Andrew Graham loves his job so much, it doesn’t feel like he’s working.

Andrew, the 122nd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, holds a senior role with multinational property group Colliers International.

His job is to put together and advise on commercial and residential property deals worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

That, in turn, demands a lot of networking, relationship-building and prospecting – a mix Andrew finds intoxicating.

Andrew is a very friendly bloke, who’s comfortable mixing with people from all walks of life.

But there’s steel underneath the smile – he goes hard when he’s chasing an opportunity and doesn’t take no for an answer.

Andrew’s life is a world removed from his childhood: he came from an inter-generational family of shearers and farmers and grew up on a farm in country NSW. Andrew moved to Sydney for university; when he expressed some early interest in continuing on the land, his father encouraged him to pursue a better life in the city. 

Andrew has been in Sydney ever since, working on some of the city’s most prominent property and infrastructure projects.