Transcriber: Saiyao Chui Reviewer: Ariana Bleau Lugo
Thank you guys so much.
My name is Nellie Partow.
I'm a fashion designer, based out of New York City.
I'm here today to talk a little bit about the journey of life,
and share a little bit about my experiences in a creative field,
and a little bit about some experiences I've had in my life,
and hopefully can give you guys
some insight onto what I've learned.
I do have a couple of questions for the audience,
if I can get a raise of hands --
How many people are currently living their dream?
That's impressive.
That's amazing.
And how many people are working towards a dream?
OK, incredible, me too.
Well, I'd like to share a little bit about my dream,
and how I became working in the field of the fashion industry.
I was really young, I was 8 years old.
I was fortunate to know exactly what I wanted to pursue
and fell in love with design,
and the creativity behind it, the craft that goes into it,
and all the details and the elements
that really define being a fashion designer.
So I made sure that I pursued absolutely everything I could
to make this dream come true.
And knowing that I wanted to start my own label,
I made sure I went to business school,
and got a degree in business management
in order to know how to run and operate my own company.
After graduating from business school,
I ended up going to Parsons School of Design in New York.
And while I was at Parsons,
I was fortunate to have the experience to work at Donna Karan.
And upon graduation,
I landed my first position designing for Calvin Klein.
And after Calvin Klein, I was fortunate
and had the opportunity to work with John Varvatos.
And after about 10 years of design experience in the industry,
I decided to take the plunge and start my own company.
It was an incredible experience.
So about little over 3 years ago now, I started my own label.
And I have an interesting hobby that I had along this journey.
I'm also a competitive boxer.
And a little bit about that story, because people find it quite interesting.
I was fifteen years old and always loved sports.
But wanted to be athletic --
didn't like going to the gym.
So, I walked pass a boxing gym
and thought this could be an interesting workout.
I didn't know that I was walking into Team USA's doors.
And the head trainer pulled me aside there and said,
within a month of training there, he said,
"You have what it takes to be a fighter."
And I thought it was crazy, I knew my mom would kill me,
and I said, "No way, I don't even want to get hit in the face.
That just does not sound interesting to me at all."
And he said OK. We went to some live fights.
He took me to some live fights.
It's as if he knew what he was doing,
I completely fell in love with the sport.
And so within a couple of months,
I was in the ring in Compton in Los Angeles
with my parents watching, and I started fighting.
It was a hobby of mine
that I have continuously lived throughout my design career.
And one defining moment for me was in 2007,
I fought in Madison Square Garden
for the New York Daily News
Golden Gloves Championship Title.
That was an incredible defining moment for me.
I'll never forget.
I was getting my hand wrapped; I was extremely nervous --
pretty much on the same page as I am right now.
And my heart was pounding, I was getting excited,
and I was trying to get my head
in the mind frame of getting into the ring.
My trainer was wrapping my hands.
And this is something that I had done many fights before.
And he pulled me on the side before we walked out and he said,
"I just want you to know one thing:
win, lose, none of this matters, unless you are genuinely having fun."
When I wallked out into the ring, it was an incredible moment for me.
I won the title that night,
but I walked away with a far more enriching lesson.
I realized that it's not about winning a title
or making it in this career that I've dreamed about for so long.
It's really about the measure of joy that we have along the way
throughout this entire process.
I think as human beings we get so caught up
in trying to get to these end points,
whether it's with our career, or with finances,
or with personal goals that we put on ourselves,
and we tend to forget to enjoy the process
and to really live and to not constanly measure ourselves
by where we are at and where we want to be.
So I think the true creative process and the true beauty of life
is really being able to enjoy these moments.
So I hope that on some way I'm able to send that message
that I know all know, but so easily forget, including myself.
And I hope that that helps.
Now I'm going to ask somebody from the audience
to come up so we can do three rounds of sparring.
So I need a volunteer. (Laughter)
I'm just kidding.
Thank you guys so much.
I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me today.
I appreciate it.
(Applause)