A comfort zone is something we all create with much care and attention; we guard it with gusto and do not take to kindly to being asked to move outside of its comforting boarders. We like what we do, we don’t like what we do, but whatever your perspective, moving away from the ‘norm’ is always something undertaken with caution.
Kaley Chu came to Australia from Hong Kong to study, as her parent wanted to give her the best opportunity education could offer. More then 7500 kilometres from family, friends and any sort of language she understood, her life changed dramatically. She went from being known as a ‘noisy’ extrovert, to a quiet introvert, with little or no self-confidence.
She made friends with others from Hong Kong, eventually learned to understand English spoken with an Australian accent, found a job with a financial planning firm and married the love of her life, who also was born and bred in Hong Kong. Life was good inside her comfort zone. Great job, little aspiration, lovely husband and growing family.
But she realised something was missing. It was not until she met John Di Natale at a business seminar and accepted his offer, his second offer, of a position with his firm, she realised what she needed to do, to further develop on both a personal and professional level. She needed to get out of her comfort zone and look outward, rather than inward.
Di Natale believed she had untapped potential; she was not so sure. In order to try and ‘meet and talk with locals’ she eventually came up with a strategy to invite 100 people to lunch with her on a business footing. But would it work?
Hundreds of letters and 100 lunch appointment later, Kaley Chu can state categorically that it did work, and in doing so she has grown professionally, met 100 wonderful people all keen to share with her something of their life and business acumen. She has chosen twelve of these lunches to share and has added a series of questions at the end of each chapter, to encourage you to think outside of the square, to help you take an honest look at what you desire to achieve; to help you step outside your comfort zone with aplomb!
For anyone on the career trajectory, or needing to embrace change and feels there is ‘something missing’ in both their personal and professional lives, 100 Lunches with Strangers could be considered as a must-read book.
