Ajw mentioned "people like me". " People like me"(using Ajw's assumptions) are on an average wage. I wasn't refering to myself, so next time you don't have to be confused as you know my situation and you are just spoiling for a fight.

Next time read what I say because I didn't even mention I paid my mortgage from an "average wage".

No one denies it's a possibility, simply very very very very unlikely, because the vast vast vast majority of those on that list inherited their wealth through royalty, or nepotism from dictators or industrial wealth built before the current right wing economic theory made it so much more difficult.

I can spot 30 out of the 100 right away that didn't inherit, hardly a vast vast vast majority as you say.

Hang on, Branson is not someone who raised himself up from rags to riches as the above implies. He had the backing of a very wealthy family from a very early age.

His father was barrister, his grandfather a high court judge and privvy councillor and when Richard Branson wanted to start a business breeding budgies his Dad built him a huge aviary and when he opened his first record shop who do you think bankrolled that?

It's very easy to take risks and get back on the horse if your attempts at business fail if in reality there aren't any risks because you have a wealthy family to fall back on as Branson did.

......a wealthy family.....

Without his families money I doubt we would have heard of Richard Branson.

Well indeed, I've read his biog too although he does like to give the impression that his first record shop venture in London was a seat-of-the-pants affair with some uni mates and a total lack of planning & organisation - and to be fair to him when the shoite eventually hit the fan he didn't get any family bail out money, he went bust.

Its not always the case either that "family money" is always available to assist your sprogs gently off on their path of entrepreneurship, I would be considered wealthy by those who have fewer assets than mine but I have not one single shiny penny to invest in my childrens future, they have stood on their own two feet since they were old enough to work and are far better people for the effort of doing so - same goes for many who have "family money" tied up in assets, its not always available for them to spend as they wish and often there is great family opposition to the sort of risk taking with their money that the likes of a breeding budgie business would involve, it not always a case of "Excuse me pater, could I trouble you for the odd half mill to get this little venture with my chums off the ground?"

Which thirty?

I am sure that any business plan that was to be based on 5% hard work and 95% luck would be bound to fail.

Luck plays a part in all aspects of life and not just in business, but to suggest that in business it is 95% luck is ludicrous. Many business ventures fail because the idea or product is wrong or the key personnel are wrong. A key ingredient for most business is marketing and sales ability. Skills which sadly in many people is so lacking. To put any of these examples down to luck is to not to face reality.

Having the right idea or product and knowing how to bring it to market at the right time are crucial to a budding entrepreneur. Add in tenacity and focus and being able to do the key work yourself and sufficient funding to stay alive to allow the business to grow.

Yes the odds are against success because it is so hard to achieve but it can be done without having to rely on luck.

Having run my own businesses since 1984 I can assure you that any company who has a long history and an honest proprietor will be able to point at past accounts and show you exactly where they hit the bad luck and where the good luck kicked in, if they aren't so honest or have an ego to feed on TV they'll try and take the credit for their own inbuilt genius.

I've done business with many wealthy company owners over the years but none prove my point more than the hotel owner who invited me to his hotel, spa and golf course development in Barbados five years running, the land alone with its beachfront was worth millions.Then 9/11 happened an Americans stopped flying for 18 months (or more), I'd call that bad luck and the last time I saw him back in the UK so did he -I checked his property on google earth last week, its a flat concrete base where a hotel used to be now.

I have run my own companies since 1979 and still have two now in supposed semi-retirement. I have agreed that luck can play a part in all of life with business no exception. But you claimed business was about 5% hard work and 95% luck which is arrant nonsense.

Quoting one instance of bad luck proves nothing. In my own businesses I have experienced both success and failure but when hit by bad luck the true entrepreneur just starts over again. If it was a one off 9/11 type experience then he cannot fault himself. If he had made errors he knows what not to repeat.

I would estimate the luck element in business at no higher than 20%-30% the rest is down to sound business principles and hard work, or the eureka moment of true invention. It is often said that the harder you work the luckier you get

Plucking a percentage like this out of thin air is as much errant nonsense as that of which you criticise JC's guestimation of.
Unless of course, one of these businesses you are still involved in produces some kind of [iluck percentage barometer[/i that I haven't yet come across in my Littlewoods catalogue?

Austerity is working? Not in Wales it seems www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27761165

Austerity is working? Not in Wales it seems www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-27761165

Well the people have had their say and given a vote of confidence in David Cameron and George Osborne with a clear mandate to deliver more of the same. The Labour party is a shambles and the Lib Dems are all but decimated and both are headless with the voters showing the door to a long list of well known former MPs.

The PM has improved his authority and I hope this leads to his success in winning the much needed reforms in the EU. Who knows - if Greece becomes officially bankrupt this could lead to a new Charter at which there would be a chance make important changes.

Back home our parliamentary system relies on a strong opposition, so it is to be hoped that Labour learn from their mistakes and move back to be a just left of party with a new generation of leaders.

If Greece goes bankrupt I think we should buy it.

Got a 100 drachmae banknote in my tulip vase if you're thinking of starting a whip round?

Bloody hell we wouldn't need a whip round if you've already got that much.