Mondays and Fridays are all the same for Michael Haynes, the 281st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. That’s because Michael has built a thriving consulting business, which means he gets to choose his projects and control his schedule. So work is a pleasure rather than a chore. Michael had [...]
Dr Olga Oleinikova, the 280th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is an extraordinary woman who has excelled in both business and academia. The key is her achiever mindset. Olga grew up in Ukraine, studied sociology and began her career in market research. But she wanted to do more than [...]
Michele Gennoe, the 279th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has an inspiring approach to life. After 20 years in North Sydney, Michele is preparing to move – to her, the world is her playground and with technology changes, she can now work anywhere, anytime. Michele doesn’t know if her [...]
Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson says there’s nothing she wouldn’t give to prevent the accident that happened to her in 1994. Rosemary, the 277th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, had spent months complaining about a wobbly, overloaded shelf in her office. She’d asked many times for it to be fixed and had [...]
Varsha Kalra, the 276th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a brain for business and a heart for humanity. Varsha, who was raised in India but now lives in Dubai, contacted me after travelling to Sydney for business. “I stumbled upon ‘500 lunches with 500 strangers in 5 years’ [...]
Trudi Yip, the 275th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a surprising connection with potatoes. Trudi is a third-generation family member in Yep Lum & Co, a wholesaler of potatoes (and other vegetables) that was founded in 1940 and is the longest-running tenant at Sydney Markets. She grew up [...]
Emma Kirkwood, the 274th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, draws an important distinction between an idea being wrong and a person being wrong. The former does not equal the latter. So why can it feel so threatening to admit we might be wrong? Because if we attach our identity [...]
It says a lot about Trudy Witbreuk that she’s been to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, but not Noosa, the Queensland holiday town. Trudy, the 273rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is a career diplomat who’s run embassies and negotiated trade deals. After graduating as a lawyer and working [...]
Jonathan Sermon, the 272nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, believes life is a team game. His life – both professionally and personally – centres around meeting new people, building relationships and acting as a connector. Partly, this is because Jon is an extrovert and loves people. But it’s also [...]
Rachael Wass, the 271st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, made me reflect on an unconscious bias I suddenly realised I had. Rachael, who is the CEO of Meaningful Ageing Australia, pointed out that when we see somebody with grey hair, we automatically make assumptions about that person and their [...]
