All Quotes

"My gift has no green where green usually goes. The colorless parts of this gift speak volumes to me."

"I can’t look at them or think about them without being moved to tears. There are lots of good emotions in those tears. I can’t name them all, but I feel all the feels."

"I had been interviewed only by men, so I started thinking it was a career that only men did"

"Be thoughtful about how you manage meetings, how you manage your team, how you manage different personalities, cognitive styles and approaches"

"Independence matters precisely because electoral cycles are short and the temptation for political expediency is constant."

"Some skills translate: bringing people with you, creating space for challenge, focusing the team on the signal not the noise"

"But fund managers rarely receive any help with management. Firms often assume that if you can run money you can run people. That’s wrong"

"After the financial crisis, it was obvious that groupthink was dangerous. Back then, fewer than one in ten UK board seats were held by women."

"By modelling confident civility. You cannot build innovative organisations if people are afraid to ask awkward questions or express an unpopular view. We’ve allowed disagreement to become personalised."

"I suffered when suffering was still original."

"Fatherhood makes one mature, act responsible, and think very well before taking action. This is because one’s children and wife are conscious of what one is doing. It has also made me to be more focused."

"I believe that there is always an alternative for everything I do."

"I try to see every negative review as an opportunity to learn something about my performance and to improve in the future."

"You have just as much a right to pursue this as anybody else. Realise half of the barrier is yourself. Get past your own barriers. Then somebody else blocking your path is nothing compared to that."

"Being pretty much the only woman and a woman of colour in my tech career I just had to survive."

"Being green is good for the bottom line in the long run, but it requires investments, and those have to be shared.”"

"“Perfection is not possible; it’s an elusive goal,” said Hunt. But progress is an achievable one.”"

"Children shouldn’t be going to bed hungry, they shouldn’t be missing out on a basic education, these things are not expensive, they are not hard to solve."

"We can’t afford to be sloppy and just trying to do the right thing."

"Self-awareness about what you do, why you do it and when you do it, is what is so important."

"The strongest lessons you get in life are normally the negative ones."

"Invest in memories. It’s ultimately what life is about—people, places, moments and experiences."

"“Stop benchmarking yourself against other successful entrepreneurs or business people—it wastes valuable energy! Your personality and circumstances are unique and there is no right or wrong way to grow an innovative business.”"

"“Learn from others’ experiences and be inspired by them, but also make your own rules and navigate your own path.”"

"“Sometimes it’s the right decision to end a particular course of action or working relationship, but I now make a more concerted effort to salvage or reverse a situation.”"

"“Trust your gut instinct as much if not more than the numbers, and surround yourself with people who you respect and enjoy working with.”"

"“The occasional error of judgment or wrong move can often move your business faster than the right ones… About-turns are not weak, they’re strong and demonstrate good leadership, but they need to happen quickly and be communicated decisively.”"

"“If you’re fortunate enough to have a product or service that you can trade for another, then ‘in kind’ deals can help a lot with cash flow in the early days.”"

"“My path to entrepreneurialism was more a default necessity out of the fact that I wasn’t very good at being someone else’s employee combined with this constant thirst to ‘disrupt’ and ultimately, and most importantly… luck.”"

"No one has ever thought of asking me to go to a lap-dancing club. You have to get yourself into a state where no one would DARE to ask you that. You cannot be a submissive young girl."

"There were things I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe how anyone of sound mind would think it is OK to claim expenses on one house in your name and then claim again in your wife's name."

"I don’t do this for money."

"The business was at death’s door, it had lost its confidence."

"In those days, I used to go home at night thinking ‘am I a going concern."

"For the first 12 months, I wondered if I would be able to pay the wages next month"

"“One difficulty of negotiating trade agreements if we were in the customs union but not in the trade committee which defines the EU objectives, is that we would essentially be a rule taker. That would be a problem because there are protectionist views in the EU which are not in the UK interest."

"In business, people value you for getting things done, rather than the power of written material and analysis. So, you have to get much better at explaining yourself orally, be much briefer, have plans and strategy and learn to deliver on time."

"We moved towards having a more diverse board and that makes a difference. In somewhere like the House of Lords, women are well represented. And I think that is important. But I have had four children so I understand the pressures. But luckily I have a very good husband."

"I think what I am most proud of in my career is that if I look back to when I started work in a bank, counting cash and filling cash machines at 16, I could have never foreseen where my career and business life would go! I could never have guessed that I would end up buying the business, exiting the business, and then becoming a Dragon."

"I invested in Ed Hollands on Dragon’s Den; Ed has the ‘Driven Media’ business, which is a very simple business in the concept of advertising on the side of lorries."

"What I saw in Ed when he came through the doors was a very raw young man, but someone with a lot of potential."

"I love investing in young entrepreneurs. I am a big supporter of entrepreneurial hubs and accelerators."

"I have also done a lot of work with the Prince’s Trust, working with more disadvantaged, or less advantaged, young people, helping them to become successful either in long-term employment or as entrepreneurs."

"We’ve moved on from that, we’ve taken away uncertainty, which is good; that breeds positivity in British enterprise and the economy."

"I get more and more confident about what we’re doing all the time."

"I was very happy when we were just retail but our customers were travelling all over the world and it made sense that they could shop with us when they weren’t in London."

"I don’t mind being older, at all."

"For me it’s all about health and vitality and feeling really well; that makes a huge difference."

"I remember one of the first artists I loved painted ballet dancers."

"We have the same approach to art that we do when buying fashion."