By HTE Founder, Erin Hughes.
From law to jewellery design, Simone Pansino opens up about walking away from the “safe” path to build a life that actually felt like hers.
On paper, Simone Pansino had done everything right.
She worked in law through her family business, had multiple degrees behind her name, and from the outside, her career looked stable, impressive and successful. The kind of path people encourage you to stay on.
But internally, it was a very different story.
“It felt empty,” Simone says honestly. “I waited for the weekend. I filled my weeknights and weekends with activities. I travelled every chance I got because that’s where I felt most free. In an office setting, I felt trapped.”
And while there wasn’t one dramatic moment where she suddenly quit and walked away, there was something else quietly happening beneath the surface.
A constant feeling that she wasn’t where she was meant to be.
“I’m a creative being,” she says. “I need to make art. And I wasn’t.”
For years, Simone wrestled with the pressure of staying in a career that made sense to everyone else, especially because it was tied to family.
“There were enormous expectations,” she explains. “The dialogue in my head was constantly like, ‘Why wouldn’t you continue the family business? My family sacrificed everything to create this successful business and I’m just going to walk away and start something else?’”
It’s something so many women quietly carry. The fear of disappointing people. The fear of wasting potential. The fear of leaving something secure for something uncertain.
And perhaps the biggest fear of all?
Failing publicly.
“What if this doesn’t work? What if I look like a loser? What if everyone realises I’m not actually that smart?”
Those thoughts followed Simone through every stage of her transition from law into creativity.
First came a high end children’s eyewear brand she co-founded with another creative. There were moments that looked like success from the outside, features in Vogue and international magazines, but financially, it never quite flowed.
“We pushed and pushed and pushed,” she says. “But in the end we burnt out.”
Still, she couldn’t ignore the pull toward creating.
So after closing the business in 2024, she backed herself again. This time launching a female eyewear brand and investing another $25,000 of her savings into the dream.
“It was exciting and terrifying at the same time,” she says. “Part of me was thinking this is money for a house, this is money for investments. But I did it anyway.”
And yet even then, doubt lingered.
The products would oscillate between selling and sitting untouched in her shed. Some days she felt unstoppable. Other days, she questioned everything.
“I kept hearing this voice saying, ‘You’ve been here before. Don’t fail again.’”
But underneath the fear was something stronger.
A knowing.
A pull toward the thing she truly loved.
Eventually, through working with a coach, Simone realised what was really lighting her up wasn’t eyewear at all.
It was jewellery.
Gold jewellery specifically.
“That’s when everything shifted,” she says. “I started creating pieces that genuinely ignited something in me.”
And slowly, things started flowing.
Not overnight. Not perfectly. But energetically.
People started connecting with her work. With her creativity. With her.
And perhaps most importantly, Simone started fully owning who she was.
“I started backing myself,” she says. “I trusted myself. I trusted that everything was working for me, not against me. I started owning myself fully as an artist and jeweller. That’s when everything started to click.”
What’s interesting is Simone is very honest about the fact she’s still building.
“Am I making a profit yet? No,” she says. “But that’s not what’s important right now.”
Because for the first time in a long time, she feels aligned.
“This is my dream life,” she says. “I get to create every day.”
And maybe that’s the part we don’t talk about enough when it comes to changing careers or starting over.
Sometimes success isn’t immediate money or validation.
Sometimes success is finally feeling like yourself again.
Simone believes staying in careers that don’t align with who we truly are slowly disconnects us from ourselves.
“If we aren’t working from our hearts, it makes sense that we feel empty inside,” she says.
Now, success looks completely different to what it once did.
“Being able to make art every day, create beautiful things and make women feel powerful wearing my pieces, that’s success to me.”
And for the woman reading this who feels stuck in a life or career that no longer feels right?
Simone’s advice is simple.
“Take the class. Start the hobby. Follow your heart and put yourself first.”
Because sometimes the thing pulling at you constantly isn’t random.
Sometimes it’s your life trying to lead you somewhere better.
And according to Simone, the biggest lesson of all is learning to trust yourself enough to follow it.
Click here to discover We The Stars.
