In the digital age of "overnight" success stories such as Facebook, the hard slog is easily overlooked.

When I started off, I was working in a shed behind my house. All I had was a drill, an electric drill. That was the only machine I had.

I made 5,127 prototypes of my vaccum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure.

If you can't be unconventional, be obtuse. Be deliberately obtuse, because there are 5 billion people out there thinking in train tracks, and thinking what they have been taught to think.

So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.

Emerging markets are hugely important.

The Web is fascinating and transformative, but it's an easy, flashy, get-rich-quick option to the hard graft of proper industry.