1. Do what you love

Follow your dreams, get involved in life, in the things that interest you. If you are going to create a business, make sure it is your hobby, your passion or something that you really enjoy. Don’t just set out to do something for the sake of making money.

2. Make a difference

The first thing to do is have an idea that is going to make a positive difference to other people’s lives. It’s great for the staff of a company.

3. Find your Mohammed Ali

There’s really no point in doing something in life unless people feel really good about it and proud about it. You’ve got to be able to inspire other people to have a passion for it too. You should be able to pitch it in two or three sentences. You’ve got to make sure that every aspect of what you do is better than the competition.

4. Make work fun and fulfilling

I 100% believe that it’s important to have fun and create the kind of environment that’s pleasant to work in. Make sure that you’ve got the kinds of people running your companies who genuinely care about people, who look for the best in people and who praise and don’t criticise. People are not that unlike flowers. If a flower is watered it flourishes and if a flower is not watered it dries up and dies and I think the same applies to people.

5. Keep on keeping on

Being an entrepreneur is not that dissimilar to being an adventurer. You have plenty of situations where your back is right up against a wall and you’ve just got to work day and night to make sure you overcome the difficulties a particular company finds itself in. Brush yourself down the next day and move on into something else.

6. Write it down and tick it off

I think it’s the little details that make an exceptional company over an average company. It’s important to keep setting yourself new challenges and targets. Unless you actually organise yourself and write down the kinds of things you want to achieve, there’s a danger that as time slips by, you don’t achieve a lot.

7. Nurture your work family so you can spend time with your own family

One of the early things you have to do as an entrepreneur is learn the art of delegation. Find people who are better than you to run the companies on a day-to-day basis, freeing yourself up to think about the bigger picture and spend time with your family.

8. Do something about it

Don’t watch other people do things, and don’t watch television.

9. You don’t need that much

The truth is, so long as you’ve got a kitchen which has space for a sofa, and a bedroom, and a partner that you love, you don’t necessarily need the add-ons in life.

This was taken from a longer article from the BBC website