Top 45 John Caudwell Quotes

I would be the first to say that while a lack of money can cause misery, money doesn’t buy you happiness.

Taxes aren’t the way to go. They’d strangle the economy; you wouldn’t create the wealth. And nothing squanders money as well as a government. What we need is to encourage rich people to give.

I can safely say that there are dozens of places on ‘Titania’ to watch a film with friends. I would estimate there’s something like 50 televisions on board, some of which are very big-screen, some of which drop out of ceilings on the outdoor decks.

My main commitment is to Caudwell Children. I put more than £1m a year into the charity, besides a lot of time and effort.

I don’t think I’m going to live until I’m 70, no; I could die tomorrow. So there isn’t a panic that time is running out, but there is an element that anything could happen.

I’m a wealth creator. I’m not interested in saving in the least. While I do spend a lot, I don’t spend money like other billionaires. I’m probably quite unusual, albeit I do have some of the significant trappings. But I always try to make my assets work for a living.

I’m in the lucky position that I can help a huge amount of people. It’s a great privilege and freedom to have.

Business is about being the best that you can be, and there are always glowing examples of people that we can all learn from.

I didn’t want my epitaph to read ‘Here lies John Caudwell, billionaire.’ I knew that wasn’t enough. I’ve had a charitable instinct all my life, but working gave me no time for it.

My philosophy is very much to encourage my children to forge their own success and happiness, even though that will undoubtedly involve much more modest levels of wealth creation.

Business gives you a massive high. Doing a great deal, coming up with an inspirational solution… It’s very addictive. But it doesn’t last long. In isolation, it’s a bit sterile. It doesn’t reward the soul.

I believe in workers’ rights when people are doing a good job.

I’m known for value for money. I was brought up to be frugal, and it’s definitely a factor in my success. I was born in the Fifties, which was a frugal era, and my family had to be very careful with money out of necessity.

If you throw money around like confetti, it just becomes shallow and meaningless.

I couldn’t even contemplate anyone even making a film about my life!

It’s important to show children love, affection and balance and invest time in their moral upbringing.

When my back’s to the wall, I want to fight.

E-mails are the cancer of modern business.

Sometimes your worst competitors are the ones which are dying because they do stupid things.

I will give away at least half my wealth during my lifetime and after my death. In the meantime, I’ll continue to grow my wealth as much as possible so that the amount I bequeath to charities and worthy causes can be as substantial as possible.

I had challenges to overcome as a child, and that was good.

I realised I’ve got quite a talent for coming up with ideas for design. I’ve got so many ideas about fashion.

I do like a healthy dose of adrenalin, but my character is more rounded. I am not timid; I like excitement.

The only really important thing, at the end of the day, is your health. If you haven’t got that, then all the money in the world isn’t going to bring you happiness.

My favourite thing is to come down to London from my home in Staffordshire in the helicopter and then get my bike out of the back and cycle into London. It’s wonderful.

In any business opportunity, you’d be looking, probably, primarily at the risk and return. Some business can be very risky with a low return; what you want is the lowest risk with the biggest return.

I do not put my tastes as incredibly expensive, but they are incredibly expensive for an average man.

I have a helicopter that I use for U.K. business trips, and I fly myself. I have a yacht in Antibes in the south of France, which is a sort of indulgence, as we only use it for about four weeks a year. The rest of the time, it is chartered out to people as a business.

My objective is to leave my family adequately catered for, but I want my children to make their own way. I want them to have pride in their own achievements.

At the end of the day, if you’ve got the great idea, and someone judges you’ve got the managerial capability, you’ll probably get the backing for it.

People are much more important than superficial environments.

I saw that e-mail was insidiously invading Phones 4u, so I banned it immediately.

Those of us who have yet to find philanthropy may find there is a far greater reward from it than from wealth creation.

Some of the things I did in my early career were massive learning curves because I had no one to guide me. You learn very quickly because it costs you torment and trouble.

In the early days, I had everything to prove. A very working class lad with a burning ambition. A very crude way of measuring success is how much you are worth.

I’m addicted to the deal, to the next thing. It’s irresistible.

I’m a capitalist. I’m not going to feel sympathetic to people leading a life they don’t have to lead who, with effort, could maybe break out of it.

I will stay living in Staffordshire. Other people would be moving offshore. I am reasonably happy to help support the British economy. I have done very well out of Britain.

Journalists like to say I started off sweeping the pottery floors. But it was just a short-lived part time job doing that after I left school.

I’d much rather leave £2bn to charity, or £3bn or £4bn, than £1bn. That is my motivation to carry on working as hard as I do.

There are lots of brownfield sites in Stoke, but they are not suitable for building executive homes. It needs to be surrounded by fields. It needs to be on greenbelt land. That’s what executives want.

Really good customer service will deliver sales. You are training salesmen to give the best possible advice and then to achieve the sale. People actually like you to ask for a sale because it shows you value their business.

I always felt, right from a youngster, that it was my destiny to be a success. It sounds a little bit egotistical, but I felt I had a calling to do something.

I suppose I have very undesirable traits. I am very critical, which is very undesirable. But it is good from a business point of view.

When I came into the mobile phone business, I was really the upstart who pretty much took the business, not quite by storm, but really made an impact on it quite early on. But it was from a position, really, of feeling that I was a last mover.