South Africa SNAFU

Can you tell us about a failure that you've had either professional or personal that you later on came to cherish because it taught you something very important about yourself and made you a better person?

Yeah, I think it was an investment that we did, I believe it was in the late 90s in South Africa. The financial numbers made a lot of sense. The country was opening up, everything was fine, but we didn't spend as much time understanding the politics and the issues of the government. And that's why I always say that the macro environment is equally important as the micro. And even though those are outside your control, you really need to understand what are the pros and cons. And we started a business there that didn't do great for a variety of reasons, primarily because of the regulations and the macro environment.

So you came into it not fully understanding what was the regulatory environment you were operating in?

No, we understood the regulatory, but we didn't understand the nuances of how they would interplay with the business. And I think it's important. That's why I spend a lot of time understanding people, regulations, the macro environment, because you may have the best idea, but if you cannot operate within the bigger environment, you can fail. And I always talk about this as something that, we're not happy that we failed, but this has taught me to be more cautious. Understand what the environment is before you actually jump in head first.