Patrick Aboud, the 205th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is a prison governor. So you might assume he’d be a my-way-or-the-highway sort of bloke. But the exact opposite is the case. Pat is humble, open-minded and keen to learn. He also prefers the velvet glove to the iron fist. [...]
Peter Gough, the 204th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has an unusual job. Peter is in the Royal Australian Navy. That comes with a lot of variety. Right now, Peter is stationed in Sydney and performing a teaching role. So he basically has a 9-5 office job. But Peter [...]
Pearl Forrester, the 203rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, learned from an early age the importance of looking behind the facade to discover the real person. Pearl hung around with a lot of juvenile delinquents when she was growing up in Malaysia – not because she was bad, but [...]
Catherine Heilemann, the 202nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, helps business professionals negotiate salaries, raises and promotions. So you might think that Catherine, who runs a consultancy called The Salary Coach, simply teaches people when and how to ask for money. But as Catherine explained, there are some important [...]
Saurabh Kaura may be in his mid-twenties, but he’s got the intelligence and mindset of a much older person. Saurabh, the 201st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, makes a point of looking for ways to step out of his comfort zone, so he can learn new skills and become [...]
Sobia Zafar and her two siblings were raised to believe they were destined for much bigger things than a regular 9-5 existence. Sobia, the 200th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, had her worldview shaped by a nomadic childhood in Pakistan. Her father was a senior civil servant who was [...]
Andrew Kew has had a busy 22 years – during that time, he and his wife have fostered more than 300 children. Andrew, the 199th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, felt drawn to fostering after he lost both his parents as a child and moved in with his grandparents. [...]
Josephine Borovac, the 198th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has one of the best business ideas I’ve heard in a long time. Even before the pandemic, Josie used to work from home. So did her sister, Carmel Lloyd. Working from home gave them the flexibility they needed to have [...]
If you like history, foreign affairs, politics and economics, you’ll envy Alida Ritsema. Alida, the 197th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is the deputy consul-general at the Dutch consulate-general in Sydney. So her job involves working on consular and economic topics with governments, trade bodies and companies. Alida has [...]
Brett Connellan, a 22-year-old who dreamed of being a professional surfer, was catching a few waves one day in 2016 when his life changed forever. Suddenly, Brett, the 196th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, was knocked off his board by an almighty crash. He had no idea what had [...]
