Sue Stockdale talks to Palwasha Siddiqi, whose early childhood experiences as a refugee shaped her interest in coaching and helping others to maximise their potential.

Palwasha was born and raised between Afghanistan and Pakistan. When she was seven her family fled the civil war in Afghanistan and became refugees in Pakistan where they lived for over a decade. They moved back to Afghanistan in 2003 after the American invasion, and it was then that she was introduced to a non-profit organization that helped her secure a full-time scholarship to attend university in the United States.

After obtaining her bachelor's and MBA degrees Palwasha went on to join American Express in New York. Seven years later she transferred to London where she currently works as a Senior Marketing Manager leading their B2B digital marketing communications. Her latest adventure involves building her own coaching practice focused on empowering individuals and leaders to realize their full potential.

Connect with Palwasha Siddiqi on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/palwashasiddiqi
Website: www.siddiqicoaching.com

Key Quotes

'We lived there during, during the civil war and some point during the war our house got hit by a rocket so everything went up into flames. We pretty much lost everything'

'I remember a rocket flying and someone saying to just dive down on the ground to stay safe. We would stay there for five, ten minutes, and then we would get up. Some of us would get up. Some of us would not.'

'I think resilience is a superpower that we all have that we can nurture.'

'I was told from a young age, all of these things that I couldn't do just because I was a woman. So my passion and my purpose was learning and getting educated.'

'All of a sudden I had so much freedom and abundance of a kind of just life that I had never experienced before.'

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Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)
Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)