she was furious and told me I wasn’t
allowed on the stage. At the time I was
devastated, but now I know all she was
doing was running a tight ship and
teaching me tough love.
places and situations I found myself
were absolutely unbelievable but I just
kept remembering the words my uncle
shared with me before I left home:
“never forget where you come from”.
I never forgot a costume again.
I very quickly specialised in
Management of Change and within
six months was doing the job of my
manager who had started working in
the company the year I was born!
When I was 15 years old my Aunt
introduced me to my first personal
development book – The Secret by
Rhonda Byrne.
This was my first insight into what life
was really all about and how I could
create whatever I wanted. In the same
year, I went to Sydney, Australia for
One afternoon I found myself sitting
outside the Permanent Under Secretary
room, surrounded by lavish paintings,
gold plated statues and ceilings that
were reaching for the stars. I felt like
I JUST KEPT REMEMBERING THE WORDS MY UNCLE SHARED
WITH ME BEFORE I LEFT HOME “NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU
COME FROM”.
the first time and fell in love with the
most beautiful city in the world. In
that one moment, standing underneath
the bridge, with the Opera House and
the sun in my face, I knew 100% I was
going to live and work here.
In October 2007, I applied and was
lucky enough to get a graduate position
at a leading American IT firm in
London. Life there was incredible and
certainly lived up to expectations. For
over three years, I travelled all around
the UK and Europe wor king with
the biggest clients in the world from
banking to government agencies. The
56
GLOSS JULY 2015
a tiny girl in a big, extravagant world,
completely out of my depth - oh how
I had moved on from the corridors
of my secondary school outside the
head masters office. I was there to
photograph the UK Managing Director
& American Vice President of our IT
firm and the Account Executive of the
account I worked on – who like me was
from a wee town in Scotland.
I informed the Account Executive that
we needed to capture the moment we
took the account to the next stage in
terms of leadership/ partnership and we
had to show our employees they were