Perseverance key to two sisters' success in writing, business

By Habsah Ismail

KOTA BHARU, Oct 13   -- They are only in their early 30’s, but Dr Wan Iman Wan Mohd Nazi and her sister, Wan Taqwa, each has their own success stories to share.

Wan Iman, 34, is now an award-winning novelist by the name of Evelyn Rose, while Wan Taqwa, 33, is doing very well in real estate and plantation business, but they both had to face hardships before getting to where they are today.

Speaking to Bernama recently, Wan Iman said she had used her experience of 10 years living in the United Kingdom as a student and scientist, into writing her four novels and chose Evelyn Rose as her pen name due to her love for the flower.

“My latest novel titled ‘Untukmu Cinta’ was marketed a day before the Movement Control Order was enforced in March, while the other three '13 Jam A380', 'Suamiku Si Mata Biru' and 'The Wedding Breaker' were bestsellers in MPH and Popular Bookstores,” said the holder of an engineering PhD from the Newcastle University.

Elaborating, Wan Iman said she took years to finish each of her novels as she has to keep up with her studies and work but everything paid off when the books gained readers’ attention.

She said only 86,000 copies of her first novel The Wedding Breaker was sold when it was first published in 2012, but after it was adapted into television hit series 'Ariana Rose' by producer Datuk Ziela Jalil a year later featuring Fathia Latif and Keith Foo as the lead actors, the sale of the novel spiked to 160,000 copies.

She also bagged the Best Novelist Award from the National Book Award for ‘13 Jan A380’ which was published in 2013 and second place of Popular-BH  Readers Choice Award 2014.

“Meanwhile, ‘Suamiku Si Mata Biru’ published in 2017 was nominated as Popular-BH  Readers Choice Award 2018. There have been requests for a sequel because the readers felt like the story was unfinished,” she said.

Apart from being a novelist, Wan Iman is also a director of an engineering company, Green Castle Innovation Sdn Bhd, and a food nutrition company Woodland Nutrition Sdn Bhd, who has full support from her husband who is a businessman in Malaysia and UK.

Meanwhile, for Wan Taqwa who holds a Degree in International Banking from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, her soft-spoken personality often surprised many people when they found out that she was excellent in real estate business and managing hundreds of acres of agricultural farms.

“These fields are dominated by men and I admit that it was not easy because I often became the only woman in many deals. I also have to manage workers who are mostly men but I get used to it over time and truth be told, women can succeed in real estate, plantation and forestry,” she said.

Wan Taqwa added that she had run various businesses since 2013 to diversify her sources of income and found it most challenging to get in and out of extreme places like the forest, and doing real estate business around Malaysia but she persevered anyway because of her interest in the fields.

“For the last five years, I also ventured into supplying food at government departments, government boarding schools and also supply filtered drinking water to government bodies and other organisations in Kelantan,” she added.

-- BERNAMA