, if you see a child playing, with a lot of aliveness and energy, and next to the child you see an adult, in business wear, talking on a phone, and his face looks stressed out, and you start to observe, and think about how when we're [children], we feel that joy, that natural kind of enthusiasm and energy, but … that courage, aliveness, joy [and] childlikeness tends to fade off as we grow older, and [in the book] I wrote about the motivation behind people becoming agitated, stressed out and aggressive nowadays. The book has my inner contemplations about life."

UW: Your mentor is internationally acclaimed image guru Robert Panté- how did you meet?

Kathryn Lim:"I first met Robert Panté when I was 17, 7 years ago, at a seminar with 5,000 people, while I was still studying. I saw Robert Panté delivering this image-consulting seminar, and he was very charismatic, and I felt a certain connection, like we had [known each other] a long time. I wanted to be trained as an image consultant since I was at LaSalle studying fashion at that time, but his fees were $1,000 per hour, and as a student I couldn't pay for [that], so I did something really outrageous. I was very determined that I really wanted [Robert Panté] to be my teacher. I actually wrote him a letter, and checked what hotel he was staying in, and I went to the hotel, and left the letter at the concierge, and so they had to call Robert Panté before they could send the letter up, and I was at the concierge so I heard the room number."

"I [wanted] him to be my teacher [so much] that I couldn't help [calling] up Ritz Carlton and saying, "Hi, I want to speak to this person," and since he was a special guest speaker from the US, a special VIP guest, [Ritz Carlton] thought I must know him, and put the call through. He thanked me for the letter but said that when the time was right we would meet again. I felt that at least I got to talk to him, so I let it go."

"3 years later, after I graduated from LaSalle, I was in a bookstore and one of his books fell from a bookshelf and hit my foot, so I picked it up and opened the book, and inside was his personal email address. I don't know why I didn't see the address 3 years ago when I bought the book. So I wrote him an email saying that I would like to meet and learn from him. And he replied saying he would be in Singapore the next day, staying with a friend, and if I was interested to contact him. It was like it all just happened at the right time. And this time his fees were much more reasonable, so I paid… and learnt from him, and eventually he asked me to organise seminars for him so I could learn from hands-on experience. And that's how it [started]."

UW: What makes Wealth from Within different from a self-help book?

Kathryn Lim: "A self-help book normally motivates people, but what I would like to do is inspire people, and how inspiration normally takes place is from the heart, like when you see someone laughing, you can't help feeling joy, but when you are with someone [who] is always depressed, your inner state will be like that person's. So what I would like to achieve from this book, is … share my personal experiences, and let people get inspired by what I share, by my state of being, and when people read the book, they can go into a deeper contemplation, and it's beyond age. Wisdom is innate within all of us, even a baby has got wisdom, and it's up to us to take the effort, time and responsibility to discover it."

UW: With each copy of Wealth from Within, you're giving away sunflower seeds. Why sunflower seeds?

Kathryn Lim: "We were thinking of what kind of gift to buy for people, [because] I want the book to be something that is from the heart, and I really want people to feel that I'm really sincere about sharing my wisdom [and] experiences. Sunflower seeds [can be bought] in large quantities, it's so natural, and it also resembles the talents within us, like if you put the seed on the table, it [won't] just grow. You have to put in water, give it sunlight and fertilisers, and wait for it to grow, just like innate wisdom. You can't just wait for things to happen to you, just sitting on a chair waiting for lightning to strike you and suddenly you've got everything you need. Life is just like a seed. You need to put in the proper soil, and not [too] much water, or you'll drown it."

UW: What sort of lessons should we be learning from Wealth from Within?

Kathryn Lim: "The lesson would be to turn within, to look at what is within your heart that would inspire you not to do things just because of money, [or] just because that career would bring in income. But what is your passion, your talent, and [to] use that as a guide to setting up something that you really love doing. You have to first find your passion, … what you are called to do, because everyone in this world has a calling. Some people are called to be a doctor, a teacher, a journalist, an actress, and all of them have their calling that they have to follow.

UW: What would you say then to someone who had tried to go after his or her calling, and had failed?

Kathryn Lim: "Sometimes in life when you want something, it may not necessarily work out that way. Like when I was younger, I really wanted to be a teacher, but after my O' Levels MOE (the Ministry of Education) wouldn't let me train as a teacher because my English wasn't very good, and so I thought, well, maybe it's not meant to be. But in life, sometimes the universe has another thing in store for you, and right now I would say, looking back 10 years at what I wanted, and what I am now, [there have been] lots of up and downs, but at the end of the day what we are meant to do we will do.

Like what I am doing now… writing a book, I share with people, and that's a part of teaching, [maybe] not a classroom style, but [more like] a little sharing session, and I see that as a form of teaching too. Sometimes we have to learn to go with the flow, and if something doesn't open up, we have to move on to another place, and let time take its pace to reveal what you can do in your life [as a] contribution.

[In] whatever you do, there is always a contribution we can make for other people. And that is what life is about - you don't solely live for yourself, you live so you can be a leading example to other people so that they can learn from you and then become an example to the people around them."

Availability
Wealth From Within retails at Popular Bookstore, Times and Borders at $23.10.
For the month of July, you can get a 20% discount on Wealth From Within, so be sure to get it soon!

Wealth From Within cover picture courtesy Rank Books.
All other photos courtesy UrbanWire

Click here to visit Kathryn Lim's Official Website.