Karin Markides: ‘I didn’t follow the rules’

I grew up outside of Stockholm, Sweden, in a little town. It really was a very beautiful landscape, with rift valleys and lakes. Like a postcard.

My father believed that it’s very important for children to take care of animals so that they can learn to be good leaders. We had a hobby farm with different kinds of animals – there was a horse, a pig and little chickens. We didn’t sell them for meat or eggs, it was just for our family.

My family was more focused on entrepreneurship than education. Where I grew up, hardly anybody went to university. My sister and I were the only ones in our family who attended university. My brother did not. There were so many other opportunities, so it wasn’t that people didn’t have the drive, but they often focused more on entrepreneurial things.