Robert Herjavec, 64, is the founder of the Herjavec Group, a Canadian information-technology and computer-security company. He returns as an investor on ABC's new season of "Shark Tank" on Sept. 30. He spoke with Marc Myers.
At age 5, I had no clue my father, Vladimir, had been arrested by the Yugoslav authorities. As a singer, he was often traveling, so being away from our home in Zbjeg was nothing new to me.
He had refused to join the Communist Party and was overheard criticizing the government. From then on, he went off to jail 22 times, for days and sometimes weeks. My mother, Katica, took a job to support us, and I was sent to her mother's house in a tiny village.
I didn't return to Zbjeg, now in Croatia, until age 8, in 1970. By then, my father had enough. Late one night, the three of us got into our car and crossed into Italy.
We stayed briefly at a motel while waiting to board a ship. My father had tried to book passage to the U.S., but customs turned him down. Luckily, he was told to try Canadian customs.
Our ship, the SS Cristoforo Colombo arrived about two weeks later in Halifax, Nova Scotia-the Ellis Island of Canada. We had $50 and our suitcases, and didn't read, write or speak English.
My mother's friend who left Yugoslavia years earlier invited us to live in their basement in Toronto until we got settled. They also gave my father a job pumping gas and cleaning their filling station. Within nine months, my mother learned English, we became Canadian citizens and she took a job as a receptionist.
In elementary school, I quickly learned English, and we moved into a one-bedroom apartment facing the back of a mall. Then came junior high, where kids made fun of me. By their standards, we were poor. When I was 14, my parents bought a brown, two-bedroom house.
I was geeky and did well in high school, which made me a target. But there wasn't time to be miserable and complain. I was accepted at the University of Toronto, and my parents paid part of my $5,000 tuition. I worked to cover the rest.
I had hoped to study law, but one of my father's friends convinced him that I should take advanced algebra. Six months later, I failed and went home. I was going to quit and work to make my fortune.
That afternoon, my father came home from one of his two factory shifts. He said, "What you do home?" I said, "University isn't for me." He put his face inches from mine and said, "You go back. No go back? I kill you, bury body" and walked away. Back on campus, I changed my major to English Lit.
After college, I worked as a tape editor at the Global TV Network. When Global landed the rights to the 1984 Winter Olympics, they sent me to Sarajevo as a field producer. I spoke Croatian. TV wasn't lucrative, so I quit and worked as a first assistant director on a film, but was fired.
Clearly, a career in films was unstable. I next interviewed at LogiQuest to sell IBM mainframe boards. I was 23 and didn't have experience. I offered to work for free for six months. The guy agreed, and three years later I was general manager.
One day, on a flight, I sat next to Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet networking, which linked a company's computers. I told my boss Ethernet was the future. He disagreed, and I quit.
In my basement I started BRAK Systems, an internet security-software and firewall company. I sold it for $30 million in 2000.
Soon after, I took my dad to a Cadillac dealer. He sat in a pearl-white Sedan DeVille and sighed, "One day." I gave him the keys and said, "Today's the day." He gave me the hug of my life. Dad died in 2006 and Mom in 2004.
Today, my wife, Kym, and I live in Los Angeles and New York, among other places. In L.A., our house has lots of space and light-a priority from my basement days. In Manhattan, we have a breathtaking condo overlooking Central Park.
In 2006, the head of the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax sent me a framed copy of a photo of the Cristoforo Colombo docking in 1970, when we were aboard.
I keep it in front of me in my L.A. office. On my lousiest days, it helps remind me that as a kid, my worst day was still a dream.
Robert's workout
Where are your other homes? In Muskoka, Ontario, and in Montana and Australia. I love real estate.
What's your most recent home splurge? A soft-serve ice-cream machine in L.A. We use it in moderation.
How do you spend downtime? I work out in my home gym in L.A. I usually run 5 miles a day followed by weights for 25 minutes. Then I hit the sauna.