In the 1980s when I was growing up in the Berkshire town of Maidenhead I was heavily into tennis. It was the era of Borg and McEnroe. I used to spend hours hitting balls against a wall, imagining I was beating them both.

I remember my first memory is sitting in my dad's chair in a small office and I used to imagine that I was picking up the phone and issuing commands. And I was only seven.

The first thing I think, I was building computers, I started to build a computer when I was 17 or 18 at home, an IBM compatible computer, and then I started to sell computers, and when I sold a computer to a company called Ligo I think, and they were selling systems which became blockbuster.

Throughout my career, some of my best hires have been people who have bypassed the traditional route of university and learned their skills through apprenticeship schemes or alternative education courses.

Democracy can only spring from practising it early, and democratic action was not to expected from young people brought up under a close authoritarian system.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

Our job is to help people take ownership of the process of electing their government. As leaders, our job is to inspire others and not discourage them.

I never thought I'd see the day when the U.S. government could listen in on phone conversations or read private mail without first obtaining a warrant from a court. That sounds more like something that happened in the Soviet Union.