I

f success, like sport, requires training, people can now meet some coaches who will help them achieve it.

One coach who has paved his own success story is Tung Dessem Waringin, a motivational and marketing book writer, also known by his initials, TDW.

"I would prefer to be called a success coach," Tung quickly added after The Jakarta Post called him a motivation coach. His latest book on marketing strategies and fast-selling sold quickly from the shelves and became a national hit.

"I sold nearly 39,000 books on the first day. From my book, Gramedia *the publisher* made some Rp 7.5 million in one day," Tung said.

"I can't remember how many people I have coached - there are so many. I held hundreds of seminars last year, involving thousands of participants. I had 2,000 in Surakarta, 700 in Lampung, 1,000 in Medan, and thousands more in Jakarta.

His slogan,Dahsyat" (powerful hello), is not the only motivational slogan in the city. There are other success coaches with various slogans, suchis my right" and "super-this" and "super-that", driving people to success - as early as possible.

In Gramedia bookstore in Puri Indah, West Jakarta, motivational and life-changing books are on prime display and are among the best sellers.

"Foreign writers are generally more popular but a few local writers are selling very well too. TDW, Andrie Wongso, Mario Teguh have made quite a good deal for themselves. Andrie's Wisdom and Success constantly fills the cash register," Haryono from the store said.

Another store in West Jakarta, Kinokuniya, has also sold quite a good deal of motivational and business tactics books among their fast-flowing books.

With technology, the lessons have jumped from text and face-to-face meetings to radio and television talk shows.

The coach Mario Teguh's two sessions on different television stations have glued mature female viewers to their television sets.

"He has received good reception in that group," Andini Wijentaru of AC Nielsen said.

Not only local coaches are busy, the Singaporean marketer James Gwee has had his calendar full with business coaching for companies.

He said the number of participants had increased in Jakarta and all over Indonesia, even during the economic downturn.

"People are now much more aware of the benefits of attending *and getting their staff to attend* seminars and conducting in-house training for their employees. Yes business may slow down, orders may drop, but all this is temporary. The situation challenges us to be more creative, to look for opportunities.

"In a F1 or GP race, the best opportunity to overtake is at the curve, and we are approaching the economic curve in 2009. It's time to overtake."

Andri Suryadi, a psychiatrist, said essentially what drove people was the urge to experience happiness, which nowadays was often confused with success.

"Everyone wants happiness and success, but the two are different. Without realizing it, some achieve success but end up unhappy. People have to ask themselves: Does success equal happiness? If people think positively, even a trash picker can be happy," he said.

Tung agreed that success and happiness were different, but said that in times of need, success played an important role in happiness.

"Success is pursuing something youhave but happiness is being happy with what you already have," he said.

"But without money, how can you be happy if, say, you can't pay for your parents' medical bill or send your kids to good schools?"

Muhammad Nurhadi, a trainee doctor, does not go to Tung's seminar but shares the same idea. He listened to an American coach Robert T. Kiyosaki and strove to be financially successful as early as possible.

"I am a doctor so I am either an employee or self-employed. My income depends on my skills, so if something happened to me, my income would be gone. So it is important for me to be rich - with passive income more than expenses - to have a stable life. Things are very uncertain," he said.

The same uncertainty also worries businessman Hendry, who clocks six days a week at work. To get some tips, he has attended three motivational and marketing seminars, reaching a conclusion

"Heeding the advice took more than a day of seminar or an hour in front of the television. Essentially the coaches are talking about the same thing. It is just down to you which one you prefer and how disciplined you are in doing what they advise. You tend to forget after a month or so. You need to constantly remind yourself," he said.

On top of motivation, he said, was the core competence of each person.

"For business, for example, you need to have strong core competence in order to do what the coaches advise. I can apply some of the strategies but essentially I have to have something to offer to be able to make the fantastic sales. "

Seems like he knows what Tung was talking about.