Theo Paphitis
My family come from Cyprus. Both my father and my grandfather worked on the British bases there, and as the British government granted independence to Cyprus, they granted British passports to those who worked with them.Collection: Family
No major technological change has ever been instituted by mankind without an array of negative consequences. The motor car has meant liberation for millions, but it has also caused congestion, environmental damage, and a disturbing death toll on the roads.Collection: Environmental
The great virtue of the web, its ease of communication, has also become its Achilles' heel in that it has polluted the air with meaningless babble and egomaniacal drivel.Collection: Communication
Making the first million is hard; making the next 100 million is easy.
I'd rather be rich and miserable than poor and miserable.
I can walk all day in malls, shopping centres, high streets - I love it.
I was useless in the classroom; I would spend my time looking out of the window after the first 10 minutes. But when you do an apprenticeship, you don't have to wait for the teacher to tell you when it's time to start, because you are on the shop floor learning for real.
When making an investment, the people are more important than the product.
I'm a very considerate spender. I'm a shopper, and I do spend money, but I think about it first.
If you really want to sort out the High Street, you ask someone like Kate Swann at WHSmith, who has done a fantastic job of running profitable shops.
I didn't have a great childhood, and neither did Debbie, my wife, so we both try to give the kids not only the material things we never had but also the hugs and the love.
'Dragons' Den' and 'The Apprentice' have opened people's eyes to what they can do.
I admire people who have passion and energy.
Without hope, the very fabric of our society will fall apart.
The Internet has heralded a revolution in our society. It has transformed the way we do business, entertain, communicate, and travel. In many ways, the change has been positive. The web has brought new freedoms, spurred economic growth, and extended the boundaries of knowledge.
Businesses might have been helped by the ability to promote themselves on the Internet, but they have also been hit by the web's encouragement of time-wasting by their staff.
Good businesses will survive good times and bad times.
What's crucial in a High Street store is a compelling reason for people to shop there. Shops must offer excellent customer service - and 'theatre' is a must.
Great customer service does not come by chance. It is the result of training and ensuring there are enough assistants to serve the customers.
Small does not mean insignificant.
A small business can survive for a while without making a profit, but if its cashflow dries up, the impact is fatal.
The decisions you make when you leave school define the rest of your life. So, in terms of making the right choices for your financial security as you get older, my best advice is to do something you have an interest in and are passionate about, as you'll be working for a long time.
I was lucky enough to find my passion early - in retail - and I have done well but, most importantly, loved doing it.
Ultimately, if you don't have an interest in what you do, it will be so much harder to make money from it.
If the cash runs out, it's like a heart attack for you and your business. Keep that front and centre of your mind, and you will have financial security and not be struggling to pay the bills.
If you cannot bore your friends to death about your own small business, then something is seriously wrong.
I know I have been lucky in business, and I am keen now to spread goodwill to others, of course not forgetting that very often, you make your own luck by making use of every opportunity.
My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS retweet from me becomes part of a friendly club. Like-minded individuals can share successes and learn.
I was absolutely astonished and could not believe my eyes at the outrageous interest rates that people in need have to pay to get loans.
I am for a transactional tax at the point of purchase for both online and physical retail.
The government must recognise that taxing retailers differently is reckless.
There are huge misconceptions about people on benefits. They are labelled scroungers or cheats. The reality is that many who need that level of support are working, but their income is not enough to get out of debt or pay for basics like food and household bills. It's so close to the way I grew up.
My parents divorced, my brothers and I ended up living with my mother, and we were living with the choice of heating or eating. My mum was working, but she needed financial support to make ends meet. I had to have free school dinners and free school uniforms.
My family's challenges meant we lived hand to mouth. There were weeks when we had neither electricity nor heating.
Young people are the entrepreneurs of the future, and we should be looking to them as one of our sources of innovation for the high streets of tomorrow.
Becoming a campaign representative for the somewhereto_ re:store campaign was a simple choice.
A lot of multinationals have long, drawn-out processes and are pretty useless at putting products on the shelves quickly.
What the entrepreneur gets on 'Dragons' Den' is direct access to people with masses of experience who can actually make quick decisions.
The statistics for investing in small businesses are such that the vast majority fail.
If you look at all the investments made during 'Dragons' Den,' the ratio of those that make it to those that don't is actually extremely high.
We survived for hundreds of years under the old banking structure. You'd have clearing banks, then merchant banks doing the racy stuff, and then building societies where you'd join a waiting list for a mortgage. But then banks started buying stockbrokers, doing mortgages, and you ended up with these big banking groups doing everything.
Politicians are elected to do what is right, but too many are just doing what is right for the party.
I'm not massively academic. I'm a commonsense person.
Online is not contributing in the same way as the high street in terms of business rates and to the local community.
In the 1960s, my first-generation immigrant parents were gifted the olive branch of a blue British passport when working for the British Army in Cyprus. It completely transformed the Paphitis story.
I'm not a risktaker. I'm the total opposite.
Stack the cards in your favour, and in a casino, you'll get arrested and put in prison, but in business and in life, it's the right thing to do.
Take calculated risks and limit your downside.
It's called common sense, but it's not common. Most people don't have it.
I am a great believer that the risk should reflect the reward.