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My business is the art of balancing the need to make money with the desire to create.

My first business deal was with my mother. I invested in chickens. I sold the eggs to my mother.

My first venture was to trade bicycle parts and hosiery yarn. The initial days proved to be difficult, and I earned very little from my business. But I kept at it. Each day, when I retired for the night, I told myself that money would come in the next day.

We are not a trading company. We are a midstream asset company: pipe, storage and terminals. It's an unsexy, dirty business. It's not rocket science.

I'm my own biggest marketing tool. I know the history of the business and I might as well capitalize on it.

My plumbing is no one's business but my own.

My expertise is running businesses.

In every business I had ever started, even ones that had totally failed, I had kept good relations with the investors.

My second business would have succeeded but for competitors' jealousy. I was selling motorbike gear cheap, but the people I was undercutting complained to the manufacturer and cut off my supply. It showed me how corrupt business can be. When I sold phones, the same thing happened, but this time I was ready.

The assets you want to buy are the ones people have to sell.