BACKSTORY: Chris Norton of Veeam Software

What’s your one top tip for doing a deal?

Show up, and keep showing up, for the customer. After-sales service is as important as the deal itself — sometimes more so.

What was your first job?

In the early 1990s I had a formal job as a manager at restaurant chain Mike’s Kitchen. My second formal job was as a call centre agent at IBM. This was also in the early 1990s, before there were PCs [in South Africa].

How much was your first pay cheque, and how did you spend it?

It was for about R1,340 a month. That was for six days a week and 14 hours a day. I ended up saving most of it, as there was nothing to spend it on when the only day off you had was a Sunday. Back then everything was closed on Sundays and there was no online shopping.

What is the one thing you wish somebody had told you when you were starting out?

Not to take myself so seriously — you can’t win everything all the time, so focus on what you need to, or want to, win.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people don’t know?

I have survived a serious motorbike accident, a full-blown pulmonary embolism and a brain tumour.

What’s the worst investment mistake you’ve made?

It was thinking I could ride a motorbike up a hill, on the back wheel, in the rain — I mean, what could go wrong? It was 30 seconds that has haunted me for the past 17 years.

What’s the best investment you’ve ever made? And how much of it was due to luck?

I bought a 1987 Land Rover Defender TDi, and  nearly tripled my initial investment in four years. It was all luck, and absolutely an emotional purchase — not planned at all.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past six months, and why did you like it?

It’s Gadget magazine. I’m not a bookworm at all, but I love gadgets.

What is the hardest life lesson you’ve learnt so far?

I have found that it doesn’t matter how big and strong or tough you are, there will always be someone bigger, stronger and tougher than you.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Temperance, because desire is what motivates capitalism, and I believe in capitalism — more specifically in what capitalism enables in terms of investment, growth and the chance to make a difference.

What is something you would go back and tell your younger self that would impress them?

There is no elevator to success; it is a ladder, and you have to climb every rung, because wisdom is a function of age and experience.

Was there ever a point at which you wanted to trade it all in for a different career? And, if so, what would that career be?

At the end of every quarter I would like to be a game ranger.