Reed Hastings

But again, you know, there's lots of other companies that have other managers or leaders and everyone's going to eventually.

that do well.

You know, I did a little venture capital in the mid-90s after Pure, and I sucked at it.

And so I would say I would defer to my venture capital colleagues who would comment to you professionally and thoughtfully.

I only know my one or two little board experiences, and I would say I'm not that deep in this area.

You know, I'm not that broad in the area, so I don't have a comprehensive view, but Ben Horowitz has always seemed to me just phenomenal.

And he's never been on one of my boards, but just from watching and talking with him.

No, I don't remember any kind of Damascus Road experience where I suddenly change.

I would say I've always been open to new experience and trying new things.

And I'm quite surprised that then I succeeded a business.

I never really thought that much about business.

And so I was content to try many things.

And I did accompany Pure Software only because I got excited about a certain product and I needed to accompany to get that product out.

So I was always led by my passions and it's, you know, worked out super well.

The first product you got excited about was a foot mouse, was it not?

Well, that's true.

I mean, let's see if we go way back.

In middle school, I was selling cinnamon sticks and things like that.

But when I was a grad student at Stanford in the mid-80s, I thought that the big idea was to have a mouse that was controlled by your foot so you keep your hands on the keyboard and you could type and point at the same time.

And I almost dropped out of school to do it.