IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
“It’s cancer.” That’s not a sentence you want to hear your doctor say when you’re only 23 years old. Seven days earlier having graduated with my degree in opera, and now I was sitting in a hospital. They say thyroid cancer is the “best” kind one can get, but for me, it couldn’t be much worse. I was an opera singer, and they were going to cut my throat open.
Thankfully, everything went as well as it could, but rehabilitation took a long time. I had lost a lot of weight and my voice didn’t work the way it used to. It was like I had to start from scratch and all my plans were shattered. But I didn’t give up.
UNCONVENTIONAL GRIT
Nothing I’ve ever done in my career has been traditional. After I recovered, I was “discovered” in a living room in Berlin, Germany. I debuted a major French opera company after being rejected by a bunch of training programs. I got my first agent because a prestigious Italian brand gave me a deal when I had no work. Nothing has ever made sense. I have always gone against the grain, not because I wanted to, but because that was the only option I seemed to have in pivotal moments.
DISRUPTION
In January 2019, I started creating content to serve singers and have a creative outlet while I was on the road for jobs. Nobody paid much attention to it, some people in my sector teased me for it, but I was having fun and it seemed to help people, so I kept going.
When every opera house in the world shut down just a year later, I was perfectly positioned to convey a message of grit and tenacity to my decimated sector. I knew what it was like to lose everything in a day, and I knew how to bounce back from it with hope and perseverance.
Our reaction in crisis determines what kind of lives we have. If I hadn’t pressed through the difficulties I experienced early on, I doubt I would have had the courage to dive into building a technology company as an opera singer, especially during a global pandemic. But it’s those dark moments of the soul that refine us and prove us, and expand our capacity to dream and to build.
Let’s get to work!
