How to Tell If Fear Is Protecting You or Holding You Back with Extreme Athlete Nelly Attar

**Simon Sinek** (0:00)
There's external risk here, there's real risk, right? Of getting in actual trouble. What was so important that it was worth taking real risk?

**Nelly Attar** (0:09)
If you don't try, you'll never know. If you don't try, you'll never know. And I think that, if I don't try, that would kill me.
And so in my mind, I kept thinking, as scared as I was, not just from like potential repercussions, but also the embarrassment. I don't wanna look back one day and say, I wish, I wish I tried.

**Simon Sinek** (0:28)
Fear is the reason most of our dreams stay dreams. We're afraid we'll fail. We're afraid we'll embarrass ourselves, or we're afraid we're just not ready.
And then there's Nelly Attar. I heard her speak at TED 2026, and I knew I had to have her on the show. Not because she's fearless, it's because of what she does with her fear. Nelly is a psychologist turned extreme athlete and mountaineer. She built Saudi Arabia's first dance studio, MOVE, before women could even do that kind of thing publicly. She's climbed Mount Everest, and she's the first Arab to summit K2, a mountain so dangerous to climb that one in four people who try never come home. But here's the thing that inspires me. Nelly has found a way to turn individual acts of accomplishment into acts of service.
She kept her dance studio open for the women who showed up, the women who took the risk just to walk in the door. And she climbs impossible mountains to show women that they can achieve anything they put their mind to. She even looks out for the Sherpas who hike with her to make sure that they are safe and taken care of. There is so much we can all learn from how Nelly lives her life. If you like this episode, please remember to subscribe. This is A Bit of Optimism.
Nelly, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast.

**Nelly Attar** (2:03)
Simon, thank you for having me.

**Simon Sinek** (2:05)
When I saw your talk on the main head stage, I was completely inspired by who you are, how you show up in the world, and it's why I invited you on to talk. I know you're in Dubai right now, but you live in Saudi Arabia, right?

**Nelly Attar** (2:20)
I live between Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

**Simon Sinek** (2:22)
And can you remind me, mainly because I forgot?

**Nelly Attar** (2:25)
No worries.

**Simon Sinek** (2:26)
The dance club that you started in Saudi. Just remind me how that came about, because it is not something that most people would expect to happen in Saudi Arabia, at least where I sit in the US.

**Nelly Attar** (2:41)
This is about 13 years ago. I started off my career as a psychologist. I was born and raised in Saudi, left the country to complete my higher education. And then I came back thinking I am going to get a couple of years experience in psychology and then go do my PhD. So I started off my career as a psychologist. And when I came back, I realized the sports landscape still hasn't changed. Access to sports was really, really difficult, especially for women.
And honestly, I just wanted to move. I wanted to move and I thought, you know, maybe I can start something, start some sort of class to get people active and also stay active. And it started with dance classes. I got certified and I started teaching from the hospital I was working at. And that alone was a risk. That in itself was a risk.
I took the risk and I delivered my first set of classes from the hospital, and it was received really positively. And so that's where it started. And then I carried on, eventually moved to different places, wherever I could, in closed neighborhoods, embassies.

**Simon Sinek** (3:47)
Why was it a risk?

**Nelly Attar** (3:48)
Because organized sports for women was not in the norms. I don't think it was even allowed.
Female gym licensing didn't exist. So officially, women didn't really participate in sports at the time.

**Simon Sinek** (4:01)
Okay. And this was for patients or for hospital staff?

**Nelly Attar** (4:05)
This is hospital staff.

**Simon Sinek** (4:06)
Okay. Amazing.

**Nelly Attar** (4:08)
And at the time, music was not allowed in public spaces either. So there was, you know, both angles. I wasn't sure how it was going to be received. And I think it really, really impacted people. And so I carried on. And, you know, like with every next step, another step would open. And so I moved on to friends, parents of friends, friends of friends. Eventually, in 2016 or 2017, I signed with Nike as their first trainer in the kingdom.