Two years ago, I started Tech She Secures with a question I was still trying to answer for myself:
What does it really mean to find your voice?
Recently, Preet sent me a message that stopped me in my tracks.
“I’m getting messages from friends who feel so seen and heard because of your work. You’re making a real difference in people’s lives.”
I have received versions of that message from others too, and I still never quite know what to do with them.
Usually, I say thank you, probably add a purple heart, get a little emotional, and move on.
Because Tech She Secures was never supposed to be just about me.
I created it to make room for stories, perspectives, and people from all parts of the world we do not always hear enough from. I wanted to talk about technology and cybersecurity, yes, but also ambition, identity, leadership, resilience, reinvention, joy, and all the messy pieces in between.
But somewhere in year two, I realized something.
Maybe making room for other voices and learning to use my own were never two separate things.
When I wrote my very first Tech She Secures piece, Finding My Voice: A New Journey Begins, I was asking a lot of questions.
What does success actually mean?
How much of what we chase is genuinely ours, and how much comes from what we have been taught success is supposed to look like?
Can ambition and happiness coexist?
I thought I was asking those questions of myself.
I did not realize I would spend the next two years exploring them through the lives of so many other people.
And the answers have been wonderfully different.
Through the stories I have had the privilege to share, I have seen success look like leadership, reinvention, motherhood, learning, creativity, peace, resilience, giving back, starting over, and sometimes simply having the courage to decide that the thing you once wanted is no longer the thing you need.
Some people taught me about ambition.
Others made me question it.
Some reminded me to keep going.
Others reminded me that continuing forward does not always mean continuing in the same direction.
That may be one of the biggest lessons these two years have given me:
There is no one version of success waiting for us at the end.
Maybe success is being able to look at the life you are building and say, this feels like mine.
And somewhere in all of those conversations, I started changing too.
I became more willing to share my own journey and perspectives.
More willing to question the need to constantly prove myself.
More willing to bring my culture, humor, opinions, curiosity, and the other pieces of myself into spaces where I once might have edited them out.
Somewhere along the way, Tech She Secures also started sounding a lot more like me. Cybersecurity occasionally collided with skincare. K-pop dance became a lesson in being a beginner. Purple showed up everywhere. And things I once might have considered too personal, too random, or not “professional” enough became part of the story too.
The more I encouraged other people to tell their stories fully, the more permission I gave myself to do the same.
I think that has changed what “finding my voice” means to me.
I used to think it meant eventually becoming confident enough to speak without hesitation.
Now I think it is more about knowing what matters to you and being willing to say it, even while you are still learning.
It is listening.
Changing your mind.
Asking better questions.
Speaking before every thought feels perfectly polished.
And understanding that using your voice does not mean taking space away from someone else.
Amplifying other people never required me to mute myself.
In fact, the more comfortable I have become using my own voice, the more intentional I have become about using it to create room for others.
That part of Tech She Secures matters deeply to me.
My own life has always stretched across countries, cultures, and communities, and I want this platform to do the same.
I want to keep sharing perspectives from different parts of the world, including stories that may not always make it onto the biggest stages or reach the same audiences.
Because sometimes a person in Atlanta can see herself in someone in Karachi.
A seasoned leader can learn something from someone just beginning.
A story that feels very specific to one person can suddenly make someone thousands of miles away feel less alone.
Maybe storytelling does not erase the distance between us.
But it reminds us how much of the human experience was never separated by borders in the first place.
And perhaps that is why messages like Preet’s mean so much to me.
There are plenty of ways to measure whether something is working.
Views. Followers. Likes. Shares. Growth.
But the moments I remember most are usually quieter.
Someone telling me a story made her feel seen.
Someone sharing a feature with a friend because it reminded her of her own journey.
Someone saying they finally heard an experience articulated in a way they had never been able to express themselves.
And recently, someone commented on one of the interviews that seeing women genuinely celebrate and support one another made them think about how many more women could grow if there were more encouragement and less discouragement. Supporting someone else’s success can help create a path for many others too.
That stayed with me.
Because maybe amplification is not only about whose story gets told.
Maybe it is also about creating a culture where we become more comfortable celebrating one another, opening doors for one another, and recognizing that someone else’s success does not diminish our own.
Those moments have changed how I think about impact.
Maybe the question is not only how many people saw the story.
Maybe it is whether somebody saw themselves in it.
So, what do I want from Year Three?
Of course I want Tech She Secures to grow.
But I do not want growth simply to mean more.
More posts. More interviews. More content.
I want deeper conversations.
More perspectives that make us rethink what success, ambition, leadership, and fulfillment can look like.
More stories from people and places we may not always hear enough from.
More connections between lives that look completely different on the surface but are often wrestling with remarkably similar questions underneath.
And I want to keep using my own voice too.
Not because it should be the loudest one in the room.
But because after two years of asking people to show up authentically, I think I owe myself the same invitation.
I started Tech She Secures trying to find my voice.
Somewhere along the way, listening to other people use theirs started changing mine.
Two years later, I am less interested in asking whether I have found it.
I know I have one.
The question I find much more interesting now is what I can do with it.
To learn. To teach. To challenge. To celebrate. To connect. To make room.
And perhaps, every once in a while, to help someone else feel seen and heard too.
Here’s to Year Three. 💜
Maliha
Disclaimer: The content on this blog and website reflects a combination of my personal experiences, perspectives, and insights, as well as interviews and contributions from other individuals. It does not represent the opinions, policies, or strategies of any organization I am currently affiliated with or have been affiliated with in the past. This platform serves as a personal space for sharing ideas, lessons learned, and meaningful reflections.
