I have to manage and protect my brand. For the details I can always hire people who can knuckle down much better. For that I need people who are different to myself. People who compensate for my weaknesses.

Greek shipowners like to boast, 'I bought ships at the bottom of the market, and now they're worth ten times as much.' It goes back to the days of Onassis and Niarchos competing with each other over who had the biggest fleet, the biggest yacht and the most famous girlfriend.

Unfortunately I have no rags-to-riches story to tell. Money never played a big role for me. My parents just had it.

Failures teach you more, there's always something fundamental about them.

I think that my original drive as an entrepreneur was precisely that desire to get away from the image of the shipping magnate's son.

America has its roots in a tradition of risk-taking pioneers. In more conservative Europe, if you fail in business or actually end up going to jail for it, you're finished as a businessman for good.

Successes are always unique and hard to copy. The fact that easyJet became a success is due to a mixture of talent and luck.