My dad is good at sticking with stuff and he has a strong work ethic, which is imbued in me. Growing up, he would constantly ask what I was doing and was I achieving anything.

You need space to try things and create. It takes a long time to recalibrate if you let people pull at you all the time. A lot of stress comes from reacting to stuff. You have to keep a certain guard [up], if you're a creative person.

Creating the future is incredibly exciting. When you talk about ideas and creativity, it's really about having that vision in your mind of how the world could be better, of how it could be a brighter place.

I don't have any personal challenges about throwing away the past. If you're not changing, you're giving others a chance to catch up.

I kept my age quiet for a good few years. I didn't see it as a positive. I worked remotely, so I just didn't tell people.

We're living at a time when attention is the new currency.

I don't have a TV or watch movies. I don't like to be broadcast to, I want to participate.

You just want to be judged against everyone fairly.

The Internet was appealing partly because it was something I could do in bed and feel like I was achieving something. I had an operation when I was 13 and ended up with complications, so I was in and out of the hospital. The bottom line is you can get through health challenges. It's part of why I was so driven.

If it doesn't come through the Internet, it's not really compelling to me.

You have a responsibility when you have a large community.

What I’m interested in are tools that can assist people to do the things they’re really good at.

Now, two things happen. One is, people know people, whether that's on Facebook or Twitter. They feel closer to the event. Secondly, people see other people doing something about it.

We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform.

That's really been my passion: to communicate to a broad audience why the technology matters for you.

I think you’re going to see tech bringing efficiencies to businesses that aren’t pure tech.