Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway. Transform Fear into Power! An inspiring true story of a powerful woman - Dima Ghawi.
Broken glass and shattered ceilings: This is the inspiring true story of how one woman took control of her own destiny. This is how you overcome fear and become a successful individual.
Broken glass and shattered ceilings: This is the inspiring true story of how one woman took control of her own destiny. This is how you overcome fear and become a successful individual.
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00:00A girl is just like the perfect glass vase.
00:05If it gets cracked for any reason, you can never fix it or glue it back.
00:12It will always be seen as cracked.
00:17This story has been passed down for generations, from my great-grandmother to my grandmother
00:23to me, and it became an overwhelming obstacle in my life.
00:30But I followed all of that.
00:32I did exactly what was expected of me.
00:37When I was 19 years old, I got engaged through a family introduction to the most eligible
00:44bachelor in the community.
00:47My parents were thrilled.
00:49His mom was the one who arranged the introduction.
00:53She introduced us, we got married, and we moved together to San Diego, California to
00:59follow his career aspirations.
01:02I thought that with this marriage and the move to the U.S., I could finally be allowed
01:07to discover my identity and be respected for who I truly am.
01:13But to my shock, the expectations never left.
01:19They were actually bigger, and I was expected to do more and more to maintain the perfect
01:27image.
01:28I felt living in it like a property.
01:32I was expected to just serve him and his family.
01:35I wasn't even allowed to speak to my parents other than 20 minutes a week.
01:41I was terrified of staying in that relationship, but I was also afraid to leave.
01:48I felt that my life was over.
01:50There was nothing to live for, and I wasn't even 25 at that time.
01:57And that was the moment that I decided that I'm going to feel the fear, and I'm going
02:02to take action anyway.
02:04I packed, and I left.
02:07I went to bed that night knowing that I cracked the vase.
02:12And as terrified as I was, I knew that I made the right choice.
02:16Not only did my family disown me, but one attempted to have me killed to save the honor
02:23of the family.
02:24And if you're wondering who is the person who has attempted to kill me and who has been
02:29trying for the last 16 years, that's my own dad, because he feels that I brought shame
02:37to the family, and my blood, shedding it, would be the only way to clear that shame.
02:45So I needed to move on.
02:47I couldn't live in the past anymore.
02:49I needed to create a new story, a story of empowerment, a story of self-discovery.
02:54I just didn't know how to do that.
02:56I was barely surviving, and my only way that I knew of in order to move forward was with
03:02education.
03:03So I enrolled at the University of San Diego.
03:08Less than a year later, I decided to start applying for jobs, and I just wanted to practice
03:14interviewing skills.
03:17Every single company I applied for, they gave me an offer, including IBM, to their leadership
03:25development program.
03:26I was so terrified, terrified of leaving San Diego, terrified of leaving the past behind,
03:33terrified of proving myself in this big company.
03:37But the same intuition kept telling me, feel the fear and take action anyway.
03:44And I did.
03:45And that's when the world opened up for me.
03:48I got to work and travel around the world with IBM.
03:52I lived in Japan for over a year.
03:54I got to work on projects with them at the United Nations in South Africa.
03:59I got to lead global teams, and every day I would wake up, I would remind myself to
04:05feel the fear and to take action anyway.
04:10And all kinds of people from around the world would send me messages telling me about how
04:16they related to my story.
04:18Men and women, all kinds of ages, different religion, different professions, different
04:23everything, resonated with the message of being perfect, of being afraid constantly
04:30of making mistakes, worried of being judged, and aspiring to be perfect.
04:37So to my grandmother, the pure, perfect glass, it represents the unrealistic limitations
04:46that I choose not to obey.
04:50What vases are you living with?
04:53Who told you not to follow your dreams?
04:57Who told you not to be yourself?
05:01What is holding you back?
05:04We can continue to live in fear and keep the glass vase perfect, or simply feel the fear
05:13and take action anyway.
05:15Smash it with all the fear, the worry, and the shame that it represents.