She's taken on the film, property and wellness worlds—and fought her way to the top of all of them. We speak to Malaysia's hardest-working woman about the inspirations that have helped her reach her goals
Under The Influence asks entrepreneurs quick-fire questions to learn more about the people behind the business news headlines.
Think you’re busy? Try being Datin Dian Lee, a film producer and director, property guru, yoga teacher and mother of three. At 22, Lee became one of the youngest property developers in Malaysia when she founded The Clearwater Group—an award-winning boutique property development company. From there, she went on to build the Be Urban Wellness retreat in Kuala Lumpur, where she aimed to share the peace she had discovered through teaching advanced yoga with her peers.
But it was last year when her career took an entirely new direction. Around the 2018 Malaysian election, Lee started producing and co-directing a documentary about 92-year-old presidential candidate Mahathir Mohamad, whom nobody expected to win. However, his shock defeat against his one-time protégé, the incumbent Najib Razak, made Lee’s documentary extraordinarily prescient—and hotly anticipated. It is due for release later this summer.
Here, Lee talks success, spirituality, Sapiens and why we should all be dancing in the rain.
What books changed your life?
Oh, heaps of them—I love The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. I think that was an eye opener for me because it was one of very few books that I had read about mindfulness and spirituality when it came out. It was a fascinating story, and really taught me more about being present. I have tried to be religious: I was brought up as a Buddhist, and I was very curious about Christianity in college, but reading this book was the missing bit of the puzzle for me. Another book that really put things into perspective was Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari– you can’t go through life without reading it, and understanding the role we play on this planet.
What’s the most important thing in life?
To be present. There is so much noise out there, and it’s essental to know that our time here is just a moment and one we have to make the most of. Look at the grand scale of things and see how small our lives are. What’s important is putting things into perspective without getting distracted by everyday busyness.
