The quality of business communications has become poorer in recent years as people avoid phone calls and face-to-face meetings, I can only assume, in some misguided quest for efficiency.

As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.

Can you afford to ignore China? It's like saying you can afford to ignore the internet. I don't think so.

Good brands reflect the histories of the time and the group of people that made them. They can not be copied. They can not be recycled.

You never know with these things when you're trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.

In the same way that I tend to make up my mind about people within thirty seconds of meeting them, I also make up my mind about whether a business proposal excites me within about thirty seconds of looking at it. I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.

I am constantly pushing myself and my own expectations and have always found that I've always come out better for it. Fear is human nature, but turning fear into opportunity is what will make a difference. I would much rather look back at my life saying "I can't believe I did that," than, "What if I had done that?"