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Duncan Bannatyne: "My kids aren't entrepreneurs and I don't care"

By Rebecca Burn-Callander, published 1 year ago in Leadership.

Many entrepreneurs have made it their life's work to create more people just like them. Take Peter Jones and his new Enterprise Academy. Or Dan McGuire and his Two Hour Initiative.

But Duncan Bannatyne has no such high-minded ideals. "I have nothing against people who want to work a nine to five," he says. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. No one in my family has ever come to me and said, 'I want to start a business'. If they did, I'd love to help, but it's not something that's ever happened."

Bannatyne's comments come in light of the media furore surrounding his brother, who recently joined the I Hate Duncan Banntyne Society on Facebook and told The Mirror "I'm ashamed to call him my brother".

"He was angry because I said he had no ambition," says Bannatyne. "But I don't think that's a bad thing. One of my kids is in recruitment, one wants to pursue a singing career. Just because that's different from what I do, does not make it wrong."

The Scottish Dragon, who's worth an estimated £200m, has been through the media mill recently. "That's the only downside to fame," he says. "When people sell stories about you to the press."

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