Terri Janke: “Struggle sounds like a negative word.  But struggle is where life is.  Without it you would be dead.”
I spent my childhood years living in an old orange weatherboard house in Cairns, with a bedroom that faced the corner of the yard…

Sergei Sergienko: “A bad soldier is one that does not strive to become a general.”
We were one of the wealthiest families in the Russian city where I grew up. But we had to leave due to my father’s connection to the criminal underworld. He eventually disagreed…

Ronni Kahn: “What can it feel like to know that you’ve done something that impacts millions of people?”
I was an event producer. I love food, but at every one of my events I had a lot of leftovers. Occasionally I would take it to a charity late at…

Richard Maegraith: “My jazz education taught me not only the art of improvisation in music, but also in life.”
What first drew me to jazz was the fact that when I was aged 8 or 9, I was listening to a jazz record my Dad was playing and he turned to…

Lindy Chen: “The place where you fall should be the place where you stand up.”
I’m a romantic. I read love stories.
Most of all, I believe in love.
When I was very young I always dreamt of the most amazing love story. I thought my dream…

Kimberly Vucurovic: “I learnt to take control of life at the very point it seemed the most out of control.”
My youngest son Timothy was born a healthy 3.4kg. I had difficulty breastfeeding and turned to bottle-feeding within a few weeks. Within a month…

Karl Schlothauer: “It’s where you feel comfortable personally.”
I’m originally from North Queensland, where everyone says hello. Being the oldest of four children, I would take charge to invite huge crowds over to our place for Christmas and birthdays each year…

Ian Parkin: “Living should work for us.”
School was a prison sentence for me. It seriously gave me nightmares. I had a great childhood, great upbringing and a large, happy family. I just didn’t like being in school. So I became an escape artist. My folks would send…

Eloise Wellings: “I couldn’t forget what I had seen and I couldn’t let it go.”
I didn’t really know anything about Uganda until I had an opportunity to rehab my foot at a training facility in Portland. That’s where I met Julius, a two time Ugandan Olympian. We…

David Austen: “Mathematics and shirt-making require similar skills.”
In the 1990s my brother Ian was working in the UK and I would visit him regularly from Sydney, spending most of my holidays there. It was then I was exposed first hand to Jermyn…

Chris Burgess: “When the guidelines don’t fit, look outside the box.”
I started out with Myer in Melbourne as an in-store spruiker. This led me to an early career path with them, which was derailed somewhat when the organization restructured and…