How important was your career ladder and how has your role evolved within Handson Systems?

What inspires you to be a top-thinking, innovative entrepreneur with a passion for excelling, and being the best at what you do?

To get to the top is relatively easy but to stay on top is relatively harder. Sometimes I see companies making the same cardinal mistake – they keep on growing but they forget their roots. The trick here is to keep thinking in the way that you were thinking in the beginning. You have to renew, change, be crisp, ambitious and keep working hard. Innovation never dies. Innovation must be a continuous process at the heart of every entrepreneur.

‘Put people in a position where they can be successful. Make sure they know they have your backing, as long as they work hard and do the right thing.’ NBA champion David Robinson, quoted at the Hall of Fame Centre. Do you relate to this and can you give us your reasons how this is factual compared with what you do?

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Of course I relate to this. I see this both happening to myself but also to every member of my team. Somehow we are surrounded by laws, policies and institutions who are more interested in promoting failure than success. The system in which most of the people are raised is the system of exams, tests, grades and all that. I strongly believe that everyone can be successful if given the chance and the necessary framework. Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, is worth $22.4 billion, but his life was riddled with failure. He was rejected from Harvard 10 times, unsuccessfully applied for 30 jobs – including one with KFC – and opened two companies which both went bust in a few years. He was told a hundred times: “You’re no good!”. But he persisted, and he has succeeded with flying colours. Like Jack Ma, we should never be afraid to fail and, yes, as long as you work hard and do the right thing, success is only a matter of time. reach all your aspirations.

I have done practically every job and task possible within the company – and still do from time to time, to stay in touch with all the company’s various departments. It is important that you grow and evolve by teaching your skills to others and passing on your knowledge and experience. This takes time and it is not easy. I always try and replicate myself by passing on all my knowledge. I think that is the only way you can become a true CEO. I can never understand how the CEOs of big companies manage to run them without having the slightest understanding of the work their employees are doing.

How inspiring is it to see what you have accomplished with Handson Systems and how will such accomplishments have a positive impact on you, as well as your company?

Every success – and also every failure – inspires me to do more and achieve more. When I look back I see how much I have grown personally as well as professionally. Such experiences make your develop your character and your personality even further. You will start noticing that your attitude towards life’s trials and tribulations changes as well. You somehow become immune to certain things which worry you, while becoming more attentive and concerned about other things that did not worry you as much before. All this reflects on the company in general. I guess making time for anyone or anything to develop in life is very important. I talk to many people who expect that everything happens overnight. Anything that is significant simply does not happen overnight. never stop innovating. If you look back at the latest innovations – such as drones, driverless cars and smartphones – they have all been developed in the last three years. An analysis carried out by Ray Kurzweil called the ‘Law of