Entrepreneur How To

5 Key Characteristics of the UK’s Richest Entrepreneurs

The Hidden Secrets of Success from the Top 100 UK Millionaires

“Behave like a winner and you’ll be a winner”…
The top 100 richest people in the UK may not be a great example to follow when it comes to social life, marital harmony, or even contentment. But if you want to be rich, then there’s no better place to start than by studying the people who’ve already made it.

I’ve researched in depth the UK’s top 100 richest people, some of them in such detail that they feel like lifelong friends. There are five definitive characteristics that power their success and sweep the obstacles from the road ahead, giving them a clear run to build wealth fast.

5 Key Characteristics of the richest entrepreneurs

Just case you haven’t read the article on The Three Hidden Strategies for Multi Millionaire Success, you should know that of the top 100 richest in the UK, I discarded the 43 who inherited most of their wealth or were born into aristocracy, and I’ve disregarded the 9 who took opportunities that are unlikely to happen again – like the privatisation of Soviet National Utilities – which became a hotbed of wealth creation for a few well positioned individuals in the 1990’s … instead the spotlight is shining purely on the 48 self-made Entrepreneurs who created their own success by building businesses with their own wit and endeavour, no silver spoons, no golden hellos, and no platinum hand-me-downs, just ingenuity, drive and entrepreneurial spirit.

It’s the Entrepreneurial Spirit that we need to get to grips with – to define in detail – so we can make sure our behaviour is aligned for financial freedom.

a. Screw the rules
I’m going to start with this one, not because it’s the most important, but purely because it’s one of the most engaging for you, the reader – and I want to give you some juicy bits to get you warmed up for the rest of the briefing!
Although he’s not on the UK richlist, ****** who started Fedex in the US became famous for saying
“Show me the Law” – this was when the US National post office sued him for setting up a competing company. When the government solicitors looked at the law in detail, they found that there was no law to stop **** starting his business…
This is all about developing a healthy disregard for industry norms, unspoken rules, and unwritten laws.

Stewart Laidlaw (now Lord Laidlaw), bought a small publishing company in 1973 and turned it into the world’s largest conference organiser (IIR – Institute for International Research), making his £768m fortune … But while his commercial exploits appeared to be above board and legal, his personal life was rife with sex scandal.

The British tabloid The News of the World revealed that Laidlaw hires up to five, £3,000 vice girls at a time for all-night orgies involving spanking, bondage and lesbian sex at his Monaco home. After submitting a written confession to the newspaper in which he allegedly confesses a lifetime fighting sex addiction, Laidlaw reportedly checked himself into a six-week residential sex addict programme in South Africa, and donated £1million to help fellow sufferers.
I am not suggesting that you emulate this sort of behaviour, at least not until you’ve made your first billion, but it illustrates a distinct lack of respect for society’s rules…

Ajay Kalsi broke a few rules, ‘industry norms’ and conventions when he parked a huge oil rig in his back garden and left it there for a few weeks before it was redeployed on the next project – his neighbours were pretty surprised, he just said that it was the easiest place to keep it for a while. He made his £1.1 billion fortune in Oil Exploration.

In the early days of Virgin Music in 1971, Richard Branson made bogus trips to Dover pretending to sell records. He was running a scam to avoid paying customs and excise duty. His thought process was” rules are meant to be broken. He was playing a great game with the authorities and not to be taken seriously”.

After his last trip, customs and excise officials raided his shops and warehouse. They identified the marked records for which taxes were evaded, though he had shifted the records between shops on receiving a friendly tip-off. The officials arrested him and he spent a night in a prison cell. He was released after his mother deposited bail money and he agreed to pay a hefty fine to the customs and excise department. Since that episode, he has decided not to do anything that might put him behind bars.

b. Determination to succeed, the Self Discipline to carry it through.
Dib Dib Dib, Peter Cruddas puts his early success down to his membership of the Boy Scouts who taught him self-discipline and self-confidence – he went on to make his £750m treasure chest by building a Foreign Exchange business. (just in case you aren’t familiar with the “Dib, Dib, Dib”, that’s the first part of a Boy Scout Moto that goes “Dib Dib Dib, Dob, Dob, Dob”)
Jon Hunt who made his £875m fortune by starting Foxtons Estate Agents in London, built the company on distinguished itself from competing estate agents by opening a then-unusual 74 hours a week, including weekend and evening hours, rather than the conventional 40 hours worked by rival estate agents.

