I've been thinking a lot about a fork in the road I took about 11 years ago.

I'd finished working at a company, having help develop a product which was gaining popularity, and the company looked set to become a real success.

I wanted to try something new.

I'd developed a couple of software products I could try to sell. The other option was to go to Silicon Valley and try and get into the heart of the computer industry there.

I went out for a week and interviewed at Adobe and HP, and went to a conference at Netscape.

HP offered me a job, and I reckoned Adobe would too - but then I blinked and decided not to follow that path.

There were a number of negatives at the time:

1) at the netscape conference people seemed very pigeon-holed into their specialities.

2) the size of the teams - with rows of cubes stretching into the distance made me feel agoraphic

3) the feeling of "corporateness" after spending most of my life working in small hi-tech companies

4) the car-culture of the area

I guess I realised I'm more middling sort of person, not one thing or another (not 100% tech or sales).

The path I chose was to remain in London, and plough a solitary furrow, first by trying to sell my products, and then going on to develop them for other people.