Beginning. I’m a Brit, born in a remote village in Pakistan, in 1957, and spent my early years in Pakistan, India and (pre-war, beautiful) Afghanistan, where my father worked as a missionary eye surgeon. I have two sisters -- one is five years older than the other, and I’m right in the middle.

Learning. We went to a wonderful (American) school in the Himalayan mountains in India for our early schooling years. At 13 I was transferred to boarding school in Bath, England… followed by Oxford University. Initially studied Physics, but switched to Philosophy and graduated in 1978.

Working. Entered journalism training, worked in local newspapers and then spent two years producing a world news service on a radio station in the Seychelle Islands. Back in the UK in 1984 I got hooked on computing, and snagged a job as magazine editor of one of the early computer magazines. After a year, decided to try to launch my own.

Building. Started Future Publishing in 1985 with a $25,000 bank loan and no outside equity investors. For seven years, revenue and profits doubled every year…. Then I sold the business to Pearson for $80m and moved to the US in 1994 to try to do same again. Imagine Media achieved significant success with Business 2.0 and other magazines, but then…

Hurting. I over-did it, buying back Future from Pearson, merging Imagine into it, and going public in London in June 1999. (2000 people, $2bn market cap, 130 magazines, etc, etc.) After a year of stock market glory, major Internet investments and other high ambition growth plans, the technology market caved, and Future had to be slashed to its core. Simultaneously, various dot-coms I was involved in felt the impact of the bursting bubble.

Restarting. After a year of pain, Future finally regained financial stability. I felt re-energized and ready to move on. My new passion: TED.