Top 35 Peter Jones Quotes

It was tennis that got me started in business. When I was 16 and about to embark on my A-levels, I set up a tennis academy and became one of the youngest qualified tennis coaches in the country. It did well; by the time I was 19 I was able to buy my first house.

Business is about more than just money. It’s about being creative and innovative.

I want my kids to be polite and respectful, stand on their own two feet.

One of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs don’t succeed is because they have too many chiefs. You’ve got to bring in the right people to make the right decisions.

I’m 6ft 7in and I was a bit like a giraffe on the tennis court, though I did play at county level.

I always substitute the word ‘feedback’ for ‘failure.’

I’ve got my own businesses I run every day and I like to think I’m a nurturer rather than a firer, but the reality is, if somebody continues not to succeed and do the right thing for the business they lose the job because they are affecting the livelihoods of others.

One of the things that slightly annoys me in business is that we use words like innovation. Young people often think innovation is about doing something new, but actually it’s not. It’s about doing something better than your competition.

If I’m filming ‘Dragons’ Den’, we work flat out until 8pm, although I love seeing the weird, wonderful and plain delusional.

If you want to make your own decisions about where you work, what you do, what you earn and what you buy, then being able to make money is an important factor.

Throughout my career, some of my best hires have been people who have bypassed the traditional route of university and learned their skills through apprenticeship schemes or alternative education courses.

The first thing I think, I was building computers, I started to build a computer when I was 17 or 18 at home, an IBM compatible computer, and then I started to sell computers, and when I sold a computer to a company called Ligo I think, and they were selling systems which became blockbuster.

Britain lacks that fundamental belief that anyone can make it. What we need is a British dream. Let’s give young people the courage and ambition to go for it.

You’ve got to do the research. You’ve got to understand the market place, know your competitors.

When you do make losses, or you have businesses that don’t succeed, it’s about knowing when to stop and do something else.

My kids certainly aren’t going to have the money. They don’t need it.

I think a lot of people are getting bored of audition-based shows, along the lines of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ or ‘The X-Factor’. I know I am. But ‘Dragons’ Den’ will have a longer shelf-life than all of them because it’s fundamentally real in a way that other shows aren’t.

I passionately believe that you should start a company that you really believe in. Don’t start something that you have no interest in, start something that you’re passionate about.

I really don’t want to encourage young people to think that life is about money only. Life is about being able to give yourself choice.

I’m not a guy who plays political games, and I believe absolutely in one method, which is directness.

For many young people on-the-job training and hands-on experience is the real route to employability, not a university education.

People have dreams, don’t they? Young people have enormous vision for their futures. I think a lot of them are realising that they won’t necessarily be Robbie Williams but they might be brilliant businessmen and businesswomen.

In the 1980s when I was growing up in the Berkshire town of Maidenhead I was heavily into tennis. It was the era of Borg and McEnroe. I used to spend hours hitting balls against a wall, imagining I was beating them both.

There are lots of people who say you are born an entrepreneur – you either have that gene or not. I really disagree with that.

I find it very, very difficult to watch myself on TV.

I never thought I’d be a TV entrepreneur.

Being an entrepreneur is probably the most lonely thing you can do.

I have seen celebrities whose friends change as they become more successful, but my friends haven’t changed over 30 years. I’ve still got some of the friends I had when I was 14 and I see them regularly with their families.

American Inventor’, a show I came up with launched in 2006. It’s all of America’s greatest and wackiest inventions rolled into one with a judging panel including the legendary George Foreman.

My father was an air conditioning engineer and we lived in a three-bedroom terraced house in Langley before moving to a four-bedroom house in Maidenhead, where my parents still live.

When people pitch me their ideas in a T-shirt and jeans it shows they can’t be bothered.

We’re having to spend a lot of time teaching our entrepreneurs how to teach and, I tell you, it isn’t easy and that’s why we should have an immense amount of respect for our teachers.

I lost my computer business when I was 29 because I gave credit to firms I didn’t investigate. I lost my house and had to move back in with my parents and then I lived in an office for six months.

So I went and got my first job at 28, trying to think what I am going to do, I’ve never worked for anybody, so I decided to go and write and send my CV off to everyone.

I’ve played a massive and growing part in making business glamorous and even, yes, sexy.