By Sarah Ewing Published: 12:03PM BST 29 Jul 2009  Stelios: 'The Fred Goodwins of this world risked other people's money flagrantly - they're not entrepreneurs' Photo: EMPICS  As far back as I remember, the entrepreneurial spirit permeated my education and upbringing, so I think it's in my genes to be in business. People might not be aware of this, but I come from a very entrepreneurial shipping background.  My father, Loucas, who passed away last year, was a very successful, self-made shipping magnate in Greece, with his firm the Troodos Shipping Company. Business was always discussed at the dinner table with my mother, Nedi, my older brother, Polys, myself, and my younger sister, Clelia, and invariably he worked as much from home as he did from the office.  As long as I can remember, going to the office was a great day out for me, where I could watch him in the conference room conducting business. I will always have respect and admiration for self-made people, but will admit that I cheated because I got money from my father to start Stelmar Shipping in 1992 when I was 25, so I'm not as successful as someone who started from scratch.  My father believed in higher education, even though he had none himself. Unlike some people who start off by dropping out of school at 16 and setting up a market stall, I went through a formal business education at the London School of Economics and City University.  Ever since I cut a payoff deal with my dad, I've never worked for anyone else than myself. My definition of being an entrepreneur is that you work for yourself and risk your own money. I don't buy into the adulations that the Fred Goodwins of the business world once got – if they risk other people's money flagrantly, then they're not entrepreneurs.  Well, I don't think it's a coincidence that the firstborn stayed in the family business and the second born, me, went off to do his own thing. First born are usually happy to follow in the footsteps of their parents and second born want to step out from the shadow. I wanted to prove myself to my father and to the rest of the world that I'm not just daddy's boy.  I thought setting up a successful shipping business like Stelmar (it was later sold for $1.3bn) would have proved my worth, but it didn't because it was the same line of work as my dad, so everyone thought he was telling me what to do, which was frustrating. So I decided to do something completely outside his area of expertise and that's why I launched easyJet in 1995.  Starting an airline with a surname like mine that's not easily pronounceable wasn't such an asset in a consumer-oriented business like flying. In the beginning many people used to confuse me with Harry Enfield's TV character called Stavros, who owned a kebab shop!  When I was in shipping, there was a certain mystique about me and nobody knew exactly how much money I had. Over the last 14 years I've watched myself becoming a minor celebrity, and being the face of a consumer brand most people assume I'm wealthier than I am, even though I rarely talk about it. I think they believe I actually own all the easyJet planes.  I definitely don't spend my wealth conspicuously because that would hardly tie in with the ethos of my brand. I had to change my habits when I started easyJet – I watched my wardrobe and what I wore, and I ditched my Porsche because that didn't look good. I've had a Smart Car ever since.  I don't need status symbols. I do my best to enjoy as ordinary a day as possible, and I use the Tube. I like to blend in, and bizarrely not many people notice me, which is nice. I get more looks when I walk around Luton Airport or if I'm in Mayfair or Chelsea.  Having said that, I can't deny the fact that I do have more disposable income than many people, which has allowed me to buy a property in Monaco and a boat.  Never bet what you can't afford to lose. You have to decide how much risk you're comfortable with and whether you can lose it if it all goes wrong. Anyone who says they can give you security without risk is either talking rubbish or is a con man. You really need to understand market volatility and cycles, so that you don't panic unnecessarily, but know when you really do have to act.  My reputation, definitely. Being the face of a consumer brand, you need to appear and be trustworthy. There are plenty of people who make money in less public companies who are tough bastards, and there are even some like that in consumer-oriented businesses.  But I don't see the purpose of being like that, as I'm in this business for the long run. You can be tough with your competitors, but it's difficult to be tough with your customers. At the end of the day the consumer is king. You don't need to be expensive or delivery luxury, rather it's better to exceed the expectation of the client.  I hate the culture of it, the impunity with which people have made colossal mistakes over the years and didn't have to pay for them. They need to take responsibility. Making mistakes with other people's money and profiting from it, then leaving others in the lurch, isn't right.  The rewards for taking silly, even bigger, risks were too high, so it was inevitable that it would all end in tears. Conversely, entrepreneurs are held more personally responsible for the financial status of their companies.  Clearly it was setting up easyJet in 1995 when I was 28. There's a school of thought that in your late 20s you're at your most creative. You have enough experience to know what you're doing and you appreciate risk.  With the money from my dad, I had the vision and the tenacity to go to Luton to make it happen. I was in the right place at the right time. Europe only opened up its skies once, similar to the telecoms industry opening up. These opportunities only come along once in a generation because if you tried to start an airline today, you wouldn't make any money and it would fail.  Trying to grow the easyEverything internet café during the dotcom bubble. I just followed what my advisers told me at the time, which was grow, grow, grow. We wanted to make the cafés the McDonald's of the future.  It took McDonald's 50 years to become a phenomenal international brand and we were trying to do it in three. Even the latest fad can be a big mistake sometimes. I think trying to create a global brand of internet cafés was a mistake. It was unsustainable and bad timing. I learnt from it and paid for it, rather than walking away from it. The chain will always be a part of the easyGroup family.  You can't truly learn unless you make mistakes, so would I do it all over again without the mistakes? No, because then I'd never learn. If I'd heeded my father's warnings, I never would have started easyJet and I wouldn't be where I am today. But conversely, I didn't listen to him when he said I was expanding the internet cafés too fast. I was young and ambitious, but I survived.  I think because our profits are generated by selling things to people, we owe them and have a debt to pay back. I like to give to causes that I'm passionate about and to which I can relate, like education, the environment and entrepreneurship, not just one big donation to a cause and then bask in the glory.  I want to create a lasting legacy that pays out year after year. This will encourage people to change their lives, their families, their local community, and teach them the skills to become successful business people.  For instance, in conjunction with Leonard Cheshire Disability, I run the annual Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs. The first winner was Amar Latif, who runs a tour operator for the blind called Traveleyes, and the second was Andrew Thompson, who runs a translation company called Sign Now.  Not only has it changed their lives, they're an inspiration to other disabled people and raise awareness of their plight. Just because you're disabled doesn't mean you can't run a business like an able person.  Another award I've started is the Stelios Award for Business Co-operation in Cyprus – I've pledged €1m (£860,000) over the next four years. It requires a business proposal to be put forward by a joint team of one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot to foster better relations between the two communities and encourage economic growth there.  Grassroots projects like the ones we're anticipating can often have a better impact than a large, foreign, bureaucratic organisation.  No. I'd much rather speak to my personal banker or one of my several financial advisers on the phone and have regular meetings, like a financial check-up, to make sure everything's healthy, and to update me on the performance of my investments.  Credit card 100pc. I only use cash when I pay for taxis and small incidentals.  It's hard! I'm always online and on my BlackBerry. But when I want to get away from it all, I go sailing in the Greek islands or to my Caribbean hideaway. That would be my ideal holiday.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded budget airline easyJet and recently settled    an eight-month public spat over its expansion plans. On the way to making    his first million, he both watched his father and ignored his advice. Now    42, he's single and lives in London and Monaco.