Personality changes through the years, whereas basic character does not. We are the people we are due to the nature and the nurture we emerge from, and are shaped by our experiences and learning. My own character is quite complex, as I can be many different things to many different people, somewhat like a restless chameleon. Overall I’m generally amiable, quite charming and articulate.

Know thyself, and know thy enemy, and you shall be successful in 100 battles. But always know thyself.

If you wanted to sum me up with 5 five words, most would say I’m:

• Driven
• Charismatic
• Romantic
• Compassionate
• Spiritual

Jekyll & Hyde
I often get told in someone’s anger that I am like 2 completely different and separate people. The good and bad side of my nature are highly pronounced and disparate. I have a frightening, almost psychotic inclination for evil and cruelty, and a wonderful capacity for good and compassion. In my own mind I think it comes from having parents that are so wildly different in personality, but I also know I can be very hard to deal with when I’m swinging between the 2 extremes. I describe my Hyde as my “inner brat” and try and stay as much as can in Jekyll mode.

NOT a team player
I don’t like sharing. I’m possibly the friendliest megalomaniac you will ever meet and very happy to admit that I, and I alone want the glory. On almost every job application and CV you’re required to be a “team player”, but I definitely don’t like playing part of a team and co-opting the spoils with others. I’m at my most effective when I’m part of a small partnership of a few people, being effectively autonomous. I need to be able to bounce backwards and forwards off others and work in a cell or unit. In fact, I’m more comfortable with leading a team than being in one.

Vision
I never knew how rare this was until I spent time talking to people professionally and experiencing their excitement when I conveyed mine. I’m told my natural ability to connect with my subconscious is rare and almost unprecedented in the fact it takes me seconds rather than minutes. Vision is a map, and the way my mind tends to work is based on visualisation – a picture appears in my mind and I attack the world around until it is my surrounding reality. Maps help people get to where they want to be, and judging by the amount of people who I’ve started on a career, I’m blessed with buckets of it.

Knowledge Sponge
I suck knowledge up like a fish drinks. Friends remark that by now I should have at least 4 or 5 degrees in different subjects for the intense collection of knowledge I have in particular areas. When I’m interested, I need a month or so to be an expert and do that by reading everything I can get my hands on and speaking to as many insiders as I can find. My skill is in being an “instant expert” as venture capitalists or market analysts often need to be. Your project may be technical or dry, but you won’t find many other people with the same capacity to learn in such volume in such a short time. I get up to speed very, very quickly and have spent my life hitting the ground running.

Relentless executor
Having an idea is one thing; making it happen is another. I don’t mess around. Once we’ve developed a strategy, the time for talk is over and the time for getting it done is at hand. I obsess over it and am a completely tyrant at times because nothing matters other than reaching the end and delivering a result. This is something I’ve disciplined myself for and having a natural ability to visualise means I can’t rest until what’s in my mind is realised in front of my face.

Natural communication skills
I can talk for my country, and then some. I am extremely articulate and can be very persuasive. My direct network is over 10,000 strong in just a few years and composed of executives from the highest ranks of office, unlike anyone I have ever met. When I was small I developed the ability by default to deal with the aristocratic friends I had at school and the rough/ready types I spent my time with at night. I talk fast, and I talk passionately.

Autonomy
I absolutely hate the idea of being accountable to anyone. I hate authority. The thought of answering to a boss makes me feel physically sick. I feel similarly about shareholders or a directors’ board. There’s no use lying about it or making myself out to be anything other than someone who greatly enjoys giving anyone who presumes themselves to be above the middle finger. I don’t like being told what to do. I’ll do what I want, when I want, and I really don’t care what you think. I certainly won’t be conforming to anyone’s stereotype, so forget suits and paperwork. Don’t waste your time, as its easy just to accept it.

Intuition and Instinct
You can teach someone anything apart from instinct. I’m blessed with a strong family intuition from my mother’s side that I share with my sister. We can both sense people and places very intensely. Nobody ever picked up I was entrepreneurial over two decades, but when I look back now it was very obvious. I’m able to sniff out and sense potential opportunities, as well as piece together the evidence in front of me subconsciously. I always try to trust my gut above all other things.

Charisma
I’ve always been told that I have the “x-factor” and that there is something very appealing about me that you can’t quite put your finger on. I am blessed with confidence, natural stage prescence and a lack of inhibition when it comes to audiences, meaning I can be a good PR face, despite the fact I tend to lean towards an anarchic and cult-religious fervour. I also have a unique ability to build rapport with people from different backgrounds and I’m told, make them feel extremely special very quickly.

Fearlessness
I’m not scared of much, and when I was a child my parents used to say I seemed to have no concept of the impossible. The boy at 7 still has that as a man. When it comes to taking risks, I’m very able to take calculated ones. I’ll jump in blindly very rarely, but I’m not so scared that I’ll risk waiting around and taking as many precautions as I can. Everything has a risk when you think about it and I really can’t stand stuffy conservative types like you regularly find in the City.

Passion for hi-tech, intellectual property and media/content sectors
I’ve always had passion and interest around technology and the creative arts. They are my vocation like medicine is to doctors. Combined they are an unstoppable force and appeal to both my artistic interests and my logical/analytical mind, or left and right lobes.

Intense passion for new concepts
98% of the business world is made up of men in suits looking to make money, and money only. That’s fine for them, but I need more to jump up from my bed in the morning other than the excitement of checking my bank balance. My own motivation is for new ideas, new concepts and new adventures that benefit the world as a whole and advance people spiritually. Don’t get me wrong, profitability is essential. But I need a mission, a cause or a larger purpose to drive or interest me. I could do everyday business with my eyes closed, but it’s tedious. I need something special.

Looking In
I have a unique and very valuable ability to pick up personal qualities in someone within a few minutes of meeting them. I can naturally identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their future potential. Many times it’s incredibly obvious as the large majority of people are doing things they don’t want to, but have to, to pay the bills every month. I can see the person underneath the talk and intuitively understand what makes them tick.

Addiction & abuse
All my life I have been surrounded by some form of either. Whether it is alcoholism, religious fundamentalism, methadone recovery, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, I have a lot of experience in dealing with it. I understand the psychology; know who to speak to, how it works, what to do and how to spot it. I find friends and strangers gravitating to me because of it, and I try to help in any way I can.