Sophie Fengaras

Transcript

The risk of playing it safe. Small town, big dreams, and the brightest light. When I was 13, performing on a stage was my norm. I would put on my sequin dress and I would sing Mariah Carey on repeat. I was like a junior Spice Girl, Posh Spice, obviously. And I always felt a little different as a kid. I desperately wanted to escape those four walls in my bedroom. And one day I was singing to my dad and I thought he'd be really proud of me, but instead he laughed in my face.

Suddenly the thing that made me feel very alive felt embarrassing. And it was experiences like that when I was a little girl that taught me security mattered more than standing out. See, money was tight in my family. So, I decided to become a lawyer. But I didn't just become any lawyer. By 23, I became a lawyer who lived in Dubai. And my family, they were very proud of me. And I had traded the four walls of my bedroom for the four walls of an office.

And now I found myself sitting under the Dubai fluorescent lights editing documents that no one would read. Because in the corporate world, success required silence. And there was only one thing that would get me through those tough moments and that was conversation. Friends, colleagues would come to me confessing that they felt stuck in their lives. And every time I helped someone find a little bit of clarity, my voice would come back a little bit more. When I was 28, that's when I bought a real microphone.

By day, I was scuffling in my office, keeping my head down. But by night, I was recording videos in my bedroom of a coaching business no one knew about. But I knew that double life could not exist forever. One morning before work, I sat in my Mercedes and I was sobbing from the deep suffocation that I felt inside of my body. And there was this song by my favorite British singer called Emily Sunday. You got the words to change a nation.

Guys, this is more embarrassing, by the way, than singing to my dad. But you're biting your tongue. You've spent a lifetime stuck in silence, afraid you'll say something wrong. I didn't realize I could still use my voice like that. I had traded safety over my own light for over 20 years. And that's when I decided it was time to hand in my notice. But I was terrified of losing my six-f figureure salary, disappointing my parents, but I was even more terrified that my light that made me different was never going to come back.

And as I walked out of that legal office one final time, I felt those four walls finally break open. And that is when I relaunched my life as an entrepreneur and as a speaker who sparks movements. See, we all have something inside of us that knows we are different, knows we are meant for more. But somewhere along the way, we learned it was safer to hide it. And that is the real risk. But that difference that you feel, it's not something to be ashamed of.

It's something burning inside of you to turn up. So I invite you all in this room to raise one hand in the air with me right now. Raise one hand in the air, beautiful, because we are going to turn that light up. Up. Exactly. Because the real risk is not about being seen. It's about spending your life hiding your light. Thank you.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.