Rachel Riak, guest speaker at the fourth Just Leadership breakfast on 10th November 2011 set the tone of the morning when she spoke first saying how her journey, truly is, "a hero's journey".

"I came from a poor village in Sudan raised by a single mother, to working at NAB and I'm now finishing my Masters in Business Administration."

Almost 200 guests came along to NAB Docklands bright and early at 7am to hear Rachel Riak, originally from Sudan and now at NAB; Dr Berhan Ahmed, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne; and Ahmed Yusuf, CEO of Parker Brent, talk on the topic of 'What can we learn from the African Australian community about the nature and practice of social leadership?'

An engaged and attentive audience, including a strong African community representation, gathered to hear the African community leaders speak about harnessing the positives within us - how are we going to show the marginalised this vision? Dr Berhan Ahmed said that leadership needs intellectual openness – to be challenged, "We all have the potential to make the world into what we want".

From the audience, a member of the police force commented that as a 5th generation Australian from a middle-class background, it was difficult to understand the difficulties and hardships that come with arriving in a new country.

When asked for one word that would inspire people to push for social change, Ahmed Yusuf called for people to give. He said "there is no time to waste, give where you can. Don't give money, you must give time, and you must give advice. I define my life on this."

Ahmed spoke about taking the step to be a leader within his own community "if you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, you must go with others".

Rachel spoke on the importance of doing something that makes a difference to not only you, but others. She asked the audience, before a time of reflection "what can you do that will be your legacy to the world?"

"I want to help other people that will help themselves and others again. Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone" Rachel said.

It was the last Melbourne Just Leadership Breakfast for the year, for more information on previous breakfasts click here.

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