Inever went to business school. I went to the business school of life. And I did so from an early age. I was brought up in an Italian immigrant family with a work ethic that teetered on the verge of slave labour.

We got up each morning at five to make breakfast for the local fishermen in our café in Littlehampton and did not close until the last customer wandered home. The other cafés opened at nine and shut at five. This was a clue to me about what makes some people entrepreneurs and not others. Our café was owned by ferociously determined immigrants; the others were not.