Roman Abramovich

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard-working and pragmatic.

To tell the truth I cannot call my childhood bad. In your childhood you can’t compare things: one eats carrots, one eats candy, both taste good. As a child you cannot tell the difference.

When I started to make more or less serious money – for those times – then, of course, I wanted to show everyone that life is different: it’s a new kind of life; we are earning this money. We wanted to pay taxes and live honestly.

The goal is to win. It’s not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this (buying Chelsea football club). I don’t want to throw my money away, but it’s really about having fun and that means success and trophies.

Investors have very short memories.

I really don’t retain information – by the time I arrive wherever I’m going, I already forget what it is that I wanted to say.

You don’t learn to walk by following rules, you learn by doing and by falling over.

Test ideas in the marketplace. You learn from hearing a range of perspectives. Consultation helps engender the support decisions need to be successfully implemented.

Fairs and public displays are the best means we have yet found of showing large numbers of people the real methods of industry.

A big business never becomes big by being a narrow society looking after only the interests of its organization and stockholders.

In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I’m used to four different seasons; it’s difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

Without a customer, you don’t have a business, all you have is a hobby.

Should I give up my career at this point in my life… and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket?

You should consider an employment change before you consider selling out.

Work mixed with management becomes not only easier but more profitable. The time is past when anyone can boast about ‘hard work’ without having a corresponding result to show for it.

When people are ‘stung’ in false investment schemes there are three causes; greed of something for nothing; sheer inability to know their mind; or infantile trustfulness.

I myself never make any notes. Usually, if I write something down, I can’t read it afterwards.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

A low wage business is always insecure.

A store’s best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.