The reason I'm in San Diego is not because I want distance from South Africa but because I want proximity to the people I love. But I don't envy growing up in America. As ugly as aspects of it were, my biggest blessing was to be born a South African.

The toughest challenge I faced came right at the beginning of my career with 'Blood Knot,' which was trying to convince South African audiences that South African stories also had a place on the stage.

My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't really have a function as a useful artist in that anymore.

Obviously when it comes to the question of telling stories about other people's lives in a situation as political as South Africa, you get to be political.

I'm trying to make better choices, and for me, this is kind of a rebirth. If I make the Olympic team? Great. If not, look at myself after eight years and ballooning up almost 200 pounds and getting on 'The Biggest Loser.' You know what? I get my life back again, and that's what truly mattered to me.

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

In life, everybody faces choices between doing what's popular, easy, and wrong vs. doing what's lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified 1,000 fold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful.

It's in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It's not in happiness. It's not in impulsive pleasure.