Anyone Can Do It: My Story by Duncan Bannatyne

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From the highly successful TV show Dragon’s Den, serial entrepreneur and household name Duncan Bannatyne barely needs introduction. Yet through his autobiography, Anyone Can Do It, Bannatyne shows us another side; how a young boy with a sense of injustice and determination was able to fight his way to the top.

And so this book opens with, “Making £100 million is so easy anyone can do it”. But despite the tease, this is not a how-to, nor does it extend deep words of wisdom. What this book does is add some dimension and substance to Bannatyne’s personality. An interesting but sometimes edited account of his life.

Inside Bannatyne

Bannatyne recognises himself as somewhat ordinary, meaning by nature his potential to succeed should of been the same as anyone else. But as a youngster, Bannatyne also saw division between classes and held a dislike for authority, he therefore felt baited to prove himself. His later success would allow him to conclude that “anyone can do it”.

Now call me blunt but Bannatyne sometimes gives an unconvincing account of events. After his initial success in business, far as I can tell, he did the predictable and swapped his wife for a newer model. Bannatyne’s dealings with the police is also seemingly inconsistent; sometimes cooperating yet other times unwilling to involve them. As with other parts of this book, we are sometimes left with more questions than answers and being forced to read between the lines. But notwithstanding this, Bannatyne’s account of events bring home how fallible and human we all are, regardless of money or status.

Bannatyne’s character is strong and distinguished. If you want to wind him up, either get his name wrong - Mr Ballatyne - or charge him an extra 22% and call it “usual practise”. Joking aside, Bannatyne is understandably a man of principle with a deep dislike for freeloaders and scammers.

From a social point of view, Bannatyne clearly understands the importance of building good business and community contacts. He appreciates honest and hard working people and is very comfortable around women. However, Bannatyne sometimes feels some detachment and under appreciated for his efforts. And while Bannatyne comes across as a strong family man, he also acknowledges some disconnect between him and some of his siblings.

Despite all of the above, it seems to me that Bannatyne has mellowed somewhat over the years and developed a great sense of compassion, undoubtedly due to his work with Unicef.

Cash is King

An important feature of Bannatyne’s early money making came from a string of cash-in-hand jobs including bars, taxis, ice-cream, cigarettes and milk. In the early days, even his care homes took cash. Now I’m not convinced selling ice-cream is that lucrative but it did teach him some very important lessons. First he realised that cutbacks and efficiency would leave him with more money in his pocket. Secondly, it made complete sense to prudently re-invest his money so that he could make even more. And lastly, he was happy to employ the help of others in order to reach his goals. Such was the power of these lessons that Bannatyne, for example, refused to buy paperclips… simply an unnecessary expense. Ultimately, the key ingredient to Bannatyne’s success was determination although he equally understands everyone has their own route to success.

Conclusion

The early parts of this book provide an excellent and interesting insight into Bannatyne’s background and personality. Inevitably, it also includes some interesting chapters about Dragon’s Den. And while some of Bannatyne’s charity work is included, I couldn’t help wanting to see more of these photos and accomplishments, it would of helped this book immensely.

My criteria for recommendation would be whether the content sufficiently empowers or inspires the reader to be successful. Unfortunately, this book fails that test but it will appeal to fans of Dragon’s Den from a celebrity point of view.