Silicon Valley often celebrates quick funding rounds, disruptive code, and aggressive valuations. Katica Herjavec practiced an older, tougher philosophy: radical self-reliance. When her son struggled during his early twenties, she offered him tea and told him that honest physical labor carries no shame, but giving up on potential is a moral failing.
Herjavec often points out that when he founded The Herjavec Group in 2003, now an international cybersecurity giant generating hundreds of millions in revenue, he hired staff who reflected Katica’s quiet persistence over boastful resumes. Her life offered him an unvarnished masterclass in risk. Fleeing a repressive police state under cover of night with an eight-year-old child required far more nerve than pitching a room of cynical venture capitalists.
