Tanja Djokic, the 215th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, isn’t sure if the decision she made at the end of 2020 was crazy or brave.

But it was definitely correct.

Tanja’s big decision was to start her own immigration law firm. Sure, she already had plenty of experience – but the international border was closed and showed no signs of reopening.

By the end of 2021, though, TD Migration was thriving, with an ever-growing list of clients. 

If Tanja could build a profitable law firm when she was new to business and her client base was artificially restricted, my guess is TD Migration will explode now she understands entrepreneurship and the international border has just reopened. Indeed, Tanja has become so busy she’s planning to hire her first employee in the next few months.

I’m not surprised Tanja has enjoyed so much success, because she’s made for immigration law.

Tanja lights up when she talks about the joy she gets in helping workers move to Australia to pursue their career or reuniting family members stuck overseas with someone already in Australia. That’s because she sees immigration law as being less about regulations and more about people. In other words, she really cares about her clients.

It makes sense when you meet Tanja – she’s very warm, she’s got incredible energy and family means everything to her. Also, she genuinely loves people.

Tanja grew up in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Her parents spent several years trying to emigrate to Australia, so they could give Tanja and her sister a better life. Eventually, when Tanja was 11, the family secured visas. That experience made a big impression on Tanja, who decided, while in her teens, to become a immigration lawyer, and later went on to practice immigration law for several other firms.

So perhaps it wasn’t madness or courage that made Tanja open her business during the pandemic – but destiny.