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. – John Caudwell
I do not put my tastes as incredibly expensive, but they are incredibly expensive for an average man. – John Caudwell
I don’t like paying too much for anything or wasting it. I think that I’m more of a balanced individual rather than a dichotomy. – John Caudwell
I make no apology for wanting to make a profit – the more I make, the bigger percentage will go to charity. So most of the work I do now is motivated by that. – John Caudwell
Knowing that my ancestry had all been quite wealthy and owned their own businesses probably left me with the ambition to replicate what they’d done. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
Sometimes your worst competitors are the ones which are dying because they do stupid things. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
I do like a healthy dose of adrenalin, but my character is more rounded. I am not timid; I like excitement. – John Caudwell
I always switch off from the business when I go across the threshold. Home is home, and I try to keep it that way. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
I do want to keep the Wedgewood Collection in place, intact, and open to the public. Selling it off would be a real tragedy. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
I’m in the lucky position that I can help a huge amount of people. It’s a great privilege and freedom to have. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
I might have made more money if I had outsourced to India, and I knew I’d find it easier to hire senior managers in London. But I wanted to be in Stoke. What could be more satisfying than creating work for 3,000 people in my home town? – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
I would be the first to say that while a lack of money can cause misery, money doesn’t buy you happiness. – John Caudwell
People can come to me, and no matter how expert they are, I can virtually always see a way of doing something better. – John Caudwell
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. – John Caudwell