Philip Green and Alan Sugar are both known for their strict work routines – early to rise, fierce time management during the day, working late as required. They also enjoy at least 10 weeks holiday each year…

Richard Desmond, made his fortune in specialist magazines (including Asian Babes), he was driven to success by Disraeli’s motto: “nothing is difficult for the strong”

This takes us neatly to the next character trait – Bob Geldoff put one this most succinctly: “F**k Failure”. They’ve all had failures, cock ups, and mistakes some spectacular, many just day to day, but they learn from them , pick themselves up and move on – treating them as positive learning experiences.

The Barclay Brothers (now worth £2.2 billion), started a newsagents in Kensington called ‘Candy Corner’ that went bust, before embarking on…

Stewart Kirkham (now lord Kirkham) only started his furniture business because he failed to get the required 5 O levels to qualify for RAF Pilot training. Kirkham got a job in a local furniture store. After a few years, he rented a room above a snooker hall in Carcroft, and started making furniture upstairs and retailing it downstairs – this was the seed of the Furniture Empire DFS that made Lord Kirkham the multimillionaire he is today.
John Caudwell, (£1.5bm) Midland Mobile Phones, Wholesaler then Phones 2 U – started by making a loss for the first two years, but didn’t give up – he could see the potential in mobile phones, and sure enough, he was perfectly placed when the market exploded. This is not an unusual story – Amazon made a loss for 7 years… before becoming the internet behemoth it is today.

b. Fast Action – Decisive
Read this extract from an interview with Philip Green (£4.2Bn) (by Sally Vincent from the Guardian)
[Now it’s 1981. He bought the place in Bond Street. “I buy companies like this,” he said. And spares no detail. “I went to see this guy, Friday afternoon. Said I understand you want to sell your shop. He said, er, well, yes. I said what you want for it? He said 75 grand. I said Monday morning. Boom-boom – 75 for his lease, 75 for his stock, sight unseen. Go round Monday afternoon, exchange contracts. Then the phone rings. Guy says he understands my shop’s for sale. I say he’s made a mistake. Then some other guy phones up. I said not interested. Keeps ringing. Right? Seven and a half grand deposit at this point. I say, ‘You want to give me 250 grand for it tomorrow afternoon, you can buy it. Take your client round to my lawyer.’ So he did, he bought it. But, I said, you can’t have it for six weeks. Done. Boom-boom.]

An old pal of mine used to say “Drive Fast”, which I always liked – much better than the precautionary goodbye, “Take Care”…

e. Find a mentor, group of entrepreneurs to connect with.

Joe Lewis, mentored by George Soros, guided into Foreign Exchange, where he made his fortune.

Peter Hargreaves,’ personal touch, combined with his business partner’s Steve Landsdown – investment skills, create their £750m fortunes.

Michael Moritz, started with his newsletter and conference company for tech businesses, used his personal contacts to start Sequoia Captial – one of the early investors in Google, that went on to produce his fortune of £1.1 bn…

Many of these entrepreneurs mention the books they read, examples they followed and admired:
Gem from an interview with Philip Green who studied Lewis, an entrepreneur from Liverpool…

“When he talked about what he calls “the old style of trader”, he came over quite sentimental. Years back, he bought Lewises, a Liverpool department store, half a million square feet of retail opportunity, second only to Selfridges in terms of size. And along with the store he found its old archives. “I got this from books,” he said. “If you look back to the 1900s, you’ll find retail was all about theatre. When Lewis opened his store, he brought a ship into Liverpool dock with an enormous billboard on the side saying, ‘Everything One And Six!’ These were real, entrepreneurial people, feely-touchy types who were emotionally involved with what they were doing. Old Lord Marks died walking down the aisle of Marks & Spencer, checking out the store. He was engaged, immersed in every detail of the business, always trying to make something better. Now we’ve got big businesses with boards of directors and some of them have never been in a shop in their lives. There’s no engagement. They’re just corporate animals, and it’s these people in charge who kill them off. The brands just die out without personal engagement and motivation. Mediocrity ticks over, and ticking over isn’t good enough. Then failure breeds failure. I could spend my life having meetings, a meeting to have another meeting, a hundred meetings to have another thousand meetings. It’s not what I’m about. I don’t want to have to get in a queue, that’s not how I like to live. That’s why we’re 100% a private company.”
From an Interview by By Sally Vincent of the Guardian.

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