Duncan Bannatyne – an inspiration
I’ve been reading the life story of Duncan Bannatyne of Dragon’s Den. Glasgow boy – left school without qualifications, discharged from the navy, beach bum in Jersey but determined to become a millionaire – and did big time!!
I worked in the private sector from 1979-1991. My own money was in the business and on more than one occasion we lived in the business hand to mouth as the electricity supplier came round to turn off the power, so I have some limited knowledge of what he is talking about when he talks of business risks.
Last week at Dylan Jones-Evans’ excellent FastGrowth 50 event, I talked with businessmen and women who too had had a vision and worked hard to build up successful businesses.
We need such businesses – we should ache for them as without business success as a nation we would not have excellent public services.
As a nation we should cherish business and enterprise more. They should be integral to the school curriculum and we should remind everyone every time that money is spent on public services that it is not government money as Jane Hutt recently suggested. Nothing is more dangerous than such an ill funded belief.
