Peter McArthur

It took only 10 minutes to do Chelsea deal with Roman Abramovich but I had to Google him first … I wasn’t sure if Jeremy Beadle was going to jump out.

If you change anything about the way you approach selling, the thing that would make the biggest difference would be your attitude, your attitude toward your customer, your service, the benefits of your products, your employer, and yourself.

I never trust an executive who tends to pass the buck. Nor would I want to deal with him as a customer or a supplier.

The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.

I never aspired to be a public figure. I have always been interested primarily in real business and the development of business strategies.

There is a time and place for all things to be successful. There is fate and destiny and opportunity, and you need all three things in line at the same time.

The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.

My advice to budding property developers: do it on the cheap and you’ll get a cheap price. Don’t avoid putting in skirting just because it’s hidden by a sofa.

Fairs and public displays are the best means we have yet found of showing large numbers of people the real methods of industry.

I really don’t retain information – by the time I arrive wherever I’m going, I already forget what it is that I wanted to say.

The other people I don’t take too seriously are the critics-except when they stand in the way of my projects. In my opinion, they mostly write to impress each other, and they’re just as swayed by fashions as anyone else. One week it’s spare glass towers they are praising to the skies. The next week, they’ve rediscovered old, and they’re celebrating detail and ornamentation.

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.