Kathy Wong, the 417th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, dreamed up a social enterprise that she says was the best and worst thing to happen to her.

Moeloco, which Kathy founded in 2014, sold thongs with a difference – words of inspiration were engraved on the sole, so that when you walked on the beach, messages like ‘Love’ and ‘Hope’ would be imprinted in the sand. Moeloco’s other point of difference was that for every pair of thongs that were sold, it would donate one pair of shoes to a child living in poverty.

Moeloco, which is Hawaiian for “Dream Crazy”, reflected Kathy’s crazy dream to impact as many children in poverty as possible. Kathy was energised by being able to do good – but too energised, it turned out. She wanted to help as many people as quickly as possible; which involved making as many sales as possible; which required setting herself a gruelling schedule that allowed for just three or four hours of sleep per night. Eventually, this caused Kathy’s health to deteriorate and made it hard for her to sleep properly, which forced her to walk away from Moeloco.

Now, Kathy is on the search for her next project. It has to be something that will make a positive difference, she says; and because Kathy is a big thinker, she’s particularly open to any project that will allow her to make a big impact.

Earlier this year, Kathy and a friend, Bianca Caruana, launched a podcast, called The Connection Paradigm, which explores a topic that means a lot to Kathy – human relationships. Kathy is concerned by the rise in loneliness and social isolation: the more time we spend on our devices, the harder we find it to build and maintain relationships. 

Kathy is a warm, outgoing person, and a deep thinker as well. If all of us can love more and give more, she says, it will send ripples throughout the world that will merge into a powerful force for good.