Years ago, when you had to pay the Sydney Harbour Bridge toll by handing over money (rather than with an electronic tag), Ronny Jensen used to do something surprising. Ronny, the 68th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, would sometimes give the attendant double the toll – paying for himself [...]
“Life is …” Now it’s up to you to fill in the blanks. I got that pearl from Timo Topp, the 67th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Timo keeps the “Life is” quote on a Post-it Note, which is stuck on the Wall of Wisdom (see photo) he keeps [...]
Ivana Katz says she no longer sweats the small stuff. Ivana, the 66th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, changed her outlook after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. Thankfully, Ivana defeated the cancer after several rounds of chemotherapy, but it put things in perspective. For example, why reject [...]
Some people go through their entire lives thinking they don’t fit in. Others experience that feeling only occasionally. But all of us, at some point, find ourselves in the role of outcast. Imagine you moved to Australia from a non-English-speaking country. Would you feel self-conscious about your accent? Would you feel insecure? Would you feel like [...]
"I'm completely obsessed with human behaviour, in case you haven't realised," said Emma Dunwoody, the 63rd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Yes, Emma is obsessed, but in a good way, as I discovered during our meeting. Emma is a human design coach, which means she helps people recognise the [...]
Darren Venter, the 62nd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a fascinating past, an intriguing present and an exciting future. Darren grew up in South Africa, and while a lot of his family have worked in real estate, he studied jewellery design. Being colour-blind forced him to learn cutting-edge [...]
Lana Kanchik, the 61st person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, lights up when she talks about travelling the world. It’s just as well that Lana works as a travel agent. But for much of her life, she could only fantasise about visiting other countries: Lana grew up in the Soviet [...]
The great thing about my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers is that I get to hang out with people like Rob Shehadie & Joseph Ishak. Rob and Joe, the 59th and 60th people I’ve met, are long-time friends who have followed very different paths in life. Rob played rugby union for Australia at youth [...]
Last year, Ahmad Imam co-created an incredibly catchy video that went viral on LinkedIn. As you’d expect, Ahmad, the 58th person I’ve met on my quest to meet 500 strangers, oozes confidence, whether you watch him on video or meet him in the flesh. Yet as Ahmad explained, he used to be a shy teenager who [...]
Many leaders who look confident and successful on the outside actually feel insecure and anxious on the inside. That was something I learned from Evonne Englezos and Sue Paton, the 56th and 57th people I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Their business, MindStrong Global, uses a combination of integrative psychotherapy and [...]
