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.

If I had to name a driving force in my life, I would name PASSION every time

We have our values from the church, the temple, the mosque. Do not rob, do not murder. But our behaviour changes the minute we go into the corporate place. Suddenly all of this is irrelevant.

If you don't believe one person can make a difference, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.

If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.

If you pretend that business is beyond morality, that's the kind of morality you get.

Maybe this is what the future will look like: fresh, clean water will be so rare it will be guarded by armies. Water as the next oil - the next resource worth going to war over.