Flying High, My Story
Page 21
Every single person I have met has taught me something. But I’ve been extremely fortunate to have met and worked with amazing people whom I can call both colleagues and friends. First of all, Datuk Din or ‘bro’ to me. (I’ve never understood why everyone calls you ‘Datuk’ and me ‘Tony’ – hahahaha.) Thanks for just being more than a partner-friend-brother. There isn’t a word to describe our relationship. We have laughed and cried together, but always together, and always provide a backbone for each other. Thank you for coming into my life by fleecing me in the record deal for RAP. Datuk Pahamin Rajab, Conor McCarthy, Dato Abdul Aziz Bakar – without you, AirAsia would have only been a dream.
To Jay Razak aka Nazir. From enemy to besties. That’s what life is all about. Many have thought we are lovers, including my daughter (hahaha). But what I have learnt about life is without friends you are poorer for it. As James Taylor and Carol King said, ‘You’ve got a friend’. I could write a whole book about our relationship. Who knows? One day. There are many more chapters to come.
To my QPR brothers: Amit and Ruban. What a ride! Thanks for always taking the blame, for sticking together, for the laughter, the support and the words of wisdom, and for always telling it like it is. Ruban, one day we will enjoy beating Liverpool.
To Les ‘Bang’ Ferdinand – one day I’ll beat you at table tennis or something. Thanks for being honest in this day of modern football and being the ultimate gentleman. And thanks to Ian Holloway too, for his passion and belief.
Special mention to Laressa Kelly for always putting me first and keeping me sane.
To the QPR team: let’s build something special together; and to all the QPR staff: thanks for always putting the club first.
To QPR fans, thank you for standing by me and believing in the team. We’re at the start of something really exciting.
To my Caterham family. Next book will be all about our new car and the making of a new Caterham. Thanks for being patient and keeping it together.
To Kian Onn and Kalli: the One-Malaysia family. We laugh and fight but you’re always there for me. Without you guys, what is Tony Fernandes?
To Jeff Immelt, Mike Jones, Tom Enders, Kiran Rao and Jerome and Helman. Today business is ruthless but we have all shown that business can be about loyalty and friendship as well – we are there for each other in good and bad times.
To Martin Toseland, who captured my haphazard life and work and put it beautifully into this book: you the man; you have a gift. Admire and respect you. Sorry for being so hard to deal with!
To Jackye Chung, my tireless assistant, thank you for organising my chaotic schedule seamlessly.
To my dear sister Karena, best lawyer I know. Thanks again for always putting me first and caring about everything I do.
To Annie, who has been instrumental in everything Family Fernandes. You are the best.
I would not be where I am today without the love of my extended family of AirAsia Allstars, all 20,000 of them! Thank you for being such talented, hard-working, dedicated and creative people. It really is a privilege to lead you.
Thank you to Marcus Wright and Joel Rickett for commissioning this book, and seeing it through from idea to publication. Thank you also to Assistant Editor Lydia Yadi, as well as the copy-editors, proof-readers and the whole team at Penguin who have done a stand-up job putting my story together.
To Chloe, who has changed my life in so, so many ways; miracles do happen and you are one of the miracles in my life.
And, finally, to all the dreamers in the world. I hope this book inspires you. My message is simple: some dreams become a reality. Dare to dream.
THE BEGINNING
Let the conversation begin …
Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@penguinUKbooks
Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/penguinbooks
Pin ‘Penguin Books’ to your Pinterest
Like ‘Penguin Books’ on Facebook.com/penguinbooks
Listen to Penguin at SoundCloud.com/penguin-books
Find out more about the author and discover more stories like this at Penguin.co.uk
PORTFOLIO PENGUIN
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Portfolio Penguin is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published 2017
Copyright © Tony Fernandes, 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Photo credit: AirAsia
ISBN: 978-0-241-97019-5