Some people are content with their lot in life and never dare stray too far from the path laid out for them. Others, like Sonia Dhillon-Marty, are always looking for ways to improve themselves and the world around them. Having lived in Punjab, California, London and Tokyo and set herself one huge goal after another, the 51-year-old multitalented businesswoman is now trying to make a difference through her Tokyo-based Dhillon-Marty Foundation.

Born to a liberal father — an executive with the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank — and conservative mother in northwest India, Dhillon-Marty went on to major in fine arts at the Government College for Women, Ludhiana, before an arranged marriage at 19 led her to America with her husband, who worked in IT.

"When I moved to the Silicon Valley in 1982, I heard about all these people who had started with nothing and had become billionaires because their ideas had been so successful," she says. "In California I also learned there are no limits to what you can do, provided you have both the ability and the stamina to do it.