Smart Luck: and the seven other qualities of successful entrepreneurs - Couverture souple

Why does one entrepreneur succeed when another fails? What are the key characteristics that define Britain's top business builders?

And what has Richard Branson's mother got to do with it all?

In a laconic guide to the winners and losers of entrepreneurial Britain, award-winning writer Andrew Davidson tracks down the country's top wealth creators in their natural habitat. From multimillionaire publisher Felix Dennis singing the blues (in his vast Warwickshire manor) to Voyage-trousered James Dyson explaining why failure is important, from Anita Roddick chanting Better Naked Than Nike to Sir Alan Sugar talking tough in Mayfair, Davidson's trip provides an insightful route-map to success today as he identifies eight key traits that define the great entrepreneur. And reticence (just what does Richard Branson ask the author in an Athens nightclub?) probably isn't one of them....

Entrepreneurs featured include:

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Alan Sugar

Simon Woodroffe

Charles Dunstone

Luke Johnson

Michael Grade

Reuben Singh

Felix Dennis

Anita Roddick

Lord Alli

Guy Hands

Lord Rogers

James Dyson

Mike Lynch

Dan Wagner

Brent Hoberman

David Potter

Everybody wants to know why life's winners are so successful: how did they do it?, why they do it?, what makes them different? All of us are fascinated by the lives and backgrounds of the rich (and sometimes famous). Behind every entrepreneur is a story.

Andrew Davidson has interviewed dozens of leading entrepreneurs over many years. He has asked the questions we all want to ask. He has probed into their backgrounds, delved into their psyche. Compared, contrasted and considered just what it is about them that makes them different. Here he pulls together all the information, and takes an overall look at the bigger picture and what we can learn from the living giants, who did it their way.

Davidson interprets the psychology of success, telling the entrepreneurs' stories in their own words, and the words of the people closest to them. For anybody with a will to succeed or a fascination as to how others do this combination is unputdownable.