Cartier believes in the power of bold ideas to empower local initiatives to have global impact. To celebrate Cartier’s dedication to launching the ideas of female entrepreneurs into concrete change, TED has curated a special session of talks around the theme “Bold Alchemy” for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, featuring a selection of favorite TED speakers.

Leading up to the session, TED talked with entrepreneur, designer and CEO of Barefoot College International, Meagan Fallone.

TED: Tell us who you are.
Meagan Fallone: I am an entrepreneur, a designer, a passionate mountaineer and a champion of women in the developing world and all women whose voices and potential remain unheard and unrealized. I am a mother and am grounded in the understanding that of all the things I may ever do in my life, it is the only one that truly will define me or endure. I am immovable in my intolerance to injustice in all its forms.

TED: What’s a bold move you’ve made in your career?
MF: I decided to leave the two for-profit companies I started and grow a nonprofit social enterprise.

TED: Tell us about a woman who inspires you.
MF: The women in my family who were risk-takers in their own individual ways: they are always with me and inspire me. My female friends who push me always to dig deeper within myself, to use my power and skills for ever bigger and better impact in the world. I am inspired always by every woman who has ever accepted to come to train with us at Barefoot College. They place their trust in us, leave their community and everyone they love to make an unimaginable journey on every level. It is the bravest thing I have ever seen.

TED: If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 18-year-old self?
MF: I would tell myself not to take myself so seriously. I would tell myself to trust that the world takes us exactly where we should be. It took me far too long to learn to laugh at how ridiculous I am sometimes. It took me even longer to accept that the path that was written for me was not exactly the one I envisaged for myself. Within the things I never imagined lay all the beauty and wonder of my journey so far — and the promise of what I have yet to impact.

The private TED session at Cartier takes place April 26 in Singapore. It will feature talks from a diverse range of global leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers, exploring topics ranging from the changing global workforce to maternal health to data literacy, and it will include a performance from the only female double violinist in the world.