I went home once in three years, for my sister’s wedding, about 9 to 10 months after I got there. I was home for five days. I flew to Boston and when I returned it was a 12- to 14-hour trip to Johannesburg, then another four hours to reach the homestead in Swaziland. When I arrived, I could still smell the party, the roses and the Champagne on my clothes. It was challenging. I missed lots of parts of America.

In 1985, I decided to go to graduate school in computer science. I took a two-hour bus trip to Mbabane, the Swaziland capital, to take the Graduate Record Examination. I didn’t get into my first choice, which was M.I.T. I got accepted to Stanford. I had never been to California and arrived in late summer. Driving up to the campus I saw palm trees. It was dry and brown. I asked myself, “Where’s the ivy?” Within a week I had fallen in love with California.

After graduate school, I worked for Schlumberger and then went to work for a start-up. I started my first company, Pure Software, in 1991. I was 31. As the company grew from 10 to 40 to 120 to 320 to 640 employees, I found I was definitely underwater and over my head.

I was doing white-water kayaking at the time, and in kayaking if you stare and focus on the problem you are much more likely to hit danger. I focused on the safe water and what I wanted to happen. I didn’t listen to the skeptics. The company was acquired by Rational Software in 1997.

I got the idea for Netflix after my company was acquired. I had a big late fee for “Apollo 13.” It was six weeks late and I owed the video store $40. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault. I didn’t want to tell my wife about it. And I said to myself, “I’m going to compromise the integrity of my marriage over a late fee?” Later, on my way to the gym, I realized they had a much better business model. You could pay $30 or $40 a month and work out as little or as much as you wanted.