Transcription
You know, I don't think people would believe it, but I think it sells doors. I don't think confidence is something that you were born with. I don't think confidence, it's, it's a skill set.
And I had no confidence growing up as a child. I was extreme, I had very low self-esteem. I was go Keys a teenager and I lived in America. I was made to feel conscious about the fact that I was Indian. That was weird at that time, and not by everyone, but just by like, a few bullies at school that hated me. In high school is hard for everyone, but so I was in a, in a very weird sort of teenage place.
And when Miss India happened, I'm inherently competitive. I think the fact that I was competitive pushed me to teach myself to be confident. Initially, I faked it till I made it. I was just like, I'm not gonna let anyone see that I'm scared. I'm not gonna let anyone see that I'm affected.
And over time, I realized that as a woman, as a girl in this world, if I allow myself to be hurt or if I allow myself to be affected, that's all I'm going to be. And I'm not, you know, trying to say that it's an issue that just women have. It's not easy to be a woman in show business, especially a woman who's opinionated, especially someone who, I'm not, I'm sort of like. And I wasn't like that from the beginning. I sort of learned.
So confidence is something I've taught myself. I started becoming okay with who I am. I became the best version of me. And then I sort of said, I'm okay. You know, I'm alright. Even if someone else thinks this, I'm okay. And everyone can do that. People just don't realize it.
I was always created in school, but I didn't know what to do with it. I used to ride, I did plays, I would do school. But my aspiration was never to be creative. And now that I found this vocation, I'm producing, I write columns, my creativity comes out in whatever way it can.
I think somehow some things guides you. What that is, I don't know. I don't have a name for it. I don't think it's a religion. I don't know if it's God. I don't know what it is. I think something is bigger than us.
And I believe that. Well, when I became Miss India, I sort of was on strange ground myself because I was literally, I was in college, I was studying. And now I'm suddenly Miss World. And I have these, I was traveling all over the world, you know, being an ambassador. And suddenly movie offers started coming to me from India because I think producers thought that it would be, it would make business sense to, you know, have Miss World in the movie. And I guess it is because in my first second films, like I won a lot of awards.
I didn't think I could act. I just went in there with the idea of, okay, I can learn a new skill set. I may not know what acting is about, but I can learn. So that's how I've taught myself. I've never been to film school. I've, I taught my spike arere has been perfect. I've fallen down and dusted myself off. I've been okay to fail. I don't like failure. I'll never let the same failure happen to me again because I learn from it. I like knowledge. I like learning from the people around me. And I don't think anyone reaches a point, no matter how successful you are in life, you can't learn something. And I think that sort of got me to where I am. And that's been a big part of my work.
And I remember when no one wanted to ask me. And I get that. I remember when, and I still am like, sometimes there's so many fights that I do. But I remember when nobody wanted to, you know, wanted my opinion. I remember when I had to work on, when I was just the side chick to the guy. And I had to work and do small but important significant parts to prove that I can and I will. And then triumph.
So no one can be that. You can't be like, oh, that's nice. It's gonna knock on my door one day. No, it won't. You have to be able to recognize opportunities because there'll be a lot of them that come into your life. And once you recognize enough to seize the day and work bloody hard because there'll be 25 other people.
I was told that that I wanted because of confidence because I asked later. There was so many more beautiful women than me. But of course, like, what, what is it? And they were like, just you, when you speak, you just eloquent and confident and, you know. And I was 18. And I realized how important it was. I mean, I was Miss World at 18, just because I was confident.
So if mainly understand that confidence truly is the key to getting ahead in life. If you believe in yourself, the world will believe in you because perception is reality. [Music]