I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon's advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.

A woman in advancing old age is unstoppable by any earthly force. I love it.

Mess with nature and it will mess right back.

There is no scientific answer for success. You can't define it. You've simply got to live it and do it.

When your back is against the wall financially, creative juices flow.

I'm an activist and I come from a very socialist background. For me, my thinking was formed by great thought leaders. And wealth preserving wasn't part of my thinking.

I hope to leave my children a sense of empathy and pity and a will to right social wrongs