Deborah Meaden

I am a more rounded person than you see on television. You don't bark your way to being a success.

But it's no good letting your emotions get the better of you.

To be honest, I've made a lot mistakes and I quite like making them because you learn from them.

If people have got an amazing opportunity such as on 'Dragons' Den' and they mess it up by being lazy with their presentation it does make me a bit cross.

A lot of people on holiday get very intolerant of things that go wrong, but getting wound up about the plane being late won't make it come any sooner.

People can call me what they like - fat, ugly, sour - but tell me I'm not fair, tell me I'm not ethical, those are the things that bother me.

I'm not a feminist.

I have no problem paying taxes. It doesn't bother me, because I want to live in a society that's happy.

I hate getting things wrong and I hate failing.

I don't think I'm ruthless, but I'm very driven, irritatingly so.

Playing the piano was what I loved doing for myself, but as soon as it became a 'thing' that I was being pushed to pursue by my teachers, I rebelled.

Retirement has never, ever crossed my mind. And I honestly can't imagine when or why it would. If you're doing the thing you love, why on earth would you want to stop doing it?