The Ultimate Other is a mix of memoir and self-reflection examining your experiences as a woman, a mother, a Jew, and a professional through a deeply personal and thought-provoking exploration of identity, otherness, and self-reinvention. Why was this an important book for you to write?

This was an important book to write for 3 reasons:

1. It was a cathartic process for me to understand and give a narrative to my own experiences

2. It was important for me to be able to support others and share my learnings, to try and alleviate some of the difficulties of others going through a paradigm shift in their life, personal or professional

3. It is a thought piece about the importance of understanding yourself, having empathy for yourself, being kind to yourself and letting go. In my view, this is the first stage of a self-actualization process that will then allow space to have empathy for others. Once you understand your own values, triggers, and biases, you are in a much better position to have empathy for others – at home, at work, in teams and community. I believe this is the first step to reducing polarising and improvising social cohesion in our fragmented workplaces and society.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

The most difficult thing to write about was my failures – the vulnerability and humility required to see my own contributions in the things that went wrong was very hard. Also writing about my family, my Jewishness, and including the word Jew in the title, at this moment in history was a very difficult decision to make.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

The primary idea in the book was about positioning yourself as the problem to solve and having empathy for yourself to do so. Seeing failure as learning and being able to iterate and try something else to get you to where you want to be is also important.

What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?

That the most important measure of success is your own, and you get to curate and narrate your own story.

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