Simon Dolan leads the Jota Sport racing team. He’s a millionaire with a passion for cars and guitars, though he says that life was once very different: at the age of 21, he was in debt and behind on his mortgage payments. What saved him was placing an advert offering to do people’s accounts – one job led to another. By 2013, he had 14,000 clients and had sold his company to a private equity firm for £81m.
It would be easy to be dismissive about his story, even jealous – who wouldn’t want an Italian chef who travels with you, and never to have to worry about what you spend on your weekly shop?
But Mr Dolan knows some good stuff. He knows that he wants value for money. And he’s not prepared to throw money away. He says:
“There’s a cafe in Monaco that charges €25 for an ice cream – of course, I don’t bother going. There’s a million other places you can get one for €5.”